Zoe Thanatos (20 page)

“What about the other children?”
she asked.

“They were never found. As far as
anyone knows Zara and Zarek are dead. Anyone who doesn’t know any better thinks
Zoe is dead, too.”

Eva stood and paced around the
room, trying to piece together the new information with what she already knew.
Until recently Thea Thanatos was presumed dead. It was only after Evan
unwittingly found her in Gaia that the events in Terra unfolded. She stopped
her pacing and turned to look at the King.

“So all of this, the stolen book
and your fake capture, was predicated on Evan finding Zoe?”

Owyn nodded. “Zoe is the key to
everything. I knew either you or your brother would bring her here one way or
another. Truthfully, I thought it would be Evan. You managed to do it right
under the Queen’s nose.”

“How did you know it would be
either one of us? You make it sound as though it were a certainty.”

The King smiled. “It is a
certainty. Thea saw to it that Evan would always be linked to her daughters and
you would always be linked to Evan.”

Eva expelled a breath of air
impatiently. “Linked how? How would she be able to do that?”

The King narrowed his eyes at her.
“Evan is the only one who could have found Zoe and likewise you will always be
able to find Evan. The rest isn’t important right now.” There was definitely
more, she thought.

“So no matter which universe she
was sent to, Evan would have always been the one to find her?”

“Yes, and he always will. Your
mother and father were closer to the Queen than anyone and she wanted your
generation to be linked.”

Despite the difficulty in imagining
how Thea was able to accomplish something so seemingly supernatural, it made a
degree of sense to Eva. She had always felt a closeness to Evan that went
beyond their sibling bond, but to know that the Thanatos children were also a
part of that bond instigated a feeling of propriety towards Zoe. She initially
thought that bringing Zoe to Terra was doing her brother a favor, but in light
of the new information she understood it as being deeper. She felt a growing
sense that she should protect Zoe as though she were her own flesh and blood.

Eva paced the room again until she
came back to the chair she had been sitting in. Her hands went autonomously to
the chair’s back, and she held herself steady as the weight of the King’s
admissions settled in her consciousness.

“There’s just one thing I don’t
understand,” she began. “Why you? Of all the people to rebel against the
Straton monarchy you are the very last person I would suspect. You’re the King
and married into the most powerful family in Terra.”

He shook his head. “Not married
into. I
am
a Straton.”

Eva craned her head towards him. “I
don’t understand.”

“You don’t know much about your own
royal history, do you?” he asked in mock incredulity.

“I stopped caring about it the day
the first Straton Queen took Evan and me captive after our parents died,” she
retorted. No, she didn’t give a shit about anyone’s own royal history until it
involved her directly.

“My aunt was the first Straton
Queen. My mother and father were loyal to the Thanatos family, the Queen
especially, just like your family. They had no part in my aunt’s betrayal and
died trying to protect Thea and her family. My aunt and uncle took me in as a
captive the same as you, only because I was blood I was given opportunities you
and Evan weren’t.”

“Opportunities like marrying your
own cousin?” she spit. The thought of it made her ill. To her knowledge
interfamily marriage was something that never occurred in Terra.

“She’s not my cousin,” he said in a
hushed tone. Eva’s face fell as her thoughts receded from her mind. The King’s
face was that of relief. He looked like a man who had finally let go of words
he had been holding on to for far too long.

“I beg your pardon?” Clearly she
had misunderstood him.

“I can’t explain now. You’ll know
what I mean soon enough.”

Eva felt a stab of disappointment
in her gut. He had been so forthcoming only to stop after revealing the most
cryptic piece of information yet.

“In the meantime, I need to prepare
you for what comes next.”

“What do you mean ‘what comes
next’?” She could process everything she had already learned. She wasn’t sure
she could handle anything else.

“As soon as you leave this room you
need to take Zoe and head straight to Last City. You’ll find a gate in the City
Center.”     

“Wait a minute,” Eva interrupted.
“They deactivated that gate. And besides, it was programmed for Gaia; you’re
suggesting we go back to Earth?”

Owyn shook his head impatiently.
“There should be a map among the scrolls Zoe found in her home on Earth. That
map contains instructions on how to reactivate the gate for one specific
location: Thea calls it the Forgotten Gardens.”

 “Where do I know that from?” she
wondered out loud, ignoring the question she wanted to ask about how he knew
about the glass box Zoe found.

“Like I said, you’ll want to brush
up on your royal history. The Forgotten Gardens is where Zoe needs to be to
understand who she is, to remember her family’s history.”

“Why though? Wouldn’t it be easier
for Thea to just explain it all to her?”

“The Queen will undoubtedly
interrogate Thea and it won’t be long until she also knows about Zoe. I don’t
think I have to explain what kind of threat they pose to each other. Until Zoe
remembers who she is you need to keep her as far away from the Queen as
possible.”

Eva drew in a long breath of air
and expelled it quickly. “All right. What happens after Zoe is enlightened
about her family’s history?”

The King hesitated, his mouth
forming a hard line across his face as he considered his words. “She’ll know
what to do.”

Eva’s jaw nearly unhinged from her
head. “How? By divine intervention?”

He breathed deeply. “Something like
that.” He was serious.

Eva circled around the room with
her hands on her head, willing her mind to absorb every word the King had
spoken, committing it all to memory.

“This is a girl who has spent
countless years growing up in Gaia, who literally only just found out she’s
from another universe, and you’re expecting her to magically download
generations-worth of history in a mythical garden, with the hopes of doing
what
,
exactly?”

“Claiming her birthright.”

“You mean starting a war against
the Queen, just like the Stratons before her?”

Owyn gave a sober nod. “Yes.”

“And what about Thea? The Queen is
going to sentence her to life imprisonment. Or worse.”

“We all have a part to play in
this,” he asserted. “Thea knows what hers is, as do I.”

“And my brother? What is his role?”

The King’s eyes cast downward, a
grave expression on his face. “The Queen trusts him.”

Eva shifted on her feet
impatiently. “What does that mean?”

“It means that his part is to help
you from
beside
her.”

“He has feelings for Zoe. Once he
knows she’s here…”

“He can’t know,” Owyn interrupted.
“At least not until Zoe is safe in the Forgotten Gardens. The Queen needs to
believe he has nothing to do with Zoe whatsoever.”

Eva shook her hands nervously at
her side, her feet pacing again around the room. She couldn’t willingly deceive
her brother, could she? It was true that the Queen trusted him more than anyone
else, but could he use that to keep both Zoe and her safe from the Queen? Was
she really prepared to help ignite a civil war against Kyra Straton?

Zoe opened the door and peered out
into the common room, her eyes sweeping the expanse for any sign of life. Eva
had been gone a while and the room was otherwise quiet. She attempted to sleep
but found the artificial air to be distracting. The room may have been a
programmed recreation of a space she was very comfortable and familiar with,
but she couldn’t allow herself to be relaxed in its artificiality.

She cautiously entered the room
taking great care to keep the sound of her footsteps at a minimum. She felt
silly for being nervous, like a child afraid of being caught doing something
bad, but she was in a foreign place without a friendly face in sight. She made
her way to the kitchenette and stood in front of the Nutrition Replicator. A
strange giggle escaped her mouth. Everything about Terra was like a surreal
dream, or an episode of Star Trek.

Her stomach growled. When was the
last time she ate? She eyed the Replicator again, recalling the delicious
truffle it had produced earlier. She wondered what else it could replicate.

With an ounce of hesitation she
placed her hand on the designated corner of the glass and ceremoniously closed
her eyes.
A burrito with chicken. No, carnitas. Cilantro-lime rice, beans,
extra cheese. Sour cream and guacamole
. When her eyes opened again they
fell immediately on a plate with the most generously sized burrito she had ever
seen with wisps of steam curling up into the room. She picked up the plate with
two hands and carefully carried it to a nearby table, placed it down and took a
seat.

She inhaled deeply. It certainly
smelled real. She picked it up and bit generously from one end, closing her
eyes as her mouth absorbed the taste. Artificial or not, it tasted like the
real deal and reminded her so much of home.

Home
. The word made little
sense to her anymore. How was she meant to reconcile with having lived her life
in one world, only to be told that she was from another? It was easier to
accept the knowledge that another universe existed, but to also come from it? 
And then there was the
other
thing. Eva told her that the Thanatos
family was the first ruling monarchy of Terra. She saw for herself her name on
the genealogical chart next to others; a mother, aunts, and a sister. If they
were part of the ruling monarchy, then didn’t that mean she was part of it as
well? What did that make her, then? Some sort of princess?

A laugh erupted from her gut and
her hand whipped to her mouth to keep the food from spitting out. She swallowed
and tilted her head back, the laughter roaring out of her loudly and shaking
her abdomen.
Zoe Thanatos, princess of an alternate universe named Terra
.
She laughed, full-bellied and louder than necessary with tears streaming from
her face for what seemed like five whole minutes, her food discarded on the
table.

The muscles in her abdomen were
aching by the time the laughter began to subside. Even her mouth was sore. As
she calmed she felt the peculiar sensation that she was being watched. She
glanced to the left and found a pair of green eyes ardently observing her from
the doorway to his personal residence. The laughter subsided and left a trace
smile that grew half an inch at the sight of him. She had to part her mouth to
take in a breath of air, hoping it would abate the increasing rate of her heart
in her chest.

I should have kissed you
.
The memory of their last moments together came to mind as she looked at Evan,
who was even more handsome than she remembered. In the short amount of time she
knew him she had more than once shared her physical space with him; in her
living room, at the restaurant overlooking the Channel Islands, and again in
her backyard. She never wanted to be kissed so much in her life.

“Evan,” she breathed. Her heart was
still beating fast, pumping enough blood through her body to heat her from
beneath the skin. She stood, the back of her knees pushing the chair away
hastily, and walked towards him, her heartbeat pounding in her ears as he
approached her, each of them closing the gap. Her arms circled around him as
she buried her face in the crook of his neck. His arms circled around her
torso, holding her body close to his. She had to stand on her toes to reach his
height. He smelled so clean and warm, like soap and fresh laundry. Her body
relaxed. Being in his arms felt like the only non-artificial thing in Terra.

Her breath expelled in slow drafts
against him and when she opened her eyes she saw his skin was prickled with
goose bumps. Her lips were close enough to touch his skin, but she resisted the
urge to do so. She stepped back from his embrace and let her arms fall to her
sides as her feet brought her back to her own height.

“Your laughter is the most
beautiful sound,” he whispered softly. 

The air between them felt
electrified, a charge that not even a simulated atmosphere could deny. The way
he looked at her, like he thought he’d never see her again... No one had ever
looked at her like that before, so filled with relief and longing. His hands
were on her shoulders, still holding her close to him in their shared space.

“I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I was hoping I’d see you,” she
whispered back.

Evan bowed his head, resting his
forehead tenderly against hers. He, too, was attempting to normalize his
breathing, his chest rising and falling in front of her.

“Zoe you shouldn’t be here.”

She moved her head back, his rising
again to look down at her. His expression was pained, caught between two
conflicting emotions.

“According to
your
sister,
I’m supposed to be here.”

Evan’s eyebrows creased above his
eyes. “You know?”       

“I told her.” Zoe and Evan turned
their heads and found Eva standing at the entryway, the door closing shut
behind her. “And she’s not the only one who knows.”

“Who else?” Evan asked, alarm in
his voice.

Eva walked to one of the
partitioned sitting areas in the room and took a seat on a slick black chair.
When Zoe felt Evan’s arms drop from her shoulders she followed Eva, taking an
adjacent seat. Evan sat opposite her.