Lily's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Lily woke on the cabin floor with the fire down to coals. The night had not ended the way Amity wanted, but it had ended. She pulled the door open and stepped out into wet grass. The gathering was quiet now. She did not want to walk back past the lit windows, so she took the long way through the trees, where the ground sloped down toward a clearing she had not seen before. A huge tree stood at the center of it. Its trunk twisted up in knots, and its roots spread out across the dirt in long, bright lines that glowed faint colors under the leaves. She stopped at the edge of the clearing. She had meant to keep walking. Her feet did not move. Something under her collarbone began to warm, slow and steady, like a hand pressed there from the inside. She looked down. A thin chain had appeared at her throat. A small charm hung from it, round and pale, pulsing in time with the warmth. She touched it. It was real. The pulse matched something she could not name, and then matched two things, one quick and one slower, both of them moving toward her through the trees. She heard the wreck before she saw them. Past the roots, the remains of an old cart lay on its side, one wheel snapped, sacks split open in the dirt. Two men stepped around it. The taller one had dark horns and a long coat. The shorter one had brown hair and his hands in his pockets, like he had been out for a walk and stumbled into the wrong story. They both stopped when they saw her. The charm at her throat flared brighter. "Found you," the shorter one said. He looked at the pendant, then at her face. "That's new." The taller one did not move closer. His red eyes went from the charm to the tree to her. "We followed a scent," he said. "It led here." He paused. "You feel it too." Lily's first instinct was to turn cold and send them off the way she had sent off four others the night before. She opened her mouth. The charm pulsed against her skin, warm and certain, and the word she meant to use did not come. She felt the bond settle into place between the three of them like a line drawn through her chest. She could not unfeel it. She could not pretend she had not. "I'm Dan," the shorter one said. He gave her a small, easy smile. "He's Darius. We can leave if you want. We won't." Lily looked at them and did not look away. The night before, she had decided the thing that pushed people away might be what she was. The pendant said otherwise. So did her own quiet. She stayed where she stood, under the lit roots, and let them see her face.