Page 49 of Sacrifice
Eve laughed a little manically and pointed to the empty glass. Lucien dutifully refilled it. She downed it and sat back in her chair to stare at him.
Alright. In for a penny. She thought.You can hear me?
He nodded.Oh yes.
Oh, my actual god! Right, well, yes, obviously! And how long have you been able to do that?
A wicked smile grew on his face. Longer than I should have kept quiet about, perhaps, but you have such a dirty mind. It was hard to resist.
She was lost for words.
“Your good health,” he said, raising his glass. She raised her empty one and they fell into silence.
“Try this,” he said. He scooped a button of caviar onto a blini and added a drop of sour cream. “It’s the closest thing to heaven you can eat.”
Eve was too shocked to speak, but she was hungry. He fed it to her like a child. It was delicious, the very essence of the sea itself, both salty and faintly creamy. He refilled her glass and with another sip of champagne; it was the taste of pure opulence.
She chewed and stared at him. “So, you can read my mind?”
He shrugged. “I have a few tricks of my own.”
“Are you descended from a god, too?”
Lucien shook his head. “Nothing so grand, but what I understand, I’ve suspected it for a long time. I’ve always felt disconnected from my true self. I told you the story of Ishtar and Elham for good reason. It feels so familiar to me, like it’s ingrained in my soul. I think it’s in yours too.”
It took a moment for that to sink in. Elham was Ishtar’s great love—the man she’d given up her powers for. Eve blinked at him. If Lucien was saying what she thought he was, it was fantastical in the extreme. Could it be possible? They had a connectionbeyond anything she’d ever experienced before. Had everything been leading to this?
“Ereshkigal is keeping us apart, my Eve.” He picked up the champagne flute and took an excited sip. “It’s taken me an age to put all the pieces together, but subconsciously I think I’ve always known my life was being interfered with. There’s been celestial intervention by the Akkadian council. I’ve been trying to escape it, to break their bonds. I’ve been collecting artefacts for years that I think might have the smallest chance of helping me. It’s what my collection is all about. I want to communicate with the gods, Eve. I want them to set me free. Now that I’ve found you, it’s more important than ever. Ishtar and Elham, reunited, at last. I need you to let me in.”
“Ishtar and Elham?” Could it be?
“Plenty of cultures believe in reincarnation and no-one really knows the truth of what’s out there, beyond what we can see. Is it so impossible to believe?”
Putting down the glass, Lucien took both Eve’s hands in his and the waves that rippled across her skin were visible to her now. Their presence was undeniable.
“Let you in? How?”
Lucien’s eyes crinkled in a smile.There’s so much to learn. So many artefacts to explore. Will you help me experiment? I think it’s the only way.He bent his head to kiss her hands. Waves of tingling radiated along her arms and across her chest, brushing over the tender skin of her breasts like a cool breeze and raising her nipples to hard buds. The effect his touch had on her was unprecedented. She wanted him like she’d never wanted anyone. Was it so difficult to believe they were destined to be together?
“Yes,” she said, “Alright. I’ll try.”
He built another caviar blini to hand it to her. “Eat. You’re going to need the calories.”
That she could do, and willingly. She was feeling light-headed. “Is it you doing the telepathy or me?”
He switched to speaking inside her mind.
It’s me, but you are capable. I’m not a god, Eve, but I believe they have touched me. You know my story. Elham was given some of Ishtar’s powers so that he could return home from the underworld. I’ve been searching for meaning in my life for a long time. I’ve always known there was more to me, and when I discovered the Ishtar and Elham story, I knew it had to be more than just a myth. I knew it in my heart and I searched.
He slapped at his own chest, laying a hand over his heart.
I’ve been hunting for artefacts my whole life, Eve. Searching for the way to break the curse of the gods. Searching for a way to be reunited with my love, to be free.
So much of what he was saying felt like it could be true. It would explain so much. Truth was, she wanted it to be true. “So, what else can I do?” she said.
“Let’s see.”
“Where are we going?”Eve asked as they walked down Piccadilly.
