Second Heart: Bones of Eden
Page 21
In the distance, they could hear hammering and shouts.
“You two go,” Romeo said. “I’ll stay here with Charlie. Sounds like Alpha might need you.”
Her sisters nodded, sprinting off through the buildings and vanishing in the trees. On her bed, Charlie groaned.
“Where is everyone?” Whiskey was peering around the doorway. Her eyes were wide with fear, her clothes wet and streaked with mud.
“Taking over Eden,” Romeo said coldly.
“But...why? What’s happening to the teachers?”
“They’re dying. They’re all dying.”
“No!” Whiskey looked alarmed. “We have to do something. We have to stop it...”
“Stop it? Now you want to stop it?” Romeo gave a sharp, hard laugh. “You did this. This is your fault.”
Whiskey stared at her, wide-eyed and helpless. “I don’t... I didn’t do anything.”
“You didn’t do anything!” Romeo snarled. “You abandoned me. You left me there! You saw Teacher Steve hurting me, and you ran away! You’re a coward, Whiskey. If you had stayed by me, none of this would have happened. Everyone would still be alive!”
Whiskey cowered, sinking slowly to her knees on the grass. The lights overhead were flickering, dying, plunging the whole of Eden into pitch blackness—darker than the Varekai had ever known.
“No...” Whiskey whispered. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I was scared. I was just scared.”
“You were going to let Teacher Steve do to me what he did to November! You’re no sister of mine. I hope your eyes explode like the teachers’ did. I hope you suffer like November suffered.”
The lights flickered one last time, and then the darkness was absolute. They were blind, in the darkness with the dead and the gore.
* * *
The storms had passed. For a week, there had been clear blue skies and peaceful rains. Plants were starting to regrow, and the birds were flocking back from the mainland.
It had been two months since the Varekai and Elikai had met in peace. Both tribes had been visiting the bat cave, and they had studiously avoided one another. Charlie, who could not stop vomiting, refused to go, and Whiskey guessed it was because she was afraid to accidentally bump into Sugar.
Tare was still with the Varekai, his attention on India as if they were the only two Kai in the world. Sometimes Whiskey still met with Fox, but they were fleeting liaisons. He had gone back to his brothers, and he and Sugar had forgiven each other—sort of. Fox still gave Whiskey food and touched her belly, intently feeling for any sign of life, but she could sense the void between them. A gaping maw, where there had once been peace and solidarity between the Kai. The promise of unification had been broken, and now it felt like they were at war again.
The day before, the Varekai had seen the Elikai making their way down the mountain, dragging canoes from their hiding places in caves and crevasses and carrying them toward the ocean.
Today, the Varekai would do the same. They would go back to the place their village used to be and assess the devastation. They would gather timber and begin to rebuild. India would bring out her basket of roots and dried seeds, and they would replant their gardens.
Like any wounded thing, the archipelago would begin to heal itself, life would come back to the reef and they would all grow fat again.
But the Elikai and the Varekai would not grow fat together.
Whiskey was glad that this time, it had not been her mistake. She had not been the one making the choice and there was no one who could say it was her fault.
Not like Eden.
If she had been braver, if she had not run away, everything would be different now. Maybe the world would not have been born. Maybe they would have been better prepared when it was.
She could never make that mistake again. No matter what the cost, no matter how brutal or savage she had to be, she would always protect her sisters. And her children, when they were born.
She watched the other Varekai gathering their tools and dragging out the canoes. Charlie was by the cave mouth, vomiting again. Pregnancy did not agree with her in the slightest. Bravo and India were securing supplies in the canoes before Tango and Tare dragged them out into the sun. Mike and X-Ray were laughing, painting on the white and black war paint of the Varekai, turning themselves into pythons and tigers and leopards. Some of the others were already outside, starting to scout the best path down the side of the mountain.
There was no sacrifice too great to keep them all safe. There was no monster Whiskey would not kill, no storm she would not face.
She would never, ever make the mistake of running again.
* * *
Even from their home islands, as the darkness slid across the ocean, they could see the light at the top of Pinnacle Mountain.
Charlie had set up the torch in a clearing, making sure the solar panel would get plenty of sun, enough to run all through the night. So now, down on the beach, with the sound of the waves rolling in and the smell of baking fish and green pawpaw, India told the new tale of how the lioness saved the Kai and won back the moon.
* * * * *
The BONES OF EDEN trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion in THIRD WAVE.
Acknowledgments
Always first, I’d like to thank my editor, Alissa Davis, who keeps believing in my ability to meet deadlines despite clear evidence to the contrary. There are times I would have given up, but I didn’t, because you believed in this project.
Second, big, wet, gross love to my girls, Annie and Meg, who contributed as much to this series as I did. And bless the Stockholm syndrome that keeps you from abandoning me.
Third, my genuine appreciation to Vision Writers, who still talk to me even after I got us thrown out of the Brisbane Writers Festival for talking much too loudly about the best way to dispose of a corpse. Still standing by the crocodile plan.
Also available from Zaide Bishop
and Carina Press
Bones of Eden series
First Fall
Eliza’s Awakening
Coming soon from Zaide Bishop
and Carina Press
Bones of Eden series
Third Wave (August 2017)
Also by Zaide Bishop
Theo
Secret Confessions Backstage: The Complete Collection
About the Author
Born in 1985, Zaide is an Australian writer who spends an unhealthy amount of time reading and watching horror movies. She also loves cats and aquariums, and lives in a house dominated by both.
When she isn’t writing, Zaide is studying psychology, with a particular interest in the sociological effects of the internet on interpersonal communications, learning and information processing. Zaide’s other interests include cooking, rock climbing, lithops, web design, photography and video gaming.
You can visit her website at www.zaidebishop.com.
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Missed book one in Zaide Bishop’s Bones of Eden trilogy? Be sure to read the full series before the final book comes out!
A story of discovery, survival and bonds.
In this new trilogy from Zaide Bishop, two tribes of genetically engineered beings must learn to work together in order to survive. The all-female Varekai and all-male Elikai have always stayed clear of each other on this post-apocalyptic world. After disease wiped out most of the population, they learned to survive on their own.
With little left in a tropical archipelago overrun with wild boar, massive pythons and deformed crocodiles, the groups must learn to work together in order to survive.
Will they join forces or destroy their race? Start the adventure in book one of this exciting trilogy.
Bones of Eden series by Zaide Bishop
FIRST FALL (Bones of Eden, book one)
SECOND HEART (Bones of Eden, book two)
THIRD WAVE (Bones of Eden, book three)
(Available August 14, 2017)
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ISBN-13: 9781488032813
Second Heart
Copyright © 2017 by Zaide Bishop
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:
The Dragon War
Copyright © 2017 by Zaide Bishop
The Monsoon
Copyright © 2017 by Zaide Bishop
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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