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Zion
ZOE DAWN
It felt like a ton of boulders were lying on my head. I pried my eyes open, but was only greeted by more blurry darkness, and all I could hear was the loud thump of my pulse beating against my skull.
“What in Goddess’s name is going on?” I grumbled under my breath.
My arms felt leaden next to my sides. I tugged, but something was holding them tight against my body. A groan bubbled up my throat from frustration, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when someone moved on the other side of the room.
“Hold still, Zoe Dawn,” a woman said softly. She sounded familiar. “We will be there soon and you will finally have your answers. The restraints are for my and your protection."
My head was boiling with a rage I had never felt before. “Jump off a cliff!” I hissed between clenched teeth. “Where are you taking me?” My head whipped from side to side as I squinted into the darkness to find whoever was in here with me.
Heat simmered down my neck and spiraled down my spine. I strained against my restraints. My arms ached from the effort, but I did it again anyway. I was not going to allow them the satisfaction of holding me against my will.
I could hear the woman shift closer, which only encouraged me to keep wrestling, and when she draw near enough, I flung my legs over my head and kicked her. I continued rolling to the side and leapt to my feet, wiggling against the ropes to loosen them more. My skin continued to simmer with a flame I had only felt once before, and the ropes sizzled from my touch. As much as it frightened me, I concentrated on the heat to burn away my restraints.
“Cool it, Zoe Dawn,” the woman snapped at me.
I froze, finally recognizing her voice. Twisting to face her, my eyes narrowed in the direction of her voice.
“Aly?” I hissed her name with venomous disdain, but my rage dissipated slightly, knowing it was her and not a stranger. “You have abducted me? Why?” The ropes snapped and fell to my feet. I rubbed my wrists where the skin was raw, cursing Aly under my breath.
“Be still, sister.” Aly’s voice was farther away. “I need you to be calm. We will arrive shortly and then I will reveal what you need to know.”
Light spilled in from the other side of the room, and for a split moment, I saw Aly’s face. Her expression was sullen. Then the small opening closed and she was gone. Darkness swallowed me whole. I could not see the hand in front of my face, but I knew my fingers were trembling. So was my bottom lip.
“Aly?” I whispered, knowing she was no longer there but hoping I was wrong.
Tears brimmed in my eyes. I pressed the palms of my hands against them, then as my blood boiled to the rim of my mind, I furiously wiped away the tears. Rage was once again filling my chest. A scream shook from my lips. My saliva spewed from my mouth, but I did not care. I screamed again and moved forward, feeling my way until my hands finally touched something solid.
A wall maybe. It was so smooth and cold, unlike anything I had touched before. I walked alongside it for several feet, but it remained consistent in texture with no indication there was a door. I continued walking all the way around until I was fairly certain I had gone in a circle. There weren’t any corners in this room. How was that possible?
Panic set in and I slid to the floor, gripping my chest as my heart beat furiously against it.
How could Aly do this to me?
When she had seen me before the equinox celebration, there had been no indication of her being anything but my ally and friend. She was Mum’s closest confidant. Had this been her plan all along? Years of living in our village... just to abduct me during the mating ceremony? None of this made sense.
What had changed?
The new tribe from the skies had created fear and worry in many villagers, but not Aly. Did she know them? Was their arrival her signal to begin planning my abduction?
The tall girl hiding in the trees spiraled back to my thoughts. My entire body had ignited with heat when I saw her. Why?
And there was Kia Lynn. She had been limping and had refused to talk about it. What had happened to her, and why all the secrets? She’d said something before she had fallen to the ground. It sounded like “something is wrong,” but I was not sure. Pure agony was the last look I saw on Kia Lynn’s face, and it was tearing me up inside. Did it have something to do with her limp?
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my forehead to my bent knees. So many questions...
The device I had stolen from the new tribe pressed against my back. My eyes popped open as I sat up straight. They hadn’t taken it. A sense of hope washed over me as my trembling fingers tugged it from the band of my trousers.
It was still cool to the touch. I ran my fingers around the edges, digging in and hoping I would finally find a way to open it. Maybe this was one of those moving picture machines Aly had told me stories about when I was young. She said they also had the ability to communicate with others around the entire world.
There was a jolt and I slid forward. My free hand pressed against the ground to hold myself steady, while the other held firmly to the device.
A light flashed on the other side of the room, and I leapt to my feet while shoving the device back where it had been tucked away. The room became brighter and I heard a click. A rounded section of the wall across from me slid forward and then over, revealing a doorway with Aly standing on the other side.
“You traitor!” I shrieked. Stomping toward her, my thoughts of strangling this woman with my bare hands invaded every corner of my mind, but a flash of orange caught my eye. I slid to a stop and stared wide-eyed at my hands.
They were searing hot. I had only lifted them slightly toward my face when flames burst from my palms. I stumbled back, tripping over my feet, and landed on my back before the fires extinguished themselves. My gaze flashed between each of my palms, bewildered by what I had just seen.
Aly appeared above me, and my eyes narrowed when they met hers. “What did you do to me?” The malice in my tone surprised even me.
She shook her head before leaning down and hauling me to my feet. “I have done nothing to you, sister. Get ahold of yourself, before you light yourself up again.”
Her hand rested on my arm but I shook it off, then pushed past her and out the door. What was on the other side stopped me in my tracks.
“What is this place?” I asked, staring at the pristine and perfectly angled furniture and tables.
I twirled in a circle, taking in everything around me. Lights on the floor were lit up like tiny suns, leading down a narrow hallway and up a staircase. I stepped toward it but was dragged back by Aly.
“We need to talk first,” she said, pulling me toward a set of gray chairs secured to the floor.
I shook her grip off again and took a seat. My gaze drifted upward at the ceiling lights embedded within the silver material. Muted colors seemed to be a theme in here, and they reminded me of the anaman room I had stolen the device from.
“Whoever lives here is terrible at interior design.” I snickered to myself, happy to have learned a reference from the ancient’s literature that would help me ridicule these thugs.
Aly sighed and leaned forward in her chair. “No one lives here, Zoe Dawn.”
“Still.” I wanted to stick my tongue out at her but rolled my eyes instead. “What do you want from me?” I asked, leaning back against the cushion and glaring at Mum’s friend.
“Do you want to know why those flames erupted from your hands?”
“Why would I want to know? Oh, I get it. It’s because you want to know?” My fury had returned, and I wished my newfound fire would scorch Aly, but it also scared me too much to let it happen again.
“Zoe Dawn, I am your friend and, quite frankly, your only one in these parts. Everyone else sees you as a tool for Mother Gaia’s life force.” She hung her head as if she had been defeated by her own words.
I did not like the sound of that. “Please explain.”
“You are about to find out,” she replied, lifting her gaze to meet mine. She reached over and grabbed my hand. “Did you meet someone recently, then shortly after sense something inside your body you had never felt before?”
I pulled back from her. “How did you know?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
“When this happened, were you with Kia Lynn?” she asked, ignoring my question.
I scooted forward in my chair, squeezing Aly’s hand. “What is happening? Tell me, now.”
“You are changing.” She let my hand drop to my lap and cupped my chin in her hands. “We always suspected it would be you and Kia Lynn, especially with her birthmark giving away her elemental power, but we never believed it would be an anaman girl who would be your missing link.”
“What in the world are you gushing on about?” My voice rose an octave as I pushed away from her and leapt from my seat. “You are not making any sense, sister. What do you mean I am changing?”
“There was a prophecy. It was written after the stars fell from the skies many hundreds of years ago while the people hid in the black mountains.” She shifted in her seat and crossed one leg over the other. “Please sit down, Zoe Dawn. This could take a moment.”
“Who wrote this prophecy?” I asked, sinking slowly onto the chair.
She shook her head. “I do not know the name of the seer. I am not sure anyone does, but we have the platform these words were written on. It was clear who would revive Mother Gaia from her dormant state.”
“Our planet?” I asked. “Why in the world would you believe she is sleeping? Have you not seen the wild vegetation that grows across our lands? We can barely contain it.”
“Exactly. And there is more to it than that.”
“Then just tell me already,” I snapped. My gaze flashed back to the hallway. I had to escape.
Aly drew in a long breath, then exhaled with a huff. “Zoe Dawn, you will not make it out of this ship.”
My eyes met hers, and I could see that she truly believed I could not make it. Obviously she did not know me well enough. I folded my arms over my chest and stared back defiantly.
“You were saying?” I asked, not hiding my vile disdain for her.
“She was saying”—a giant man filled the entryway from the corridor—“that it is time for you to join us outside.”
My arms fell to my sides, and I knew by the way Aly was looking at me that I needed to pick my jaw up from off the floor. He was massive. The black shirt he wore clung to his chest like it was painted on, as it nearly matched the tone of his skin, and when he moved his arms, the outlines of his muscles pressed against the fabric. I knew I was staring, which was embarrassing, but it was impossible to tear my eyes away.
“Who are you?” I lifted my gaze to meet his deep-set, dark-brown eyes.
His stony expression did not change as he stared at me. “I am the keeper of the prophecy, the guardian of the seers.” He stepped into the room and waved me over. “If you would like to know more, follow me.”
“Keeper of the prophecy. Is that right?” I murmured as I rose from my seat. The edges of my lips quirked up in amusement. He really took this role seriously. “Is that your name? Keeper? Guardian? What do I call you?”
His brows twitched slightly, and I saw a brief glimmer of amusement in his eyes. I internally gave myself a high five. I succeeded at changing his expression, if only for a moment.
“Malcolm. You may call me Malcolm.” He pointed to the hallway.
Aly pulled me past the massive beast and down the corridor. The stairs led to another gray room. This one was filled with anaman machines and more chairs bolted to the floor, but Aly dragged me quickly by and down another corridor before stepping out into the sunshine.
“How long was I out?” I asked, staring at the brightened sky. It had to be close to mid-meal. My stomach growled from the thought, and I suddenly realized how hungry I was. “What do you have to eat around here?”
I looked back at the giant—I mean Malcolm. His stony expression had returned, but I was not worried. I would crack him if it was the last thing I did.
Aly grabbed my arm and tugged me forward. “They have food inside.”
That was when I really took in my surroundings. We were walking on a hard surface unlike anything I had seen before. I glanced down at the silvery ground. It was smooth like the device lodged between my back and trousers. What astounded me even more were the buildings surrounding us. They were clean and undamaged. The vegetation had been cleared away and the structures rose high above us, stretching for the stars. Right behind them were red-and-orange mountainsides. It was a stunning view.
I twirled in a circle, taking in each building. A few were shorter, but several others rose so high I could barely see the tops of them. They were how I imagined the ancient world’s structures to be, but even better. The ship we had been in was small compared to the buildings, but more significant than any home in our village.
My gaze met Malcolm’s. “Where are we?”
“Far from the black mountains,” he replied with a flat stare. “Here you will learn more about Mother Gaia, and your purpose in this life, than anywhere else on the planet.” He wrapped his hands over my shoulders, and I felt a flutter in my stomach. “Zoe Dawn, we have been waiting for your flame to spark for many years. All of this”—he waved his massive hand toward the buildings—“was built for this moment, and you will finally begin the most important process of our lifetimes.”
I sputtered out a laugh. He was too serious. And what was this garbage he was spewing?
He ignored my outburst. “Once you are all united, the three of you will move the heightened energy across our beautiful lands. Welcome to Zion.”
