Descent07 - Paradise Damned (16 page)

Elise looked down. All of the brides were kept naked, and the shift in location meant a shift in costume, too.

She tried to remember what her body had looked like before her rebirth as a demon, and could barely summon the memory. There had been more muscles. That much she knew.

“Are they bigger?” Elise asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Betty said. She clapped a hand over her mouth and giggled. “Just a little bit.”

Elise rolled her eyes. “Of course that’s the first thing that
you
notice.”

“No, it’s good. Really impressive. You don’t look like a preteen boy anymore.”

“Get moving, Betty.”

All of the
plants in the garden seemed to whisper at Elise’s passage, as if quietly heralding a visiting queen. It made her ears hurt. She tried to ignore them.

Elise didn’t release Betty’s wrist as they stepped through the desiccated ruins of an orchard. A full half of the trees were black, as if they hadn’t had water in months; the plants that survived oozed ichor onto the soil.

“Some garden,” Betty whispered.

Elise had to drop her hand to squeeze around a cluster of mossy rocks. “It didn’t used to be like this. It used to be beautiful.”

“What happened?”

“I left Him,” Elise said softly, leaping over a fallen tree. She waited on the other side to give Betty a hand. “He’s always been crazy, as far as I know, but having women sacrificed to Him kept Him from realizing that He’s imprisoned here. They didn’t have anyone to replace me when I left, so He’s gotten more…destructive.”

“When you say ‘Him’…”

Elise glanced around the garden. The vines hung with shriveled brown fruit the size of her fist; they had rotten on the outside to expose glistening pits, which almost looked like eyes. She didn’t dare say “God.” Not in this place.

“Adam,” Elise said. “The first man.”

Betty opened her mouth, most likely to ask more questions, but Elise shook her head. It wasn’t the right time for that. Talking to Betty was like enduring the Inquisition, but a misspoken word could have deadly consequences when He was watching.

They continued to move.

“I need to find somewhere to hide you,” Elise said, glancing over her shoulder to make sure that her friend was sticking close. Betty was right at her back, near enough that one misstep would probably make both of them trip.

“Hide me? Where?”

Elise didn’t really have any ideas. Where could she hide someone in hostile territory? The garden itself was a mess of twisting, maze-like paths among the roots of the Tree, but He was everywhere within it.

“Underneath the Tree,” Elise decided. It didn’t seem to be part of the cherubim’s normal search pattern. At least Betty would be hidden from casual glances.

Betty swallowed hard as she looked up at the towering branches of the Tree. Its tangled boughs looked like ribs of iron.

“That sounds bad,” she said.

James’s dead body flashed to Elise’s mind. “It’s fine,” she lied. “It’s as safe as it gets.”

But Betty had stopped following her.

“What are those?” she asked, pointing up at the sky.

Elise followed Betty’s finger with her gaze. A pair of figures wheeled through the mist above the Tree.

She pulled Betty under a bush, which scraped at her face and hair until she slapped away the branches. They made a sulky retreat.

With her belly flattened to the earth, Elise parted the brittle leaves enough to see the cherubim.

“They’re looking for me,” she whispered.

Betty paled. “Why?”

Elise wasn’t certain. Had Adam noticed her absence and sent them to retrieve her for another round of “training”? Or were they acting on Metaraon’s orders?

Either way, she didn’t want to be found until Betty was safe and she had her swords again.

“When we move, it will have to be quickly,” Elise whispered.

The leaves rustled, and the bushes parted.

A man stood on the other side, handsome and tall and as naked as Elise. Betty gave a strangled cry.

Where He walked, the garden seemed to come to life. There was vibrant green grass beneath the balls of His feet. Irises tickled His calves. The vines drooped to His shoulders, wrapping around His arms, greeting Him with kisses of their fruit. But the life didn’t extend far beyond Him—it was another illusion. He had no idea that He stood in a dead garden.

His gaze bored into Elise.

“What are you hiding from?” He asked. Even though He sounded amused, there was a dangerous edge to it.

Elise stood, putting herself between Him and Betty, even though she knew it was too late. Her stomach knotted. “Is it time again already?” she asked harshly. “Aren’t you bored of hurting me yet?”

He used her hand to pull her against His body. When their skin met, her sight changed. She saw the entire garden the way He did: thriving, lush, and colorful.

A sense of warmth filled her—a feeling of
rightness
. She was meant to be in that lush, beautiful garden, with His hand wrapped around hers.

Elise pulled her hand out of His. The dead orchard returned.

“Don’t look so afraid,” Adam said to Betty. He managed to sound simultaneously dangerous and charming as He helped Betty step out of the bushes.

Elise wanted to stop Him, but she felt rooted to the ground as surely as the Tree.

He addressed Betty directly. “My name is Adam. What’s yours?”

She swallowed hard. “My name is, um…Elizabeth Beatty. But everyone calls me—”

“Elizabeth,” He said, rolling the name over His tongue like an incantation. “It’s a pleasure to have you visit my garden, Elizabeth. What do you think of it?”

She glanced nervously at Elise before saying, “It’s pretty.”

He chuckled.

“We so seldom have guests,” He said, pulling Betty’s hand into the crook of His arm, as if He were a gentleman escorting a lady to a formal event. It must not have burned Betty the way that it did Elise, because she didn’t even flinch. In fact, she looked confused—and maybe a little entranced. “I’ll see to it that you have only the best accommodations during your stay.”

He moved to lead Betty away. Elise stepped in front of Him.

“Don’t,” she said sharply.

A pair of cherubim landed on the grass beyond the bushes, broad-shouldered and intimidating.

“Be polite, Eve,” Adam said warningly. “She’s our guest.” His tone warmed when He spoke to Betty again. “Go with them. They’ll care for you.”

“Elise—” Betty began.

He interrupted her. “And as for you,” He said, seizing Elise’s elbow in a crushing grip. “Don’t hide from me again. Not when we have business to attend to.”

The bottom of her stomach dropped out.

“More training?” Elise asked, barely above a whisper.

Adam wrapped an arm around Elise’s waist, and He whispered into her ear. “It’s time for you to serve at my side, beloved.”

Time skipped.

Elise sat in a juncture of the Tree’s roots. The ground in front of her pooled with a couple inches of rainwater, rippled with light rain and dotted by lily pads. The Tree creaked as it continued to grow and curl around her body.

She felt like she was on a throne that had been grown specifically for her. It was where she was meant to rule.

Where
Eve
is meant to rule
, she mentally corrected herself, rubbing her forehead.

Betty and the cherubim were gone, while Adam stood beside Elise on a raised pulpit. He didn’t sit—He never sat, not when He could stand above all others. “There have been intruders,” He told Elise. “Invaders attempting to enter our enclave.”

The news surprised her enough that she forgot to worry about Betty.

“Who’s invading?”

“You will help me find that out,” He said.

A pair of cherubim crossed a cobblestone path cutting through the shallow pool, the male dragging the female toward Elise’s throne.

The captive cherub fell at Adam and Elise’s feet. When she saw Elise, a look of surprise dawned on her features. But not wonder. Not love.
All
angels loved Elise—and a sense of wrongness knotted in her belly.

“Tell me what this is,” Adam said to Elise, gesturing at the cherub.

“It’s an angel,” Elise said.

“No. Look closer.”

Elise rose from the wooden throne and circled the cherub. This creature had pale blue eyes, long legs, the confidence that came with immortality. Its familiar features made Elise feel confusingly warm. Almost…maternal.

“Where did you find her?” Elise asked the guarding cherub.

“It was outside the walls attempting to force its way into the garden,” said the guard.

He didn’t need to point out that cherubim should have been capable of stepping into the garden from anywhere, at any time.

If what looked to be a cherub was behaving entirely unlike a cherub—unable to enter the quarantined garden of its own volition, and looking at Elise with shock rather than adoration—then the obvious conclusion was that it wasn’t what it appeared to be. But that left so many other questions unanswered.

Adam’s gaze pressed on Elise as she stepped behind the cherub to look at its wings. They sprouted from its back with no obvious surgical marks to suggest that they had been modified.

“What are you?” Elise asked the intruder.

It stared at her in silence.

The maternal feelings just kept building. This was her child under scrutiny—a creature of her making. It pained Elise to see it kneeling in rainwater.

She pressed her hand to the cherub’s cheek.

The illusion fell away.

A creature with ruddy crimson flesh, sleek black hair, and the feathered wings of an angel appeared where the cherub had been sitting. It stared at her with eyes that were glossy black—not blue.

Shocked, she dropped her hand. All warmth fled from her.

“Hybrid,” Elise said. “This is…some kind of hybrid.”

Its lips peeled back over its teeth.

Adam stepped off of the pulpit. “Of course,” He said without an ounce of surprise. “She’s been making an army of them on the battlefront. This one must have been deployed as an assassin.”

Elise frowned. What battlefront was he talking about? There hadn’t been any wars involving hybrids for millennia.

“She?” Elise asked.

“Lilith,” Adam said. “Remember?”

And suddenly, she did. Elise remembered the smell of burning cities, the sight of angels wielding flaming swords. The mental image was as clear as though she had seen it earlier that morning.

“Okay,” she said slowly, massaging her temple. “Lilith is trying to assassinate you. Let me kill this…this thing. I just need my swords. I came into the garden with two of them—have Metaraon bring me one, and I’ll take care of it right now.”

Adam radiated displeasure. “You don’t have the stomach for killing. You never have.”

“I’m not Eve,” Elise said. “You
know
I’m not Eve, just like you know that Lilith’s been gone for a long time.”

Adam cupped her cheek in His hand. “Look inside your heart,” He said. “You know that’s not true. You don’t kill.”

The words slid through her:
You don’t kill
. It sounded like a command.

Her vision blurred.

What swords had she been talking about? Elise reached back to touch her shoulder, expecting to find the strap of a spine sheath, and found nothing.

He was right—she
didn’t
kill. She had never worn a weapon in her life.

“There,” Adam said. “Do you see?”

The guarding cherub suddenly snapped to attention, lifting its sword in a salute.

Metaraon strode across the cobblestone path. Elise’s stomach churned when she realized that he was dragging Betty behind him, his hand clamped around her wrist. At the sight of her friend, Elise realized that her thoughts were getting muddy again.

She stepped away from Adam. Her mind instantly cleared.

“What is the meaning of this?” Metaraon demanded, gaze locked onto Elise’s. “What do you think you’re doing, woman?”

“We’re attending to business,” Adam said. He swept a hand toward the hybrid. “We found this thing attempting to enter the garden. One of Lilith’s assassins, I’m sure.”

Metaraon used his grip on Betty to fling her to the ground. She splashed into the shallow water. “You’re ‘attending to business’ without alerting me?” he asked. “I am your right hand, your Voice. This is my responsibility.”

“There was no need for you,” He said.

Metaraon’s lips quivered with barely-withheld rage.

“Master,” rasped the hybrid, startling Elise. Its spoke as though its throat had been rubbed raw with sandpaper. It stared at Metaraon when it spoke.

Elise understood instantly that the hybrid didn’t belong to Lilith.

Fury ignited in Metaraon’s pale eyes. He stepped behind the hybrid, placed a hand on its jaw, and jerked.

Its head wrenched off of its spine with a slick
pop
.

The body collapsed, wings crumpling.

“There,” Metaraon said, lobbing the head at Elise. It rolled to a stop at her feet. Blood dribbled from its stump, clouding the shallow water. “Business has been attended to.”

If Metaraon’s anger was a grain of sand, then Adam’s was the beach. Hot rage rippled over Elise’s skin.

“You dare presume to sentence my captives?” His voice boomed through the roots of the tree, making the bark crackle and water slosh over the path. Betty gave a small gasp, clapping damp hands over her ears. “Who is Lord?”

It took visible effort, but Metaraon bowed his head.

“You are,” he said. “My apologies, Father. I reacted in fear for your safety.”

Adam didn’t calm down at that, but He didn’t get angrier, either. He gestured to Betty. “Why have you brought her here? I instructed the cherubim to make her comfortable.”

“I expected you would want your bride to enter the door as soon as possible,” Metaraon said through his teeth, “and she is our incentive. Let us stop waiting and get this done.”

Betty gasped again, turning wide eyes on Elise.

Adam laughed. “She doesn’t matter that much. Eve will enter the door for
me
. Some mortal you’ve dredged from a memory doesn’t influence her decision.”