by Dylan Quinn
"I am," she whispered as she clasped her hands together and set them in her lap.
We swung back and forth for nearly ten minutes, yet she said little.
I initiated a conversation, hoping to break the silence between us. "You have concerns."
"I do." She hesitated. "But I think I'll save them for later. We don't have much time before I need to go."
"Yes. Well again, you look stunning this evening. And your performance was lovely as always."
Even in the darkness, I felt the flush spread across her cheeks. The reaction she was hoping for, I suspected by her response.
"Thank you," she said. “The last set will take about forty-five minutes, and then we can hang out for a while." She stopped the swinging and rose to her feet.
I stood beside her. "I look forward to it."
We went back inside, and she disappeared backstage.
A few moments later, the room went dark, and the spotlight came back to focus on Zoe. She sat at the piano while I sifted my way through the crowded room.
"Welcome back. I'm Zoe and these amazing performers are the Eternals." She plucked softly on the piano. "We've been playing here for two years, and you’ve been an amazing audience. Just tonight, a friend was saying how comfortable I am on stage. Being able to perform for you is a dream come true. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.”
She closed her eyes and pressed the keys.
"This next song was written when I was trying to figure out where I belonged. Well, I recently figured out where that is.” Her fingers moved quickly over the piano, and her voice filtered through the room. “Right here.”
~
"I believe she's a natural,” Raz said. “She's lovely as ever."
"Yes," I agreed.
"But she’s also grown very attached to this life." He rubbed his chin. “A plan must be made.”
Every journey had sacrifices, and Zoe was comfortable with her life now. Being with me would disrupt that, and more sacrifices would have to be made.
Raz set his hand on my shoulder. "I'm going to tell Vince of our decision. You must spend more time with Zoe. If she's going to give up this life, you'll need to give her a good enough reason. Keeping your distance will not get you to a Convergence, my friend.”
I only hoped what I had to offer her was enough.
"I’ll keep watch over our minion. He's been eyeing Zoe all evening, yet I sense no other demon presence. We'll see what transpires. Now go, enjoy your Chayah."
We rose to our feet and went toward the bar.
Vince was removing money from the register while Brennan cleaned up.
The minion glared at Raz, then me. I could almost hear him snarl. His eyes grew dark, and the circles below them were ash. His skin did not glow of any purity.
"Hey, Cade. Ready?" Zoe stood beside me.
My eagerness got the best of me, her voice playing on my emotions. I yearned to be near her but had to control my urges until she was ready.
"Nice to meet you, Raz." Zoe tipped her head toward the door.
I followed her to the exit and out into the warm summer air.
"There's a twenty-four-hour diner down the way, just beyond the pier. What do you think?"
"That’s perfect.” I offered a smile.
We strolled along the pier a few moments. As we passed the Ferris wheel that lit up the evening sky, her hand brushed along my knuckles, and she discreetly twined her fingers with mine.
The electricity between us sparked to life.
In past incarnations, Zoe waited for me to take the lead, but she stood confident now, assertive in a way I’d never known before the Convergence. I believed it to be her new stage presence.
"So, Cade. Or should I call you Adam?"
I stopped walking, my gaze fixed straight ahead. “Um—”
"It’s okay. Remie told me everything. His mother told him.”
My phone rang.
"Could you excuse me for a moment?" I let go of her hand and stepped aside to answer the call.
"Relax," Raz said. "You did not breach your oath, and no rules have been broken. The Firstborns are allowed more information, and they're not bound to secrecy as you. If they felt the need to inform Zoe, it was necessary. You may confirm or deny, but do not elaborate."
"Understood."
I returned to Zoe's side. We continued in silence. Soon, we reached the diner and sat outside on the patio. After ordering a drink and breakfast, we remained silent for several more minutes.
Though late, past midnight, the city was alive with people enjoying their evening.
"You going to answer my question?” Zoe’s gaze narrowed, and she bent down toward me, hands clasped in front of her on the table.
I shifted in my chair. "You may call me Cade." I smiled reassuringly.
She narrowed her eyes but shrugged off my answer. "Okay then. So now that I know everything, what else can you tell me?"
I sat back and pursed my lips. She appeared to accept my lack of answers since she had some of her own, although she continued to push, so I offered a compromise.
"Why not tell me what you know, and ask what you must. Though I can’t promise I may offer you any answers."
She let out a breath. "Remie said I'm Eve. Is that true?"
"What do believe to be true?"
"I’m her, or was."
"Then trust in that. Deep in your soul, you already know all the answers you seek." I gestured toward her hands. "May I?"
She smirked, then pushed her hands toward me, palms up.
"Tell me what you know of the Seal of Gemini." I traced along the lines of her mark with my left index finger, running along the Ring of Chayah with my right.
"I know for Eve's sacrifice, you were assigned her Gemini. And now I'm of age, so you're here to take me back? To Aravot, I guess. Although I'm still unclear about the point of it all."
I squeezed her hands. "Each Genesis is born with a Twin Soul. A Gemini, or as humans call it, a soul mate. To share in their journey."
She silently processed the information as I continued.
"I understand this is much to accept. It’s one of the reasons we don’t tell you these things. I must insist you focus on your feelings. Don’t let insignificant details interfere with sensing what your instincts—what your soul believes to be true. They’ll only confuse you, and distract you of the purpose of this life.”
"Which is?" she asked.
"Lead with your heart. With Love."
She smirked.
I narrowed my eyes. I couldn’t determine her expression. Dissidence, perhaps?
"That's a very—” she bobbed her head. “Sweet notion, but naïve, don’t you think?” She pressed her lips tightly together and exhaled, puffing out her cheeks as they released her breath. “Most of us don’t have this all-encompassing goal of finding someone to love. And we don't let antiquated ideas like soul mates determine our happiness.” She hesitated. “We expect more."
"You expect more?"
She sat back and pulled her hands from my grip. "I guess I do."
Each incarnation had become more difficult, and our Convergence took longer to initiate. Though as concerned as I was, her pledge to return to me remained in my memory. I had to trust in that. Trust in her.
"Tell me, then. What do you expect?"
“I want to perform outside of Chicago. I want a record deal. Tour, travel the world. I don’t know, be the Super Bowl halftime show. Win a Grammy.” Her eyes were alight with excitement. “The stage is where I belong, Cade.” Her eyes were damp with threatened tears. “It’s the only place I feel safe. Loved.”
"I see. And that completes you?"
She shrugged. "I guess.” She wiped her eyes. “It's really all I know."
"Do you ever feel something is missing?”
She sat there for a moment, the corners of her mouth turned down. “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe.”
"When humans age and can no longer perform th
e jobs that define them, what do they have left?"
"I don't know. But how could I?” Her gaze narrowed. “I assume I've never aged beyond twenty-one." Her tone was distressed.
Zoe was considering her options. There was no clear-cut decision. This, of course, concerned me. She now understood that choosing us and our life meant sacrificing her human existence.
Eve’s love for humanity was always her greatest strength—but for Zoe, her greatest weakness.
"Is growing old something you’d like to experience?"
She shrugged. "I don’t know. I just know the things everyone around me gets, I don’t. You know, a career. A wedding. Kids. Grandkids. The idea of this ultimate sacrifice just doesn’t seem fair. Why can’t I have my cake and eat it too?”
“Cake?”
She laughed. “It’s an expression. It means I want a career, but maybe—I want you, too. Why can’t I have both?”
She had never questioned her duty before. I was in unchartered waters.
“If something doesn't make us happy, why do we do it?" she asked innocently.
“What would make you happy, love?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I like you. I really like the idea of us. Of having you to love, to love me. But giving everything else up? To be honest it stings a little. I just don’t get why I can’t have both. At least for a while. It doesn’t have to be forever, maybe just long enough. You know, for closure.”
I needed to speak with Raz before continuing with the direction of this conversation. I feared giving her hope that did not exist would be cruel and unfair.
“I’m unsure. What I do know is all souls have a purpose. It's not simply to love someone, but rather to be part of their journey. Eternity would be a desolate journey with no one to share it with.”
"I guess I don't understand love." She stared at her hands on the table.
I leaned in, reaching for her hands and held them in mine. "Love is holding someone's soul as sacred, and often, sacrificing for them."
She was quiet for a minute. "What have you sacrificed? What have given up for love? For me?"
“You.”
It wasn’t a question of malice or insinuation. It was innocent. Zoe was looking to me for answers, and it was then I understood something she didn’t. I asked myself the same question the moment it left her lips.
What had I truly sacrificed of my own for Zoe’s happiness?
Nothing. The answer was nothing.
All these years, it had always been Zoe. Always making the sacrifices—for me, for our love, for humanity.
When we began this journey, she never behaved as if there were another option. Never considered the possibility that we should live out her time on earth like mortals.
She did have a choice, but I carried on as if she didn’t. I held on to what I believed to be mine and refused to let go.
My selfishness is what kept her to this burden she carried. This burden she shouldered alone.
Her first sacrifice was about humanity. I intervened because I was too selfish to let her go, but this repetitive sacrifice became about me.
Maybe I must think of what was best for her. Best for Zoe, not for Eve.
"What do you want, Cade?"
I instinctively moved closer, her vanilla essence tugged at me.
"I will always choose us."
Although part of me now understood how selfish I’d been, the part of me that loved her—that could not live without her—knew I would never let her go.
I would fight for Zoe. Be selfish, and do anything in my power to ensure we were together again.
And that would be my burden to bear.
~Chapter Fourteen~
Zoe
"Zoe, you up? Yoo-hoo. It’s nine-thirty. Out of bed, sleepy head."
Sunday. Ugh.
Phoebe bugged me every week about going to church. Some weeks I’d cave, others, I just couldn't deal. Since I turned eighteen, I had the weirdest dreams whenever I went, which was why I stopped going. But yesterday, I promised, and in light of all the Adam and Eve stuff, I figured some perspective couldn’t hurt.
Phoebe's defining virtue was her conviction.
Despite everything she’d been through, she never lost faith. To this day, she still hoped to find the birthparents that gave her up when she was born. She bounced around from one home to another, and fatefully, landed in mine. Our lives had been intersected ever since.
"Morning." Phoebe sauntered in, pulled open the blinds and sat next to me on the bed. "You got in late. Your bath was running at three this morning."
"Yeah, I know." I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
"I can go with Remie. But I'd really like you to go, too." She pulled my hair away from my face. Stray strands stuck to my forehead with sweat. She put her hand against my damp cheeks. "You okay? You’re kind of warm."
Why is it so hot in here?
"Nah, I'm okay. You got time to wait?"
"Sure." She got up and headed to the door. "Train leaves in thirty."
I pulled myself up and got ready.
An hour later, I was slumped on the bench beside Phoebe while the pastor went on about sacrifice. Figures.
I gulped in a breath and wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. I struggled to stay awake, and eventually laid my head back and closed my eyes. Just for a sec.
"Zoe?" Phoebe jarred me from a catnap with a tug of her hand.
My eyes popped open. I caught my breath and looked over to Phoebe. Her face was white as a ghost.
"What'd I do?"
"You were talking in your sleep." She sidled next to me. "Were you having a vision?"
Remie leaned forward over Phoebe’s shoulder, narrowed his eyes, then focused back to the front.
I couldn't remember all the details about the dream. Just some woman with dark eyes and a deep blue aura. Not black, not all blue. She swung around a huge sword. Her words were lost to me, but how I felt remained ingrained in my bones.
Terrified.
My forehead was now seeping with sweat, and my cheeks were hot. Maybe I was getting sick. Which would be weird, with my healing abilities. Come to think of it, I’d never been sick in my life.
Music started playing, and the seats emptied. College kids rushed toward the door.
I had slept my way through the entire thing. Again. I felt like an idiot.
These stupid dreams, always something epic, almost evil, had gotten on my last nerve. You’d think I’d be protected here, of all places, but no. I was more vulnerable.
"Ready?" Remie startled me.
I nodded and slid my way out of the pew. I got to my feet. Must have stood too quickly, because the room began to spin. Definitely not normal.
Remie reached for my arm right when I started to fall, but missed.
My face met the carpet and the room went dark…
A beautiful woman with long, dark hair stops in front of me. She pulls out a long dagger, about the length of my arm. Stabs the metal weapon into the dirt beneath her boots. She sits there for a moment, as if trying to decide what to do with it.
"You are sought after, aren't you? Not that I expected to keep you this time. So we’ll save my story for another day. Perhaps a bedtime story?" She winks.
She steps forward, pulls the dagger from the earth and slams it into my chest.
I gasp for air, clutch the wound, and roll over to the floor.
"Zoe?"
My name barely pierced through the high-pitched screaming in my head. My eyes fluttered open. I squinted, but the light hurt.
Phoebe and Remie stood over me. Their expressions scared me.
“I… Phoebs. I can’t. Breathe.” Another tug, and the room faded away.
~
"Put her in bed. She's burning up, I need to break her fever," Phoebe's shaky voice broke through my unwanted sleep, stirring me from a respite I couldn't fully escape.
"I’m calling Cade.” Remie’s chest rattled as he carried me through the apartmen
t. “I know it sounds weird, but I think he should be here."
My body shook, shivering out the heat burning inside.
Remie laid me in bed.
"Remliel." The sunlight from the window hurt, so I squeezed my eyes shut. “Shades.”
“Got it,” Phoebe called.
"Give me her phone. I'm calling him," Remie said. "Cade, this is—yeah, we met the other day with—I think she needs you."
Something cold and wet covered my forehead. My temples pounded, and my stomach lurched.
"Remie, give me a minute with her?" Phoebe asked.
A few minutes later, I was nearly breathless, lying on top of the covers, wearing my Wicked T-shirt and a pair of boxer PJ shorts.
"Phoebe?"
She rubbed her hands up and down my arms, the friction calming my nerves.
I curled up into a ball and buried my head into my pillow to drown out the throbbing in my temples. My hair was strung out, stuck to my damp skin.
"You're going to be okay.” Phoebe took the cloth and laid it over the back of my neck.
The screaming in my ears and flashing lights behind my eyelids reappeared, dragging me from consciousness.
Not again…
I didn't know how long I'd been asleep when voices hung in the air.
"Thank you for coming, I didn't know who else to call." Remie’s voice shook.
"You did the right thing, son. There is much to discuss once she’s recovered."
I didn't recognize the voice. I opened my eyes and rolled to the side.
Raz stood next to Remie, shaking his hand.
"Cade?" I scanned my room. Not here.
Phoebe rushed over and sat next to me on the bed. "He's on his way."
I closed my eyes and tried to drown out the pain.
"What is this?" Remie asked.
"She's changing. Growing her powers," Raz's voice echoed. "Her human tissue is fighting it, like when the body fights off an illness. It's all part of the transformation."
Raz spoke matter-of-fact, like he knew exactly what I was going through.
"How long will this go on?" Phoebe's voice rose. "She's in pain. We can't just sit here and do nothing."
There's my girl.
"I know this is concerning, but trust me. She's going to be fine."
