“Oh, that’s all.” I thought his silken voice might melt me alive. My body started getting dizzy and I became overly aware of my breathing. “So, you just decide what you want and you magically make it appear?”
“Basically.” He shrugged.
“If you can do that, then why don’t you break us out of here?”
He looked away as he spoke. “I’m in this cell because I want to be.” Then he turned back to me and gazed at me through sparkling slit eyes.
“You want to be here?” I felt my throat tighten.
“That’s why I crossed the boundary line.”
“What?”
“I wanted to get caught. I didn’t know you would follow me.” His expression saddened.
I could hardly speak, but I managed to whisper, “Why did you want to get caught?”
He put his forehead against the tips of his fingers as if he was embarrassed to answer. “I, uh, wanted to stay away from you.” He glanced up at me through his lashes.
His voice was soft as he continued, “These walls are made of shoham stone from the Garden of Eden. I am powerless over them. I can only escape through them if someone else destroys them, so I knew this dungeon could contain me when my desires rose aflame.” He paused for a moment, a slight trace of embarrassment on his face. “I purposely attacked the guard when he brought me here so he would lock me to the wall and treat me with higher security.
“Then, when you shook the walls with your cries, the stone attached to the chain loosened and eventually fell out on its own.”
My chest tightened. I could feel the pounding of my heart. “Why did you want to avoid me?” I shook my head. “I just don’t understand.”
“I don’t want to avoid you anymore.” He smiled at me with an amused look on his perfect face. “Like I said before, it’s too difficult and I’ve given in.” His playful expression turned to sadness.
Shaul’s openness excited me, but embarrassed me all the same. “I don’t understand why you wanted to avoid me in the first place.”
He brushed his fingers through his hair. “It’s a complicated story.” His luscious lips lifted into a crooked smile that flooded my stomach with butterflies. The fluttery feeling was so intense within me. Suddenly and all at once, actual real live butterflies shot out of my body fluttering all around the room. I was shocked. How could such a thing happen?
“I guess somebody else has magical powers too.” He chuckled softly as he watched the lovely, colorful insects flutter before our faces. Then he looked at me, staring into my eyes. “You have enchanting butterfly eyes.”
“What do you mean?” My mind was flustered.
“I can see the reflections of your beautiful creations in your aqua eyes. It looks like butterflies fluttering above the surface of a tropical ocean.”
I couldn’t help but giggle lightly. The imagery was splendorous. I couldn’t believe anyone could see me the way he did. “I have no idea how I did that. You must have created them—not me.”
One of his eyebrows lifted. “Oh, it was all you, Cordellia. Intensity of thought brings forth physical manifestations.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re mind is extremely intense now that you have entered puberty. With that comes power.”
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but I saw that there were lots of butterflies in his cell and according to him I had magically created them. As much as I was attracted to Shaul, I didn’t know if I could trust him. But when he gazed at me with his sad eyes as he was now, I wanted to touch him. He was incredibly gorgeous and all of his mannerisms set me on fire.
The butterflies settled down and rested on the edge of the bathtub.
“Maybe you should magically dress us in attractive clothing,” I suggested, looking down at my drab brown robe.
He turned his head sideways. “Hmmn…” His face was filled with irony. “That’s a great idea. I could use a shave too.”
I laughed. From what I remembered, he was even better looking, if that was even possible, without the beard.
“I really wish you’d stay away from me,” he whispered, melancholy catching in his silky voice. “I really don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t know if I can control myself.”
Shivers ran through my body. I knew I was crazy to associate with a serpent person, but I felt I had no choice. I was undeniably falling in love with him.
“Ok. Here goes.” The blood seemed to drain from his face as he stood in concentration. I stared at his eyes and noticed how they lit up like shiny sparkling diamonds. He whispered some words in the same foreign language I heard him speaking in his sleep months ago as I listened from the other side of the wall.
At once, the brown robe fell to my feet and I found myself standing in an elegant white gown with a chunky necklace of diamonds around my neck. Sparkly pixie dust surrounded me for a moment then dissipated into the air.
I looked at Shaul and he was dressed in black slacks and a fitted white sweater that accentuated his fantastic physique. Sure enough, his beard was gone and he was cleanly shaven. His hair was neatly trimmed. I had to catch my breath. He was certainly the best looking boy alive.
He stared at me with that dreamy look in his eyes. “You look ravishing.”
“Thank you,” I whispered awkwardly. “You look good too.” I wished I’d thought of something more poetic to say, but I generally felt tongue tied in his unfathomable presence.
His expression turned playful. “I want to feed you.” He walked over to the golden platter of delicacies. “Don’t worry. I won’t serve you bat eyes.”
I laughed.
“This is manna.”
“What’s manna?”
He sifted his fingers through a delicate China bowl of what looked like a flaky grain of some sort. “After God took the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt, he fed them manna. It tastes like whatever you want it to taste like.”
“Really?”
Holding the bowl out to me, he nodded. “Think of what you want to eat and then take some of the manna and place it on your tongue.”
I thought of my favorite chocolate truffles and took some of the flakes and placed them in my mouth. My eyes opened wide. “Mmmn. This is amazing. It tastes just like my favorite treats.”
We spent the next half hour or so imagining different delicacies that transformed out of the manna.
I think the smile on my face was the biggest it had ever been. “After all the horrible dungeon meals, eating manna is like tasting heaven.”
He laughed. “Or hell,” he said facetiously.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his joke, but I was having too much fun to worry about it.
“What language were you speaking in before when you brought forth these clothes?”
“I cast spells in Latin because the angels don’t understand the language. If they don’t know what I’m saying then they can’t stop me.”
I rolled my eyes, not sure how to respond to such a foreign concept. “If they want to stop you, maybe that’s a positive thing. I mean, they’re the good ones right?”
He laughed. “You’ve got a point there. But, it’s extremely hard for me to be good.”
“You’re actually able to be good even though you’re a serpent?”
“Serpent people are innately evil, but I’m different and I don’t know why. My brother, Aver Hainsworth, who has the other half of the original serpent’s soul, is completely evil as would be expected.
“I have many evil desires that overwhelm me much of the time, but for some inexplicable reason, I truly desire to be good. This contradicts all serpent behavior, but it is my guess that God gave me both an evil and a good inclination so that I would have a chance at achieving the world’s correction.” He spoke in a serious tone and the expression on his face was deeply sad.
I felt confused. “The world has a correction?”
“Yes. Your mother and I discussed it in the speed wave on our way to Seneca M
ountains. Remember?”
It was difficult for me to concentrate because the music was possessing my mind. “I think I remember,” I managed to mumble.
He smiled slightly, as if he somehow sensed my desire for him. The light of the fire flickered across his stunning face as he continued, “Whoever possesses the soul of the original serpent and whoever possesses the soul of Eve has the potential to perfect the world by returning the original apple to the Tree of Knowledge.”
“Well, you and your brother both possess the soul of the original serpent, so does that mean that either of you can bring peace on Earth if you put one of your light balls with the DNA of the original apple back on the Tree of Knowledge?”
His gorgeous eyes widened as he nodded. “Yes. I see you do remember.”
I could hardly breathe. His eyes were deliciously silver, reminding me of liquid mercury. There was something highly lethal within his essence that aroused me to the very core. I wanted to kiss him so badly. I sensed his wickedness, but my desires were too intense to resist anything about him.
I nodded.
“That is our test,” he murmured as he gazed at me. “If either of us chooses to sacrifice ourselves and our species, we can make the world completely good, eradicating all evil from existence.”
“Sacrifice yourself? I don’t understand.”
“If my brother or I return the apple to the Tree, all serpent people will cease to exist.”
“Why?” I was shocked.
“We can’t live in a world that is entirely good because we as a species are entirely bad. The light of the flames coming from the fire place made ominous shadows on his face.
My body started to tense and a sickened feeling came over me. “So, you’re saying that if you complete your mission of returning the apple to the Tree of Knowledge, then you will die, but all the humans will live in a perfect world.” I was trying not to cry.
“That’s right, Cordellia. But, it’s not as simple as that.”
I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “What do you mean?”
“We have a choice. We can either return the apple to the Tree of Knowledge and sacrifice ourselves for the good of mankind or we can eat from the Tree of Life which gives the serpent people eternal life and the power to take complete control of the world making it entirely evil under our rulership.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, I most certainly am. And I can assure you my brother most definitely wants to eat from the Tree of Life. If he does, then he will rule over all serpent people and all beings. It is the same for me. If I follow my innate desire, I will eat from the Tree of Life and, in turn, rule the world for eternity. All other species including humans (and mermaid fairies like you) will be slaves to the serpent people. It will be a never ending hell on Earth.” His face was expressionless, but I could tell his feelings were raging beneath the surface.
“This is just horrible.”
“I know. It is.”
“So, why haven’t you or your brother completed your mission?”
He paused and looked at me seriously. “Everything in our being compels us to pursue our desire to eat from the Tree of Life, but we cannot gain passage to the Garden of Eden without the reincarnation of Eve to help us. She was part of the original sin and she also has the ability to make the correction.”
“How can the reincarnation of Eve give you entrance into the Garden of Eden?”
“Either my brother or I have to mate with Eve and produce a son. Our son will be the reincarnation of Adam, the original man who Eve convinced to share in eating the original forbidden apple…”
My eyes welled up with tears. When I looked at his perfect face watching me, measuring my every thought, I wanted to reach out to him. I wanted to touch his soft lips. I could feel his breath surrounding me. His entire essence permeated the cell. I felt his pain as if it was my own.
He continued in a melancholy voice, “Our son will possess all four elements—earth, fire, water, and air. He will gain the elements earth and fire from his serpent ancestry and water and air will come from Eve’s ancestry. With all four elements our son will be able to gain entrance into the Garden of Eden that is guarded by the Cherubim with the ever turning swords. He can bring his father and mother with him to complete their mission.”
I felt a sickened feeling washing over me. “Who is the reincarnation of Eve?” I didn’t want him to answer.
“It’s you, Cordellia.” His expression was deeply pained. “You are the only josephine in the world. No other creature exists like you. You possess the two elements needed—water and air. I’m sorry.”
23
I looked down at my lunch plate feeling utterly repulsed as fresh stewed eyeballs stared back at me. Closing my own eyes, I took a bite of the pickled radish beside the main course. It tasted Ok to me, but I wished it wasn’t so sour. There was no way I’d even attempt trying the orbs.
The sun was overhead. Light poured through the skylight into my cell. This was my favorite time of the day.
It was pretty hard to believe that I was the reincarnation of the first woman on Earth. But, after discovering that I was a josephine, anything seemed possible.
I had never been a very religious person, so it was strange learning that all these stories my mother had talked about over the years were true. Before now, I had assumed the bible stories were myths designed to comfort weak minds.
But, even weirder than being the cause of all the pain in the world due to my original sin, I was in love with the serpent, the source of all evil. If I succumbed to my desires for Shaul, eventually I might go too far with him. That could happen—right? The idea was a little hard to believe with my lack of experience, but it could happen hypothetically. If that occurred, I could possibly become pregnant and bare a son. Our son would give Shaul entrance into the Garden of Eden where he could choose to eat from the Tree of Life.
If he did that, then he would rule the world and serpents would rein supreme bringing forth hell on Earth. All other beings would be enslaved and tortured for eternity.
But, if Shaul returned the apple to the Tree of Knowledge, then he would die, eradicating all evil with his martyrdom. Sure, the world would become perfected in peace and love, but I would never see him again. With the way I felt now, I didn’t think I could live with that.
The eyes on my plate just stared at me blankly. They looked slightly blood shot causing me to wonder how the animal was killed. I drank my entire cup of wine in one long gulp.
A decision came to me. I would just be with Shaul, but never make love with him. Then the world would stay as it was—a mixture of good and evil. We could be together and nothing would change for the worse. I was satisfied with this decision.
Now, I did not want to escape from this prison. I wanted to stay there forever. I wanted to be with Shaul Hainsworth for eternity away from the rest of the world. Whatever price I would have to pay, whatever torture I would have to endure to be with him, I would accept. He was me and I was him. I knew this now more than anything I had ever known in my life.
That night I crawled through the hole in the wall into Shaul’s cell. He was sitting on the floor with a ball of light before him.
“Cordellia,” he said with a wry smile.
I must have blushed because his grin widened. “Hi,” I whispered awkwardly.
“I was afraid I’d scared you away.” His demeanor was now more serious.
“Whatever you tell me about yourself, Shaul, I will accept.” I looked at him cautiously as I sat down facing him. “You can’t scare me away.”
His eyes burned through me and the ball of light between us lifted over our heads. He was entirely beautiful. He reached his hand out to me and I touched his fingers.
Electricity shot through my body. To feel his skin against mine was magnificent. It was like I was connected to a higher energy source that filled me with the life force I craved.
He lifted one eyebrow and said playfully, “Are yo
u ready for a ride, Cordellia?”
I don’t know why, but a big smile spread across my face. I felt so happy suddenly. “Just being with you is everything I could want.” I couldn’t believe I’d said such a thing.
“Even when I’m not here physically, I am connected to you.” He stared at me curiously, tilting his head to the side as if he was looking for something within me. “We are connected in mind and soul.”
“In the music,” I said. My eyes lit up and the slightest smile lifted on my face.
“Yes.” He looked down at our touching finger tips. His eyes raised slowly up my neck.
I wanted to hold him desperately. But, I was happy just being in his presence.
Light glistened in his silver eyes. “I want to know everything about you.” His expression was soft and sincere.
“About me?” I laughed. “I’m probably the dullest person you’ve ever met.”
“Not to me.” He held my hand gently and I could hardly concentrate. “What’s your favorite flower?”
I laughed, not expecting the question. “I love flowers actually.”
“It’s the faerie party of you.” He looked amused.
“I like all flowers, but I especially like water lilies.”
“There are a lot of beautiful water lilies at the forbidden lake.”
“I’m not surprised. The music in my mind calls me to the lake. Is that how it is for you too?”
“Yes.” He looked at me intensely and sat up straighter. “The music calls us to the lake because it leads to the entrance of the Garden of Eden.”
His words startled me. “What do you mean?”
“The lake is bottomless.”
My eyes widened.
“If you swim down very deep, eventually you will come to the entrance of the Garden of Eden that is guarded by the Cherubim with the ever turning swords.”
“What are Cherubim?”
“They are Cherubs. I’ve never seen them, but I’ve been told they are magnificent winged creatures.” He raised an eyebrow. “This conversation is supposed to be about you.” His voice was teasing.
Girl Possessed (Book 1 of The Girl Trilogy) Page 10
