Poisoned Garden

by Tracy Korn

  "Halsey…" the woman said, a yellow-orange color flashing briefly in her eyes before it spread around her. She came into the light, and I recognized her from the news report at Ivy's.

  "You're that CPC researcher on the feeds…" I said, getting to my feet. I touched my temple again to see if maybe those would load, but they didn't.

  "That's right. My name is Frankie," she said, taking a step toward me with a hand extended to the man next to her. "This is Jack. Eve tracked your queue after you called, then had the network cut when we found you. We came to take you to her… Will you come with us?"

  I nodded, and the man she called Jack shook his head as he muttered to himself and turned to go back to the fire escape. "This is terrifying with one arm by the way," he added. "Why do they come to the roof? We just got off a roof."

  ***

  We didn't go back to Ivy's like I thought we would. Instead, Frankie drove us away from The Citadel.

  "Wait, we're going back to The Grind?" I asked, worried that Max would still be stuck somewhere with the Sweeper droids.

  "Technically," she said as we turned down the road that led to the docks, which was right in front of The Citadel.

  Rusty barrels lined the entrance to the roped off pier, and I really hoped we weren't going anywhere near the water.

  "So, I have this, like, condition with seawater…" I said, asking without really asking if this whole thing was about to go south for me.

  "Boats float, kid. Calm your ti—" Jack started to say, but Frankie backhanded him in the chest before he could finish.

  "What month is this? Is it August?" I asked. "And when the network will come back up? I'm worried about my friend," I added as we got out of the car and started walking toward one of the bigger boats in port.

  "It's August. Eve will have to explain the snow," Jack answered, then held out a hand and angled his head toward the boat. "As for your friend..."

  "Halsey!" Max shouted, slipping through the deckhouse door. I ran up the dock steps into his arms, nearly knocking him off his feet. "Eve was at the station when the droids brought me there."

  "You did it," I whispered. "You found her."

  "Yeah, well..." He laughed, then shrugged once he put me down. "Come on. She's waiting for you."

  Chapter 33

  Nobody was sitting on the narrow, tan couches or at the small table when we entered the deckhouse, and the wood paneling on the walls made everything feel a little claustrophobic.

  I only had enough time to finish this observation when the door at the back of the room opened, and a Mediterranean woman with short, razor-edged hair approached us. A golden light lit her eyes for several seconds before it started to radiate all around her, and I exhaled in relief when I recognized her as Eve Adams. She was dressed in a tailored, but comfortable looking dark pantsuit, and I marveled for second at how old she must be, though up close, she only looked around forty.

  "Were you followed?" Eve asked Frankie and Jack, who were standing behind me.

  "No, there were a lot of cars coming and going, but the road to the docks was empty," Frankie said, sitting carefully on one of the tan couches along the wall, wincing as she held her side.

  Jack climbed another set of stairs behind us to the helm and started the engine. I must have looked alarmed because Eve smiled at me, her green eyes almost twinkling.

  "Don't worry, we're going somewhere safe."

  "OK, I have questions…" Max said abruptly as the engine leveled off and we started moving. "You're supposed to be Eve? The Garden of Eden Eve?"

  She nodded slowly, her small smile widening just a little. "It's a fairly long story."

  Max narrowed his eyes, then glanced at me. "So what about the name Adams?"

  "I never did like to be called Adam's Eve," she said, raising a dark eyebrow. "And a surname became necessary after a dozen centuries or so."

  "Centuries," Max repeated flatly with a nod. He and I exchanged incredulous looks, his suggesting he didn't believe a word she said, and mine no doubt conveying shock about how old she was.

  "And I imagine you must also be wondering why I sought out Halsey after she was bitten, and why it's snowing now in August," Eve added as the yacht picked up speed on the open water. She shook her head as she took a seat on the other tan couch and gestured for us to do the same. "Another plague has been sent among humanity. You've likely heard it called—"

  "Red Fever," I finished for her. "It killed a girl at our school—the one who bit me."

  "I know," Eve's expression fell. "She came up on our grid...right before you did."

  "What does that mean? What grid?" I asked warily.

  "It's complicated, but just know that those who change like you do are trackable, Halsey. And it's dangerous if the wrong people find you."

  "Why? Who are the wrong people?" Max asked, leaning forward in his seat.

  "I don't know how much they told you at Eden's Bluff, but there's a supernatural presence at work to poison humanity, an Elemental queen who governs the viability of all life on earth."

  "A what Queen?" Max squinted.

  "I'm afraid that's another long story," Eve said. "I'll try to explain once we're safe."

  "I thought a drug from Wu Fong Pharmaceuticals was causing Red Fever," I offered, careful not to seem like I was directly contradicting the several thousand-year-old alleged mother of humanity.

  Frankie leaned toward me. "Why do you think that?" she asked, her brows darting together.

  I explained about the man in the woods who had tried to give me the colored vials, then about seeing him again at school chatting up Lauren just before everything that happened to her—and me—afterward.

  "I saw the same spontaneous human combustion happen on the island with Knox," Frankie said to Eve.

  "Knox Ryder? He's dead?" I asked, feeling my heart pounding suddenly in my ears. Had Uri found him?

  "No," Frankie corrected. "There were others infected on a prison island—it's also a...long story. How do you know Knox Ryder?" she asked, her wide, blue eyes narrowing at me in suspicion.

  I glanced at her, then at Eve. "I overheard Ghob and Uriel talking about how they wanted to find him so he could lift the veil and let the trapped Elementals through to this world."

  "Hang on," Max interrupted, holding up his hands. "Uriel...is that Uri? From the Eden's Bluff promo? Who's Ghob? And what veil? Can somebody explain what's going on already!?"

  Eve smiled. "Uriel is an angel. Ghob is the Elemental queen. And the veil separates our world from those beyond. We think Knox holds the key to lifting it, and somehow, Ghob also knows."

  I turned to face Max. "Uri sent a group of others like me—I mean, but way stronger than me—who can fly and shift into other things—to kill Eve so they could get to him. Max, they're still coming."

  ***

  Jack stopped the yacht engine, but there was nothing in sight except endless black sea when I looked out the window. It was still snowing, but not as much here.

  "Where are we?" Max asked.

  "Somewhere safe. We won't be heard here," Eve said as we glided to a stop. Above deck, we were surrounded by trees save for the end of a long inlet behind us, which was lit by intermittent lights on either side. We went down the stairs and were greeted by two older men and women. They were all dressed in richly colored clothes that looked hand-sewn with patches and beadwork.

  One of the women was very tan with flowing dark hair, streaked with gray, while the other was very pale with long, silver hair. The older, also pale man, had white hair, while the last man was darker and had closely cropped black waves like an old time movie star. A flash of gold lit behind everyone's eyes and spread all around them, and I knew instinctively that they were going to help us.

  "Welcome back," the tan woman closest to the water said to Eve.

  "Thank you, Alma. How is our guest?" she asked, walking into the foliage. Max and I exchanged glances, and I turned to Frankie.

  "Where are we going?"


  "I don't think it's much farther."

  She was right. Another twenty feet or so and the dense trees opened up to a large, circular pool holding several neon green, striped fish. Three kinds of seahorses also wove in and out of bushy green plants that reached toward the surface of the water, which was dotted by a scatter of white-flowering lily pads. The snow had stopped, and it felt at least forty degrees warmer—like it actually was August here.

  "Wow," I gasped, transfixed.

  Black, iron benches surrounded the white-stone pool, and vines with fuchsia flowers were climbing the arbors over each one. The lights in the stone path reflected dancing water patterns over the cottage, which I'd thought was just a stone wall until the white-haired man opened a slate door for us.

  Inside, I audibly gasped to see the stretch of oak floors that led to a giant window overlooking a nearby waterfall. Small, white lights danced around the differently colored flowers that lined the pool at the base of the rock, where more water lilies floated on the surface.

  We passed simple, clean-lined furniture as we walked through the open room and made our way down a very long, winding hallway that led behind the kitchen. After several minutes, the walls and ceiling opened to the outdoors. We walked out to find ourselves at the top of a wide cliff that overlooked the ocean, and the sky was masked in clouds and falling snow. But it was still warm up here.

  "Holy. Shit." Max whispered next to me.

  "It's quite a view," Eve said, looking out on the moonlit horizon as she led us into a stone seating area carved right into the cliff with a recessed fire pit. Several poured glasses of what looked like tea, and trays of fruit, small sandwiches, and cut vegetables sat around the fire on top of the wide, stone ledge that doubled as a table.

  "Are you kidding me?" Max marveled.

  "How are you keeping these plants alive?" Frankie asked, scanning the ground. "Some of these species are tropical... They take years to get this big—and this is Portland, Maine," she added, turning to Eve.

  "And why isn't it snowing here, but it is out there?" Max asked, nodding toward the edge of the cliffside.

  Eve held up her hands like a teacher trying to settle a class. "I know you have many questions, and I apologize for not being able to give you any context yet," she said. "It was important to arrive here safely before sharing any other information about what we know. May I introduce you to Alma, Silo, Petra, and Tirius?" Eve extended her hand to the four older people who greeted us when we first arrived. "They are Elementals, and have been my friends for centuries. Alma is a Gnome, Silo is a Sylph, Petra is an Undine, and Tirius is a Salamander Elemental," she added. "They've created the microclimate that sustains the beautiful gardens all around you."

  "That word again. What's an Elemental?" Max turned to me. I started to answer him, but was cut off.

  "It's a pleasure to meet you all," Tirius, the darker-complected movie star man said, bowing slightly to us all.

  "Especially you, Halsey," Petra, the fair, silver-haired woman said. "We've heard much about you."

  "You have?" I asked, a little too abruptly. The four traded smiles with Eve.

  "You must be hungry," Silo, the white-haired man said. "Please sit and make yourselves comfortable."

  He passed each of us a small plate and a glass of tea, and invited us to start eating while Eve explained to everyone what I already knew about the tears in the veil, what the Elementals and the Elemental queens were, and about the fallout in Eden. But then she started talking about something I didn't know already.

  "The snow is the result of the sun beginning to die," she started, which halted the breath in my lungs. "In the beginning, after our banishment, Ghob took the discarded forbidden fruit from Eden and from the Seeds of Knowledge, created a replica of the Tree of Life. But without Grace, the tree took life rather than gave it," she said, and I could barely breathe. "This was the tree responsible for Red Fever. When Knox killed the tree, a gate to Hell opened in its place." Eve took a slow, deep breath. "Paralda and Djin, two of the Elemental queens, were able to close the gate, but not before being dragged through it themselves. Soon thereafter, Ghob took Cora, the queen of the Undines to protect her, but this is not how her people see it."

  "This is insane," Max said, scrubbing his hands over his face. "So how does this mean the sun is dying?" he asked, shaking his head.

  "Without their queens, the people of the sun and the atmosphere are ungoverned. Natural disasters are already beginning in the East in protest. Fires, tornadoes, and when the Undines—the water Elementals—organize, I imagine there will be tsunamis and flooding."

  "But they're Elementals," I said, gesturing to the men and women around us. "Can't the tell their people that it's Ghob's fault their queens are in Hell? Knox was just trying to stop what she's been doing; why punish humans?"

  Eve sighed. "Silo and Tirius were not banned from The Garden with the rest of us," she glanced at Petra and Alma. "But they stayed with us anyway. For centuries, we have been working with pockets of Elemental allies to keep Ghob from inflicting mass genocide, but the majority are too distant now. They wouldn't listen."

  "So if the tree was causing Red Fever..." Max started, "is that what Halsey has? What those people who are coming after her have? Being an Elemental is a disease?"

  "The First Bloods are the ones who survived their exposure, like Halsey, Knox, and the others." Frankie nodded. "They're the ones who still had traces of original Elemental DNA, so in a way, yes, but the disease was only the catalyst that began their mutation."

  Max glanced at me before returning his focus to Frankie. "And everyone else? They just become..."

  "Feral," Jack said. "Mutated monsters trapped in their own evolution until their body just can't take it anymore. We're supposed to kill each other off until the only ones left alive are the Elementals—old, new, it doesn't matter. That's what Ghob wants."

  "But it's not her true nature," Alma, the tanned, dark-haired woman spoke up. "We must repair the rift that lies between the Elementals and humanity, or this will never end."

  Eve nodded to the group. "But we must stop Ghob's current destruction, and this is why I sought you out, Halsey. You and Knox Ryder are two of the new generation of First Bloods," she added, gesturing to Silo.

  He rose, his white hair like a torch in the night air, and returned with a younger, athletic man whose angular features and haunted dark eyes sent a shiver through me even at a distance. I tried not to look startled, but it was suddenly as if even the air around him rushed in different directions just to get out of his way.

  The man seemed restless, pushing a hand through his dark hair as he walked out of the shadows, and I flinched when I saw the flash of glowing red light silhouetting ghostly white fangs behind his lips. The deep red glow spread out around him with interspersed rays of golden light appearing and disappearing, until it all faded away.

  He stopped walking and met my eyes. "It's all right," he said. "I know what you see, and I won't hurt you."

  Chapter 34

  "You're the one who can lift the veil…" I said with the last of a breath. Knox glanced at Eve.

  "He's like you? Um…all of you?" Max asked me, then looked around at the other First Bloods.

  "Sort of," Frankie said, answering for Knox before she turned to me. "Knox was injected with a drug produced by Wu Fong Pharmaceuticals too, but instead of it only activating some long-dormant Elemental DNA like it did for you, it also activated something...else," she trailed off, and a tense silence fell over the group as she crossed to Knox, interlacing her fingers with his.

  "What's wrong?" I asked. "What else is he?"

  Eve stood and moved to Knox's other side. "Ghob was not the only one put out by the creation of humans. Even Many of the angels rebelled, refusing to share anything with us."

  A blinding flash of lightning lit the sky, followed by a crack that reverberated in my bones. A deep, echoing laugh filled the air and somehow even made it hard to breathe as a small, gray storm
cloud began to gather. It grew into a black, churning mass of lightning and explosions that were only getting stronger.

  "You mean kneel before you," a male voice boomed from every direction. Seconds later, an angel appeared from the center of the storm cloud wearing a black tunic that was on fire, but not burning. His black wings stretched the length of the entire storm cloud, and it was then that I realized the lightning and explosions were not originating in the cloud. They were coming from him.

  Within seconds, Rhea appeared from behind the angel, her blonde hair covered by scaled body armor that matched the color of her long, red and gold wings. Half her face glowed from within, revealing the nostrils and the wide, golden eyes of a snake. Another bolt of lightning shot through the sky behind the angel, followed by an earth-splitting crack as Leo emerged, his black wings nearly as big as the angel's, and his horns long and twisted at the ends. Behind his eyes, though, a red glow illuminated the long, serrated snout on his right side along with jagged, dagger-like teeth and round, reptilian eyes.

  "Leo…" I whispered in disbelief, then shouted up to him." Don't do this!"

  He glanced at me, but quickly looked toward my left, where a huge, gray wolf and a red fox had just appeared…Bryce and Alita, I thought. My chest tightened as they bared their teeth at me, and Alec climbed over the cliff edge to our right, a white glow surrounding him. I gasped to see two ghostly top layers of needle-like teeth behind his grin and a spiny fin behind his ear.

  "You know these freaks?" Jack shouted to me.

  "You said we'd be safe here!" Max shouted to Eve, who looked confused.

  "The tracker blockers work, don't worry," Leo said just before blowing a stream of fire into the cliff edge, which then ricocheted flames in every direction. He smiled at me. "We followed Halsey the old fashioned way."