Page 77 of Property of Prophet

Prophet nods. “And Calix?”

“Come through us first.”

Then Blade’s eyes find the seat by the lamp. “Lily.”

“I know my role.”

“No.”

Every head in the cabin turns toward Prophet.

Lily’s expression doesn’t change. “That wasn’t a question.”

“You will be connected to the seal.”

“Yes.”

“And if it fails—”

“Then you better make damn sure it doesn’t.”

Prophet’s jaw locks. “Lily.”

She closes the notebook. “You don’t get to decide I’m too fragile for this because we slept together.”

Rooser becomes intensely interested in the ceiling.

“That’s not what I’m doing.”

“Good, because I am the tether, you are the living end of the rope, and we don’t have time for you to become stupid about me now.”

“Once you take hold...” Prophet says quietly, “... you cannot let go until the seal closes. No matter what you see. No matter what he says to you through it.”

She turns to a fresh page in the notebook. “Then I won’t let go.”

Forty-two souls standing outside in the snow, willing to die for a god who intends to use them up.

I look through the window at Lily.

Fuck.

I counted wrong.

There are forty-three willing souls on this mountain. The difference is that forty-two of them are willing to die because Calix lied to them. Lily knows exactly what waits for her, and she’s walking toward it anyway, not for Heaven, not for grace, not for salvation.

For Prophet.

Later, I find them at the table together. Lily is reading through her notes again, pen moving whenever she finds something she doesn’t like, while Prophet sits beside her, one hand resting on her thigh.

“You don’t have to do this,” he tells her.

Lily doesn’t stop writing. “We’ve covered this.”

“I would like to cover it again.”

“No.”

“Lily.”