In Eden's Shadow

by Amanda Churi

  Stupefied, her mother allowed Tah to pull her strings. She took a knee in the hot sand, sketching with a finger. Tah dropped before her, watching. “An empire lies beyond the Jordan. It is a dangerous place, but it is filled with riches, and herbs are most certainly among them. The trek there is not too difficult, but avoiding conflict in and around the city will be; word has it that they have been challenged and are as riled as ever. You need to get there, get the medicine, and get back home as fast as possible—not only for yours and Toboé’s sake but your father’s as well. He must only have a week at most…”

  Tah remained on her knees, soaking in the information. It definitely seemed a bit risky, and regardless of what her mother said, she knew that crossing the desert was no easy feat, no matter the distance. There were rogues, bandits, and most certainly thieves of both possessions and bodies. Toboé would not be able to protect her from all of that… But this was her chance.

  If she succeeded, her name would finally exist within their nomadic tribe. She would no longer be a face to frown on, one who had wings of evil strapped to her back, but she would be a name—a real, respected name.

  How she would get medicine that cost several cattle was still unknown… But she had faith. And although a shadow of doubt rested over her beliefs, although she could have clearly been in the wrong, she believed that she held the truth, and whether or not her faith proved to be correct, she knew it would certainly carry her farther than having none at all.

  And Toboé would be with her. Perhaps he would witness a miracle. Perhaps her words would help grant him eternal salvation. She had to try. A person as open-minded as he could not stay in their withering village forever. Neither could she. This was her first step in reaching something greater than these arid plains.

  “I will leave with him tonight. I will return to my hut and begin preparations, and as soon as the sun sets, we shall be off.”

  In Tah’s sixteen years, never had her old mother looked more saved; there was life on her face—hope. Her mother’s expression alone made Tah certain that she had to try her hardest. “Thank you, my dear… Thank you. May Reeve bless you on your travels.”

  Psh… Tah stood, revealing a devilish smirk just for her mother. “I sure hope not.”

  Fifteen

  Wings of Stone

  “Good Satan, these humans really haven’t learned how to be a successful species yet, have they?”

  “No, not at all. They’re actually quite pitiful.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, chucking the severed head I held into the air. With a compressed, athletic spring, I launched into the night sky after it.

  When one thinks of destruction and chaos, I’m sure they imagine screaming—people running for their pathetic lives while trampling others; embers filling the sky from their burning houses; debris of settlements and body parts alike forming another layer of soil.

  But that was not what Reeve and I brought. Sure, there were enough despairing cries to create their own symphony, but the thought of a smoldering town was amusing. In the plains of sand that our hunt had led us to, a snow biome spawned in the middle of an impoverished village. Pillars of ice towered above the thick carpet of snow that Reeve had recently installed throughout the town, and in the abyssal dark, it glowed and pulsed a treacherous neon blue. It itself was alive, throbbing with dark magic as a body did blood, searching out the worthless humans and capturing them whole. What the ice did to them from there was up to it to decide, but it definitely did not result in living.

  Oh, the morbid sight lifted my heart… I hoped to remember it forever, but playtime was waning. Now eye level with the tossed-head, I backflipped in the air, punting it at full speed. It whizzed with precision and power, cleanly passing through a busted doorway and window before soaring out of the village and smacking into the slick dunes.

  My arms shot up in victory as I fell. “GOAAALLL!”

  Reeve waited patiently for me to return to the ground, giving me a brisk, silent nod when I landed on my feet beside her. She kept her face concealed with bone as she always did—and it was probably for the best because all she had to see was a kid in ancient skin at the moment.

  Psh, but she was the youngster. She had not been there at God’s first light; she was merely a weapon for my vengeful leader.

  “Master, have you settled down?” she asked politely. “My children have found a lead.”

  Master… I mused haughtily. Ah, that feels nice.

  I waved her away. “Sure, sure. Let’s get going. This is taking forever.”

  She bowed my way. “Of course. My apologies.” At that, she excused herself and began heading off through the petrified village.

  I kept behind her as a lookout and guard. Sadly, while my overwhelming power could easily get the job done and extinguish that dumb fire mage with a single glob of spit, Satan specifically dictated that Maeve’s fall be Reeve’s responsibility. I really don’t know why; what was the significance of having one do it over the other? Guess in the end it didn’t matter. Reeve did have unmatched skills as a being of winter, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t find a way to get the job done myself. Satan might have made me the leader of this mission, enough so to the point that Reeve acknowledged me as “Master,” but I certainly didn’t feel like one if she was left to do the brunt of the work.

  A forlorn grumble reverberated within me. If only I could have gone on this mission with Korbu… The “Master” shit is nice and all, but I would prefer to have a laugh while partaking in a slaughterfest. She’s too damn collected and logical. Why in Heaven would Satan make her that way?

  Reeve outstretched her talon-like hand into the distance. “My children say she is this way.”

  “She?” I echoed uncertainly. “We’re relying on a woman for directions? Wonderful.”

  Reeve shrugged indifferently and kept moving. I mean… She was a spirit and all, so technically not a female I guess? Surely, she did not misinterpret my hatred of females for her.

  Ah, but so what if she did? Thankfully, this damn journey was nearing its end. We would have Maeve soon enough, and then I could return to my lovely, secluded workshop, and never have to listen to her flap her mouth again.

  Not gonna lie, I was still a little pissed that Satan did not have enough faith in me to let me do the job myself. If He had just given me a bit more time to figure out the ultimate war instrument—

  “F-father…”

  My ears shot up; Coruscus spun to face the unknown voice. Reeve nonchalantly halted as well, casting a vibrant, questioning gaze back.

  To the left of my current location, a moving stream of ice seeped through a collapsed heap of pelts that once stood to serve as a shelter. Suspicious, I took action, grabbing the skins and throwing them off to the side to reveal the naked prey.

  A young boy of perhaps twelve years was literally frozen—not only from fear but by the ice that swirled at his collapsed knees, gradually winding up and encasing him like a cocoon. The others around him had already met their fates: damned to extreme cold as soon he would be too before caving in and leaving nothing more than a finely crystallized mound. A large yet thin man rested over the boy’s weak legs, already frozen and beginning to granulate in his hold. The air around him bore such a chill that he could not even afford to cry; the tears halted right where they began, forming an icy glaze over his young eyes.

  Even if he had been physically able to move, he still wouldn’t have once he saw us—specifically Reeve, who they had been foolishly trying to summon for days now.

  “R-Reeve…!” the boy shivered, still attempting to cry as swirling claws of mystified winter crawled up his body, now approaching his neck. “W-why are you doing this?! We needed you to save father, not kill him! W-we worshiped you!”

  His sincere words caused Reeve’s hunt to stray. Elegantly poised and filled with grace, she approached the child and kneeled beside him, resting a hand over his traumatized heart. “Child, you were praying to a spirit—not a god.
I am sorry for the misunderstanding, but I only kill.”

  His solidifying eyes ballooned, trying to understand the words of his goddess through her death-concealed face. “B-but…!”

  A strong push with her glistening claws, and she punctured the child’s heart with a bolt of ice. He tried to scream; his head fell back and reached to the star-strung sky, but by then, Reeve had already commanded her darkness to finish him. A wave of glowing, vaporized ice raced over his face and left him there as a glittering sculpture.

  She stood as her children hissed with greed, beginning the compression process to discard all evidence of her existence. I, however, continued to loom behind her, infuriated by the sacrificial way of her kill. “What, AGAIN?”

  She looked back at me with painful sincerity. “Pardon?”

  “That,” I snarled. “You lessened his suffering. Why?”

  She averted her glowing eyes. “It is better than falling prey to a sweltering flame. The organs don’t suffer; they pause, and that’s it.”

  “In Hell, you would be tried for that; mercy is a form of treason. I’ve told you several times: knock your shit off. What will happen when you are face-to-face with Maeve? She will not stoop to killing you so kindly—she will violently do in anyone who tries to hurt either her or her people.”

  “…Apologies.” She walked past me and back down the decimated street. Her harsh blue eyes darkened and condensed at the center, a wisp of frost seeping out when she looked back at me. “I know I infuriate you often with my non-traditional ways and ‘pestering,’ but I was not created with a complete mind like you. I have one purpose, and that is all. Do not judge me for knowledge I do not have.” She bowed once more. “Master.”

  The poison in my eyes festered and shot a cone of unholy light across the landscape. At the very least, the bitch deserved a good slap on the ass for that snarky remark.

  I kept hold of that nasty thought for later; right now, we had to keep moving and find this connection.

  I still had trouble comprehending the fact that someone in this village believed in God. Reeve was gaining followers across the globe; prayers and chants and sacrifices flooded into her at rates unprecedented to the Father Himself, yet in this puny village, someone still had a holy belief that they were actively pursuing.

  And, of course, that meant that He would guide them to His most worthy child. Unbelievable, really. His guidance would soon be His downfall.

  Reeve’s pace plummeted without warning, leaving her standing in the middle of the frozen street; I was lucky that I yanked my thoughts back into reality before I ran into her. “Oh, what now?!”

  The response did not come promptly. She just stood there, feeling the blustery winds and letting them tousle her glass-like dress. With huts collapsed all around her and the snow running red, she pointed toward a lone, withering tree at the cracked riverbed.

  She was on the move at a pressed speed without ever answering my question. She threw her arms out and spread them wide, mesmerizing strings of ice from across the village lifting into the air and swirling toward her. They wrapped themselves around their mother’s sharpened nails, winding over and up her arms until they had formed two mystical, hungry tentacles, begging for a warm meal.

  A light skip fell into my step as I followed Reeve’s chugging rate. Oh, they were gonna get it now! That was what they deserved for choosing the wrong side of this battle!

  Itching for a real worshiper’s blood, I had trouble restraining myself. I was jittery, filled with lust for a good, righteous kill. It had been far too long since I was able to take down an enemy of Satan myself!

  I arrived at the tree only seconds after Reeve, but what was there confused me—and certainly her.

  An old hag leaned against the trunk, letting the precious stream of water flow over her wrinkled feet. Her hot breath filled the air around her, proving that she was alive, but she remained so still that she could have fooled most any mortal.

  “You’re not her,” Reeve realized, a churning growl pounding against her fangs. “You merely have a strong connection.”

  The woman carefully opened her gray eyes, unintimidated by our demonic forms. In fact, she smiled. “Ah… Goddess Reeve! Pleasure to meet you! I was not sure I ever would.” She reached with her old neck, peering back at the newly found graveyard. “…And I definitely did not foresee you destroying my village—”

  “YOU WENCH!” Reeve pulled her arms back and lashed them at the woman; her freezing extensions wrapped around the elder’s body and the trunk, ensnaring her again and again in ringlets until the soul was nearly squeezed out. The ice spirit loomed so close to the woman that the tip of her mask threatened to gouge out the mortal’s eyes, and the radiation flowing out of Reeve’s cursed sockets singed the sides of the woman’s cheeks with frostbite. “Where is the girl?!”

  “H-hah… What girl?” she wondered breathlessly. “My little Tah?”

  “Where has she gone?!”

  “Hah… Hah, hah…” She was wheezing now, delusions setting in.

  “Reeve!” I butt in, yanking on her shoulder. “For fuck’s sake, loosen up, or you’ll kill her, and then we’ll miss our chance!”

  Her snarl lessened; she commanded the strings of ice to relax ever-so-slightly, but she herself did not give the woman space. “One more time… Where is she?”

  The woman continued to laugh out of pain and betrayal, but she did not ignore her goddess’ request. “I sent her to fetch medicine for her father, haha, but… Nothing can heal him now… I am sure.”

  “Where did you send her?” Reeve pressed.

  “To… Jericho, ma’am… Yesterday…”

  “Jericho, eh?” I repeated. “Odd place for a loyalist to go.”

  “But it is a city that needs severe saving in God’s eyes. Makes sense to send disciples.” Reeve dipped her head a single time toward the mother, rising but refusing to release her. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

  The woman continued to pant in agony, but she smiled, gathering butterflies in her stomach at the sight of her queen. “Yes, of course… Are you going to enlighten her like you have me? Prove to her your existence?”

  There was no emotion in Reeve’s voice. “You could say that.”

  I understood the hidden message so well that it was a reflex; in one massive swing, I plowed my leg forward and hooked my toes under her chin, taking her head clean off and sending it flying into the desert.

  “It is amazing how blindly loyal religion can make one,” Reeve reminisced as the hag’s body toppled forward into the trickling stream, contaminating what little water was left. Stretching her fingers, she released her children into the frozen atmosphere, watching them spin up toward the stars to create a makeshift aura within the indigo sky. I watched with her, knowing what hid behind those bright, hopeful hues.

  “It’s time,” I snarled with temptation. “Maeve, here we come.”

  ***

  Whoa.

  I had knocked my head a ridiculous amount of times in all three of my lives—enough so that I should have had permanent damage—but that… Oh… What a far distant memory it was, one that I wanted to burn.

  When my life came to a pause, it summoned that terribly recent event—at least, what my body considered recent. Even with badass, high-speed reactions, the last scene to enter my eyes was a bleached sun hurling down upon us. So fast and large, collision was inevitable, yet I was still having thoughts.

  But there was no sound—no sight in my eyes or sensation on my skin. My dense body felt unusually scrambled and light at the center, but I didn’t know where that center neither began nor ended—or if there was even a physical extension of myself any longer. That fucking Mabel… This had to be part of her plan to get her weakling of a boyfriend back; zap me like a bug and pull my soul out of the only home I had. Assuming that I was alive and not just in a transitory stage to nothingness, it was now fair to say that Mabel’s due date came well before Korbu’s.

  An intense pr
ickling sensation shot out and through me, my physical body immediately reacting. Lungs that I forgot I had brutally inflated, my fleshy heart whamming into my solid bones. With a stunned heave, I was freed, tottering back and hardly managing to stabilize before everything suddenly started to make sense.

  Those around me prior to the curtain call of death found themselves in the same disoriented state that I did. All weebled and wobbled, finding their balance in the nick of time as wild eyes found one another. Korbu and I were naturally the first to share a dumbfounded, stern glare. I hardly gave note to the blinding white glare engulfing us, instead drawing my focus to the center of such mayhem.

  Tall, strong, and most certainly magical, a fallen angel bared her broken glass wings up toward the luminous sphere, holding up the sky. A contagious, infected green radiated from her sinful wings, pushing out waves that conformed to the smooth sphere of what would have been our rough death. Her white face appeared a dark shade of green in her strain, beads of sweat pushing away the paint and revealing her real face as she struggled against Time’s pull.

  Exhausted and relieved gasps rose from the battered warriors, but none dared to complete a full word, let alone phrase in her presence.

  I was among them, but of course not in awe. Inside, I was fuming—livid. Those metallic wings with shards of betrayal… The infectious green aura instead of a damned violet or glorified rose…

  She was corrupted, but she still had a chance of redemption, sliced wings and all.