Eternity Gate by Traci Harding

Author:Traci Harding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

She recited this prose three times, waving her hand over the melted gold.

As the crystal shards twirled counterclockwise, suspended between the item and her hand, to my great horror, the seal reformed.

Ereshkigal removed her veil. Her huge, almond-shaped eyes, gray-green in colour, opened wide in wonder, as she read the letters printed evenly around the rim of the seal. ‘B … A … E … L.’

I was shocked that she could even read our dialect, but if our genetics and technology were similar, it stood to reason that the written word was also.

She took the seal in hand and raised it to view the insignia more closely.

‘Hey, don’t mess with that!’ Penemue revealed himself to warn her.

Like all of her kind, Ereshkigal had barely any nose at all, and a tiny little mouth with large black-painted lips. Her near-black hair was short and spiked, but still she was a beautiful creature to behold. She rose and turned to observe Penemue, who was quite captivated by her gaze.

‘Those seals are very dangerous,’ he added more civilly when she made no comment. ‘That is why we destroyed them.’ He made a move to approach her and retrieve the item.

Ereshkigal held up a hand, palm exposed in a halting gesture, and Penemue adhered to her wish.

Then a tightening in her cheekbones caused a grin to form on her lips. ‘I am also very dangerous,’ she advised, sweetly.

A dart shot forth from beneath the loose-fitting cuff of her long sleeve, and Penemue dropped like a stone to the ground. She turned and continued on to the next module that contained a melted seal.

I was enraged by the affront to my brother, and moved to use his form to counter the attack. Being a medium, I had the ability to beat Ereshkigal at her own game. I laid my spirit down in alignment with Penemue’s form and raising him to his feet once more I went after her.

‘Shall we try that again?’ I confronted her at close quarters and the Nefilim female was clearly amazed.

‘What? But I just —’ She spotted my spirit inside Penemue’s body. ‘Ah … It’s you, the disembodied one.’

‘You have something that belongs to us, and I would like it back.’ I held out a hand to receive the item she was holding.

‘Yet it is written in our ancient tongue,’ she challenged.

‘Your father would not approve of you possessing this item, I can assure you,’ I insisted.

‘I have a picture-perfect memory …’ She handed the seal over. ‘So it makes no difference to me.’

‘Then wipe the impression from your mind, lest it curse you for life and beyond,’ I advised.

‘The dark unknowable forces of this universe are just patterns unseen, begging to be understood.’ She stepped away from me. ‘Our secret desires are signposts to our destiny, and one should never be put off from a defining experience by the prospect of a little suffering or sacrifice. All great knowledge and achievement comes at a cost.’

A shadow erupted around her that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.