Chapter 32 Memory
Eva
It was so beautiful here. No fear, no pain.
I sat by a river of stars that flowed past mountains carved from moonlight. The water was silent, and the light from the stars was so bright that I had to squint. I realized I was in a memory, but it didn't feel like my own. It felt older, more genuine.
My feet carried me up a path of crushed diamond beneath a sky so bright with stars it burned. At the summit stood a tree.
And under the tree was a girl.
She looked like me, but also not. She wore a simple white robe, and at her throat was the torc. This was me, before. Before the curse, before the running, before Malach. This was Evangeline.
She was not alone. A woman stood before her, cloaked in shimmering fabric. Her face was hidden, but her presence was overwhelming.
“You have served me well, my daughter,” the woman said, her voice like the sound of bells ringing in a wind that never touched the ground. “Your vow has pleased me. The purity of your soul is a soothing balm to the eternal night.”
Evangeline knelt with her head bowed. "It is my honor, Goddess."
The Goddess extended her hand, crafted from solid starlight, and placed it gently on Evangeline’s head. “A new trial awaits you. A king of dust and blood seeks to defile you, attempting to pull you from the Moon into the mud alongside him. He wants to claim what is rightfully Mine.”
Evangeline looked up, and I noticed it then, fear, but not for herself. “He is… persistent. He claims to love me.”
“He loves the idea of you and the power you represent,” the Goddess corrected, her voice turning icy. “He is a creature of hunger. He will consume you and everything you touch. You must refuse him. You must deny him. His lust is a poison, and if he succeeds, the world will weep.”
I turned away from them, my attention drawn to something else. At the base of the diamond mountain, a figure was climbing. His hands, raw and bleeding, left crimson trails on the glittering stone as he clawed his way up, inch by agonizing inch. A king of dust and blood.
Malach.
He reached the summit, falling to his knees before Evangeline and the Goddess. He looked up at her, and there was such longing in his eyes that it felt like a physical blow.
“Please,” he whispered, his voice hoarse with exhaustion and emotion. “One touch. That is all I ask.”
The Goddess’s light flared with outrage. “How dare you bring your filth to this sacred place!”
But Evangeline… she hesitated. I saw it then, a flicker of something in her gaze that looked a lot like pity. Perhaps more.
And I knew, with a certainty that settled deep in my soul, that this was the first sin. Not the kiss. Not the curse. It was the moment she hesitated. The moment she saw a monster and, for a split second, saw a man.
The memory cracked open and I fell, through starlight, through centuries, until I landed on silk sheets that smelled of expensive perfume.
My eyes snapped open, and I found myself in a hotel room. A nice one, not the dump I'd checked into. Plush carpet, mahogany furniture, and a king-size bed with a white duvet. The sound of a door opening and slamming, followed by shouting. My voice.
I sat up as a version of me stomped inside, tossing a designer purse onto a chair. Her hair was platinum like mine, but styled in a chic bob. She wore a silk slip dress and high heels. She was me, but older. Maybe late thirties. And she was furious.
“I told him, Chloe! I said, ‘Malach, he was just being nice!’’ Does that man listen? Of course not!”
Another woman appeared in the doorway. Chloe. But not my Chloe. This one was different. Softer.
“He’s just trying to protect you, Evey. That pack in Chicago was getting too close.”
“Protect me?” my other self laughed, a harsh, bitter sound. “He killed him, Chloe. He killed him right in front of me. All because he handed me a glass of champagne.”
She walked into the bathroom, and I followed, drawn to her like a moth to a flame. She leaned against the counter, staring at her reflection in the mirror. At her throat, the torc gleamed.
“I’m so tired of this,” she whispered to her own reflection. “Every lifetime, it’s the same. He finds me, he claims me, he kills anyone who dares to look at me, and then I die."
Chloe walked right through me, not seeing me and not feeling me. She put a comforting hand on my other self's shoulder. "You kill him first, not that it's a excuse for his..." Chloe's words trailed off, and her eyes met mine. Not my other self's. Mine.
She saw me.
Her expression didn't change, but her grip tightened on my other self's shoulder. "It's getting worse, isn't it? The bleed-through."
My other self's eyes locked with mine in the mirror. "The memories are getting stronger. Clearer." She looked away from her reflection, her gaze falling to the torc. "I remember the moon. I remember... him." A single tear traced a path down her cheek. "I remember that I loved him. And I remember that I had to kill him."
The room began to dissolve, the edges blurring like a watercolor painting left out in the rain. Chloe's face swam before me, her expression unreadable.
"It's not over, Evey," she said, her voice a whisper from across a great distance. "It never is. Just remember who you are. And what you have to do."