Genesis: A Soul Savers Novella Read Online Free PDF

on the far side. Her soldier must be with them. Well, he’s safe now. As if he really cared.
    He returned to where the wolf’s prints had left off but still found no trace. Frustrated, Jordan headed home and the closer he came, the more his anger at Father grew. The old man owed them answers. If Father was truly dying, he needed to explain himself—and everything about them—something he had refused to do all these years.
    Jordan had developed countless theories, but the one that made the most sense—they were descendants of the gods everyone else believed in—conflicted with their own beliefs in one God. Cassandra rarely played his game of hypothesizing, telling him they should simply be grateful for the blessings God had given them. Of course, unlike him, she’d been kept from associating with other people—women didn’t belong in public places—so she didn’t fully understand just how different they were. How much better they were than all others.
    “How is he?” Jordan demanded as soon as he burst into the hut.
    Cassandra sat on the floor, next to Father’s sleeping form, her eyes wide and her body tense with the sudden intrusion. She blinked, then her eyes narrowed.
    “You’re back already? What did you find?”
    “Nothing,” he growled. “How is he?”
    “Did you even look?”
    “There were soldiers in the field, gathering their dead. I didn’t find anyone in the woods, so I’m sure he’s with them.” Jordan nodded at the sleeping form next to her. “What about our father? Shouldn’t he be your concern?”
    Her shoulders sagged, as did the corners of her mouth.
    “Nothing I do is working. He’s been sleeping, but fitfully, crying out every now and then. Mostly Mother’s name, but sometimes other things. But it’s all nonsense.”
    Jordan removed his weapons and tossed them onto his bedding. He knelt on Father’s far side, across from his sister. “He must come around. He needs to explain—”
    Cassandra was already shaking her head and Father, as if anticipating Jordan’s demand, silenced him.
    “I … must … tell them,” Father croaked. “It is time.”
    He fell silent again. Jordan exchanged looks with his sister, but she just shook her head. She brushed Father’s hair from his forehead, away from his closed eyes.
    “Hush, Father. Do not—”
    The old man’s eyelids sprang open and he glared at her with full alertness. “Yes. I must tell you. You need to know.”
    He tried to rise, struggling to sit up. Jordan gathered more blankets and pelts and propped him up as much as possible. Father’s face looked haggard and his eyes pale and red-rimmed as they rested first on Jordan and then on Cassandra. He licked his cracked lips and closed his eyes. When he began, his voice suddenly came as clear and as strong as it always had.
    “Your mother and I have told you the story of how we met,” he said. “How I remembered nothing of my life before. I’ve always said it was as though I’d never lived in this world until the moment I met her.” He opened his eyes and pierced them with his blue gaze. “Which, my dear children, is actually quite true.”
    Jordan sat back on his heels as he listened to his father’s story, which felt so real and true the way he told it, but could not be possible. When Father was done, he closed his eyes again and sagged against the mound of blankets.
    “I have told them. They know now,” he murmured, obviously no longer talking to them.
    Cassandra looked at Jordan and he looked back at her with lifted brows.
    “That’s it?” Jordan asked with incredulity. “All this time we’ve wanted to know what made us different from everyone else, and that’s his explanation?”
    Jordan teetered on the edge of exploding. Cassandra shook her head violently. “Jordan, he’s very ill. He’s just delirious.”
    “I would say so! What does he think we are? Children? Infants who believe in such nonsense?”
    “Please, Jordan—”
    Her plea for him to