acted. Done something to punish us.”
“Why? What would he do?”
Reu shook his head. “He’ll be looking for you. We should get you back, or he’ll be angry.”
She closed her hand around the dirt, the images from Adam’s mind racing through her thoughts again. She tried to breathe, but it was too hard. “I don’t want to go back. I can’t do this, Reu. I can’t.”
He took her hand, and she let him pry her fingers open and brush away the earth. “I’ll think of something to stop him. Stay close to the others in the meantime.”
“He’ll hurt you.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time. Or the last. But better that he turn his power on me than you.”
She searched his face. “Why would you do this for me?”
He raised his hand and she thought he would touch her, but he only brushed her hair away from her eyes and dropped his hand again. “God said I should protect you. That I had to keep you from him. And I will.”
Reu sent her back to the cave alone, promising he would follow. Adam would be angry enough that she had disappeared and not followed his command. She had seen the stream on her way back but couldn’t bring herself to wash. The dirt was the only protection she had.
Eve hesitated at the tree line, watching the other men and women as they ate together, sharing gourds of water. Hannah was sitting with a man Eve didn’t know, using a sharp rock to split a melon. It was quieter than it should have been. No one was laughing or smiling the way they had earlier in the day. Hannah scraped the seeds from the melon without looking at her companion.
As she watched, Adam grabbed a woman by the arm. She could see the anger in his face as he spoke, but his words were lost to her. Eve stepped out from the trees and moved closer so she could hear.
“You were supposed to be serving her. Seeing to her needs. Where is she?”
“You took her into the cave, Lord. And I went to fetch water. I thought she was with you.” It was Sarah, with the golden hair.
He slapped her, the sound carrying even to Eve. Sarah dropped to her knees in the grass with a sob, but he hauled her back to her feet. “You’re not even worth the air you breathe. What do I keep you for if you can’t do what you’re told?”
He pulled his arm back as if to strike her again. Eve’s stomach twisted and she lurched forward. “Adam, stop! Please.”
He spun, dropping Sarah and crossing to her so quickly she didn’t even have time to step back. He grabbed her by the arm, his fingers bruising her skin. “Where have you been?”
“I got lost in the woods.” It was what Reu had told her to say. “I’m sorry.”
He jerked her away from the others.
“You had no business in the woods. You were to bathe and return to me.”
She tried to pull her arm free. His anger clouded her mind, making it difficult to think. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to see the Garden. I just wanted to see what was there.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong.” She saw his hand rise but didn’t flinch, his anger so strong that it washed her own fear away.
Until he struck her.
Her head snapped to the side beneath the blow. His hold on her arm kept her from falling as Sarah had, but she didn’t consider it a mercy. Her skin burned and her eyes watered. She covered her cheek with her hand and gulped back a sob of her own.
“Don’t ever contradict me in front of the others again.”
He flung her away from him and she stumbled back, almost falling, but for Reu who caught her. She cried out once in relief and clung to him, more shocked than hurt. He folded her into his arms and mumbled a soft apology into her hair. She hid her face against his chest, his skin cool on her cheek where Adam had hit her.
“You’re safe, Eve,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s all right.”
Somehow she believed him, though she felt Adam’s eyes on her back and she shuddered. Reu held her closer, stroking her hair.
“He’s walking away.”
For some reason, the words were hard. She looked over her shoulder and caught sight of a woman disappearing into the cave with Adam. Lilith. Reu’s jaw tightened, muscles twitching below the surface.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t intend for things to happen this way. For you to be hurt.” He tilted her chin up so he could see her cheek, his fingers gentle. “If I’d only been a moment earlier, I could have stopped him. You’re going to be purple and green by morning.”
She pressed her face against his skin and let him hold her. She wasn’t sure there was anything she could say to reassure him. Or what it meant that another woman took her place with Adam tonight. She closed her eyes against the images springing immediately to her mind, making her shudder again.
Reu lifted her into his arms, carrying her against his chest the way Adam once had. When she had been so new and so innocent.
She didn’t feel innocent anymore. Things were starting to make sense, but it wasn’t an understanding she wanted. Her stomach twisted into knots of fear and she longed for the confusion she had left behind. When she had not known cruelty or pain or fear. And she was beginning to understand, too, what Reu had said her first night.
This wasn’t how they were meant to live.
The sun sank behind the trees and the sky turned red, then black. Reu drew pictures for her in the stars shining down, telling her the stories God had shared when He had lived among them. He traced the outline of a great man with a spear, and an eye that had been lost in the search for the wisdom to save his son and his people.
“The most worthy of sacrifices,” Reu said, then fell silent.
She felt his discomfort and turned her head to look at him in the moonlight. He was frowning, and though he stared at the sky, she didn’t think he saw the stars.
“How so?” she asked.
“God said seeking wisdom for the benefit of those you must provide for is never a sin, but so often we will find ourselves searching for glory alone, and it’s then that we must stop ourselves.”
Eve shivered and Reu wrapped his arms around her in the grasses, tucking her head beneath his chin. Somehow, as the silence stretched, she was certain they were both thinking of Adam.
Chapter Twelve: 984 BC
“Fresh water, Thorgrim?” She slung the skin from her shoulder and held it out to him.
Thor grinned, taking it from her and drinking deeply. “Not as good as mead, but thank you.”
“Better for you than mead, when you’ve been sweating in the sun all day.” Eve took back the water skin and sat down on the nearby rocks. “Your boats are better and faster than any others, but you spend so much time working to build them, I wonder that you’ve even taken the time to sleep.”
“I’ve taken time for more than sleep, Tora.” He smiled. Odin help him, but she was even named for him in this life. He wondered who above him was struck with such a sense of humor. Or perhaps it was something else. The True God trying to lure him into her arms. He was perilously close to succumbing.
She returned his smile, a blush creeping up her neck and into her cheeks. “Yes, you’ve taken time for mead, as well,” she teased.
