The Eden Chronicles Boxset

by S. K Munt

  ‘But you don’t believe that it was an accident, do you?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She lifted those pale topaz eyes to me and held up her hands. ‘I really don’t.’

  ‘But you don’t feel badly about it, and neither did Elijah when he learned, right?’

  ‘He was more dismayed than anything else- about the cure, and I did hear Karol and him discussing it privately one night: Elijah said that he felt bad for threatening her and my son told him he ought to because if anyone found out...’ she glanced over at the garden, her lips turning down into a frown. ‘I feel worse about it now, and am sorry for having wished her ill-will as she was the only girl in here who I’d never seen as a threat to my son’s future wife. And, truth be told, I am glad that I have been weakened by her cure; too many good turns for the sake of an ideal lead to, well- religion, and I was becoming a devoted follower of causing mayhem, until her cure forced me to stop.’ She glanced at me. ‘What was the ingredient, by the way? The missing one? I know you managed to give Karol a list of things that she had tried in the past to find the missing ingredient. And that one of those things was the last piece of the puzzle but...’

  ‘You don’t know?’ I said, surprised that she didn’t even know that two were missing, not just one.

  ‘No, Karol guards that formula jealously. Or, that one ingredient anyway.’

  She was being vague, and so I would extend the same courtesy to her, I shrugged, even though I knew damn well what had been missing, and how ironic it was. ‘I wrote down dozens of things, and I don’t understand what half of them are. He found it by a very long process of elimination, I believe but I couldn’t possibly recall so many things a year later: I gave him my only list.’ I paused. ‘Why do you want to know?’

  She threw the tomato back into the withering garden. ‘It would be nice to know what I’m allergic to.’

  That made me blink. ‘Nephilim get allergies? I thought you were supposed to be super-human in that way?’ I snickered. ‘It’s not garlic is it, or a crucifix?’

  ‘Not allergies that affect us personally,’ she said, plucking a fresh cherry tomato and handing it to me. It was the only thing she’d ever given to me so I took it, but I didn’t dare bite into it until she took one for herself and popped it into her mouth. ‘Just ones that can repel our powers. Elijah and Kohén’s is rubber, obviously because it blocks electric current, and as you’re probably well aware, Kohl weakens on large bodies of water that he can’t control, or in very dry heat. There are certain things that make it hard for me to do what I do, but they make sense from nature’s prospective- it’s difficult for me to channel insects when it’s raining or boiling hot or during fierce winds, and I thought maybe that was my only limitation. But no, she found something to spray that completely repels them- they turn to dust if they get close.’

  ‘How did you do it?’ I asked her, settling down. ‘Those plagues were everywhere when you were-’

  ‘Ekita,’ she said, smiling a small smile at me, and I felt my eyes widen. The princess of Tariel!

  ‘Her too?!’

  ‘She has been travelling for years, which made it handy. She is much weaker than I, but yes, her father is my father’s cousin, and that’s where my power comes from, but it skipped the king and went straight to her.’

  ‘That’s why you wanted her to marry Karol? To keep one like you in power here?’

  ‘Yes- if you could call my position here powerful, which I do not. But she’s also very sweet and very lovely.’ The duchess licked tomato juice off her fingers. ‘She’s retired now though, and happily. With the spray there’s no need for her to continue, or for me to push her to Karol and I’m glad… they really didn’t hit it off as I’d have liked.’

  ‘Only person who’s ever going to hit it off with Karol is going to be a deaf mute…’ I muttered. She shot me a look so I rolled my eyes and asked: ‘Can you only do locusts?’

  She leaned over and pressed her hand to my arm. ‘No, duckling.’ She pulled back, smiling secretly. ‘I can do many insects-’

  ‘OW!’ I slapped my arm, and then looked down as a giant mosquito rolled off it. ‘Hey!’ She started laughing and, snarling because there was already a welt on my arm, I leaned over, and enjoyed the disgusted downturn of her mouth which accompanied the gentle ‘Slosh’ sound of the cherry tomato in my hand popping against her skin.

  ‘Oh!’ She began to wipe her arm free of the juicy red flesh. ‘Larkin! How dare you? I am your-’

  ‘No we’re equal,’ I told her, rubbing my palm on her pretty dress. ‘Remember? Not because of our castes, but because you owe me one. And like I said, I’m running out of time… as of five minutes ago, in fact.’

  ‘What scene did you cause?’ she asked, looking irritated as she wiped her arm on the grass.

  ‘I renounced God,’ I said, sighing and wiping my hand on the grass too, ‘and basically pledged my allegiance with Satan. Oh, and I called Karol a rapist… Kohén too.’

  She looked up sharply. ‘You should not do that!’

  ‘They are,’ I said stubbornly. ‘The fact that Karol just broke a law to lay one on me is proof of that. Some Prince!’

  Her lips quirked. ‘I meant the other thing.’

  ‘I didn’t mean it, so it doesn’t count,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘I just wanted to see if there was anything I could say that would shut Karol up.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘Did it work?’

  ‘Quite well.’

  ‘Then I will keep that in mind.’

  ‘No, you need to keep ME in mind,’ I said, taking her hand and not allowing myself to be distracted by the solitaire on her finger. ‘I need to leave here and soon. Karol is losing his control around me now, as Kohén began to, and I’m scared. If Karol gets joined soon and not married, he’ll be eligible for the crown, right? And if gets that kind of power- and sway over the harem- while I’m still there...’ I shuddered. Elijah was protecting me now because he wanted me for Kohén, but Karol wanted me for himself and what was worse, he thought that made him a hero.

  ‘Karol will not do that, Larkin,’ she said, sounding snippy. ‘He is a good boy, and one who is full of God’s light.’

  ‘Are you a deaf mute?’ I asked her, wrinkling my nose. ‘Because the Karol I just saw in the hallway threatened to birthday wish me into sexual bliss.’

  She sighed again. ‘I am well aware that you inspire grotesque thoughts in his being but he is only jesting-’

  ‘Stop saying things like that!’ I complained. ‘You speak of me as though I bewitch them on purpose!’

  ‘I cannot help it,’ her eyes shifted to mine, and I saw fear within them. ‘There is darkness in you Larkin, and it has been a stronger influence on the men within this castle than my divinity ever has.’

  ‘No there’s not!’ I protested, shocked that she’d think such a thing. ‘You hated me from the moment you saw me but I was just an innocent little girl, and if you help me now, I could leave here and be one still! And I want to be innocent and light for Kohl, I swear it! If you try to block my escape with your divine being because you believe that I’m the bad seed, YOU will BE the shadow that darkens me!’

  The duchess pulled her hand from mine and clutched hers together on her lap. ‘I agree that I need to get you out of here, and I would bless you and Kohl coming together if it has inspired more of a thirst for love than for power within his soul... but I will not be blamed for the way my sons have acted to win your favour-’

  ‘I only tried to win Kohén’s friendship!’ I protested. ‘Like I was told to do!’

  ‘But he wants more because you solicit more with every thing you do and say. In fact, I do not doubt that if you gave him one of those vulnerable, but sensual smiles of yours, my own spouse would-’

  ‘Stop!’ I pressed my hands to my ears and squeezed my eyes shut. ‘I don’t want to hear this.’

  She took my hands off my ears. ‘There is Nephilim in you,’ she whispered. ‘Fallen in origin. It’s o
nly a trace-’

  ‘How could you possibly know such a thing?’ I demanded, heart racing as though she’d read every thought in my mind concerning my biological parents. ‘Only the Soul mates with feathers can sense godlessness in people!’

  She shrugged. ‘You don’t need to have absolute powers to have instincts, Larkin. I’m good at reading people, and your aura sparkles like stars in an inky sky and it tempts a man’s soul- as extremely as Shep’s presence invokes feelings of warmth and sunlight. And I believe that power has something to do with how well you make things grow, and always have been able to, according to your mother...’ she nodded to the garden, and my throat tightened around a scream of outrage, suppressing it. What the fuck did giant pumpkins have to do with dark juju? It wasn’t like they grew so big- no one had tried to carve a carriage out of one for me yet! ‘With your blonde hair and golden skin, you radiate a sunny glow- an angelic one on the surface- but I think we both know that you are anything but. I saw it the first moment that I happened upon Kohén playing with those cards and breaking our rules-’

  ‘We were children!’ I cried. ‘I was bored and heartsick.’

  ‘He was five and you taught him how to play a forbidden gambling game,’ she corrected me. ‘And he’s told me that you were his first kiss, as you were Kohl’s. You were the first girl to orgasm during that heinous ritual, the only one who makes Kohl lose control of his temper-’

  ‘Shut up!’ I hissed, jumping to my feet. ‘And how do you know all of these things?’

  She shrugged. ‘I overheard some, saw others and a few months ago, before we left, Karol came to my room to confess that he’d had thoughts of betraying Kohén for you- which is why I’m not surprised to learn that he threatened you so today.’

  ‘He DID?’

  ‘Yes. Karol has always sought my advice when he finds himself tempted, because he wants to please me. Why do you think he’s considering looking for a wife and not a spouse?’ She sighed. ‘But he will only marry someone that he is certain that he can be faithful to, and now that I know that he’s stolen a kiss from such a young little temptress, I do not have much faith that he will-’

  ‘Stolen!’ I repeated. ‘Stolen, not given or accepted!’

  ‘I know. But can you not see how every slip of judgement within Eden’s walls has you as the common denominator as cause?’ Her eyes were too clear- so clear that I could see her version of me in them. ‘Larkin I am not saying that you are a fallen woman or that you are destined to be, and I know that the situation you’ve found yourself in here does nothing to encourage holy thoughts or actions for I hate it as you do- to the point of conjuring up the darkest thoughts imaginable. In fact, I know that I’ve probably pushed you as close to the brink of darkness over time with some of my actions, and I am sorry for that. But I did it intentionally, waiting to see if you’d reveal yourself to be more than what we all supposed you were: a scared, lost little girl. I can see now that you have no power and genuinely strive to be good and loving, because lord knows that you’ve been pushed beyond any human’s ability to cope without lashing out as a Nephilim would, but you are still a temptress by nature, and a rebel and an agitator! You curse, you speak inappropriately, you constantly go over the lines of conduct and then you make everyone who is drawn to you feel inadequate by comparison. And though I can see that you hate the effect that you have on people, you cannot look me in the eye and deny that evil runs in your blood, can you?’

  I stared at her, at a loss. ‘Where is all of this coming from?’ I asked, on the brink of tears again. ‘Why didn’t you mention any of this on Caldera when you had the chance? Of all the things you screamed at me, ‘evil blood’ was not one of them!’

  ‘I did not know for sure, I have only ever suspected it. But I’ve been out here for about two hours now, thinking everything over, and that man has not budged an inch since your name came to my mind.’

  I frowned at her. ‘Who? Karol?’

  ‘No,’ she lifted her eyes and gazed over my shoulder. ‘The Nephilim man standing behind you at the fence. I do not question that he bears me ill will, and now that I’ve seen him for myself- I do not doubt that he is your father either. Like you, he glows golden and yet the warmth he radiates is hatred-hot.’

  I spun around and there he was, up against the metal fence, sandwiched between it and the fields beyond Martya’s garden, staring at us. Staring and saying nothing- just smiling, and it was the creepiest thing I’d ever seen. My heart tripped over. ‘Oh my God! It’s him!’ I turned back to her. ‘The security tapes! We have to show them-’

  ‘He won’t register on them, Larkin, and is probably very selective about who he shows himself to.’

  ‘What is he then?’ I demanded, looking back and feeling so chilled by his wide smile that my teeth could have chattered together.

  ‘A ghost,’ she whispered, and I hugged myself, feeling ill. Everybody knew what ghosts were: spirits who were too strong to follow Satan to hell to atone, and hated God too much to make it to Heaven and so they lingered, waiting for their soul to pick a fate. And though some ghosts were harmless, weak and lost, some were powerful and angry enough to give themselves form and either way- good Nephilim did NOT become ghosts once they had passed, because they always loved God too much to miss their chance to join him in heaven. So if that man truly was my father, than I was undisputedly the descendant of a very dark and very powerful Nephilim, and accepting that- even a little- made me feel as though a cloud had just passed over my soul.

  But only if he is your father! You don’t know ANYTHING for sure! And how could you be a dark Nephilim child of someone so powerful, and yet possess no power of your own?

  ‘What do you think he wants?’ I whispered, and she shrugged.

  ‘Form, probably. Just like God and Satan, enough love, or power or thought can give disgruntled, powerful spirits the energy to flicker back and forth between this plane and the afterlife, and being forgotten could fade them out of it. But your mother didn’t forget him, nor did that other woman that he impregnated, and neither will you or I- and so he probably lingers near to the child he has fathered, who is old enough to think of him, waiting for you to give him power enough to restore him completely.’

  ‘Can that happen?’ I asked, wide-eyed.

  ‘If the Nephilim is powerful enough, most definitely.’ She laced her fingers together and said: ‘remember the story of the dark Nephilim man who burned his village to the ground?’ When I nodded, she went on, whispering: ‘He had no fingerprints, no records and no one knew whom he had descended from. And after reading the story once, Kohén told me that he theorised that the criminal had not had a life because this was not his first life- that he had been a ghost who’d found a way to return and infiltrate our society. Now that I’ve had some time to ponder that, I think that I agree. And though I can’t place your father’s face, I do feel as though I have seen him before somewhere or somehow before today…’ she wrinkled up her nose. ‘Just where, I don’t know.’

  I shivered, remembering stories of poltergeists that could move and hurl objects, and others who found a way to possess people - the way he must have possessed the nurse who my mother and the banished woman had lain with.

  Oh well, better that he be a dark Nephilim possessing women’s bodies, then your own theory that he was Satan possessing a man’s!

  I wrenched my eyes from him. ‘If that’s possible, then I will give him nothing to feed off,’ I whispered. ‘And I do not wish to, despite how little you think of me.’

  ‘Because you love God still,’ the duchess said, touching my hand again. ‘But look me in the eye and tell me that you’ve never called to Satan in a moment of despair or weakness before this day- and have meant it?’

  My nose was tingling as tears threatened. ‘Have you?’

  She smiled at me, and she was golden despite her black hair. ‘Never.’

  I glanced back at the man, feeling like I was being torn apart on the inside now that someone els
e had supported my mother’s theory. Was he dark, and I a recipient of that darkness? Had I called myself a tomboy when really, I’d been a little hellion? It explained a lot of things, but not the fear racing through my heart at the sight of him or the genuine love that I felt for Kohl. She was right- the circumstances of my life had made me dark, but was that because I had a corruptible soul, or because, as I’d always believed, the Given laws were corrupt? It was so unfair that I was supposed to accept that everything that had ever happened to me was my own fault! They were all weak too and they were supposed to be closer to divine than any human could be!

  ‘What do I do?’ I asked her.

  ‘Go inside, and pay him no mind and I will follow. Trust in me to get you of here and soon- and as far away as possible, perhaps Pacifica again-’

  ‘How?’ I asked, looking at the man again.

  ‘I cannot say that anything is for certain yet, but I have a sketch of a plan in mind.’ She smiled nervously. ‘They have built a small prototype aeroplane in Tariel, and Elijah is considering purchasing the first one produced, so that he can attempt to fly over the north and see if there is any way to access the oil fields in the old Alaska by boat, or a way to start clearing a road through- somewhere where the Wildwoods are thinner.’ She smoothed her skirt again and I struggled to process that. Aeroplanes, at last! It would change the world! ‘He leaves for Tariel in early December, and will be gone for at least two weeks to investigate the aircraft, and possibly longer if he flies a test mission from there, north, which is where he will have to depart from, because Tariel has the only operating airstrip and control tower in Calliel. He has already arranged to take Karol, Adeline, Kohén, Kelia, Emmerly, Rosina and Resonah with him on the journey south by road, and the boys on the flight- but you and I are going to be left behind.’ I flinched at that, seeing for the first time how far I’d fallen off my pedestal, and she did not miss it. In fact, she touched my hand again and regarded me with softer eyes. ‘I know… it hurts. It just never occurred to me to care that it hurt from your end of things before.’