by Ivy Sinclair
“We were told that Eva created you,” the man said. Whatever unspoken communication that had occurred between them seemed to land on him continuing to take the lead in the questioning.
“My time in this realm began as a human,” I replied. “I was happy, and when I entered adulthood, I thought that I would marry and eventually take my place on the tribal council. But fate had other plans for me.”
“You met Eva.” It wasn’t a question.
“It wasn’t uncommon for the council to pray to the Gods for favorable crops and to ask for the continued well-being of the tribe. They would often ask for guidance when judging those who went against our ways.”
“So the Goddess, who played judge and jury for the angels and demons, decided to stop by,” the man said.
“It was a great honor that she visited us. During that time, she witnessed one of my spells. It came over me often and was difficult for me to control. The dead would swarm me, and I often felt as if I were going to be harmed. It was terrifying. She saw what was happening, and she made it stop.”
“I remember that happening,” the man muttered.
“She said that she could help me control it if I were willing to travel with her for a time. She couldn’t stay with the tribe indefinitely. I agreed. At the time, I was thinking only of my future with the tribe, and how being able to control that talent would benefit them.”
“So what changed?” the woman asked.
“It is difficult to explain,” I said. “As her companion, I saw things that can never be unseen. I saw great cruelty and even greater compassion. I watched Eva mete out justice in as fair and rational a manner as possible. Her role was difficult, and I knew because after a time she confided in me. We grew close, and when she asked me to walk at her side for eternity, I saw a destiny far larger than simply being on the tribal council. I accepted and was changed forever after that.”
“She made you into something else.”
I nodded. “Someone stronger and braver. Someone worthy of walking at her side and being her protector and companion. It was an honor.”
“So what happened?” the man asked. “Because we know the end of this story, and it wasn’t a good one for Eva. She was torn limb from limb by a jury of angels and demons.”
I felt a rush of anger then. I knew that Eva had long ago perished, but I hadn’t been aware of the specifics. She had always known that day would come. “There were many who were jealous of her. They plotted against her. When I became her servant, she put a portion of her life force into my body to protect it. That is what gave me the supernatural abilities to fulfill my role. With it, Eva and I were connected, and we could take from each other as needed for healing or fighting. It was often difficult to tell where she ended, and I began.”
The two in front of me faded to the background as my story came to life in front of me. I watched it play out before my eyes just as I had so long ago.
“Eva knew how much I enjoyed returning to and spending time among my people. Whenever our travels brought us close by, she’d allow us time to stop. The last time when I arrived, there was a wedding going on for one of my family’s descendants. Although I had never had a child myself when I was human, I had kept an eye over the years on the children and then grandchildren of my siblings. It was the great-grandchild of my youngest sister who was getting married, and they asked Eva to preside over the ceremony to give them luck and favor in their new life. Eva’s duties called her away, but she said that I could stay and watch over the ceremony in her stead.”
There was a great crowd of people all around me. The tent over our heads were open to the night sky, and I could still see the twinkling stars. I looked up over my head. The stars were just becoming visible in the night sky. They didn’t look like the stars I remembered. It was yet another sign that a great deal of time had passed. I felt a longing for the old world.
“I remember thinking how lucky I was to have had the journey I had. I had been chosen for a path and a life that was much larger than what I originally anticipated. But I still was able to watch over my family and tribe; even if it hadn’t been in the way that I thought. I think it was because I was filled with these thoughts of gratitude and peace that I missed the obvious signs that something was wrong.”
The woman’s eyes were glazed over. I knew that she could see what I saw. It wasn’t as if I needed any further validation that these people were the next generation, but yet it was there. I wasn’t sure how it worked. I never had. That was for Eva to know and for me to follow. But my story had spun the threads necessary to take all of us back in time.
I stood watching the scene from that time, but this time I was merely an observer. The man and the woman stood by my side. They watched the scene unfold with me.
“How are we here? How can we be seeing this?” the woman asked.
“There is something you must see to know,” I said. It was the most simplistic explanation. “It will be up to you to recognize it.”
“There are so many people,” the woman said.
She was astute. It shouldn’t surprise me. Eva would not have chosen a weak vessel. “Yes. I thought that it was because the celebration included another tribe. Although it wasn’t common at the time, there was some co-mingling between tribes. There were so many unfamiliar faces, but I had been gone for many years. I didn’t ask questions because this was my home where I felt safe. I never suspected.”
“Was the trap for you or for Eva?” the man asked.
“In the end, it didn’t matter,” I replied. The sea of smiling faces were perfect camouflage. “This was the beginning of a chain reaction that resulted in Eva’s destruction. Had it happened here, or as it did later down the road, he accomplished his end result.”
“He who?”
“Watch,” I said. “Watch, and see.”
I watched myself as I stood proudly off to the side of the happy couple. My eyes swept over the crowd multiple times, but I knew that I wasn’t really paying attention to what the hushed undertone was when it began. My other self was wrapped up in the joy of the moment, even though he had innately noticed when the shift happened.
My other self turned toward the ceremony official. With his back to the crowd, he never saw when one by one the eyes of the crowd turned away from the front of the tent and focused on him. It was chilling to watch it from this perspective, and I felt the involuntary shiver of the woman beside me. Barely imperceptible, the words the crowd was chanting became clear.
“It’s a binding spell,” the man said. “But you were supernatural. That spell is child’s play. It shouldn’t have affected you.”
“You don’t need anything more than that when blood is involved,” I said. “We shared a drink an hour before the ceremony began. It was spiked. I realized that far too late.” I stopped speaking. The end was near now.
The roar started low, and then it filled the air. My other self grabbed the sword from his waist and spun around, but it was too late, and he knew it. His world had been whittled down to a foot around him in any direction. The crowd hushed, and as the flaps at the back of the tent blew open, all pretenses of the wedding celebration dropped away.
The being who stepped into the tent was tall, taller than any man I had ever encountered. His arms hung at his side, and his hands sat well below his waist. A long black cape covered his upper body and face from view. I expected him to move awkwardly with his ill-proportioned body, but it was as if he skated to the front of the tent. My other self beat wildly against the invisible barrier that held him. He knew that whatever was happening was serious.
“Who are you? What do you want?” My other self yelled out. He wanted to distract the man from harming anyone in the crowd.
As the man stopped several feet short of the barrier, he simply put his arm up and pointed. A bright blue glow appeared in the center of my other self’s chest as if it were summoned forward.
“He came for Eva’s life force,” the woman breathed out.
> “You can’t have it! I refuse to let it go. I will take it with me to my grave.”
“I know how to extract the things that I want.” The man’s voice came out in a low hiss that still sent chills down my spine even now. “And I promise that it will be very, very painful.”
I was proud of how stoic my other self looked as he stood there defiant of this strange and powerful being. “I will never submit. It belongs to Eva, and I am nothing but an extension of her and her will.”
“That is what I am counting on,” the man said. As I couldn’t see his face, I couldn’t be certain, but it sounded like he was smiling.
What happened next was painful to watch. It had been excruciating to endure. The glow in my other self’s chest grew larger even as the man twisted his fingers in the air. He never touched me. He didn’t have to. Whatever magic he controlled did his dirty work for him.
The screams rang through the air for what seemed like hours. The people in the tent stood there staring. They were all in some kind of trance as they watched. During the time his magic was in my body, it was as if he searched every fiber of my being for the energy that Eva had settled in my body, and he systematically ripped each one out. The barrier that surrounded my other self was soon stained dark red. Streams of blood drizzled down everywhere I could see.
How I didn’t die after he ripped her life force from the marrow of my bones I have no idea. My other self had drifted to his knees, but he hadn’t fallen. I realized now that my effort to appear strong played right into his hands. He wanted me to watch what happened next. He wanted me to witness the extent of what he had just done.
All of the blue light that once existed within me had found its way across the short distance between us and swirled in a misty, pulsating glow just above his upturned palm. He brought his other hand up, and the light followed his gestures as he seemed to turn it to and fro to examine it closely. Suddenly, he slammed his palms together, and there was a brilliant flash of light that caused several people in the tent to cry out in pain.
Then he opened his hands. Cupped in the palm of his hand was a small, shimmering white stone. The man walked to the couple at the front of the tent and took the bride’s hand. My other self made a weak attempt to break out of his prison once again.
The man wrapped the girl’s fingers around the stone. His words, although spoken in a hushed tone, carried throughout the tent. “This gift I make to you will bring nothing but death and destruction wherever it goes. Pass it forward, and give this gift to the world.” In a puff of smoke, the man was gone.
My other self fell to the ground howling in pain. The barrier around him was gone.
“I was human again. Mortal. Badly wounded. Without Eva’s life force, there was no way that I could summon her to me through the bond. I had no way to heal myself. And just when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse, they did.”
The woman gasped and then clutched the arm of the man as the first swings fell cracking open skulls. What had been a joyous, happy event just minutes before turned into a grotesque scene of violence and mayhem. Brothers turned on brothers. Fathers turned on children. The bride fell on the groom. Their faces contorted in a kind of fury that seemed unimaginable.
Then the victors of the initial slaughter turned on each other. I closed my eyes and willed us outside this memory. For once my other self realized what was happening, and the perilousness of the situation, he fled. Outside the tent, he crawled away from the tent calling out in a hoarse whisper for his Goddess. He left behind a trail of blood.
Then the cloaked man appeared in front of him. He used the toe of his boot to push against my other self’s chest and bring him to his knees. He was beaten, but he didn’t flinch.
“The descent into madness will be slow. It will overtake her before she even realizes what is happening. Then everyone will turn against her, and all she has done will be undone. That is her punishment. For your foolishness in choosing to be her companion, you will never have the chance to see your maker again or find peace.”
Then the cloaked man leaned over and snapped my other self’s neck.
The woman beside me cried out and buried her head in the man’s chest.
“We’ve seen enough,” he said.
The air shimmered around us, and we were back beside the creek bed.
“Who was he?” the man demanded. “You have to answer me truthfully.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “More than human to be certain. A demon? I don’t think so. Archangel seems more likely, but a very dark one to have created and unleashed such a terrible curse upon all of us. My people suffered for my allegiance to Eva, and yet once the stone left our land, they gave me a proper burial. I have waited here for you to come. Eva had put into place a plan to avenge her death and mine long before her enemy moved against her. She saw that she would die, but she always predicted her return. I had one last task, and now I have completed it.”
“You are asking me to grant you peace,” the man replied.
“I believe I have earned it,” I said. “But I will not beg.”
The man looked at me for a long time, and then he said a few simple words. The world around me faded again, and I relaxed knowing that I had now done everything that my Goddess had ultimately required of me. I had earned my peace. I hoped that she would now find her own.
CHAPTER ELEVEN – RILEY
We didn’t speak as we walked back to the village. Occasionally, Paige’s body would shudder, and I put my arm around her shoulders. We witnessed the beginning of something that was still playing out to present day. But as always seemed to be the case these days, in our search for answers we ended up with more questions.
“The dreams,” Paige finally said. “The dreams of blood and madness. She’s crazy. She’s out there in the ether, and she’s only gotten crazier after all this time. I didn’t understand how Abigail and Fernando could describe her as this fair and just being when it was such a contradiction to everything I’ve ever sensed about her. That’s why. She was cursed.”
“A part of her was cursed,” I said. “The relic is the physical embodiment of a small part of her life force. That means it’s incredibly powerful. One small twist, making it evil instead of good, obviously had horrible consequences.”
I saw Klein standing by the van waiting for us. He looked anxious. “Where have you guys been? Did you find him?”
“It’s done,” I said.
“Riley Stone,” a voice called out. I turned and saw the elder leader standing there. He beckoned me to come closer. I squeezed Paige’s shoulder. “Stay with Klein. I’ll be right back, and then we’ll go.” She looked dazed but nodded.
I approached the man cautiously. He said that I would want to speak with him after learning what I needed to know from the Protector. The question that burned in my mind though had nothing to do with Eva.
“You want to know something from me,” he said. “Ask.”
“You’ve read my mind. You know where I came from. My mother never told me much about my father,” I said. “He left her right after I was born. She doesn’t like to talk about him. Somehow, I’m related to this place and to the Protector. That was through my father, wasn’t it?”
“I read in your thoughts that you don’t believe in destiny, but that view is evolving, isn’t it?” The man inclined his head. Then he held out his hand. “I am Elder Flynn. You are as much a part of this people and these lands as I am, and I am honored to be the first one to welcome you home.”
I felt a tightness in my chest then. His simple welcome hit me like a ton of bricks. Ever since I became what I was, and if I was honest with myself for many years before that, I never felt as if I belonged anywhere. I always knew that I was different. I held myself apart from other kids my age. It was as if I was waiting for the sign that told me that I had found the right place. And now I had. I just wished that I could stay and learn more, but it wasn’t the right time. I took his hand and shook it.
�
�Thank you,” I said. I was afraid that if I tried to say anything else, my emotions would overwhelm me.
“The Goddess granted our people favor long before she chose one of our flock as her Protector. After her demise, we rebuilt. We persevered. But we knew that at some point we’d be called on again to provide for her. I don’t envy you your duty, but you have our blood in your veins. You will do what needs to be done because that is your calling. When this is all over, I hope you will return to us.”
“Assuming I’m still alive to tell the tale, I think I’d like that,” I said. “I’m sorry, but we need to go.”
Elder Flynn nodded. “May luck be on your side in your journey.”
I thanked him again, and then turned back to the van. My friend and my woman waited for me. I wasn’t going to let either of them down again. Not if I could help it.
“Let’s get moving,” I said. I climbed into the driver’s seat and waited for Paige and Klein to settle in. Paige and I both waved to the small assembled group as I maneuvered the van around to turn it back the way that we came.
The ride back to the highway was quiet. Then Klein lumbered to the front of the van and settled down on his haunches as he leaned his forearms against the back of our seats. “So, Paige told me a little bit about what you guys saw.”
“We can’t let Proctor have the relic,” I said. “We have to find a way to kill him.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t thinking about that part,” Klein said. “I was thinking about the fact that Paige was told that she had to retrieve some item from Calamata Island to fend off Eva’s possession of her body.”
“That’s right,” Paige said. “But I’m still not sure this relic is the same item, or even if it is, how I’d be able to use it against her. It’s her life force, so it seems more likely that she’d be able to use that against me.”
“Think about it. All along you’ve been told that Eva is supposed to possess you. What if it’s possible for you to possess her instead?”