<h4>Chapter 185: Allies in Exile</h4>


    <strong>CALEB POV</strong>


    The mountain creature’s w cut inches from my face.


    I rolled sideways and grabbed Lily’s hand, pulling her behind a rock as the starlight beast roared. We’d been running for three hours through this nightmare world, and I was starting to think we’d never escape.


    "This way!" I shouted, finding a gap between two rocks.


    We squeezed through just as the creature’s huge head smashed into the stone where we’d been hiding. Its angry howls echoed through the canyon, but the gap was too small for it to follow.


    "I can’t keep doing this," Lily gasped, leaning against the rock wall. Her face was pale and tired. "Every world we jump to has something trying to kill us."


    I wanted tofort her, but she was right. Ever since I’d followed her through that first portal, we’d been hunted in every world we entered. Sometimes by animals, sometimes by the world itself, sometimes by those dimensional hunters who seemed to track us everywhere.


    "We’ll find somewhere safe," I promised, though I wasn’t sure I believed it anymore.


    Lily tried to open another link, but only weak sparks came from her fingers. "My powers are almost gone," she whispered. "I don’t think I can make another jump."


    My heart sank. Without her dimensional powers, we were trapped in this world of hungry monsters and endless night.


    That’s when we heard voicesing from deeper in the canyon.


    "Someone’sing," I said, pulling Lily further into the darkness.


    But the voices didn’t sound dangerous. They sounded... young? And one of them was crying.


    "I want to go home," a small voice sobbed. "I don’t like it here."


    "I know, sweetie," another voice answered softly. "But we can’t go home yet. The bad people are still looking for us."


    Lily and I exchanged looks. Other people were hiding in this world too?


    We crept forward carefully until we could see around a bend in the creek. What we found made my jaw drop.


    A group of about twelve people sat around a small fire, but none of them looked normal. One girl had skin that sparkled like diamonds. A boy kept shing in and out of sight like he couldn’t decide if he was real. An older woman had flowersing from her hair.


    And they were all soothing a little girl who looked maybe eight years old and had tiny wings folded against her back.


    "Dimensional refugees," Lily breathed beside me.


    One of them - a youngster with bright purple eyes - looked up suddenly. "There’s someone else here," he stated.


    Before I could stop her, Lily stepped into the light. "Please don’t be afraid," she said. "We’re not here to hurt anyone."


    The group tensed, but the older woman with flower hair stood up slowly. "Show us your hands," she said.


    Lily held out her hands, and I did the same. The woman studied our wrists carefully, then rxed.


    "No hunter marks," she told the others. "They’re like us."


    "What’s a hunter mark?" I asked.


    "Scars that dimensional hunters leave when they try to drain your powers," the purple-eyed boy exined. "Anyone who’s been caught and escaped has them."


    The flower-haired woman gestured for us to sit. "I’m Vera," she said. "Wee to the Exile Network."


    "The what now?" Lily asked.


    "A group of people who’ve been forced to live between dimensions," Vera stated. "We help each other survive and stay ahead of the hunters."


    As we joined their group, the others introduced themselves. The sparkling girl was named Crystal and could turn invisible in certain types of light. The flickering boy was Ghost, and he could phase through solid things but couldn’t control it very well. The little girl with wings was Pip, and she could feel danger before it happened.


    "How long have you all been jumping between worlds?" I asked.


    "Three years for me," Ghost said sadly. "The hunts came to my world when I was fourteen. They killed my whole family because they thought dimensional powers were spreading."


    "Five years," Crystal added. "They said I was dangerous because I could watch on people. But I never hurt anyone."


    Each person had a simr story. They’d all been driven from their home worlds by hunters who feared their powers. Some had lost their families. Others had watched their entire realities get destroyed.


    "The hunters don’t just chase us," Vera stated. "They systematically destroy any world that creates people with dimensional abilities. They call it ’preventing infection.’"


    I felt sick. "They’remitting genocide."


    "Exactly," Vera said sadly. "And we’re the survivors."


    Little Pip tugged on Lily’s sleeve. "You smell like omega," she said in her tiny voice. "Are you the one the whispers talk about?"


    "What whispers?" Lily asked, kneeling down to Pip’s level.


    "The dimensions talk to me sometimes," Pip said seriously. "They’ve been saying someone special ising. Someone who can heal the broken ces."


    Vera’s eyes widened. "You’re an omega dimensional traveler? But those are myths!"


    "Not myths," Lily said quietly. "But apparently very rare."


    "The whispers say you can fix what the bad people broke," Pip continued. "But you have to learn how first."


    Ghost leaned forward excitedly. "Maybe that’s why we found each other! Maybe we’re supposed to help you!"


    "Help me do what?" Lily asked.


    "Learn to heal dimensions instead of just traveling through them," Vera said slowly. "It’s something we’ve theorized about but never seen done."


    Crystal bounced up and down. "I could show you how different ces feel! My powers let me sense their energy patterns."


    "And I could phase you into the space between dimensions," Ghost added. "Maybe you could practice there safely."


    For the first time since this nightmare started, I saw hope on Lily’s face. "You’d really help us?"


    "We help each other," Vera said simply. "That’s how we survive."


    But our moment of hope was broken by Pip’s sudden scream.


    "They found us!" she cried, her little wings fluttering in fear. "The killers areing! Lots of them!"


    In the distance, I could see lightsing through the canyon - too many to count and moving too fast to be anything good.


    "Everyone grab hands!" Vera shouted. "Emergency jump!"


    The group linked together quickly, but as Lily tried to join the circle, her powers flickered and died totally. She couldn’t make a link.


    "I can’t!" she said desperately. "My abilities are gone!"


    "Then we all stay and fight," Ghost said strongly.


    "No," Vera said, her face grim. "Some of us take her and run. The others buy time."


    "I’m not leaving anyone behind," Lily argued.


    "You have to," Crystal said, already starting to fade from view. "If you’re really the one who can heal dimensions, you’re too important to lose."


    The hunting lights were getting closer. I could hear cars now, and something that sounded like energy weapons charging up.


    "Caleb," Vera said hurriedly, "there’s an old emergency portal hidden in this canyon. It only works once, but it might get you two away from here."


    "What about the rest of you?"


    "We’ll scatter and regroupter," she said, but I could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe it.


    Pip ran up and grabbed Lily’s hand. "The whispers say to tell you something," she said quickly. "The man who’s hunting you isn’t really bad. He’s going to help. But first, you have to save him."


    "Save who?" Lily asked.


    But before Pip could answer, the first hunter truck burst into the canyon, its searchlights flooding the area with blinding white light.


    "Go!" Vera screamed. "Now!"


    I grabbed Lily and ran toward where Vera had pointed, leaving our new friends to face the hunts alone. Behind us, I heard energy weapons firing and people yelling.


    We found the emergency opening - a small, shimmering crack in the canyon wall that barely looked big enough for one person.


    "Together," I said, taking Lily’s hand.


    We jumped through just as something burst behind us. As reality twisted around us, I caught onest view of the canyon.


    Little Pip was floating in the air, her wings spread wide, holding back three hunter vehicles with some kind of force field while the others fled.


    Then everything went ck.


    When we tumbled out the other side, we were falling through empty space toward a world that looked like it was madepletely of mirrors.


    And reflected in every surface, I could see the same terrifying picture repeated a thousand times: Dimensional hunters weren’t chasing us anymore.


    They were waiting for us.


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