Eve of Redemption (53 page)

JOSIAH HOVERED ABOUT twenty feet off the ground, watching as the love of his life distributed her brand of justice. Josiah had known evil haunted the world. He felt he better understood it now. The human race was a mess, but they still had the power of free will. The invisible war that had raged since the creation of the first man continued, battle lines were drawn, and people chose sides. So many chose evil. Josiah took another look at his own dead body.

“You find something wrong with Raquel’s justice?”

Josiah smiled at the red-haired little girl who stood in mid-air a few feet away. “Not long ago I would have been right there cheering with the rest of them.”

“And now?”

“Now it just seems…wrong. The anger, the hate.” Josiah sighed. “Tell me, little miss, is justice overrated?”

“Justice is for God, not humans. God has a much clearer view of the overall picture. He knows the hearts of each person.”

“We’re Christians, followers of Jesus. We should be above this.”

“Yes, you should. Keep in mind, however, that you were their spiritual leader, and you were taking orders from a demon. They were bound to be kind of messed up.”

Josiah stared at the ground. “I was a fool, little miss.”

“No Josiah, not a fool, just human.”

Josiah turned back to Raquel, but she was no longer there. None of them were. The scene had changed, and Josiah now found himself standing on a narrow cobbled pathway that led through the greenest field he had ever seen. “She’ll be all right, won’t she? Raquel, I mean?”

The little girl shrugged. “That’s beyond me, Josiah. But God has a plan for her, you can count on that.” She took a few steps toward him. “Speaking of plans, you played your part perfectly. No matter what happens, your life was what legends are made of.”

Josiah felt a tear run down his face. Funny, he thought there weren’t supposed to be tears in heaven.

“Oh, this isn’t heaven, but I’ll take you there. You will get a hero’s welcome.” Her little face lit up with her brilliant smile. “Of course, everyone who makes it to heaven gets a hero’s welcome.” Her form sparkled before him, stretching and growing until someone new stood there. The little girl was gone, and a shimmering being took her place, the red curls replaced by hair so pale and fluid it appeared almost an extension of the brilliant white robe she wore.

“You…you’re…” Josiah couldn’t speak, nor could he tear his eyes away. “Beautiful. So beautiful,” he managed. He could have sworn the apparition blushed.

“Thank you, Josiah.” She held out her perfect hand to him. “Let’s go home, shall we?”

S
ara pounded on the door, screaming for Kyle to let her out, but it proved futile. The door was locked tight, and if Kyle was still on the other side, he wasn’t responding. The wails that permeated the space grew in pitch and volume until Sara felt certain they were worming their way into her brain. She covered her ears with her hands, but the disembodied cries demanded her attention. She felt a light breeze rifle her hair as the sweet scent of death wrapped its cold arms around her.

Knowing she would not leave the way she had come in, Sara turned to face this new corner of the unknown. It was impossible to discern the size of the room. Darkness stretched in all directions. Flashes of blue- and orange-tinged light lit seemingly random stretches of space before fading and popping up elsewhere.

Sara swallowed her fear and forced herself to advance farther. The tortured shrieks grew even more desperate as the wispy tendons of death whipped around her. She wanted to run screaming from this awful place before it drove her mad. The inscription above the door had called this place the
land of the dead
, and Sara knew she did not belong here. Not yet. She had a strong feeling her life was driving the shrieking spirits to such frenzy. She had what they no longer did, and they wanted to take it from her.

“Haunting, isn’t it?”

Sara jumped at the voice. “Who said that?” Her eyes searched the darkness, her gaze pulled to each flash of light, but she saw no one.

“Did you really think you could save the world? Be the hero?” The cries of the dead fell to low groans, mewling at the man’s words. “Did you really think you would be strong enough?” The voice grew closer, harsher. Sara spun, losing her sense of direction in the inky darkness.

“Manasseh?” Sara whispered. What was Manasseh doing here? Had he discovered her plan and come to stop her? Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. A flash of blue illuminated a human form standing not far from her. Sara pulled out her dagger and assumed a defensive stance. “You’ve destroyed everything I love, Manasseh. I won’t let you continue.” Even Sara thought her words sounded overly dramatic. Still, win or lose, she was determined to give everything she had—right up to her own life—to stop this evil from taking over the world.

Manasseh waved a negligent hand toward her dagger. “You don’t really think you can stop me with that pitiful thing, do you? You’re such a stupid girl. Stupid and weak. My master imprisoned your beloved Eve here centuries ago, and you think a snip of a girl like yourself can change that? Do you even know what you would have to do to awaken Eve?” In a single strobe of light, Manasseh moved to stand mere feet in front of Sara. She could see a smile form on his lips and realized the room had grown brighter. “You don’t, do you? You’ve come all this way, gotten all your little friends killed, and you still have no idea what you’re doing. It’s so funny, it’s pathetic.”

Sara felt her guts crawl inside her at the truth of his words. Her friends had followed her and were now all gone. And it was true: she really didn’t know what she was supposed to do, or even if it could be done. Was Eve real? She had been so certain, but in a matter of seconds Manasseh had managed to steal her confidence.

She glanced at her surroundings, keeping Manasseh in her peripheral vision at all times. The space was more of a cavern than a room. What she could see of it appeared natural, not man-made. A cavern beneath the lake made sense, but how had the sunken castle come to be so seamlessly attached to it? Sara shrugged the question away. Why should things start making sense now? The flashes of blue and orange light still flickered throughout the cavern, but now something else glowed in the center of the room. She positioned herself so that she could see the object and keep Manasseh in clear view. It radiated an icy blue and hovered about six feet from the floor. Sara guessed the object itself to be maybe twelve feet tall, but its exact size was difficult to determine in the dim cavern. Dozens of shadows moaned and cried as they swarmed the light.

“You feel her pull, don’t you, Sara? Eve calls you, just as she did your mother.”

Sara did feel drawn toward the object. The light pulled at her.

“Yes, they want Eve as well. There’s only one problem.” Manasseh chuckled.

Sara knew he was baiting her, but she chose to bite. “Oh, and what problem is that?”

Manasseh took a small step toward her, smiling like he was the bearer of some great joke. He leaned his head even closer to her and gestured toward the swirling shadows. “They’re dead,” he whispered before laughing again.

Sara gazed at the mass of shadows, not quite able to make the connection toward which he was leading her.

“You still don’t get it? Do I really have to spell it all out for you? They…are…dead. You do understand that, don’t you? But only they can bring Eve out of her pretty blue shell. That’s why they’re here. That’s their sole purpose. The problem is, death cannot bring life. It’s the other way around. The only way they can bring Eve back is through a living soul, and guess whose soul they have chosen?”

Sara looked at the blue glowing object, noticing for the first time how much it looked like a cocoon. Her eyes widened as the pieces fell together. “Eve isn’t a person, is she? Not really? She’s some kind of mass intelligence.”

“Ah, now you’re starting to see. The only way for you to bring Eve back is to become her yourself. But Eve requires your whole self. Are you willing to make such a sacrifice, little Sara? Are you willing to do that for this puny world of yours?”

Sara was silent for a long moment. “Or I could just kill you,” she said.

Manasseh feigned horror and then laughed. “Oh yes, you could do that, I suppose. It might even work, though many have tried, including your parents. Many have tried and all have failed. Do you really think a girl can fair any better?”

No,
Sara wanted to say,
I don’t think I can.
She liked the alternative even less, though. When she had come to bring Eve back, she had thought the legend to be a godlike person—possibly even a spirit—but she never expected to surrender her own soul in the process. That was asking too much.

What if Manasseh was lying? Everything he was saying could be designed to get her to do something rash. If she had to give up her own life to bring back Eve and save the world from annihilation, why tell her?

Sara took a deep breath of the thick air, then another as she forced herself to relax. Her mind settled into its center as she sought the power that had come to her at the death of her mother. She had not been aware of it since using it to escape the Horde, but it was still there. Not as strong as before, but there, and it fed off the glowing light of the cocoon. Had the power been Eve all along?

Movement from Manasseh drew Sara’s attention. He reached behind him and pulled a long sword from a sheath on his back. The dark god’s power radiated from him. Sara shuddered at the thought. How could she ever hope to defeat such a being on her own?

Manasseh lunged, his sword slicing the air. Sara leapt back, narrowly avoiding being sliced in half. She concentrated on bringing the power to her dagger, using the blade as a conduit. She felt heat flush though her body and center on the dagger. It flashed with blue light, the same hue that wrapped the cocoon. Sara felt reluctant strength flood her. She lashed out at Manasseh, her blade slicing the air with such speed that her opponent stumbled back, barely catching the edge of the blade with his own.

Release me!

The words seared Sara’s mind, as though some massive hand had grabbed her brain and squeezed. Around her, the souls danced, and the putrid odor of death grew so strong she nearly gagged. She staggered, fighting to maintain concentration. Panic hit her as she realized she had lost sight of Manasseh. A sharp pain stabbed her left arm. Anger replaced fear as she relaxed her will and let her body move as it had been trained. Her dagger lashed out, parrying defensively while offensively seeking holes in her opponent’s defenses. Just like in the arena of the Keep.

Release me! Now!

Again Sara staggered under the overwhelming force of the mind that crashed into hers. The power that had given her so much strength faltered as the being in the cocoon demanded release. Without that power, she knew she stood no chance, and it was becoming clear that Eve did not intend to let Sara win without first freeing her.

The light dimmed, casting the cavern in deep shadow. She sensed more than saw Manasseh slip around behind her. Relying on instinct, she ducked, spun, and sank her dagger to the hilt. She heard a gasp of pain and felt warm liquid splash over her knife hand. She’d done it! She’d cut Manasseh and felt certain it was a killing blow. She jerked the blade from her opponent and sank it in again. The body on the other end jerked, then fell to the floor. She stood over her foe, gasping for breath as all trace of Eve’s power left her.

For a moment, the cavern was silent, then the spirits of the dead resumed their terrifying cry. The cocoon’s light pulsed low before brightening, until it was as it had been when the battle started. Sara looked down at the still form at her feet. She had actually done it. She had killed Manasseh. The body lay facedown. She hooked her foot beneath it, and with what little strength she had left, rolled it over.

She gurgled an anguished cry and stumbled back. Forcing her fist between her teeth, she bit down, cutting off the scream before she released it. The pale, dead face of Ryan Hunter stared up at her.