Chapter 236 Chapter 236


    "Have you been down here before?" Milly asked, ncing around the bunker.


    We were sat almost in pitch ck. Only a small bulb hanging from the ceiling illuminated the room in a


    dull grey glow and being ten foot underground, there certainly wasn''t any opportunity for the moonlight


    to shine in.


    "No," I said clutching Stefano in my arms.


    The rest of the kids were huddled by my feet, wrapped in the thick woollen nkets that Leo kept


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    stashed down here. They held each other and my legs, not a single one asleep despite it being one in


    the morning.


    "The night I met you I was supposed to be," I said looking around at the concrete walls, concrete floors


    and thick reinforced doors, "But Haden''s men got to us before they could get me to safety so I ended


    up in the heart of the war. It was terrifying but this is hardly aforting alternative."


    She nodded and continued her 10thp of the small confined room. We''d been here twenty minutes


    and she was yet to sit down. We were all anxious and scared for the people above the ground that we


    loved but she seemed particrly uneasy. Agitated, skittish...cooped up.


    After the explosions, Max had piled us all quickly into the back of a military truck, all eight kids still in


    their pyjamas, and driven through the smoke and burning to get here. The kids had only had a seconds


    each to say goodbye to their father and there had been no time to exin to them what was going on


    until Max had mmed the three-foot iron door shut and we''d listened to the clunk of every single bolt


    echo around the concrete bunker. We''d stood in silence for a few moments before I ushered them


    further in, found the switch to the unimpressive light and at least tried to settle the distress and


    confusion.


    They were already scared and exining to them was difficult, especially with Cato''s probing


    questions. He was far more developed than his younger siblings and he knew there was more than I


    was letting on to.


    But all I could bring myself to tell him was that we had to stay down here until Daddy says it''s safe and


    that he is up there doing everything he can to make that happen. I told them the fires were set by that


    bad man we talked about before but they couldn''t burn forever. When the mes have died and the ash


    has settled, everything will be okay.


    But Milly was seventeen and she knew the full situation as much as I did. My soft words didn''t stand a


    chance of settling her.


    "Why don''t you sit down, Milly?" I suggested, there''s plenty of room.


    She shook her head, "I can''t," she said clenching her fists, "I just..."


    She tilted her head back and contorted her face in what looked like pain.


    "Just what?"


    "Somethings not right. I can sense it," She replied, "Those books we''ve read about my magic and


    Hecate. They all talk about how I should be able to see the future. I''ve never been able to hone that


    power. asionally I have visions but only in dreams and they''re weird and hard to interpret. But there


    are feelings that I get. Like preemptive emotions for what''s about toe..."


    She then turned to me. Her face was grave, her bottom lip quivered a little as she pressed her nails into


    the palms of her hand.


    "...and what emotions do you feel now?" I asked.


    "Panic, suffering, chaos, anger, fear...," she said, "And then this one emotion that I could never have


    imagined. It''s like nothing I''ve felt before. It''s cold and empty and dark and..." she nced down to my


    children in a split second before continuing in a hushed tone, "...It''s like death, E."


    Now my lip trembled too.


    "Whose going to die Milly?" I asked.


    She clenched her fists even tighter as she just stared into my eyes, her face stered in pure dread.


    "Us and everyone we hold dear."