Back to Liam and Kami! As always, thanks so much for reading and for your feedback.

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“Uh, yeah. Fresh air sounds nice,” Kami said, feeling awkward.

“Should we be worrying about running into any shadow creatures out there? Or zombies?” Liam asked Samuel.

“They’re not zombies, just possessed,” Samuel said matter-of-factly, as if that made it somehow better. “Probably not. We set up a perimeter.”

Kami followed Liam through the flap and outside, around the tent. The cool air felt refreshing as she breathed in deeply. A flame blazed in the firepit, and she held her hands out to soak in the warmth. She looked around for Chris, but he had disappeared somewhere.

All of a sudden, she felt Liam’s cool hand on her face, turning her toward him. She looked up at him with questioning eyes.

“You have a dirt smear on your cheek,” he said.

Her hand flew to her face self-consciously.

“No, on the other side. Do you mind?”

She glanced at his other hand and noticed a handkerchief. 

“Thanks,” she said.

He gently rubbed her face with the soft cloth. She felt very aware of him, the brilliant stars heightening the intensity of the night. She couldn’t tell if she felt relieved or sorry when he finished with her face and pulled away. It was confusing being around him. He was still so nice, even after she had pretty much accused him of working with those shadow things.

“There, that’s better,” Liam said. “Not perfect, but I have a feeling it would be impossible to stay clean out here.”

Kami couldn't understand how he could still be so kind after what she had done. Liam stuffed the handkerchief into his pocket and held his hands to the crackling fire as well.

They stood silently, staring into the flames. She could feel the emotions churning inside. She opened her mouth to speak a few times, but hesitated, until she finally forced the word out.

“Liam?”

“Yes?”

“I think back there at the dig site, when we saw those shadow creatures? I think I may have,” she paused, why was this so hard,“ jumped the gun a little bit. I was scared out of my mind, but it wasn't right for me to assume you were part of it, even if you were standing there with this crazy glazed look in your eye and those shadow creatures swirling around you like you were controlling them.”

She winced. This apology wasn't going too well.

“What I mean to say is, I'm sorry. You have every right to feel hurt.”

There was another long pause. Kami's heart ached. Deep down she wasn't even sure if she needed to apologize, but it seemed the right thing to do. She had always tried to believe the best in people. She'd feel terrible if she was accused wrongly, and Liam deserved to be considered innocent until proven guilty. 

Liam sighed.

“I can't deny I was hurt. But, looking back at everything we've been through, I can see why you might be suspicious. First there was the plane attack, then your missing grandparents, and then those freakish shadow things. I swear, I don't even remember what happened. One minute Yasmin was standing by me, then next I was in the car.”

He looked at her intently.

“You do believe me, don't you?” he asked, his eyes pleading with hers. “Now anyway?”

She was nodding before she realized it. She wanted to believe it was true; she had to for now. He let out a sigh of relief.

“So, what do you make of all this?” she asked. “Shadow creatures? Possessed policemen? Atlantis? People disappearing? It’s like something out of a cheap horror flick.”

“I think Chris and his uncle may be a bit nutty, but I think they are harmless. They seem determined to help you find your grandparents. I have about twenty angry texts from my mum that I've been ignoring. Haji and I really need to get back in the morning. Unless you need us to stay, that is?”

Kami didn't like the idea of Liam and Haji leaving, but they had already done so much. It wasn't fair to ask them to keep putting themselves in harm's way. Her heart throbbed a bit at Liam leaving, but she ignored it and shook her head.

“No, it's okay. You need to get back. Yasmin knows her way around, I’m sure.”

Liam frowned. His handsome face flickered in the reflected light.  

“It feels like a dream, like I’m going to go to sleep and wake up to find it’s all in my imagination,” he said. 

“I know,” Kami said. “It’s seems so impossible. But we saw the creatures ourselves.”

“True,” Liam agreed. “So I've been thinking about your necklace. If the glow is connected to the shadow creatures, what about the plane? That would mean, no way! It might have been a shadow creature attacking the plane.”

He sounded genuinely surprised, as if the thought had just occurred to him. 

“I was thinking the same thing,” Kami said. “I saw the flickers before the plane started shaking and went dark. I thought the wing was on fire. That's what I was trying to show you out the window when you were helping that woman. Now that I've seen the flickers again, I recognize them.”

“If the necklace somehow protects from these shadow things, then it’s a good thing it started glowing. I can only imagine the damage a creature could have caused the plane otherwise,” Liam said.

Kami shuddered.

He dropped his hands then, and so did she. They stood side by side, hands almost touching, but not quite. Then he brushed his knuckles lightly against the back of her hand, and the warmth she felt had little to do with the fire. She trembled.

She shouldn’t let this happen—this growing attraction. In her world, guys like him didn’t run in the same circles as girls like her. He probably wouldn’t be interested if he knew everything, about her mother’s messy life and about the poverty in which she lived. She didn’t know how wealthy his family was, but with his dad working in an embassy and being driven around like a VIP, she could only guess. Kami only seemed wealthy because of her relatives. Besides, he was leaving in the morning. 

Kami's phone beeped, and she checked her messages. Finally a message from her mother! Three words. Glad you’re safe. The irony! If only she knew. She shouldn’t be surprised her mother had taken so long to respond. She should be used to it by now, but it still hurt. She tried not to compare the response to Liam's twenty angry texts from his mum. It’s not like she wanted angry texts from her mom, but she wished she was a little more involved. 

She wondered if her mother would even notice if she ran away. It's not that she planned to mess up her life that way, of course. Her future was meticulously planned out, and those plans included college and a satisfying career. There was no way she would be reliant on someone else. Still, she wished, well, it was pointless dwelling on things that she knew wouldn’t change.

She stuffed the phone back into her pocket and looked up to see Liam staring at her, like she was a puzzle he was trying to piece together.

“You have a very expressive face,” he said, then cleared his throat. “How about we figure out what kind of food Samuel has squirreled away in there? I’m starving.”

Kami realized she was famished too. So much for the carefree little vacation her grandmother had promised. Everything seemed to be going wrong. Well, everything except meeting Yasmin, Liam, and Haji that is. That couldn’t be more right.

She followed Liam back into the tent.

I'd appreciate it so much if you would hit that little star!

So I had a reader @solaralunarix ask me this question that I thought I would pass on to you. If you could interview any character of this story, who would it be and why?

It only seems appropriate that this chapter dedication goes out to @solaralunarix, a fellow nerdette, out of the box thinker and awesome Wattpad buddy! We have even eaten mango ice-cream together at the pyramids to celebrate Born of Shadow hitting 2000 votes. Check out @solaralunarix's profile and wonderful writing by clicking on the link in the dedication box above.