Daughter of Gods and Shadows (27 page)

“He's my best friend,” Jarrod responded sarcastically. “And she's Eden.”

The two girls leaned in close and whispered, “We already know who she is.”

Prophet started to take a step toward the sisters before Runyon raised his hand to stop him. “How do you know her?” Prophet asked cautiously.

“She won't tell you,” Runyon explained, standing up and walking over to him. “Neither of them will. Nobody knows which of them is the Heaven Seer and which is the Hell Seer, not even the other Seer sisters. And until now, nobody knew where they were but me.”

“Why you?” Prophet asked suspiciously.

“Because he brings us licorice and chocolate,” one of them said.

“And rum,” the other one added, grinning.

“The sisters are inseparable. They have to be. It's all about balance with these two.”

“What do you mean?” Eden asked.

Runyon turned his attention to her. “Imagine knowing the secrets of the universe. Imagine knowing all the good all the time, and all the bad all the time. Too much of anything is a problem, and too much of anything extreme can be crippling. All they need is each other—and me showing up once a month with sweets and booze. They don't leave the house, and no one else until now has ever come inside.”

“How do they know me, Jarrod?” Eden asked quietly. Part of her didn't really want to know, but she couldn't help being curious.

Jarrod just looked at her. Without saying a word, he'd spoken volumes.

Eden turned quickly and pushed open the screen door. “I need some air.” She was going to be sick.

Prophet followed her outside but stood on the porch and waited while she threw up in the bushes. A few minutes later, Eden came up for air and sat down on the bottom step to steady herself. It felt like the rest of the world was sitting still and she was the one spinning. He came and sat down next to her.

“This is insane,” Eden finally said, holding her head in her hands. “How can they know me? They see into heaven and hell, but whose heaven and whose hell? And correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you have to be dead to be in either one of those places?”

He shrugged. “Depends on who you ask.”

She looked at him. “What the hell does that even mean?”

“It means that you don't know what it means. Are heaven and hell literal or figurative? Are they actual places or just someone's idea of what either one of those places is? I don't know,” he said irritably, responding to the look she was giving him. “I'm just speculating, Eden.”

He was trying to help, and Eden appreciated his efforts to try to minimize the gravity of this situation, but deep down she knew that this was one of those things he couldn't protect her from. Prophet couldn't follow her to wherever it was she'd probably have to go to get the second Omen. But it didn't matter. She wasn't so anxious or prepared to go after it anymore, either.

“Sakarabru has destroyed everything,” she said to Prophet. “It's never going to be the same.”

“No it's not, Eden. So, what are you really trying to say?”

She was about to ask him to take her far, far away from this place, when Khale appeared out of nowhere.

“She has to be dead,” Khale said gravely.

Neither of them saw the knife that she drove into Eden's chest.

“Forgive me! Please! Forgive me, Eden!”

Eden heard the roar of the Guardian. She felt the warmth of her own blood soaking into the front of her clothes. She felt the blade of the knife driven into her chest, and she looked up at the stars and took her last breath.

*   *   *

Khale couldn't transform fast enough. The Guardian barreled into her and drove her petite form hard into the ground on her back.

“It needed to be done!” Khale yelled, transforming into a silverback gorilla.

Prophet pounded her hard in the face several times before she growled and rolled him over onto his back. She locked her fingers together, raised her powerful arms over her head, and brought them down hard into his chest, knocking the wind out of him. Blood sprayed from the Guardian's mouth.

“It needed to be done!” she yelled again.

“What the hell?” Jarrod slammed open the door.

“The second Omen is in the afterlife! She needed to die!” Khale shouted.

Prophet slammed a solid uppercut under her chin, forcing Khale to roll off of him.

Jarrod rushed down to Eden, lying on the steps with a knife sticking out of her chest.

“Guardian!” he yelled.

Prophet stopped and looked at Eden's lifeless body in Jarrod's arms.

“It needed to be done, Prophet,” Khale said desperately, as she began to shift back to Katie Smith. “It is the only way that it can happen.”

“This isn't up to you,” he said, stumbling over to Eden and gathered her in his arms. “You have no fuckin' right.”

“I have every right! Eden was born for this. Nobody else can do it, Tukufu. No one else can save this world.”

He didn't want to hear it. Khale had caused all of this. She'd forced this so-called destiny on Mkombozi, and when Mkombozi was lost to it, she killed her, paving the way for Sakarabru to come back. She'd put this bullshit on Eden, leaving it up to her to clean up the shit Khale had created.

“Let's get her inside,” Jarrod said solemnly.

Prophet picked her up and carefully carried her up the stairs and inside.

“You're not welcome here, Khale,” Jarrod said as he turned to her.

“You can't keep me out of this, Were,” she said defiantly.

“Between me and the Guardian, we can give you a run for your money, Khale. If you walk through this door, we'll kill you.”

Khale stood frozen, shocked by what she'd just done. But she knew—she knew the moment Jarrod revealed his secret about the twin seers that Eden had to die to make the bond. There was no other way.

“She has to bond,” she murmured anxiously. “She has to bond and she has to live.”

But what if Khale had sealed their fate? What if Eden couldn't recover from this?

 

NOW I'M ON MY KNEES

Eden's body gave in to its natural instinct to inhale, but there was no air in this place. Panic set it.

Khale. Khale had … Eden reached for her chest—the knife. It was gone, but … She staggered to her feet and stretched her eyes open wide to see.… She opened her mouth and desperately tried to breathe.

Nothing. Eden turned slowly, looking all around her to try to figure out where she was, but there was nothing. Flat, muted, airless, and soundless. She couldn't even hear herself gasping for air or starting to cry. Eden wrapped her arms tightly around herself and realized that she was naked, but what difference did it make? It was a revelation that meant nothing.

Walk.

The word came out of nowhere but was everywhere, pressing down on top of her and all around her. She began to turn in circles again, looking for the source, looking for who had said that, but she saw no one. There was no one else here but her. Who could've said that if she was the only one here?

Walk.

She took a step and stopped.

Another.

Eden had been confused. She had woken up here afraid that she was completely and utterly alone, but she wasn't. Someone else was here. She opened her mouth and called out to them. But Eden's words were lost in this vacuum of nothingness.

She took another reluctant step and then another and another. Time meant nothing here. Eden had tried to count in her head the number of steps she had taken, measuring the distance that it took for her to move from one place to another.

She walked and walked, but how far? How long? Where was she walking to? She had no idea if the person who'd told her to walk was still here. Eden stopped and waited, listening for the sound of the voice again. Despair set in when she didn't hear it. Hopelessness washed over her. She was alone. Eden stood there, trembling and searching all around her for signs of something, anything.

His name was gone from her memory. The one she had … No. She would call him and he would come, but … she couldn't remember his name, his face. She slowly sank to her knees and desperately searched her memories for him. He would help her. If she could remember him, then she could call him and he'd come. He'd take her from this place and she'd be all right. She'd be fine because the two of them would be together, but she needed to call out his name, which escaped her.

Eden was suddenly off the ground. Her body was being pulled through the air with a terrifying force.

I said walk.

She landed facedown and at someone's feet. A woman's feet. Eden raised her head to see who was standing in front of her, but a blow came out of nowhere, her head jerked back, and Eden sailed again through the air, landing on her back.

How dare you defy me?

Before she could even recover from the last blow, another one jolted her midsection, another followed to her chin, and another cracked the middle of her spine.

How dare you make me wait?

Who are you? Eden wanted to ask. What do you want with me? Her own words were her enemy. They betrayed her and left her helpless against this … thing.

How dare you leave me here?

Another crippling blow landed on Eden's side and forced her over on her back. She looked up to see the face of this … this … She had no face.

She squatted down next to Eden, grabbed a handful of Eden's hair, and jerked back her head. She pressed the sharp tip of a weapon against Eden's jugular.

She had no face. She was naked like Eden but stronger, bigger, more powerful.

Now you come for me?

She had no face, no mouth, so how was it able to speak?

Now you choose me?

She released her hold on Eden's hair and viciously slammed her head back down onto the ground, then slowly stalked circles around her, whispering a song in Ancient tongue. That song—familiar! Eden had heard it before, but where? How could she know this language? How could she know this song?

Two for three

Bring me

Redeem me

Or die the lamb.

Eden struggled to sit up and mouthed the words to the song, sung by the female circling her. Two for three. Two. She had said two and not one. This was her, the second Omen. Dear God! Eden wasn't ready! Pain ripped through her broken body, but this song held a place in her memory, an Ancient memory born long before Eden had come into her own life.

Eden continued singing without noticing that her voice had finally come to her and blended with that of the other female. She continued singing long after the other female had stopped and towered over her.

This was the song of the Omens. It was the song of her destiny.

You can have me,
the female told her,
but you will have to fight for me.

Fight for her? This bitch wanted Eden in a battle? She couldn't take her eyes off the weapon the female gripped as she circled Eden. The handle was wrapped in what looked to be gold threading or rope. Three long blades that looked like spearheads extended from it, two in the front, curving downward, and one straight blade extended from the back. A shorter extension came from the center of the unit, which splayed out on either side with smaller curved blades, looking almost like a boat.

She kicked Eden in the face again, grabbed her by the throat, and hooked one of the larger blades around the back of Eden's neck. She forced Eden up off of her knees and held her up in the air until the tips of her toes barely scraped the ground underneath.

Fight me, Redeemer. Win me. Or stay here with me—for eternity.

She let Eden's body fall and crumple to the ground. Eden closed her eyes. Was this her death? Her hell? Certainly it wasn't heaven. The image of the fire came into focus in her mind's eye. Eden saw herself sitting near that flame, warmed by it, mesmerized by it and entranced by it.

“She will keep you there,” the Demon said, sitting across from her. “She will torture you”—he laughed—“while you beg your God to intervene, but no intervention will come.”

Claim me, Redeemer. If you can.

Eden looked at him, his face still cloaked by the hood of his robe. “She's too strong.”

He leaned back and sighed. “Then it ends here, Eden.” The Demon knew her name. He waved his hand and put out the flame. Darkness closed in around her, smothering her, filling her with unnatural fear, Isolation, and something else.

“Bring it back!” she shouted to him. Eden's voice echoed all around her. Rage ran hot through her veins. “Bring it back to me,” she demanded again, wringing her hands together.

She had feared that fire. She had loved it. She had recoiled from it, but eventually she had been drawn dangerously close to it and had found comfort in it. He had no right to take it from her. Eden had been brave. She had been careful with it, and she had honored it.

“Bring it back, Demon,” she demanded.

But it was gone. It wasn't coming back. He had taken it from her, and she had nothing.

Eden opened her eyes again in time to see the bottom of the female's foot less than an inch from her face. Eden caught and held it.

I am the warrior, Redeemer. I will not be claimed so easily as my sister.

Eden had wished for death time and time again, and now that she had it, she realized that the peace she'd hoped it would bring didn't exist here. She pushed the female hard enough to knock her off balance, stumbling backward. There was no peace in death for her.

Fight me!

All of a sudden, Eden noticed that the symbol on her arm began to glow and grow warm.

Coward!
The female shouted, steadying herself. She ran toward Eden.