“No!” She stepped between Alex and the angel, hiding the baby behind her. As if that would stop Michael. As if he could not force her to do anything he wished. Her gaze fell to the sword at his hip. “I am in love with my husband. Adam has no power here. No power over me!”
Lightning flashed outside, thunder crackling like fireworks. Michael’s eyes narrowed, his head turning to the window. Rain pelted against the glass, turning to hail in the space of a heartbeat. The angel’s nostril’s flared, and Eve felt his fury wash over her, blistering her thoughts. Her hands went to her temples and she fell to her knees with a strangled cry, gripping her skull.
He glanced back at her again, his lip curling. “If you let him touch you, there will be no power on earth that will stop me from delivering your punishment.” He bent down, bringing his face to hers, so near she could smell the brimstone of his skin. “You and all your people will die.”
Before she could respond, Michael was gone. The sound of the rain against the window seemed to quench the fire in her soul, though she did not have the strength to rise. Her whole body trembled, and she dropped her face to the tile floor, her eyes flooding with tears.
Eve had no memory of returning to the bed, spent from weeping, but somehow she woke up there, snug and warm beneath the blankets with Alex’s bassinet within reach. When Garrit came to take her home, a fine mist still hung over the earth and for a moment she could have sworn she glimpsed a man standing out by the tree, so often struck. But he had no wings, and somehow, with the dampness against her face and the roll of thunder in the sky as she ducked into the house holding Alex in her arms, she had never felt safer.
Chapter Thirty-eight: Creation
Eve watched the others cross the grassland from the precipice. Eri rumbled against her side, his skin shivering beneath her hand. It was Hannah, she thought, by the golden hair, and Lamech with her. He was tall and brown and when he looked at Hannah, she could see the love in his face. Reu would be pleased if Hannah and Lamech had married. They had been his closest friends while living in the Garden. Before Eve had been made and God had died.
Eri sniffed delicately at the wind, and dropped to the stone, watching the movement in the valley through narrow eyes. Eve sat beside the lion, her legs hanging over the ledge. Reu stood beneath them with Tzofi, but Eve had sent the other two lions ahead into the grasses to keep the hyenas away. An early hunt had resulted in a good sized antelope roasting over the fire, ready to feed the others when they arrived.
Reu tickled the bottom of her feet and Eve laughed, pulling them back up. He smiled. “You’re almost as brown as Lamech, now. They’ll hardly recognize you.”
She could see others behind the pair, but they weren’t close enough to tell apart from one another, and the bird she had used to identify Hannah had found other interests.
“Perhaps that’s just as well. Should I take a new name? Maybe Adam won’t know me.” She could already feel the touch of Adam’s mind against hers, searching, and knew the idea was worthless.
“You’ll be safe, Eve. Hannah and Lamech will help you, too.”
She scratched Eri behind the ears. “Adam’s angry.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
“I don’t see the angels anymore.” She frowned at the sky and dropped to the ground beside Reu. “They must have left in the night. Where do they go?”
He shook his head, putting his arm around her shoulders. “I don’t know. Adam might.”
She sighed. “There are so many things he keeps from us. So many things we’ll never know because of him.”
He kissed her forehead. “So many things we’ll learn on our own without his help. We have God’s law, we know right from wrong; nothing else matters anymore.”
She let herself be reassured, but the problem had nagged at the back of her mind since they’d left the Garden. Adam knew so much about God. Maybe he could be convinced to tell them. Or at least to tell her. She wanted to know where she came from. She wanted to know God, her creator, her father.
They sat together in the shade of the stone as the sun rose higher, hoping the trail they had broken through the grasses and worn into the dirt would be enough to lead Hannah and Lamech to them. The shadows shortened and then stretched, and when Reu’s two friends arrived, exhausted and parched, Reu fed them and Eve brought them water. The lions watched the new-comers closely and Eve twice hushed Eri’s snarls. If they were fortunate, Adam would be as frightened by Eri as Hannah and Lamech were.
“The angels told us to find you,” Hannah said after they had eaten. “They said you could teach us to live outside the Garden. Adam was furious. He tried to order them to kill you both. He shouted at Michael until the Chorus brought him to his knees, and we all wept from the pain.”
Eve sat against Eri’s flank, and Reu crouched beside her, carving the remaining meat into manageable pieces. “The others?” he asked.
Lamech shrugged, wary eyes on the lion at her side. “Lilith will follow Adam. Sarah means to come here. Those who were afraid of Adam were even more afraid of the angels. They’ll come to you and Eve.”
“And Adam?” Eve asked.
Hannah met her gaze, her expression filled with sympathy. “Lamech thinks his pride will prevent him from joining us, but I think he’ll come, if only for you. It does not sit well with him that you chose Reu.”
Eve nodded, pulling her knees to her chest. If she cleared her mind, she could feel him even now. Circling. Waiting. Watching. How much could he feel of her? Did he know she was afraid? Did he know she was curious? Lately she had begun to wonder if her curiosity was his or her own. She wasn’t sure if she could tell the difference anymore.
Reu touched her cheek, and she tore her gaze from the fire to look at him, unable to avoid seeing the concern in his face. Feeling the worry as his fingers twined into her hair. “With Lamech and the lions there is little he can do. If he comes, he will follow our rule, or he will be made to leave.”
“If he ate of the fruit, it isn’t that simple. What he’s done to Lilith could be done to another.” Eve shivered in memory. The taint of Lilith’s mind, the way he had choked it, still made her feel twisted and sick. “What I’ve accomplished with the lions will be nothing compared to what he will do to you.”
Hannah frowned. “Surely the angels would not have sent Adam to you, sent all of us into your care, only to deliver us further into his power? They said he’s lost the right to rule. We’re to follow only you and he’s forbidden to threaten us.”
“I don’t know, Hannah.” Eve looked back at the fire. “I don’t know what to think of them or what they’ll do. They said they wouldn’t help us any further.”
One of the lions roared outside the cave, and Eri rose to his feet, padding to the entrance, tail switching and nose twitching. Eve closed her eyes, letting herself see through the lion’s eyes, smell with its senses. It was getting easier to do, and not just with the lions. Birds were the easiest, and the most helpful. She could see the entirety of the valley if the right bird soared overhead.
Eri made a rattling noise that wasn’t quite a growl, and she saw the movement in the dark. More people. Terrified and stumbling.
“It isn’t Adam,” she told Reu. “Not yet.”
She heard him stand and leave the cave, stopping by the fire to choose a good-sized brand as a torch. She could hear the lick of the flames and the shift of the wood with Eri’s ears.
She cleared her head with a little shake and smiled at Hannah and Lamech. “If you feel up to it, I think it would reassure them if they saw you with Reu, alive and well.”
Lamech made to rise, but Hannah put a hand on his shoulder, pressing him back to the cave floor. “I’ll go. Stay with Eve.”
She followed Reu’s steps, giving Eri as wide a berth as possible. Eve called Eri back to her softly. His tail
