Imprisoned Gods - G. Bailey Page 0,25

the present to find out.

"I have been searching for you for a long time, Karma…" the man says, his voice low, gruff, and dangerous.

For a moment, my mind races - how does he know my name? Who is he? What is he? Questions race through my mind, but I’m already pressing the bolt into my palm, watching out of the corner of my eye as it begins to glow a telltale bright green. Suddenly, overwhelming power slams into my body, and I stretch my hand out to the ceiling only for green lightning bolts to shoot out of my hand and smash into the glass. Water and fish pour out of the gap, mixing with the green lightning as the force of all three strikes the man at once. I scream as my hand burns, sending a searing pain through my wrist and up my arm. None of my other charms do this when I use them, and it’s enough to terrify me even as the whole ceiling comes down on top of us. The man cries out as the lightning-filled water smothers him. We’re lucky that whatever this magic is, it’s not normal electricity; otherwise, we all would have been electrocuted the second it hit the floor. It feels like forever that the water surges over the man, drowning his screams in bubbles and crashing waves, but I’m sure it is only a few seconds before he goes silent. His screams stop suddenly, like they’ve been cut off, and his body slumps to the floor, motionless.

The power abruptly stops, and I fall to the wet floor, gasping from the pain in my hand as I lift it into the light. There are burns all over my hands. In spite of their inherent weakness, gods tend to heal from surface wounds faster than humans do, so it’s surprising to see that the burn marks aren’t receding like small injuries normally tend to. I don’t even know how long burns take to heal. A cut is a week…a burn this bad could be longer. My skin is burnt quite badly, though, that’s for sure, and I bite down on my lip as I close my hand.

What the feck just happened?

I pull myself to my feet as I hear people screaming, no doubt getting out of here as more water crashes down from the hole in the ceiling. My dress is ruined, and so are my shoes and bag… Shit. I really didn’t think this through, did I? But I can feel a new concern start to form in the pit of my stomach as I push my now sopping wet hair out of my face and stare at the man’s motionless form on the ground. No, I think, my eyes going wide as I take a tentative step towards him. No, no, no! It’s not possible! But even from this distance I can see that his chest isn’t moving.

I walk over, trembling, adrenaline surging through me, and steel myself before looking down at the man…...the very dead man. Oh god, I think, my heart pounding in my chest like I just ran a marathon, I killed someone. What the hell have I done? My body starts to shake harder as I force myself to think, and I tilt my head to the side as I take a closer look at the man’s face. His eyes are closed, his skin is tanned, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s a god. His features are familiar somehow, though I can’t remember seeing a god with dark red curly hair before. There is something different about him...but I can't put my finger on what exactly it is.

I reach down, grabbing his wrist and feeling for a pulse, even though I know deep down that I’m not going to find one. There is nothing, and his skin already feels like it’s starting to go cold. Oh god, I've really fucked up now. I have killed him. I didn't even know lightning was possible...it shouldn't be possible. I go to put his wrist down when I see a mark on the back of his hand. Everything slows as I turn his hand before letting it drop from my hands as the mark burns into my mind. I yelp, falling back in the water as the mark registers in my mind. The only creatures that have those kind of dragon marks. Higher gods. Holy shit, he is a higher god...and I somehow killed him. I