Eve of the White Flame
Chapter 06 - Eve of the White Flame
Eve was not born naturally.
Helix had built her from cells taken from every Seraph child.
She possessed fragments of all their abilities.
Atlas’s strength.
Lena’s regeneration.
Marcus’s density.
Maya’s kinetic power.
And a white flame none of them understood.
The team entered Fort Halcyon through a drainage tunnel beneath the river.
Rows of glass chambers held adults and children in suspended animation.
Dormant carriers.
Maya stopped beside a sleeping boy.
“Can we free them?”
“Not until the Array is disabled,” Evelyn answered through the radio.
At the central elevator, Eve waited.
The doors closed.
Marcus hardened his body.
Eve touched his chest.
White fire passed through him.
He collapsed.
Lena absorbed the damage and black veins spread across her neck.
Gabriel attacked.
Eve broke his shield arm and pinned him to the wall.
Maya released a red blast.
Eve absorbed it.
“Thank you,” she said.
They tore upward through three floors, fighting through metal and glass.
Every strike Maya landed made Eve stronger.
Every hit Eve delivered taught Maya something.
Eve had no anger, fear, or hesitation.
Power without emotion.
“You don’t know why you’re fighting,” Maya said.
“I was made to complete Ascension.”
“That is what they told you. It is not what you are.”
Eve threw Maya through a laboratory wall.
Behind the glass stood Ana.
Red energy flowed through cables attached to her body.
Ana opened her eyes.
“Maya?”
Eve entered.
“Do not speak to the Vessel.”
Ana looked at her with sorrow.
“They named you Eve because you were the first child created without a mother. But I held you before they took you away.”
Eve’s flame flickered.
A memory crossed her face.
Warm arms.
A song.
Red light above a crib.
The fortress alarms began.
The Ascension Array activated.
Ana screamed.
Eve looked toward the control chamber.
“Director Voss started it.”
Maya held out her hand.
“Help us stop him.”
Eve looked at Ana, then at Maya’s hand.
“I don’t know how.”
“Neither do I.”
May you like
For the first time in her life, Eve made a choice that was not an order.
She took Maya’s hand.
