In Eden's Shadow

by Amanda Churi

  Sage snorted, shooting the white strings from their nose back into their nostrils. “Wh-what?”

  “Virgil,” Pinion growled.

  “Your dad adopted Pinion when she was a little girl,” he went on to say. “She’s just as much your sister as he is your father. Don’t let your stubbornness cost her her life. She’s the only family you have left.”

  Pinion looked away when Sage moved their disbelieving eyes to her. She wanted to kill Virgil for overturning such sensitive information—now that rag would be an even bigger annoyance than before, assuming that was possible.

  For some reason, Sage didn’t press the matter further. Perhaps a part of them knew. While their mouth did not react, their feet did, carrying their hunched figure to Pinion’s side. Taking a spool and needle from their belt, Sage silently began their work, focusing only on their patched hands.

  Pinion’s side-glance tumbled over Sage’s slouched body. Their hands moved so quickly that she could not even feel the pricks. “Thank you, Sage…”

  They didn’t reply directly, but a broken moan did squirm from their lips. “Daddy…”

  She could have told them more—that the person they fought was not really Kevin, just his supernatural Eyla forced into another shell to replicate Kevin’s powers, but if Sage didn’t understand the concept of Eyla and how they interacted with supernaturals… Holy shit, that would be so much explaining and lecturing on her part… She would much rather Sage be a brokenhearted mope than a badgering student. As it was, there were bound to be plenty of questions coming.

  Sage needed time to tend to Pinion, but not all of them could stay here. Maybe that was her fate, but the movement… It was exactly that. A movement. Which meant she couldn’t let it stop. “Virgil… You need to keep going.”

  “What?” The surprise in his tone turned Pinion’s head and locked their eyes. “Pinion, you’re in no condition to be left alone.”

  “I won’t be. Seek and Sage will stay, but your babysitting isn’t helping anyone.” She sighed, looking away. “Go find Mabel and Eero. Even with their skills, the fight against Gannon will be no easy feat… They need all the help they can get.”

  Silence. “…But Queen…”

  She whisked her face to his tense frame. “It wasn’t a suggestion, Virgil. You made an oath to the revolution, remember? Don’t go wimping out on me now.”

  He chuckled, looking at his feet. “Wanting to live is being a wimp…? I don’t mind putting my life on the line, I never have, but me in a fight against Gannon? That’s purely suicidal.”

  Tense silence lingered; the battlegrounds shaking their collapsed shelter were mere background noise. “I know,” Pinion finally admitted.

  “So then, what, bait? That’s all I’m suddenly good for?”

  “Of course not… I know that even in my state, I stand more of a chance against Gannon than you do—but they are the only ones who can possibly kill him at this point. Please, I’m asking you as my second hand… To go down if it means getting them close enough to topple his head.”

  His biceps knotted in defiance. “You literally just said you stand more of a chance than I do… So, what? I’ll be out there spilling my blood as your ass that I hauled off here is nice and cozy?” He scoffed, grabbing the sparking plates of the door. “You’re a hell of a leader, Pinion. I thought a captain was supposed to go down with their ship.”

  He wasn’t wrong… But she definitely did not find herself in the wrong either. “Maybe, but there’s a reason this revolution has lived nearly a millennium. I’m sorry, Virgil. Please try to understand.”

  He merely huffed in reply, prying open the doors that squealed with protest. A slice of light shined into their refuge, outlining Virgil’s threatening frame and leaving his core cloaked in darkness. “I won’t defy your words, only because I know they need help. Still… You’re right. The fact that you’ve kept this circus going for centuries…” He allowed himself a good laugh, one of irony. “I’m clearly not walking a road you haven’t pushed others down. Guess I should’ve invested in lifeboats.”

  He barged forward shoulder-first, forcing the doors to part just enough for him to squeeze out, and like a cork, he shot out from between the plates and reentered the fray.

  Pinion watched him go, using his club like a hatchet to head back toward where his allies were last seen. Even as fatigued as Pinion was, regret still did not find a place within her. She had to live, to bring about the future she promised, and that was impossible if she was dead.

  “Pinion…” The queen looked at Seek, who kept her head and eyes down. “Are you sure this is right…?”

  Pinion exhaled so hard that the icy room became enshrouded with her annoyance. “Of course, it is… Everyone is expendable if it means bringing Gannon down.”

  Seek’s head lifted, her eyes glinting with suspicion. “…Even you?”

  The rebuttal dragged Pinion’s sharp glare to Seek’s. “No, not me. If the face of a revolution falls, so does the revolution.”

  “Other times, it makes people fight harder…” Seek rolled her head across the wall, her eyes following the patterns that Sage’s sunken figure continued to embed in Pinion’s skin. “Pinion… There’s… Something that’s changed inside you… I can tell. A road opening that was never there.” She met Pinion’s gaze without fear, eyes clear as crystal. “Did Mabel really give me those souls…? Or did you make her?”

  Sage paused their work. Pinion shook her head incredulously, the irony of it all setting off a cascade of irritable sparks in her brain. “You’re questioning me too?”

  “Just answer the question,” she bluntly replied.

  “Fine. No. I didn’t do anything but tell her how we couldn’t lose you.”

  “And what help do you find me to be of now?”

  “It’s not now, but later—”

  “Why does it matter if I’m around after Gannon’s dead?”

  Pinion stuttered, hardly able to answer the questions as quickly as they came. “B-because you had a mission, didn’t you? To guide all the Eyla to their destined worlds? To be a true seeker? To bring back the light?”

  Seek’s eyes darkened. “That may be true, but I definitely didn’t need to see whatever happened on that battlefield to know that you wanted Eero dead more than you wanted me alive—and that’s why I’m here.”

  Pinion watched incredulously as Seek tried to stand, her body so weak that she could not even find her feet. “Seek, please, you need to rest—”

  “I’ve been doing plenty of that.” She fought with her body until she was successfully standing, even if it meant hugging the wall. Once she stood, the light on her skin brightened—one that, although not strong, came from the depths of her resolute, unwavering soul. “Much like I can sense the shift in your soul, I can sense the shift in Eero’s as well—the distress that only keeps growing.”

  “Lord only knows how far away he is by now!” Pinion protested. “Not to mention where! You don’t have the strength to—”

  Seek’s body flashed like a strobe, forcing Pinion’s eyes shut. When they reopened, the greatness of all that Seek stood for was bursting forth with full force. Empowerment flooded her eyes, covering every humane marking, and her hair swirled around her, being tousled and spun by Eyla themselves. “Don’t ever question what I can and can’t do. I am not just a pawn on your elaborate board. Eero needs these souls more than I do—

  “And the world definitely needs him far more than it does you.”

  A dog buried within suddenly burst through Pinion’s skin. It made the fallen angel throw herself forward and gnash her teeth, ripping the freshest stitches from her skin. Her fist flew to her sword that immediately secreted a puss-green hue, fluctuating with each enraged breath. Pinion didn’t draw it—not yet—but she remained ready, full of vigor and hate.

  And tears—tears that she felt had no place but that came streaming down anyway, baffled by all the loyal backs she suddenly found herself facing. The tears burned mor
e than any of her wounds; their salty roads quickly formed the deepest scars brought about by the war thus far. Part of her body was drowning in lava and another swimming in ice—everything that could fight itself did.

  The passive gaze from Seek proved that Pinion’s show had not the slightest effect—and that she no longer cared. “I thought what Typo said was strange… He wasn’t lying, was he? They’ve truly been trying to do good, but you kept pushing them until they had no choice but to take extreme measures. And then, you kept everything hidden from us… Who vowed to give everything to you.” She scoffed, looking away. “You may have hundreds of years on me, but I’m definitely the mature one here. You don’t even know what you’re fighting for anymore. You’re just a cloud of spite that wants to hurt everything that’s ever hurt you.” Seek took a step and nearly collapsed, gasping while clutching the wall.

  Choppy, desperate laughter cut through Pinion’s throat. “Really? You think you can walk away from me just like that? Away from all of this?”

  “Yes… I can!” She took another step toward the door, repeating her near fall. Her beads of falling sweat were full of light; they left a trail of her trials, a path of spiritual blood that she kept elongating with each trudge. “Unlike you… I’m fighting for the future of the world, not myself!”

  “No, all of you are traitors! Questioning me, questioning my words, my actions! You’ve become so blinded by the future that there’s not an ounce of reasoning left in the shells of your heads! Well, guess what?!”

  Pinion flung her sword at the child, but there was not nearly enough strength behind her throw. It uselessly clattered at Seek’s feet, still an enraged green—an overthrown throne. “To Hell with all of you! Fuck you and everyone that spawns from you afterward! You want to make an enemy out of me?! To start another war so soon after you finish this one?! Then you walk out that door! I’ll rewrite the books! You’ll all be the new enemies! The new evils! I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again! I’ll never be in the wrong!”

  Seek’s shoulders slumped with her lips. Her pupils couldn’t look straight ahead at Pinion—they couldn’t do that ever again. It was just too clear that they did not see eye to eye.

  Seek sighed with regret. She had questioned this outcome from the day of her induction. It was always clear that Pinion had a morphed soul, reconstructed one too many times, but Seek hoped she would remain true to the words she always preached. Now, in the end, when it was a matter of all or nothing, Pinion had lost control again, driven to insanity by her own thirst for victory.

  Seek pushed off from the wall and focused hard, standing on her own with a body that she recognized as mortal—and flawed—but sincere. “Fine. When I take the crown, prepare yourself for another war against the Reveres, because you’re crazy if you think I’ll stand by you a second longer.”

  A glob of spit shot from Pinion’s lip and onto Seek’s boot. “I never said I wasn’t crazy, dumbass. And if it will come to that, why not kill me now while you’ve got the chance?”

  “If you ask me, you’ve been dead for a long time now. Besides, I’m not the one to carry out Judgment—He’ll do that soon enough.” She stepped away from the wall on unsteady feet and moved to the doors.

  Sage leaped up, eyes bulging and mouth quaking. “S-Seek! I don’t understand! What—?”

  “Just follow me, Sage,” she replied, not looking back. “Sister or not, I’ll take care of you properly.”

  “B-b-but… But Daddy clearly loves Pinion! If I learn from Pinion, then he’ll love me—”

  “Kevin loved Daisy, never Pinion.”

  And with that, Seek slipped flawlessly through the doors. She did not run, not even walk—she strolled away and back into the raging battlefield, upright, breathing slowly, and with her palms out beside her. A sword could have very easily flown through her mutilated back, but she proved she wasn’t afraid. She was already prepared for the war to come, but she had to finish this one first.

  Sage stuttered, whipping their head back and forth. Pinion would not look at them. She supported her arched torso with one arm, eyes all-consuming and fixed on the ground. A twisted smile curled her lips, hoarse laughter, hollow and cold spurting out between her teeth. Again… It was happening again… Another rewrite, another revolution, she needed to do it all again.

  “P-Pinion…?” Sage knelt beside her, contorting as a rag to put their face directly beneath hers. “What do I dooo?”

  She didn’t care. She didn’t want them. They just showed up, a purposely abandoned child that had the audacity to track down the family that buried them long ago. They didn’t exist. No, none of them did. They were enemies, all of them, everyone was against her, no one wanted her to set things right. They preferred to wallow in this filth, this mistake of a world, all because she hadn’t been strong enough all those years ago… And she hadn’t been able to snatch sanity back from them. Why couldn’t they see? Why couldn’t they just bow down and—?!

  “Pinionnn,” Sage tried again. “Pleaaase… Tell me why—”

  “OH, FUCK OFF!” Her arm flew and slammed into Sage’s face, sending them flying across the room and splashing against the wall. She hardly caught her suspended body in time, her breaths gurgling in her chest and throat as she honed in on Sage’s dazed body. They had to hold their head to get their eye to stop spinning, but all awhile, the pupil swam, trying to focus on Pinion—on a picture that couldn’t be figured out.

  “You should have stayed in Hell…” she snarled, curling her fingers so that her body stood on a fist. “Should have stayed dead… I don’t know how it happened, but I know Kevin didn’t mean to bring you to life—he never wanted you. Lucy’s miscarriage… You dying… You did so much because you just couldn’t stay alive… And then, you just decide to pop back up like a fucking flower after a brutal winter.”

  Whimpers betook them. Sage fell into a slouch, tucking their mouth behind their knees. “But… I didn’t decide to be born… I just—”

  “I DON’T CARE!” She threw herself upright and whipped out her arm, her sword igniting green and shooting back into her hold. Panting, she overturned it, looking at its irredeemable hues with a twitching frown. But those colors hit a numb place now. “I don’t care anymore…”

  She plunged the sword into the earth, hurling herself up with a monstrous roar. Stillness was necessary for a moment as she realigned all the coming steps needed for reconquest. It required shadows… Waiting, but it wasn’t like she had not done it before. Although it had a limit, patience was all she had practiced for centuries—this would be no different.

  “P-Pinion?” Sage stuttered. “What are you—?”

  “There won’t be another war…” The hole in her skull sparked. It cranked out thrashing green wires and choppy, sporadic blues that could hardly hold themselves together. The blue in her eyes exploded into fragmented slices of teal—irises that could no longer revert back. “I’ll stop it well before then.”

  Sage’s eyes ballooned. They sprung to their feet, scrambling for Pinion as sea green waves crashed over her, altering her genetic makeup to that of air. “Wait! Don’t—!”

  The immovable floor took her in an instant, swallowing her body into its bottomless belly. Sage landed on their knees where she had phased. Their open, stunned mouth consumed their face—almost like they were trying to suck her back up through the earth like a vacuum. Sage’s scarred fingers shivered and shook against the granules of stone and ice. “No… Nooo, I still have to learn… I have to learn WHY!”

  Legs frantically tumbling over one another as they took to their feet, Sage sprinted out of the chasm and back into battle to find their sister before it was too late.

  Twenty-nine

  Blindsided

  She felt it before—the burning skin, the numbing mind, the flowing blood… The lurking death.

  Flye’s eyes were inflamed and scorched as she stared into the dark sky, heaving for the killer air that she knew was making her feeble life race away from
her faster in already ungraspable ribbons. Every bone ached, crumbling under her weight. Her trembling legs told her to stand, and her arms twitched, the hands at her side closing around all that her failing brain sought to reach.

  She tried to move in the mounted snow that broke her fall, but it sucked her farther in with each feeble thrash. The rate of her dying vision spiked. Orbs of red and purple were swimming in the encroaching darkness, mysterious shapes trying to form from the distorting colors; the black backdrop deepened, and the oncoming blobs grew brighter and larger.

  No, no, not yet! I’m coming… I promised you that I was coming!

  “D-DEREKKK!”

  Screaming his name, she flexed her trained abdomen and used its withering strength to lift her, though it was the slowest, most strenuous sit-up in history—both histories.

  Now giving her veins proper directional flow, her fuzzy mind settled a tad. Her shallow, quickly thumping heart slowed, the blending colors shrinking back. Simply holding onto existence was a battle, and now able to look at herself, she had a clear image of why.

  Once pasty skin forever void of the sun’s touch was buried under layers of crusted blood, encasing blotched and charred skin that overlapped damaged and broken nerves. The nails on her fingers were missing, taken clean off to reveal scorched, reeking flesh. Her cloak and scarf had burned away; all that now clothed her were her skimpy armor plates that had distorted under heat and pressure, sticking to her patchy skin like glue.

  She vaguely remembered sinking her blade into Typo’s imposter of a heart, looking into his disintegrating face as he got a taste of his own poison… But not much after that except the massive expulsion of pressure and lethal steam… The destruction that consumed her body from head to toe and inside out. “What a crap chute of a move…”

  With a sigh, she brought her blistered hands to her head, only to faintly feel a scalp thinly dressed by clots and scabs. Her skin continuously pushed off waves of sweltering heat, but in the sub-zero temperatures, she felt untouched—dare she say hot, and not in the sense she was fond of.