Fate of the Gods 01 - Forged by Fate (29 page)

Yes, much better late than never. She was halfway to the door before it occurred to her to ask, and then she turned. “Just us, Garrit? No security or family or anyone?”

“You have my word, just us.” But he was staring out the window and there was an odd determination in his face. She frowned, and when he noticed his face cleared at once. “Go pack, Abby. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Chapter Twenty-six: Creation

It took them the rest of the day to learn to strike the stones to spark a fire, though there were plenty of leaves and twigs from the willow tree to act as tinder. Eve shivered from the cold so violently her teeth chattered even after the fire was lit, and Reu pulled her against his body, using the robes for blankets, but it was still a long time before the heat of the fire and Reu’s warmth allowed her to stop shaking.

Somehow, the light made the dark around them more intense, blacker and unbearable. She closed her eyes against it, but flames still licked behind her eyelids, and she thought it must be because Reu stared into the fire.

“I thought Adam was exaggerating when he said we would die,” she mumbled between shudders in the cold.

Reu sighed and tucked her head beneath his chin. “You can’t die from the cold, Eve. Or anything else that might threaten you outside of the Garden. Not before your time.”

She clung to his body. “But you can.”

“Yes.” He stroked her hair. “But I don’t think I’ll die if the angels intend for us to lead. I don’t think they would have said so if they foresaw my death from the cold.”

“They’re frightening enough to behold without the power of foresight. Even with the fruit, I’m not sure I understand God’s intent for them.”

He laughed softly. “The angels are not of the world, Eve. But they are concerned with it. Now that God is dead, it will be Michael’s responsibility to preserve creation and God’s laws on earth. I’m surprised we escaped unscathed by them for our sins. Michael does not usually stop to consider the reasoning behind the acts. Perhaps that changed with God’s death as well.”

“If God was so powerful, how could He have let Himself die?”

He was quiet for a long moment, and she could follow the ideas in his mind, the possibilities. Perhaps God had not died, truly. Perhaps he had merely dispersed Himself among his creation and his people. Reu rejected the idea almost at once that God had given his power to Eve, to make of her a new Goddess, though he did not doubt there was something more in her than simple humanity. But God did not walk among them anymore, that was certain, and the angels did not behave as he had expected they should.

“I don’t know. There is still so much beyond my understanding. I don’t think we’re meant to understand the mystery of God.”

“Do you think Adam knows?”

“It’s unlikely. But he often walked with Elohim, and we were not privy to their conversation. Clearly he knew what waited for us outside the safety of the Garden, though he had never been here himself.”

She shivered. “I had thought to leave him behind, but it seems he’ll follow us here, too.”

Reu pressed his lips against her forehead. “Don’t worry about that yet. Sleep, for now, Eve. Tomorrow will be difficult enough without borrowing from the future.”

Sometime in the night, Eve woke to the sound of a great roaring, her heart racing. Reu crouched near the fire, his hand wrapped tightly around a thick brand. He was alert, and his face was grim. The roar was followed by an inhuman scream that made her stop breathing altogether with a gasp, but Reu’s calm was infectious. He relaxed at the second noise and came back to her, murmuring reassurance and stroking her hair until she fell to sleep.

Eve woke first the next morning, and built the fire back up. It was only after she had tended to it that she saw the carcass on the bank of the stream. A gazelle, its neck bent so far it touched its own back. She knew at once it was dead, and that it had made the scream she had heard in the night. She thought of what Reu had said, about the animals here living off one another, and her stomach cramped with hunger.

A leg had been torn off the animal, and the belly opened. Pieces of entrails littered the mud, along with paw prints larger than her hand. She stared at them, frozen with fear. If the beast which had done this had found them before the deer, would she be staring at Reu’s body in pieces now? His stomach devoured, his leg ripped from his body?

She retched in the grass, though there was nothing in her stomach but bitter acid. After rinsing her mouth with water from the stream, Eve forced herself to look back at the carcass again. Whatever creature had done this, it had fed, and perhaps the gazelle would feed them, too. She took one of the stones that Michael had given them, the one with the sharpest edge, and carved pieces of meat from the bones, taking them back to the fire and setting them on the rocks to warm. The meat sizzled on the hot stones, and her mouth watered at the scent.

She cleaned the blood and gore from her hands at the stream, and the rock she had used as a blade. A feeling that she was being watched shivered down her spine, but when she glanced back at Reu, he was still asleep. The feeling intensified, with a great sense of curiosity. Golden eyes blinked at her for just a moment, on the other side of the river, but when she looked again they were gone, and it was only golden grasses waving in the wind.

She went back to the fire and flipped the meat to brown the tops. The sizzling must have woken Reu, because he sat up, blinking for a moment and rubbing his face before coming to sit beside her. His gaze went to the carcass, then back to the meat. He didn’t ask what she was preparing, but she felt his understanding.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked.

She squatted near the fire with her arms wrapped around her knees. The morning was still cool, and her skin prickled with small bumps.

“As well as I could.” She nodded to the kill. “Whatever did that was very large. It left prints in the mud.”

“It sounded like a lion.” His expression was grim as he stared into the flames, and she picked the image of the animal from his mind easily. Large and tawny, with claws and teeth she wouldn’t want near her skin. “The fire kept it away, but I don’t know how long that will save us. We should find shelter. Some caves would be best, with fresh water nearby.”

She looked out over the grasses, the same color as the animal’s coat, and shivered. “I don’t think I want to spend another night in the open, either. Fresh water, or not.”

He picked up a piece of the meat, tossing it back and forth in his hands awkwardly. “I never thought to eat the flesh of anything but fruit. Perhaps we should take the fur from the animal before we go. It might help to keep you warm at night.”

“Even the beast that killed it didn’t leave it naked in death.” She pulled her own piece from the fire and nearly dropped it at once, it was so hot.

Reu caught it before it landed in the grass and tossed it back to her. “I think it would be better to use what we can than to leave it to waste away.”

“Perhaps.” She blew on the meat, repeating his awkward movements until it was cool enough to handle, and then took a tentative bite. It was tough and chewy, but the taste was surprisingly mild, even pleasant.

He took a bite of his own, and she watched his face as he chewed and swallowed. “We’ll try to reach the other side of the grassland. There should be caves at the foot of the mountain that we can take shelter in. Perhaps we can forage along the way.” But he frowned at the grasses around him. There wasn’t much to forage from. “The cave should keep us warmer than we were out in the open.”

She shivered again. The feeling of being watched hadn’t gone away. But there were too many creatures around them. More animals than she could count, impugning on her consciousness. She shook her head to clear her mind, but it didn’t help.

“Are you well, Eve?”

She pressed her hand to her temple. “There’s so much here. Whatever power God gave me, it seems to be growing stronger. I can feel so much.”

He took her hand and brought it to his face, looking into her eyes. “What do you feel from me?”

Heat flooded her cheeks as a warmth blossomed in her stomach. She pulled her hand away, dropping her eyes to the grass. His want, his love, made her feel lightheaded, and she remembered the images from Adam’s mind, of their bodies joined together. “I don’t know how to be a wife, Reu.”

He ducked his head to look into her eyes again. “I don’t know how to be a husband, either. But I’m willing to try. To love you and protect you and bring you joy. If you’ll have me.”

His eyes were dark, and his love washed over her like a river. And when he touched her, she didn’t want to pull away. When he lifted her face and brought his lips to hers, it was nothing like that first kiss from Adam. It was soft and gentle, kind and questioning.

She parted her lips in invitation, and while he kissed her, the rest of the world disappeared. All she felt was his love, his desire, his joy, feeding her own like the leaves fed the flame. And in that moment, she knew who she had been made for, and God’s plan for her life. She did not belong to Adam, for from her first moments she had been bound to Reu by his love.

Eve pressed him back into the grass, her senses filled with the warmth of his body, the touch of his skin against hers. She pressed him back and kissed him again as his arms wrapped around her, drawing her in. For the first time, the images of the man and woman, bodies joined, made her shiver with anticipation instead of dread.

Reu stroked her hair, weaving his fingers through it so gently she thought she imagined the touch. She rested her forehead against his, her heart racing in her chest. She could feel his, too, thudding hard beneath her palm.

“Will you show me, Reu?” She asked softly, remembering his words. It seemed so long ago that he had spoken them. “Show me how this is meant to be.”

Oh,
she cried, mind and body both in exultation. Reu’s love washed over her, through her entire being, faster and more powerful than the river current. It was more eloquently spoken than any vow.

My love,
his thoughts echoed through hers with his body’s release.
My wife.

Chapter Twenty-seven: 218 BC