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He strode for the door. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Eva lay her head back onto her damp pillow, her sorrow neatly packed away under her new resolve. Never again would she be taken by surprise. Never again would she let anyone get as close to her as her mother had been. Her mother, her teacher, her best friend.
She did not die in vain; her death would give Eva a new purpose in life. She would become a woman her mother would have been proud of. A woman who would protect her people. And her heart. Never again would she feel this weakness.
Today, a new chapter in her life was starting, and she wasn’t changing course for anything or anyone...
Chapter 1
Seven years later
Two things were certain. One, there was a deep, bleeding gash across his abdomen, and two, he couldn’t hear a damn thing. A woman knelt before him, mouthing words he couldn’t make out. Her dark green jacket was covered in dirt and blood, and soot clung to her long, golden hair that hung in loose waves around her shoulders. Her jade eyes were not familiar to him.
Candlelight cast a glow against wooden walls he did not recognize. He jerked upright, and a sheet crumbled about his waist, exposing part of his naked body. Where were his clothes?
Jarring pain sent him flat on his back. He was sure his head was being split in two, if the ringing in his ears was any indication. He lifted his hands to his head in an attempt to relieve his pain. For a moment, everything went black and emptiness consumed him. He’d fallen into a black hole of nothingness...
Then the burning took hold. He was roasting from the inside out, cooked by the flames of hell. What had he done to deserve this torture?
He wanted to ask the woman with the golden locks to douse the flames licking at his skin, but his eyelids became heavy.
Relief washed over him as coolness seeped into his skin, penetrating his bones and turning them to ice.
What journey was this? Must he venture through fire and ice before returning to the land of the living?
Shivers racked his body. His muscles spasmed, his guts wrenched, and his head felt like a block of wood. A heaviness settled in his chest as his extremities went numb.
He was dying.
There was no other explanation. His body had given up and was shutting down. His mind, still sharp, knew this to be true. It was only a matter of time before that went too.
He waited, living in the hell he now called home. How much time had passed was uncertain, but time kept moving. That was made obvious by the chills shuddering through his body one minute and heat eating at his flesh the next.
Then the pain ceased in his head, and it no longer throbbed with agony—that could not be a good sign. The end was near.
Darkness took hold once more, and he welcomed it. The nothingness that would end his anguish was more than a delight. Crossing over into the afterlife would be easy after what he’d just endured. He was ready to finish this journey.
A pinprick of white light shone before him. It was a warmth that did not burn, an end to the suffering. He would not turn his back on it. This is where he was meant to be...
An angel’s voice surrounded him—soft, calming, comforting. A whisper on the wind, a flutter of a butterfly’s wings.
She called to him, singing sweet words, welcoming him into a new world. He wanted to follow her, to join her, to be where she was.
His body had been weakened, but his will was strong.
With every last bit of strength he possessed, he awoke in a new world.
“You’re awake?” The angel addressed him.
This he had not expected.
His eyelids fluttered open. A blurry vision of the woman with golden locks and vivid green eyes sat next to him, but she looked different.
Her hair was braided and hung over her shoulder, flat against her blue sweater. The same candlelight cast an outline of her delicate features on the dark wood walls. No longer was she covered in dirt, grime, and blood. Her ivory skin seemed to reflect the golden light. Was that a halo above her head?
He cleared his throat. “Angel?”
She shook her head, a smile playing on her lips. “No.” She grabbed a cloth and reached into a bucket of water, squeezed out the excess, then laid it over his forehead. “I’m Evangeline Wolf. You may call me Eva. Can you tell me your name?” Her eyes sparkled in the light.
