Origin (Eternal Sacrifice Saga Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  ORIGIN

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  Eternal Sacrifice Saga

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  The Eternal Sacrifice Saga

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  ORIGIN

  The Eternal Sacrifice Saga

  Book II

  DYLAN QUINN

  COPYRIGHT

  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.

  DEDICATION

  For my Eternals

  Chayah Ti ama... Per l'eternità

  Eternal Sacrifice Saga

  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…

  Chapter One

  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 wha
t 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.

  Chapter Two

  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?”

  The grounds encompassing the ginormous mansion went on forever.

  Despite the darkness shrouding the estate, I could see for miles with my now super-human vision. The intimidating stone structure stood majestic, surrounded by a lake, a meadow, and a bit further, the Garden. The scent of flowers in bloom breezed through the warm air.

  “It is vast, but you prefer your space. It’s how you designed it.”

  “I did this?” That surprised me a little.

  “Yes.” He tugged me closer. “In time, you’ll recall why.”

  “If you say so.”

  I was no architectural guru, but the mansion was something like an English fortress. Tudor, I think it’s called? But modern.

  Cade opened the double doors and led me inside. He took my hand, and we strolled through a barren foyer and down a hall leading into an even larger foyer. The walls were white and lifeless.

  The ceilings went on forever. Vaulted. Cold.

  Nothing sparked any memory about this place.

  We reached a spiral staircase, and lights flipped on by themselves throughout the room.

  “Motion sensors?” I startled at the echo of my voice bouncing between the walls.

  “Modern conveniences.”

  “So, what’s down here? Nothing? It doesn’t feel familiar.”

  “The lower level is for meetings. The Elder Hall is there.” Cade pointed to a set of white doors. “We hold Council meetings there. Occasionally entertain. Our living quarters are up these steps.” He ushered me ahead of him.

  That would explain my lack of memory and why arriving felt like I was visiting an empty banquet hall.

  Dragging my sore legs up the stairs, I reached the top after the hundredth step.

  Lights danced across the ceiling, bringing a warmer space to life.

  This was familiar.

  The ceilings were lower but still vaulted.

  Although we just went upstairs, we were downstairs. I think.

  Warm colors glazed the walls, and inviting décor filled the apartment. It was kind of outdated for my taste, going back twenty years or so. Needed a makeover for sure, but still something I could work with. I wondered what lifetime each decorative item belonged to.

  As I wandered my new to me home, my breath caught at the sight of the piano calling me from across the room. My piano, from Cade’s apartment in Chicago.

  I blew out a breath.

  I’d miss music.

  Cade stepped up behind me, lightly dragging his fingertips down my arms and covering my hands with his. He bent down and kissed along my neck, whispering into my ear.

  “I’ve missed you, love.” He laced his fingers with mine. “Come. It’s time I put you to bed.”

  Butterflies flooded my belly at the subtext of his loaded words.

  Cade wasted no time leading me to another room—our bedroom. Soft. Feminine. My previous incarnation, Zoe 1.0, must’ve designed this, too.

  The bed was ginormous. I didn’t know they made them bigger than a king.

  Fluffy pastel bedding covered the mattress, neatly and quaint. Peaceful.

  French doors stood open across the room. A light breeze brushed across my cheeks.

  I let go of Cade’s hand and wandered out to a balcony? No, a terrace. We were on a lower level, overlooking what I assumed to be the Chayah Fountain, though I wasn’t sure.

  I inhaled the scent of my peonies drifting over from the Garden.

  Even shrouded in darkness, Aravot was breathtaking.

  Cade stepped behind me, kissing my neck while he wrapped his arms around my waist.

  I leaned back into his chest, his heartbeat racing, forcing mine to catch up. This synched hearts thing—another perk of being Cade’s Gemini—was going to be hard to get used to.

  “I don’t know about you, love. But I would very much like a bath. I’ve been lying on a dungeon floor for many months.”

  Although Raz had given Cade a change of clothes and some time to get cleaned up before we completed our Convergence Ceremony, Cade was right.

  He kind of needed a shower.

  He nuzzled his nose into my hair. “And I’m sure you would not mind getting out of these binding clothes.”

  I stared down blankly at my shirt, specks of Lilith’s blood splattered across my chest. Memories of killing her flooded my head.

  A knot tightened in my chest, and my breaths staggered.

  Stop.

  Cade didn’t deserve this.

  I closed my eyes and leaned back onto his broad chest. Freeing my mind, I slowed my breathing to release the residual tension left behind from my rescue mission to hell.

  Cade had waited twenty-one years to get me back, and I wasn’t about to let anything ruin what was supposed to be the best night of our life.

  Of mine.