Origin (Eternal Sacrifice Saga Book 2)
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Authors: Quinn,Dylan
The Eternal Sacrifice Saga
Book II
DYLAN QUINN
Copyright © 2016 by Dylan Quinn. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
621-Phoenix Publishing, LLC
Duenweg, MO 64814
Cover Design by Airicka Phoenix
Edited by Gwen Zajac
Formatting by CP Smith
ISBN-13: 978-1537621388
ISBN-10: 1537621386
First Edition, September 22, 2016
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
For my Eternals
Chayah Ti ama... Per l'eternità
Part One
Book 1 Gemini
Zoe & Cade
Novella 1.5 Dissension
Julian & Rainah
Book 2 Origin
Zoe & Cade
Companion Novel Conviction
Phoebe & Remie
Novella 2.5 Redemption
Micah & Lahnie
Book 3 Genesis
Zoe & Cade
Novella 3.5 Absolution
Bad girls need love too…
Zoe
I killed her.
Plunged my Eternal dagger into her chest. Felt the bite of the obsidian blade as it pierced her heart and bled her aura dry.
Just like that, her light turned to dust, faded to pure white and dissipated into the frigid air in hell.
Lilith was dead.
I didn’t mean to kill her. Disarm, maybe. Not kill.
Tonight was supposed to be about Cade and me. Our Convergence. The night we merged our bodies and souls, but now it was tainted. Shadowed in darkness.
I didn’t know how to shake this feeling—whatever this was.
“Zoe?” Cade’s icy blue eyes narrowed. Wrinkles creased his forehead. “Are you all right, love?”
After all the hell my Gemini just went through the past few months, literally locked away in the dark realm, Cade deserved my undivided attention.
He slid his arm off my shoulder and down to my hand, lacing his fingers with mine.
It was dark in Aravot. Not a drop of light shone in the indigo sky, but I could see like the light of day lit our path—the same path I took the day I gave my intentions to uphold my Eternal duty to the Archangel, Gabrielle.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
The Firstborn Eternals and Elder Council all followed close behind.
“Where are we going, exactly?” I asked Cade as we walked along the darkened path.
“The Angel’s Arch.”
I tried to recall my virtual trip to Aravot, but all I could think of was Lilith.
The scent of sea and peonies whispered through the air. The vivid colors of the Garden remained hidden behind the cloak of the Winter Solstice—the day of death—Cade’s and mine.
We reached the Arch and took our places before our Genesis family. The auras of the Eternals lit up the Garden surrounding us as if someone had turned on stadium lights.
This was it, our Convergence Ceremony. The equivalent of a human wedding, I suppose. This was
the
moment the Eternals had been rambling on about incessantly for the past six months.
I’d spent the past few days wrapped up in Cade’s rescue, so I hadn’t considered how this would work. Or what would follow.
Butterflies bounced in my belly at the thought. The good kind.
Cade held my left hand and wrapped his fingers around my wrist.
As my gaze crept up, Cade’s aura grew brighter.
Blinding.
Beautiful.
Gabrielle took a white silk ribbon and tied it around our wrists, pressing our Gemini Seals together. She had told me earlier that once our Twin Souls officially Converged, the indigo tattoos on our wrists would change and no longer signify our Genesis bloodline, but rather the Gemini’s Eternal seal to each other.
My wrist warmed, and our marks fused together. Cade’s synced heartbeat now pulsed within my wrist.
Gabrielle held out an engraved silver chalice.
“Genesis—Ab Aeterno, Ad Infinitum—from the beginning and without end.” She nodded, chalice in hand. “Adam and Eve. Origin of Genesis. Firstborn souls of the Eternal Family. You have chosen this journey, agreed to the Eternal Sacrifice for the love and protection of your children. Each human soul is of your Origin. Your essence. Your love for one another has transcended time and Eternity for the continuation of the human spirit. You have chosen to bind to one another as Gemini. As lovers. As protectors of the Trees of Aravot, the World Trees that ensure purity and light of love continue to reign within your realms.
“Adam Kadmon, patriarch of Genesis. You have given of your body and soul, your very Origin. You’ve chosen Eve as your Gemini. To protect and to love for all Eternity. Cade Adams, do you accept Eve as Zoe Adams—Chayah, the Eternal Mother—to be your Gemini for this time and all Eternity?”
Cade gazed heavy, and I swear, the mountains moved beneath my feet. My body trembled as he held my hand and took his right, folding it over my fist.
“So I swear.” Cade’s gaze never left mine. “Eve—Zoe Adams. Chayah. You are my Twin Soul. Of my body and Origin. Will you take me as your lover and Gemini for this time and all Eternity?”
I held my breath. Each limb in my trembling body went weak. Each nerve from my fingers to my toes rushed with electricity like a gale force. And like I’d said the words a gazillion times, they came to me, a vision in my head.
“Adam Kadmon, you are my Twin Soul. Cade Adams, as part of your body and Origin, I take you for both this time and all Eternity as my lover and Gemini.”
Gabrielle held up the cup. “Cade and Zoe Adams. Genesis. Eternal Father and Mother of the human spirit. I give thee this cup. Drink of the Fountain of Life.”
As I gazed into Cade’s cerulean eyes, an iridescent indigo wisp swirled through them, changing color for just a second.
Gabrielle handed Cade the cup as he whispered into my mind, words only I could hear.
“Chayah,”
he said.
“I love you more than you’ll ever know. Thank you. For saving my life and trusting me with your heart. You’ve imprinted on my soul, and I will always find you. For this time and all Eternity.”
He took a drink and handed me the chalice.
I stared at the iridescent wisps swirling in his eyes, freezing me in a temporary trance.
“Cade,”
I whispered back.
“I don’t remember all our lives together yet, but my soul remembers you. When I said you’d imprinted on it, I meant it. And I will always return to you.”
I held the cup to my lips.
“I love you, Adam. My Cade. For this time and all Eternity.”
I drank from the cup, scrunching my nose at the bitterness.
Cade laughed beneath his breath.
Gabrielle took the cup and handed it to Michael.
“Chayah.” Gabrielle began. “By accepting your Gemini, you consent to return to Aravot on the Summer Solstice to resume your sovereignty as Eternal Mother until such time as the Journey Phoenix fades and the Gemini Doctrine initiates once more. This is the sacrifice you have agreed to make to ensure the continuation of your human legacy. Do you accept the Eternal Sacrifice as yours, alone?”
I sucked in a breath and glanced at Cade.
He squeezed my hand for encouragement, understanding what this meant for me.
“I do.” I swallowed. “I accept the Eternal Sacrifice as my own, and I agree to return to Aravot, accepting my reign as Eternal Mother.”
Gabrielle bowed, her aura expanding beyond herself.
A gust of wind rushed across the meadow surrounding us. Our two Trees stood proud in the distance, lights emanating from them both.
My Gemini mark sparked to life. Tremors raced from my wrist, up through my arms and into my chest, then back out to my fingertips.
Cade steadied my shaky body as I closed my eyes, embracing his soul filling every empty space within me.
Our auras and our souls were now fused.
My gaze drifted up as the lights above our heads merged into a singular iridescent glow, twinkling like stars. A meteor shower lit up the dark sky, burning brighter then I’d ever seen.
Our color
. His iridescent indigo aura was identical to mine.
I matched myself.
My gaze was quickly captured by the circle of Genesis standing ten feet away—their collective colors were the also like ours. Iridescent indigo.
Blinding and beautiful.
We really were family.
“Adam and Eve. Cade and Zoe Adams. Your Twin Souls are now sealed, bound together for this time. And following your body’s Convergence, for all Eternity.” Gabrielle unwrapped the ribbon. “Welcome home, Chayah. Cade.”
Cade held my cheeks in his hands and pressed a kiss to my lips.
My wrist burned. Goose bumps rose along my arms. Sliding my hands behind his neck, I tangled my fingers through his hair.
Life had returned to Cade.
My Gemini had returned to me.
He draped his arms around me and held me tight as I nestled my nose into his chest, feeling his heart beat beneath my cheek, like our first dance back in Chicago.
Like the day I was born.
“Chayah.” Cade tilted my chin gently, forcing me to stare into his soulful blue eyes. “I held you the day you were born, and I’ll hold you the day that you die. I’ve loved you all your lives. And all of mine. Your soul may have ascended from me, but you truly are the greater part of us.”
He ran his nose up along my neck, sending shivers racing to my heart.
“Now,” he whispered into my ear. “I’m taking you home.”
Lacing his fingers with mine, he promptly pulled me away, down another path.
I glanced back over my shoulder and watched the Firstborns fall to their knees, and the Elders bow their heads, eyes cast toward the grass below their feet.
This was going to be weird.
My aura grew brightly, and I felt different. Changed.
Cade led me away from the meadow, away from the Angel’s Arch and the Firstborns. From our wedding.
A little anticlimactic, to be honest. No white dress. No bachelorette party. No celebration.
I needed to remember I wasn’t human any more.
That Zoe was gone.
I wanted to embrace what was ahead of me, starting now.
Because what I did have—Cade Adams—a man who loved me and would die for me, was the best consolation prize to humanity any immortal girl could ever want.
Zoe
“We live here?” My jaw literally dropped. “Wow.”
Cade laughed as we strolled up the worn path leading to our Eternal home in Aravot.
“No, seriously. What could two people do with all this space?”