Origin (Eternal Sacrifice Saga Book 2) (26 page)

“You okay?”

I nodded, trying to focus on the vision coming, but my headache disappeared as quickly as it started.

“We’re here,” Phoebe announced.

The elevator doors opened, and we got out onto the Pediatric Oncology floor and walked past the nurse’s desk, into a room two doors from the elevator.

“Phoebe!” An adorable girl about nine smiled when we walked in. She had amber eyes and pale, cocoa skin. She had a colorful tie-dye scarf wrapped around her head and wore Wonder Woman PJs.

“How are you feeling today, Madie?” Phoebe sat beside her in the hospital bed, giving her a hug.

“I’m okay. A little tired.” She shrugged. “Zoe?”

Phoebe grinned. “Yes, this is my best friend, Zoe Adams.”

“You didn’t bring Micah.” Madie seemed disappointed.

Phoebe narrowed her eyes. “Have I told you about Micah?”

“I know lots of things.” Madie smirked. “Hi Zoe, I’ve been waiting a long time for you.” Her eyes glistened from the florescent lights overhead.

“Oh yeah?” I tried not to giggle.

“We’re going to play for you today. Ready for a mini concert?” Phoebe asked, squeezing Madie’s hand.

“Can I play, too?” She straightened her shoulders, sitting up in the bed.

“Oh, we’d love that. What do you play?” I asked.

“Everything.” She smiled. “Like you.”

How does she know about me?

This little girl was pretty amazing.

“Really. Everything? What’s your favorite?” I sat in a plastic chair beside Madie’s bed.

“You name it, I can play it. I like guitar. Though it kind of hurts my fingers.”

“She’s very talented,” Phoebe said. “We’ll play a song for Zoe today, what do you say?”

“Can you play with us?” Madie’s smile lit up the room.

Poor kid.

“Um—” I stammered. I wasn’t in the mood for playing lately. It was just a reminder of the life I gave up. Wasn’t sure I wanted to go there yet.

“Please? For me?” She clasped her hands together and leaned in, her puppy dog eyes batting at me.

I let out a breath. “Okay. But you have to play, too. Promise?”

“Promise.” Madie pulled herself over to sit on the edge of the bed.

Phoebe called the nurse in to help us get Madie into a wheelchair then we took her down the hall to a playroom. It was all set up with a piano, guitar, and even a steel guitar.

Phoebe helped Madie sit at the piano bench, and she sat beside her.

“You play, Zoe.” She pointed at a guitar on a stand in the corner.

“Actually—” I opened my mouth to protest, but she shut me down fast.

“You. Play for me.” She demanded, eyes wide, still pointing at the guitar.

I couldn’t help but grin. She was a bossy little thing, but so freaking cute. How could I say no to those eyes? They reminded me of someone.

“Okay then. How about some T-Swift?” I asked. “She okay with you?”

Madie lit up. “Yes. The song from that movie. Phoebe can play steel.”

“On it.” Phoebe stood and sat behind the steel guitar beside me, while I picked up the acoustic and sat in a stool, strapping the guitar over me, setting it in my lap.

I tuned the strings then turned to Phoebe. “Ready?”

She nodded back, playing the steel part while I picked up the acoustic.

An aura rose around Madie, then a second, though I didn’t see anybody. A silhouette of a body grew beside the little girl, and I had to do a double take, as the beautiful light grew warmer, filling the room.

Phoebe peered at me, pressing her lips together then returned her attention to Madie.

Madie sang along while me and Phoebe played, catching a line of harmony every now and then. For a little thing, this girl had some lungs. And an amazing voice.

“Thank you, that was perfect.” Madie grinned. “Can you play piano for me now?” She patted the bench beside her.

“I’d love to.” I stood, set down the acoustic, and made my way to sit beside her. “What would you like me to play?”

The glow beside the little girl grew brighter, the heat in the room intensifying.

Madie leaned over and whispered into my ear. “Lead with Love.”

I scrunched up my nose.

Where did that come from?

“Just go with it,” Madie urged, nudging my shoulder with hers. “Phoebe, can I have the guitar?”

Phoebe brought it over to Madie, who held it in her lap.

“Go on.” Madie tilted her chin at the piano.

I set my fingers on the keys and closed my eyes. A second later, a song I’d heard but never played before came out. Flowed through me, as if someone else was moving my fingers.

I played piano, and Madie played the guitar. We all three sang, swept away in the rhythm of the song.

I’d missed playing and singing. Desperately.

As much as I wanted to pretend Cade was wrong… music was part of me. I couldn’t deny that.

And there was no good reason to give it up. I could have it all, and Madie reminded me.

Our voices and instruments echoed through the playroom. I focused on the words in my head and the chords coming from my fingertips.

Madie harmonized while she played guitar. Her aura grew stronger. She came alive.

I’d never spent time with kids before. Didn’t know much about them, but this little girl had a beautiful soul. It made me sad to think she would die before she ever had a chance to live.

“Don’t be sad for me, Chayah.”
She whispered in my head.
“I lived.”

I stopped playing unexpectedly and stared at Madie.

How could she hear my thoughts? Or talk to me in my head?

With a sweet smile on her adorable face, Madie handed me the guitar, then inhaled a deep breath and closed her eyes.

A moment later, her tiny body collapsed to the floor beside the piano.

“Madie!” Phoebe rushed to her side. “Zoe, get someone down here. Please, hurry.”

I couldn’t move. My whole body froze. I just stared at Madie, passed out on the floor beside me while Phoebe yelled for help and started CPR.

An aura beside Madie grew brighter, and I watched as the little girl’s soul separated from her body, a glowing ball of light hovering above it.

Two nurses rushed in and took over CPR from Phoebe while a man pushed in a stretcher.

Madie’s lifeless body was knocked around, fists pounding onto her poor little chest.

“It’s time to wake up now, Chayah.”
Someone whispered in my head
. “Your family needs you. Don’t be afraid. You’re ready.”

An orb of light filtered above the child’s body, morphing into a shadow of a little girl.

Madie.

She nodded as a silhouette beside her transformed into an Angel.

“Thank you for releasing me,”
Madie whispered.
“And don’t fear the Fall. You’ll rise again. You all will.”

“What?”

The two lights merged and faded into the air.

I was so struck watching Madie Eternalize, I hadn’t realized all the chaos going on with her little body.

Her human shell now lay lifeless on the floor beside us.

Phoebe was a wreck.

I got to my feet and moved to sit next to her, but the nurses shooed me away.

Phoebe cried beside the nurses as they lifted the little girl onto the stretcher, continuing CPR, and wheeled Madie out of the room.

Phoebe sat crying, her body visibly shaking.

Micah ran in. “What’s going on?”

I put out my palm and glanced up, shaking my head.

He nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets, and leaned up against the wall.

I pulled my girl into a hug. “Don’t cry, Phoebe. Madie’s Eternal now.”

“What?” Phoebe pulled back, wiping beneath her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“An Angel just Eternalized her.”

“Are you serious?” Her eyes grew wide.

“Yeah.” I wiped away a tear. “She’s okay.”

Phoebe dried her tears, a slight smile replaced her sullen expression. “That’s incredible.”

“It was,” I said. “It really was.”

Zoe

Over the next few days, we chased leads on Lucci and Sam Gaits from Infinity.

Lucci was MIA. Her phone went straight to voicemail saying she had no box set up, so I couldn’t leave a message. I sent text after text but got no response.

I even went as far as to call some contacts back at Northwestern, but nobody knew anything except Lucci quit her job at the end of the Semester, and she hadn’t been seen since.

Except at the Lighthouse in Chicago.

Lucci loved her job, though now, at least in my mind, she had to have been working for Lilith. Thinking back, I couldn’t recall any other students who had her for an adviser. She had a surprisingly free schedule, too.

Part of me was upset over the whole thing. I admired Lucci. She was my mentor at one time, and to find out she’d probably been working for Lilith this whole time, betraying me—it kinda stung.

How could I have ignored her aura or the red flags going off? There had to have been some, but when I asked Phoebe, even she hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary.

The next step was to contact Sam Gaits directly, which is probably what I should’ve done in the first place, though my curiosity for Lucci’s situation with Lilith got the best of me. I needed to know what she was in on.

And if she was in with Lilith to destroy me?

Game on.

Despite everything Lilith had put me through, part of me believed there was still something redeemable inside her. I didn’t know what it was, but there was something. She could have killed me many times over, but she never did.

Why?

What was the point of keeping me alive? Or even being pseudo kind when she held me in the Fifth?

I truly believed Lilith felt some kind of kinship with woman. That she wanted us to thrive of our own rights, and not in the shadow of a man, which is why she always took to me first when seeking retribution for whatever it was she blamed Cade for.

After Samael chose to fall, to abandon Genesis and Eternity for her, Lilith still chose to be alone. She even went so far as to hide herself so Samael could never find her. Why would she do that?

Lilith’s motives had no rhyme or reason.

I had to know her story.

On the outside, it may have appeared a selfish move on my part, needing to get Lilith and Samael together to save the Tree, but deep down at the core of who I was, the Cosmic Cupid in me simply believed in Eternal love.

Even Lilith should be happy, despite what she’d done. Maybe she was redeemable? There had to be something about her Samael would fall from grace for. Something made Lilith worth fighting for.

I was determined to find out what it was.

Stabbing Lilith with my Eternal Dagger, piercing her heart and sharing my Eternal light with her literally changed her. It brought back a small piece of her soul.

Lilith was never human, always Genesis. The first female. I was curious how different Adam and Lilith were. What went so wrong that would push Lilith to seek freedom from Adam or the Garden?

Not that I was complaining.

In a way, I guess I owed her a little something. Had Lilith not defected Genesis, I wouldn’t be here. And I wouldn’t have Cade.

“All right ladies, let’s get this party started.”

Micah ripped me from my internal ramblings as we walked out toward the cab waiting to take us to the train station.

We were meeting Sam today to see if I could convince him to give me another chance at the record deal.

I ended up calling Infinity, and it turned out Sam was based in Manhattan. He worked out of New York, which was super convenient in terms of geography. I had no idea what I would learn from Sam, but my stomach was in knots just thinking about it.

One step closer to Lilith. To saving my Tree.

At least I hoped.

We got to a little deli a few blocks from Columbia on Broadway. The sun had already gone down, and it was freezing outside. I missed Aravot and the warm temperatures.

And my Gemini.

We’d been apart almost a week now, and I really just wanted to go home, but that seemed like a far off fantasy these days.

Things were moving at a snail’s pace. No visions, no intel, no leads. We weren’t any closer to finding Micah’s Gemini or Lilith, or even this Samael guy than when I got here.

I was ready to call it quits and go home when Sam Gaits finally called me back. And today, hopefully, we’d make at least some progress and find out if Sam could be Samael.

“Okay, you guys just hang back in a different booth. See what you think of him from your end. I’m going to talk to him, get some feelers on what he thinks about a recording contract.”

They waited a few minutes after I went in.

Sam wouldn’t recognize them, so it didn’t actually matter, but if he was Samael, then I had no idea how he would be acting with his memories returning. I understood firsthand how disorienting it was, having flashbacks of a life I couldn’t recognize. I can’t imagine living thousands of lives or how it would affect him.

I went into the deli and spotted Sam right off, sitting in a booth in the back. His blue aura was glowing like a neon sign. I took my time making my way over, reciting my speech in my head.

“Sam?”

He glanced up and a weak smile grew on his face.

Sam looked like crap.

Tired. Dark rings beneath his eyes. Slumped posture.

Aura, check. But practically overcast. And his skin was pale. The glowing tan he sported in Chicago was gone, replaced by a dusty grey tint. His blond hair was longer and shaggy, and his eyes were dull.

Sam was still good looking, though something had definitely changed.

He stood and held out his hand.

I tried to peek at his wrist, but he was wearing a leather jacket covering it. His eyes narrowed and he raked at his wrist, like it was bothering him.

I could relate.

“Zoe. I have to admit, I was surprised to hear from you. Glad, but surprised. Take a seat.” He motioned across from him.

I slid into the booth.

He laid his hands on the table, lacing his fingers together. “What can I do for you?”