Read Descent07 - Paradise Damned for Free Online Page B

she tried to think. “Everyone. The people that live here.”
    “It’s just us,” He said. “Lilith has taken the others, so it’s finally peaceful. The way that we always wanted it to be.”
    Once He reminded her of that, she knew it to be truth. Lilith had taken the other inhabitants. Elise and Adam were alone. It was good, it was right—not lonely. How could she have been so confused? Why did she keep getting the details wrong?
    “That’s right. It’s perfect,” she agreed.
    The trees grew close to the path as they headed down. Elise captured a leaf between her forefinger and thumb. The texture surprised her. Although it looked plump and green, it broke off in her hand as though it were dead.
    Out of the corners of her eyes, she glimpsed the skeletons of bare trees and scorched earth.
    But when she turned her head to look at it, she saw a much more exotic world: vines the diameter of her arm, dangling from mossy branches. Bushes heavy with blackberries, raspberries, and fruit. She saw cobblestone under her toes, not dried soil. She couldn’t get a clear view of the destroyed garden, no matter how hard she tried.
    The dissonance of her senses washed over her with the hot sting of shock.
    Elise pressed a hand to her temple. Her thoughts struggled to organize themselves.
    She had been at Motion and Dance earlier, but not with Adam. She had dressed in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirrors of the dance hall and gathered her swords to join someone upstairs.
    Who had been there? She couldn’t remember his face or name now, but she knew that he had been planning to cook breakfast. They were together, finally together, and then…she had stepped outside the wards.
    Adam lifted her hand to kiss it. His lips tickled the knuckles of her hand. Her bare hand. After wearing gloves for so long, it felt like a violation. “Come, we’re meeting a visiting friend. Try to smile for him—he’ll be happy to see that we’re happy, and I want your passage through the door to be a happy occasion.”
    He drew Elise onward, entering an open building. The roof was suspended above them by a ring of white pillars. The floor was a sprawling mosaic. There were benches around the edges, and a raised dais at the center—almost like a priest’s pulpit, or a stage.
    There was a door on the opposite side of the temple. It was a rather ordinary door, like the kind leading into the bedroom at Motion and Dance. It was white, divided into four rectangular panels, and had a gold doorknob. But there was no wall to the right or left—just open air, through which she could see the rest of the gleaming white city.
    Elise’s temples throbbed harder.
    Why have a door when she could simply step around it? Where was this temple in relation to Motion and Dance? When had Reno become so beautiful?
    The questions faded from memory before she could ask Adam.
    It was only then that Elise realized that another man was waiting for them, facing the plain door with his hands folded behind his back. Elise could just make out the hazy outline of wings over his shoulders, but it must have been her imagination; as soon as she blinked, they were gone.
    Happiness radiated from Adam at the sight of the person waiting for them. “My son! You made it!”
    “Of course,” the other man replied without turning. He was studying the door as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. “I couldn’t miss this occasion. I’m eager to see your bride pass through.”
    “As am I, my friend.” Adam urged Elise forward with a hand pressed to her lower back. “That door is waiting for you. Go through. It’s long past time.”
    Dread churned in her stomach.
    She stalled. Dug her heels in.
    “Why can’t I just walk around it?” she asked.
    Adam turned an imploring look to His other companion. “Help me explain it to her. She’s so confused.”
    The angel finally turned. “Go through the door, Elise.”
    As soon as Elise saw the “friend’s” face, the