Fallen (Undergoing editing)

Chapter thirty-eight:

I was dreaming.

I could only see blackness, so black it reminded me of the night sky. Around me was the deafening sound of a crackling fire, its heat real—so real I could feel the warmth spread all through my chest. Squeezing my face together, wrinkling my noise, I opened my eyes and was immediately met with blinding orange dancing flames. I stood in a burning house, orange fire encircling me.

A piece of the house caved in and fell right at my feet, sending sparks shooting up into the air like blinding fireworks. I jumped back from the dangerous flames, feeling the sharp hot fire dance temptingly at me. I gazed through the flames, searching for a way out, but I was trapped. It was like a wall of flame all around me, leaving no escape.

Lilith.

"Lilith."

I turned, trying to follow the voice that echoed through my head, my eyes drying as I scanned the fiery death trap.

"Lilith."

I whipped around again, blocking my face from another bunch of flaming debris landing beside me, hitting me with hot sparks. Through the wall of fire, I saw a dark silhouette, framing itself through the mirror of orange. I watched as it stepped through the flames, breaking through the fire like it was a beaded curtain.

"Hello?" I called over the crackling flame, but my voice was so little and pathetic.

The silhouette stood facing me, his face becoming clear in the haze of the heat. The figure smiled, a smile I was familiar with. Deep blue ocean–like eyes, dark combed hair, grey neat misty wings tucked tightly against his back. I knew this combination too well.

"Falcon," I breathed.

Falcon smiled at the sound of his name, his eyes twinkling in the glow of the light. "Lilith, I've missed you."

I shook my head, tears tumbling down my cheek, but it was so hot, the flames dried them up in an instant. It was him. Falcon, the one who'd looked out for me since I was a baby. I couldn't believe I was seeing him again.

"Falcon, I—I've been so lost without you. So many things have happened—"

"I know," his face suddenly looked very stony and grave. "I'm sorry I've left you."

I ducked just as another explosion of sparks and fire came overhead. "Falcon—I—I know what I am—what the Capital has tried to hide from me. You knew it all along, didn't you? You saved me from that village."

Falcon's eyes couldn't have looked any darker with haunting. "I should have told you, Lilith. I am so sorry."

"My parents, my family, my people," I said over the breaking house around us both.

Even though the house was collapsing with fire as we spoke, Falcon hardly seemed to care or notice it; he hardly flinched or jumped away from the lunging flames. The ashes and sparks just flew around him, as if it were wind.

"Falcon, why—why did you save me?" I said in-between coughs; the smoke was drying up my throat and gagging me.

Falcon looked to me shaking his head. He looked older when he was sad. He looked years older. "I made a promise to your parents to keep you safe."

I felt my jaw fall open loosely, catching all the heat from the room. I closed it quickly as I felt the inside of my mouth begin to dry up.

"You—you knew my parents?"

Falcon nodded slowly. "I secretly worked with the Fallen—your parents mostly. They knew they were going to die, Lilith. So they made me promise to save you and hide you—whatever it took. I'm sorry."

I shook my head, feeling urgency in the air. It felt as though time were running out. "That doesn't make any sense!" I yelled over the roaring fire.

Humor flashed across Falcon's eyes as he gazed at me. "You were always my real family, Lilith, never forget that." A piece of stone and wood crashed at Falcon's feet. He hardly winced, but his eyes widened as if he sensed the urgency too. "You must fight, Lilith. You must fight to survive—never surrender. You either die fighting or die trying."

I coughed, trying my best to see through the sweat and smoke that began to fill the room.

"Do not let the Capital near that vault, little girl, do you understand me?"

I coughed again, the air around us getting thicker. "Yes—yes I understand, but Falcon—"

"Lilith, this is where I must leave you. Remember, you are never alone." Falcon's eyes seemed so distant as he flashed a smile that didn't meet his eyes as he turned on his heel and began to stalk away.

"No—no wait, Falcon don't go!" I screamed through the howling flame, but it was too late. He'd already passed through the fire and was gone; leaving me in the burning wreckage.

I coughed and stumbled through the flame and thick air. My head felt dizzy; my lungs and eyes burned from the smoke. Again, I was left alone in the desolation that surrounded me.

I heard voices above me.

"Is she waking up? I thought I heard her talking?"

"No, I think she was dreaming, she must've been dreaming."

"Jeez, look at poor Demetrius, he hasn't left her side since she got here."

"Yeah, I know. She's been crying for him too in her sleep."

"Poor girl."

"I know."

I could hear no more as I fell back into my dark heavy rest.