Chapter 7

Lilly’s POV

When I awoke the tunnel was smelling of damp earth and the lanterns were casting a faint light. Someone was talking, quiet and tense voices echoing through the space. I stayed still pretending I was still asleep until I heard someone say my name.

“..she burned one of them,” John was saying, “with her hands. I saw it and so did everyone here. There was no fire or torch, just light coming from inside her.”

Scarlet’s voice came next, softer. “We don’t know what that was, maybe it was a chemical reaction, adrenaline, something…”

“You really believe that?” John snapped. “You think that was normal?”

Mary shushed him, whispering something softly that I couldn’t hear. I opened my eyes and they stopped talking the instant they realized I was awake. The silence felt heavy, even Lilac curled up in a nest of blankets was too still like she could feel the weight of it too.

Liam stood near the center of the tunnel, arms crossed and rifle slung across his chest. His jaw was clenched tight and his expression was unreadable.

“Did you get any sleep?” He asked

“A little,” I murmured back.

He nodded but didn’t look away from me. “Good, then maybe you can tell us what exactly happed with you last night.”

There it was, no kindness just the blunt acknowledgment wrapped in suspicion.

I sat up slowly, the ache in my body there in every muscle as I explained, “I don’t know what had happened I was fighting one of the Hollowed, and then something came out of me. I didn’t plan it.”

John scoffed, “That’s not much of a explanation.”

I met his glare and replied, “You think I understand this any more than you do?”

Scarlet shifted uncomfortably, but Liam stayed quiet watching me like he could measure the truth from between my words.

“You were glowing,” Mary whispered then, her voice fragile. “Lilly, it was so beautiful and terrifying all at once.”

I looked down at my hands and they looked so ordinary now, pale and trembling, but I could still feel feeling of the light beneath my skin. It was like something had taken root and was waiting to appear again.

“I’m not dangerous,” I said finally, although I wasn’t sure I believed it myself. “Whatever that was it wasn’t something I could control.”

Liam’s expression hardened, “Until we know what it is you are dangerous, maybe not by choice but power like that draws attention.”

The way he said it was like he already knew something about power and it made me uneasy.

Scarlet stepped forward, hugging herself, “Enough. She is not our enemy, we all saw what happed out there, that thing would’ve killed her if she didn’t fight back.”

John muttered something under his breath, but Mary nodded in agreement. Liam let the silence stretch a little longer before he turned away stating, “Keep her close, but if she burns through the wall next we will all be buried alive.”

He walked away toward the far end of the tunnel, leaving the rest of us behind in the quiet with the echo of dripping water.

“You okay?” Scarlet crouched beside me once he was out of earshot.

“Define okay,” I tried to laugh but it came out shaky.

She smiled faintly. “Alive maybe?”

“For now.”

We sat in silence for a moment the flicker of the lantern’s soft light flicked across the walls. My chest still ached from running, but I wasn’t exhaustion keeping me awake, it was him. The dream clung to my mind making me wish I asked more questions.

“Scarlet, can I ask you something without you thinking I have lost it?” I whispered.

She tilted her head, curious. “After everything we have seen I doubt you could surprise me.”

“I saw someone.”

Her brow furrowed. “In the compound?”

“No, in my dreams or somewhere that didn’t feel like a dream.”

She leaned closer, her voice getting quieter. “What do you mean?”

“There was this place it had sand and fire, the sky was a deep red like it never saw day or night. And he was there.” I hesitated, unsure how to describe him without sounding insane. “He was tall, had dark armor and his eyes were a gold color. He seemed to know who I was because he said he had found me.”

Scarlet frowned, searching my face. “Who?”

“He didn’t give me his name until the end of the dream. I believe he said his name was Kael.”

She tested it on her tongue, “Kael…”

“I think,” I hesitated once more, then exhaled. “I think he is a god.”

Scarlet blinked. “A god?”

“I know how it sounds,” I said quickly, “but he wasn’t human. The air around him was burning, but it didn’t hurt me. He also talked about ‘tethers’ and said the gods had noticed me.”

She stared at me for a long moment before finally whispering, “You think the light you had used came from him?”

“I don’t know,” my fingers were clenched in my lap, “but when he said his name I felt it, like something had woke up inside me, like I had known him forever.”

Scarlet rubbed a hand over her face and sighed, “Gods, Hollowed, what next?”

“Who knows what else is out there.” I replied managing a weak smile.

She gave a small smile back despite everything, then she glanced at me again and asked, “If he is real and if he is what you think he is, then why would a god be in your head Lilly?”

I didn’t answer right away because I didn’t have one to give her, but deep down I could still feel a small part of his presence, warm, steady and ancient. It wasn’t cruel or kind it was just there.

“Maybe he’s not in my head,” I whispered finally, “Maybe I am in his.”

The air seemed to thicken around us after I said that, Scarlet didn’t respond but the look in her eyes said everything. She had a question she wasn’t ready to ask out loud along with the fear and curiosity. Because if gods were real, then maybe the end of the world wasn’t the end at all.

Maybe it was the beginning of a new one.