IMMORTALS

C H A P T E R 4

Falling from grace does not feel like flying; it feels like tearing through cold glass.

The wind screamed in Lili’s ears as the colossal silhouette of Eden’s Great Wall ripped away into the swirling storm clouds above. Gravity—an absolute law they had never experienced in its full, violent brutality—dragged them downward with dizzying velocity. Ethan’s arms were locked fiercely around her waist, shielding her body with his own as they shattered through a dense canopy of ancient, flood-battered pine trees.

CRACK! SNAP!

Thick branches whipped violently across their skin, snapping under their descent and breaking the lethality of the fall before they crashed violently into a massive embankment of dark, silty river mud.

Lili gasped, choking on bitter water and damp silt. Pain—real, blinding, thrumming physical pain—exploded through her ribs, her scraped arms, and the jagged lightning burn across her shoulder. For millennia, her body had repaired every microscopic fracture in seconds. Now, the agony lingered, throbbing with hot, raw intensity.

Beside her, Ethan pushed himself up from the muck with a ragged groan. His face was covered in dark mud, his tunic torn to shreds, and a deep gash along his brow was actively bleeding—thick, crimson drops trickling down into his golden lashes.

"Lili..." Ethan rasped, his voice raw with panic as he scrambled toward her on hands and knees. He caught her face in his trembling, mud-stained hands, inspecting every bruise with fierce desperation. "Lili, look at me. Breathe. Are you whole?"

Lili forced a breath into her burning lungs, looking up at him through matted coils of dark hair. "I... I hurt, Ethan. Everything burns."

"That means you're alive," Ethan breathed, pulling her tightly against his chest. His own heart was hammering against hers like a trapped thunderclap. He pressed his lips hard against her forehead, kissing away the mud and the cold rain. "We made it. We’re out."

They sat in the dark morass, holding each other as the cold rain of the mortal world soaked into their skin. Looking back, the Great Wall rose behind them like an impossible obsidian mountain, its upper battlements hidden behind impenetrable, lightning-charged mist. Eden was gone. Paradise had locked its golden doors behind them forever.

Lili slowly lifted her head, looking out across the vast, shadowed wilderness that stretched into infinity. The floodwaters had carved deep, jagged canyons and treacherous marshes through the land. The air was wild, heavy with the scent of wet pine, ozone, and rotting cedar. It was terrifyingly vast, chaotic, and lawless.

Suddenly, the crimson pulse beneath Ethan’s chest flickered, growing hotter.

Lili reached up, pressing her trembling palm against his sternum. "Ethan... look."

The radiant glow wasn't just beating; it was reacting to the wilderness. In the distance, deep within the tangled shadows of the primeval forest, faint crimson sparks began to drift through the mist—echoes of lingering mortal essence scattered across the flooded plains.

Before Ethan could speak, a low, guttural growl vibrated through the damp earth.

From the shadows of the twisted roots, three massive pairs of yellow, hungry eyes locked onto them. Giant, dire wolves—creatures of the wild that had survived the deluge by feeding on the drowned—stepped into the pale moonlight, baring fangs stained with black blood.

The predators caught the scent of fresh, hot blood leaking from Ethan’s brow and Lili’s shoulder.

Ethan slowly stood up, placing himself squarely between Lili and the advancing beasts. He clenched his fists, finding a jagged, heavy branch of petrified oak buried in the mud.

"Get behind me, Lili," Ethan whispered, his blue eyes narrowing with deadly focus, his mortal blood roaring with untamed adrenaline.

The lead beast coiled its massive hind legs and let out a bone-chilling roar, launching itself straight at Ethan’s throat.