Paris? He asked. What about Paris?
It had been sloppy to let her mind wander, but it had been that or cry with old grief, and at least the scene these memories could make would go unnoticed.
Nothing, she said, even though he wouldn’t believe her.
There was a long silence, while he listened and she tried not to think about it. It didn’t work. It never did. Not thinking of something inevitably brought it to mind, even if all that came was the thread of reminder. Not Paris. Not Troy. Not Helen. Not Theseus. Oh God, please, not Theseus. Not Helen. Not Troy. Not Paris.
You knew me?
Mia was talking about the car she was going to buy, asking her father what he thought. She turned to Adam, asking him if he agreed. Somehow he managed to have the right answer, though Eve could feel his mind churning with the memories slipping through the cracks of her consciousness. Paris, holding her in a dark room. The whites of his eyes had been the only thing she could see, but she would have known his touch anywhere. The warmth of his hands against her skin, one palm pressed against her cheek, turning her face to his.
Helen, he said.
The wineglass in Adam’s hand slipped and spilled, the red liquid crawling across the table to her plate, staining the linens the way blood had once stained the fields of Troy. She stared at it, to keep from meeting his eyes. Watching it draw closer and closer. She couldn’t bring herself to stop it.
“Merde!” Garrit blotted it with his napkin, and shot Adam a dark look.
“Forgive me,” Adam said, mopping up the spill on his half of the table. He cleared his throat, and did not so much as glance in her direction. “A shame to have wasted a cup of such a good vintage, too. The wine your family makes is exceptional, Garrit. Is there any way I might buy a case?”
“Oh! Yes!” Mia said. “That would be perfect! It isn’t as though Abby can drink wine now, anyway.”
Eve closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, emptying her mind as she exhaled. She could feel the baby, and let its consciousness fill her thoughts, crowding everything else out.
“Of course,” Garrit answered through his teeth. “I’ll see what we have in the cellar after dinner.”
“I think I need to go lay down,” Eve mumbled.
And then she fled.
Chapter Thirty-five: Creation
A short and easy climb brought Eve to the vantage point with a view of the entire valley, the Garden at its far edge. The stone precipice sheltered them from the heat of the sun during the day, as well as the rain.
The largest of the lions, the male with the dark shaggy mane, followed her with one long leap. She leaned against his tawny body, sitting cross-legged on the sun-warmed stone and frowned at the Garden.
“Why haven’t they acted yet?”
The lion chuffed beside her, but she knew it didn’t understand more than her frustration. She scratched behind its ear until it purred. Reu had been growing more anxious about leaving her alone with each passing day, but the angels still flocked around the Garden without entering it, and so he had taken the other lions of the pride with him to hunt. Eri, the male, never left her side, and Tzofi, the female who had given them the rabbit that first day, followed Reu wherever he went.
It had been nearly seven days since they had met the lions and she had resolved to find a way to train them. Seven days spent learning to master fire and beast. That it had only taken a week to convince the lions they were best served as their friends made her uneasy. Maybe because it added truth to some of what Adam had told her about how they were meant to rule.
She sighed. Eri painted her arm with his rough tongue, and purred loudly. That was always his answer to her apprehension. Grooming reinforced the bonds of the pride. It was affection and promise and companionship. She threaded her fingers into his mane and let the lion’s confidence leach into her mind. If she was meant to lead, she would do so, but it would not be the way Adam had shown her.
Of course, none of it mattered until the others found them. And none would until the angels drove them from the Garden into the wild. Reu had already begun to anticipate the arrival of the others. They collected wood and roots for burning, as well as the dung of the animals. The dung of the elephant worked especially well for their fires. He patiently skinned every kill and scraped the hide clean before stretching it to dry and cure. Eve had shaped several bone needles for stitching the hides together to make clothing and blankets using the gut. They dried meat as well, so there would be enough food for everyone until the others learned to hunt.
She grimaced. If it hadn’t been for the lions, Reu might very well have starved by now, leaving her no choice but to watch. She still wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse that she was assured of her own survival. Neither one of them liked having to kill to eat, but they were a long way from the nut-bearing trees of the Garden, and the closest thing to fruit trees they had found were berry bushes. She had made salads from greens and other grasses, but they were bitter and tough.
Movement caught her eye, and she looked back to the Garden. A rainbow of angels had risen into the sky and from this distance she thought she could make out the stark bright white of Michael’s wings as they flared, and then disappeared in the greenery.
It was time, then.
She climbed to her feet, Eri rising beside her, and searched the valley for Reu and the other lions. It would take the others at least a day to cross the grassland to where she and Reu had made their settlement. Still. It was good she had seen this.
She placed her hand on Eri’s head and looked down into his golden eyes. “Can you call to the others?”
His fur shivered under her touch and he looked into the distance, his nose twitching as he drank in the scent of the wind. Then he turned unerringly, his tail flicking against her leg, and roared.
Even expecting it, the sound still made her tremble, and she was glad Eri and his pride guarded them, for she would not have been easy knowing the cats hunted for their flesh. She slapped the lion on the flank and turned her attention back to the Garden.
There were fewer angels outside, now. She wondered if Michael had sent them off, or if the Garden had swallowed them. She wished she could see or hear what was happening. Maybe if she closed her eyes and focused…
Reu and the lions were the first thing she felt, familiar presences, clear and crisp. Reu had already been on his way back, and now moved more quickly at the sound of Eri’s roar. The females did not hurry, unconcerned by Reu’s human anxiety, but Tzofi kept pace with him. Eve probably could have called Reu herself, but she found the idea was distasteful to her, too similar to Adam’s methods of control.
She pushed beyond them, opening her mind to the rest of the valley slowly. Birds hunting and soaring high above them, and more on the ground with the rodent-kind, looking for bugs and seeds and flowers to eat. Then the larger beasts, prey animals, skittish and wary, ready to flee at the slightest noise or movement.
She pressed further, visualizing the Garden in her mind, the path through the trees from the gate to the caves Adam had made their shelter, until she felt the others there. Hannah’s quiet calm, even as the angels surrounded them, their faces hard as stone. Lilith’s terror, colored by Adam’s fury, as she cowered before the sword of fire. And Adam himself, arrogant and unmoved by the demands and the threat in Michael’s eyes.
She wondered at his conceit. It had not taken more than the sight of the angels massed above to inspire fear of God’s Law in her heart. Yet, she felt Adam’s dismissal of these beings, powerful in their own right, and their judgment of him.
The impressions were more confusing than enlightening. A blend of perspectives growing more entwined the more she tried to see, colored heavily by fear and trepidation. She could not hear the words spoken by the angels, though she could clearly see their lips moving, nor could she hear Adam’s verbal response. But his anger was like a beacon to her, burning bright in her mind. A flash of surprise was her only warning before the focus of
his mind narrowed and she cried out in pain, her eyes opening as she lost what connection she had managed to create.
Eri rumbled under her hand, more a vibration than sound. She dropped to her knees and pressed her face into the fur of his neck. She felt drained. It was more than she had done with her power since the lions had been tamed. Too much to have attempted all at once.
“Eve?”
She leaned over the ledge. Reu stood below it, a small gazelle across his shoulders. He frowned when he saw her face and dropped the kill to the grass. She let herself fall from the edge of the precipice and he caught her around the waist to set her lightly on the ground.
He searched her eyes. “Are you well?”
She nodded, rubbing the back of her neck. “The angels have entered the Garden. Michael is speaking with Adam right now.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw them, and then I felt it. They’re all afraid. Except for Adam. How can he face them without fear?”
“Adam spent time with the angels before God’s death. Before the rest of us were made.” Reu frowned slightly and picked up the gazelle again, carrying it to the area where he dressed the kills.
The lions were already there, waiting with gleaming eyes for the offal he always shared with them while he worked. Tzofi was washing blood from her whiskers, and she greeted Eri with a chuff and a purr. Eri rubbed his head against hers and lay down in the grass, rolling onto his side with lazy grace.
“I’m not sure I can lead, Reu. I’ve only just learned to live.”
He smiled at her as he set down the carcass and squatted in the grass with his flint knife. “In all Adam’s days in the Garden, he did not do what you’ve accomplished in just seven. You’ve done more than just learn to live, Eve.”
She sat down beside Eri across from Reu, wrapping her arms around her knees and watching him as he began his work, carefully peeling the skin from the flesh and throwing bits to the lions as he went. “Instead, he cowed our people into submission. I think his accomplishment is still the greater.”
“Have faith, love.”
“If God is dead, Reu, what is there left to believe in?”
He stopped and looked up at her. She could feel his thoughts as they swirled around her question, and she knew his answer before he spoke. “I believe in you, Eve. God’s Grace is in you.”
She shivered and wished once again she had known God. To know his plan for her firsthand. To know what it all meant. But Reu didn’t have those answers either. “They could be here as soon as tomorrow.”
“And we’ll be waiting,” he said, confident. His thoughts were so calm. Things would be as they were meant to be. The angels had said they were meant to lead, and so they would.
She sighed and stroked Eri’s head while he purred beside her. Watching Reu work the skin from the animal could be mesmerizing, especially combined with the attention of the lions. It tugged at her so strongly she even felt their hunger for the meat. She shook her head to clear it and stood up. “I’ll start a fire.”
Reu nodded. “I won’t be much longer.”
After they ate and arranged the rest of the meat to dry, they climbed the rocks to the overlook. It was her favorite part of the day with Reu, when they took this moment just to be together, putting the day and all its work behind them. It had become their ritual to watch the sun set behind the mountains each night, painting the sky with the reds and oranges of flame. The stone held the heat from the sun for hours after, keeping them warm enough from the night chill. When it was clear they slept there, under the open sky, and Reu would tell her the stories of the stars as they came out, one by one.
She rubbed the back of her neck. Her skull still ached from her earlier effort to discover what was happening in the Garden with the others. Reu noticed and brushed her hand away, taking over with his strong fingers and working the knots from her neck that she hadn’t known were there.
He chuckled softly at the noises she made, and kissed her shoulder. Eve curled up against his body, her cheek against his bare chest, and listened to his heartbeat in the fading light. Tonight might be the last night they had alone together, without fear, without worrying about Adam.
“Sometimes I wish we could stay this way forever. Just us. Without any of the others.”
Reu kissed the top of her head. His hand slid from her neck to her arm and then the curve of her waist. “As long as we’re together, as long as I can hold you in my arms at night, it doesn’t matter how many others are with us.”
She smiled and tilted her head to look up at him. “Not just hold me, I hope?”
He laughed and brushed her hair from her face. “Hold you and love you and protect you and treasure you always, Eve.”
His kiss distracted her from the realization, sudden, sad and complete, that his always would never be hers.
Chapter Thirty-six: 15 AD
Thor spent as little time in Asgard as he could, frequenting Thorgrim’s village to ensure their safety, and sleeping under the stars, wandering from place to place. He didn’t stay in the North, either. The feeling of Sif watching him, breathing in his ear, made his shoulder blades itch.
At first, he had ignored the star when it had glowed bright and high in the sky, though he had heard the prophecy whispered in Egypt and Rome, even Greece. The House of Lions had asked him about the king of kings, but he hadn’t had any answers for them. It was unlikely the baby was anything more than just a child, but with Eve in that part of the world, he felt it the better part of wisdom to investigate.
He had barely passed into Syria when he met a man on the road, hungry and dirty. As this land, strictly speaking, was controlled and governed by the Olympians, he didn’t think much of it when the man appeared to have an immortal aura, but offered him some of the water he carried to drink.
The man studied him with piercing eyes as he drank from the bladder, and Thor found himself thinking of Eve, as he waited. It would be faster to teleport the rest of the way, but he wanted to learn more about this prophet, and gathering information from strangers was easier to do when one was covered in the dust of the road, disguised as a traveler.
It would be good to see Eve again. He sighed and dwelled in the memory of her kiss, the softness of her body in his arms. He shook his head and jerked himself free of the reverie.
The man was still watching him and his eyes had hardened. “You interfere with God’s daughter.”
Thor frowned, taking the bladder of water back and giving this traveler a second look. His sandals were beaten and abused, his skin coated in dust. “Athena? I would hardly call a friendship interference.”
The man’s face twisted into a sneer. “Pretenders and thieves. I do not speak of Zeus, or his family.” Wings of brilliant white flared out from his back, and Thor took a step back, not quite sure whether he should be calling Mjölnir, or offering some kind of homage. “The True God gathers power even now. It will not be long before your time is at an end, Thunderer.”
“I mean no disrespect to your creator, Archangel. Nor to you.”
“And yet you take advantage of His lands, His people. You have the nerve to think you are deserving of His daughter! I warn you, interference now will not be tolerated. Gabriel has his role to play, and it is my duty to see it is done.”
“His daughter?” He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Any of it. All this time he’d spent wandering the earth and he’d never come in contact with an angel before, though he had looked. “You mean Eve?”
“Mother of men. Savior of her people. She plays that role again now, so the scriptures can be made true, and God’s people returned to Him. Returned and made to turn away from the likes of you.”
He shook his head. There was so much hostility from this man, this angel, and Thor had no interest in a fight. “I was merely seeking information about the prophet. I would not involve myself in Elohim’s business, and these are not my lands, besides.”
The angel sniffed and raised his chin. “A long t
ime have We watched you, Thor Odin-son. And never have you allowed the boundaries arbitrarily drawn to stop you from accomplishing your goals. All due respect is paid, yet somehow you always get your way in this world. Have you never wondered why?”
“I imagine it has something to do with my diplomacy.” But his temper was wearing thin, and he could not afford to summon lightning in Olympian lands. Zeus was not so understanding that he would overlook it. “What’s your name, Archangel? That I may know to avoid you in the future, if this is how you would treat your allies.”
“You and all your brethren are invaders and intruders, seeking to take advantage of God’s weakness. If you were other, I would treat you with greater respect.”
“You fail to see the difference between myself and my brothers, Angel. Even if I am not deserving, I still desire to see Eve live. And that is more than can be said for many.”
The angel sneered again. “Nothing of this world can harm her.”
Thor acknowledged that truth with a slight nod. “Then I suppose the only threats to her are those of us who merely live in it.” He turned then, and continued on along the road. He had no interest in fighting with this angel any longer, especially when the creature would not even give him his name.
He had his suspicions, of course. There were said to only be three Archangels, with wings that white. Eve herself had told him as much. And since the angel had spoken of Gabriel, he assumed this must be either Michael, or Raphael. But Raphael had not been seen since the dawn of time, and Ra had spoken often enough of Michael’s twisted arrogance that Thor felt certain enough of his identity.
Not that he had expected to stumble across a scheme of the True God’s angels in the midst of this prophet nonsense. Less nonsense, he supposed, if it was Gabriel disguised as a man. It was Eve’s role he didn’t understand. Savior, the angel had called her. But how? Not only by sharing Elohim’s Grace, surely.
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