It was unfortunate that God had not seen fit to grant her that kind of power.
Garrit’s hand tightened around hers as Adam put his arm around Mia’s shoulders and murmured something in her ear. Mia laughed and the two climbed the stairs, coming to a stop less than a meter away.
“Mum and Dad are going to be furious, Mia.”
Her sister pouted prettily. “I don’t see why you can’t be happy for me, Abby.”
Eve raised an eyebrow. “I’m supposed to be happy that you ran off and eloped behind everyone’s back? To someone you don’t even know?”
“I know him perfectly well.” Mia looked up at Adam and smiled. “Ethan, this is my sister, Abby, and her husband Garrit DeLeon.”
Adam smirked. Again. “A pleasure to meet you both.” He extended a hand to Garrit, who ignored it completely. Adam dropped his arm back to his side, and Eve felt his amusement. “Mia’s told me so much about you and your family, Abby. I feel as though I’ve known you for years.”
Garrit ground his teeth next to her, and she felt his hand spasm in her own. She imagined the other was balled into a fist by now.
She tried to keep herself calm. The entire charade was a bit much, even for her. But she didn’t want to think what Garrit would do if she left the two of them alone to drag Mia off. Or what Adam might try to do to him.
“Aren’t you a little bit old for my sister?”
“Mia told me that you and your husband are two years apart, as well. Let me reassure you that I have every intention of making your sister as blissfully happy as possible.”
She glared at him, but he only smiled and pulled Mia closer against his side. Eve turned away, closing her eyes against the memories that surged through her, when she had stood at his side as Helen in Pharaoh’s court, where they had stopped before continuing to Troy, hoping to confound her husband. For all of that, avoiding Paris’s importunities had been a relief after Menelaus. That’s all it had been, she told herself. Paris had just been kind in comparison.
“We’re so looking forward to getting to know you better.” Her voice sounded flat and dead even to her own ears, but it was the best she could do. “Won’t you stay for dinner?”
Mia latched onto her arm and led her into the house, leaving Adam and Garrit a few steps behind. “Really, Abby. Won’t you just give him a chance? Please. For me?”
Eve looked into her sister’s eyes, using the physical contact to search her mind as she did so. There was no aura there, no cloud of Adam’s influence over her thoughts and feelings for him. Either he had been very subtle, or Mia was just so ridiculous that she had fallen in love with the most indecent man who had ever lived.
“I’ll try, Mia.” She glanced back at the men. Garrit was staring at Adam with black fury, and the foyer felt much too narrow to hold the two of them. “This is all just a little bit insane. And you know Mum is going to blame me for letting it happen. It wasn’t fair of you to do this to any of us. Me, or Garrit, or his family! And poor Jean!”
Mia waved a hand dismissively. “Jean and I were never serious. He knew that. You were the one who told me not to fall in love with him. So I didn’t.” She smiled over her shoulder at her new husband. “I fell in love with Ethan instead. Isn’t he gorgeous? And look at his eyes! Have you ever seen anything like them?”
“No.” She didn’t look. She didn’t need to. Those eyes had haunted her for millennia. There was no other man on earth with eyes exactly that shade of gray. “They’re unique, to be sure.”
Eve searched her sister’s face again, hoping for any sign that she had been coerced. If only Adam had forced her, then she could act! Break his hold on her and send him away again where he couldn’t bother her and she wouldn’t have to see him, or wonder what he was doing to her sister and her family.
“Mia, please promise me you’ll be careful. Don’t let him talk you into anything you don’t want. You can’t know him as well as you think you do after only a few weeks. Are you sure this is what you want?”
Mia was still looking at Adam, her eyes alight. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. And did I tell you, he’s filthy rich! Maybe not as wealthy as your DeLeon family, but certainly well off. We’ll never have to work a day in our lives if we don’t want to. Mum and Dad are going to love him once they’ve met him and gotten to know him. And you will too. Just wait!” She squeezed Eve’s arm and then skipped back to Adam, taking his hand and pulling him away from Garrit and off down one of the hallways.
Eve didn’t miss the wink that Adam threw in her direction before he disappeared around a corner. “Mia! Dinner is in an hour. Please don’t disappear!”
There was a noise that sounded like something between an assurance and a laugh, and then Garrit was at her side. “Well?”
She looked up at his face; it was still dark with anger. “Nothing.” She sighed and shook her head. “She’s honestly in love with him. Completely of her own free will.”
He raised both eyebrows, some of the anger replaced by surprise. “And your brother?”
She glanced back down the hall where he had disappeared and frowned. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”
It was storming again and Eve waited to see if that same tree would be struck. In the last month, she’d counted it hit four times. It had been unusually rainy this year, too. She considered herself lucky to have had a clear day for her wedding. But this evening, there wasn’t any lightning yet, just thunder, rumbling and booming intermittently. The windows in the library offered the best view of the storm, and the rising land, and the smell of the books always comforted her.
Eve rested her forehead against the glass of the window and closed her eyes. She had sent Garrit to bed hours ago, along with the rest of the family. He had resisted at first, but she could see how tired he was. None of them would sleep easily with Adam present, even if it was necessary. The only safe place for Mia now was under Eve’s roof, at least until she was certain that Adam wouldn’t harm her. It was the only protection she could offer her sister.
Adam had been pleasant, even charming at dinner, amused by the hostility of the DeLeons around him, and perfectly attentive to Mia. Eve had hated it.
The door opened, and she spun away from the window. Adam was framed in the light from the hall, and Eve realized belatedly that she stood in the dark.
“I trust I’m not disturbing you,” he said.
She snorted, and turned on a lamp. “I’m not sure you could disturb me any further if you tried.”
He raised an eyebrow and shut the door behind him, but he didn’t cross the room, just strolled casually toward her favorite chair, picking things up off the end tables and putting them down. “You think I’m not trying?”
“I have no doubt you have some ulterior motive for all of this. Whether it’s purely to aggravate me, or something else, I haven’t quite figured out.” She stepped back against the window, leaning against the sill. The urge to bleach everything he touched was ridiculous, but she hated having him in this room. Her room, more than any other.
He looked away, trailing his fingers over the leather of the journal that still hadn’t been put back. His suit was in disarray. The jacket open, his tie loose around his neck, part of his shirt pulled free from his pants. She could just imagine Mia being responsible for it, making out with him in some hallway like a teenager, and it caused her more irritation than she wanted to admit.
What was it to her if Mia loved him? Women must have loved him throughout history. She’d never bothered to give it a second thought until now, and he had lived, married, fathered children, just as she had. But she hated every whisper, every caress, every gesture he made to Mia. Knowing the man he was, the things he was capable of, it would make anyone sick.
Anything would be better for Mia than him.
So why was she thinking about Paris of Troy? And the feeling of those same hands at her waist?
“I can feel that, you know,” he said, still looking at the book. “All tha
t hate and mistrust in your heart. I thought you were supposed to be loving, Eve? I’m supposed to be the monster.”
She was torn between taking the book from him, and staying as far away from him as possible in the room. She would not tempt the Archangel, if he was watching. “What do you want?”
He smiled. “Poor Eve. You were always a little slow to understand.”
Yes, she had liked Adam much better when he hadn’t known who he was. “I’m sure I would’ve caught on faster if you ever said what you meant, and hadn’t been so twisted in your logic.”
“I’d like to read this.” She stiffened and he smirked. “Oh, I won’t steal it, Eve. Just look at it while we’re visiting.”
“No.” She snatched the book from his hand and retreated to the windowsill. “I don’t understand why you even care. Why are you here? Again. Why Mia?”
“Mia is a very lovely woman. Spirited, but willing to be led.” She wanted to slap him. He grinned. “You’re so easy to provoke, Eve. You know why I’m here. Why Mia.”
She shivered. “Me.”
“Of course.” He shrugged. “It’s long past time that we got to know one another again, after so many years apart.”
She saw a flash of the angel’s eyes, as he detailed how he would kill her. First, any child in her womb. The sword plunged straight through her stomach. She pressed her hand against her middle and focused on keeping her voice steady. “Not enough years, Adam.”
“Ethan, please. Since I assume you don’t want me to enlighten my lovely wife about our relationship.” He flashed her that smile again. Full of imposed charm and power.
She would have taken a step back, except she was already against the window. “Ethan. Fine. But I think if you had wanted to explain yourself, you would have already. If she knew you were just trying to find a way to get to me, she’d never have you. Maybe I should tell her myself.”
“You could. But it wouldn’t keep me away, and it would hurt her tremendously.”
He was right, and he knew it, and there was nothing she could say otherwise. Telling Mia would be disastrous for everyone. Her sister wouldn’t believe her. Mia would accuse Eve of jealousy, in the best of cases. And if Mia did believe her, it could very well be worse. At least they weren’t burning people at the stake anymore, but her memories of the mental ward were much too recent, and all it would take to remove her from Garrit’s protection would be the suggestion that she wasn’t of sound mind when she married him. Even if Mia couldn’t supply proof, Adam could make any official, any doctor, believe whatever he wanted them to.
“I’m supposed to believe you’re just here to get to know me? That’s all? And you’re not going to hurt my family, or me. Not going to cause any of us to be hurt.”
“A little bit of trust, Eve.” Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled like a low growl. Adam’s gaze flickered to the window, his smile fading. Something in his face changed, his arrogance slipping into sincerity. “I’ll be good.”
She glanced behind her, but there was nothing there except the rain. She reached for his mind, threaded through his thoughts and felt his honesty on the surface. But there was more there, that she couldn’t see, couldn’t reach, couldn’t feel. Had Michael threatened him, too?
“If you hurt her—”
“I won’t.”
“—or my family—”
“They’ll be safe.”
She frowned at him. “What are you keeping from me?”
He locked eyes with her then, gently forcing her from his mind, separating himself from her thoughts and stepping back. “God gave us the world, Eve. I just want to see it through your eyes.”
Chapter Twenty-three: Creation
The lands were barren. Rough grass grew pale and scratched her feet as she walked. There were no fruit trees here. No bushes overflowing with berries. No fallen nuts to be cracked for their meat. Reu led her through the golden grass, though he still favored his side where Adam had kicked him. There was a large willow tree along the bank of a stream, some last stray piece of the Garden’s bounty, and they sat beneath it to hide from the burning sun. It wasn’t anything like the tree they had spoken beneath in the Garden. This one looked as though it had suffered to grow, and the leaves were spotted and blemished, its branches not reaching the ground.
Eve found rocks by the water and scraped off a section of bark to grind as she had once seen Hannah do. Reu leaned against the trunk and looked out at the grassland with haunted eyes.
She offered him some of the powder and his gaze shifted back to her, lingering on her neck. “You should have some, too.”
“I’m well enough, Reu.”
He pinched a portion of the bark and let it dissolve on his tongue, turning his eyes back to the land around them. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you from this.”
She moved next to him, wrapping her arms around her knees and letting her shoulder brush his. “Sometimes, I think we have to save ourselves.” She sighed at the dry land and rested her head on her arms. “We’ll find a way to live. At least we have the help of the fruit. And there are animals here. They must live off something.”
“Each other.” His tone was grim. Reu lifted his arm, and she settled against him under it. “They kill to live. God only kept the animals that would not harm us inside the Garden, but I saw many of them as they were made. Fierce things, with claws that rip through skin as though it were dry leaves, and jaws that crush bone as easily as we would the fruit of the banana tree.”
She picked the images from his mind as he spoke. With his arm around her, it was easy to see exactly what he thought. Unlike Adam, he tended to speak the things that came to his mind. “Will they try to eat us?”
“I don’t know.” It seemed to upset him that he didn’t, and he pulled her more closely against his side. I should’ve taken better care of her. Protected her from him.
“Reu. This isn’t your fault.”
He grimaced. “I wonder if the fruit will give him greater powers, too.”
“Probably. But I don’t think he cares about reading minds. Or thinks to do it.” She brought some of the powder to her lips. It was bitter, and she resisted the urge to spit it out.
He chuckled. “I should’ve warned you about the taste. But it will help your neck. Keep down the swelling.”
She pushed the rest of the bark away and watched the stream. It burbled over the rocks, clean and clear. At least they would have water, even if they didn’t have food. “Maybe the angels will help us.”
“The angels concern themselves with God’s law, Eve. We’ve broken it. Inside the Garden we might have been overlooked for a time, but not now. Not when we’ll have to kill to eat. They’ll come for Adam soon, regardless, and they won’t miss us in this wasteland, bumbling about.”
“It isn’t a wasteland when it has grasses and trees.” She picked a leaf from the ground and smoothed it, feeling the black bumps that marred its surface. “I can feel the life humming around us. It’s just different.” She looked back over her shoulder toward the Garden, looming on the horizon, lush and green, and overflowing with its bounty. “We might pick some fruit from the branches that hang over the walls.”
He shook his head. “For tomorrow, maybe. But we can’t stay here. We’ll need to find shelter, eventually. More than just this tree.”
“The sun seems so much brighter here.”
“Warmer, too. Almost uncomfortable.” He sighed. “This isn’t the way I had intended it to be. I thought if we left it would be of our own free will. And with food and nuts and berries to feed us for a few days at least.”
“What is that?” She frowned at the sky. Specs of dust seemed to float and hover among the clouds. She climbed to her feet and moved out from under the tree, raising her hand to her face to block some of the sun from her eyes. They were strange motes. Many of them.
Reu came to stand beside her, shading his own eyes and squinting into the distance. “Angels.”
As she watched, more and more
of the motes appeared, until they made a thick dark cloud. “Are they like birds?”
He offered her his hand, and she took it. In his mind she could see the details which the distance hid from her. Winged men, beautiful and terrible to behold, clothed all in brilliant white. Their wings were all feathered with different colors. Black and brown, gold and silver, red and even blues and greens. But one, with a flaming sword at his waist, had wings as white as his garment, and piercing eyes that saw through her even in memory.
“Michael the Archangel will lead them, with Gabriel and Raphael at his side,” Reu murmured. “It will take them time to cross the valley, but they’ll be here before nightfall.”
She had dozed off under the heat of the sun when Reu woke her with a hand on her shoulder.
“They’re here,” he said.
She blinked and rubbed her eyes as she stood up. That was when she noticed the shade. Like clouds had blocked the sun. A chill run down her spine. There were no clouds. The sky was clear and bright blue. It was the angels. An army so vast, it hid the sun and cast a shadow over the grasslands around them.
Reu took her hand and stepped forward to meet the three who were separate from the mass of winged bodies. They hovered above the earth, their pure white wings making broad strokes through the air without apparent effort.
“Michael. Gabriel. Raphael.” Reu nodded to each of them, and Eve thought he only greeted them by name for her benefit.
“We know you, Reu.” Michael’s gaze slid from him and Eve couldn’t look away as he stared into her eyes. Every moment of her life was laid bare before him, sifted through like sand falling between her fingers. Memories were lifted to the top and played within her own mind for both of them to see, and then it stopped as her lips touched the fruit of the tree. The angel’s hand hovered over the flaming sword at his belt, and she felt his anger rock through her as though she had been struck. “You have eaten the fruit!”
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