The golden figure stood beyond the damaged fence.
Tall.
Motionless.
Watching.
Lee remained beside his bedroom window, one hand pressed against the glass.
Outside, evening shadows stretched between the cedars, darkening the wooded edge of his family’s property.
The figure stood where the forest began.
Too far away for Lee to make out a face, but close enough for him to see the faint glow moving across its armor.
Anunnaki armor.
Buster growled from the bed.
The French bulldog hopped down, padded toward the window, and planted his front paws against the wall.
His ears stood straight.
A low rumble vibrated in his chest.
Hermes appeared beside Lee.
“Do not attack.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Fire warmed Lee’s right hand.
Hermes looked down at it.
“You were considering it.”
“That’s different.”
The figure raised one hand.
Golden light gathered between its fingers.
Lee stepped back from the window.
Shadow tendrils pressed beneath his shoulder blades, ready to break free.
The golden light expanded.
For one moment, Lee saw a tall woman with silver-streaked black hair and blue eyes standing beneath the trees.
Anukar.
Then her image shattered into drifting sparks.
The figure disappeared.
Only empty forest remained.
Lee opened Aether Sight.
Gold washed across his vision.
A faint trail of energy hung in the air beyond the fence, stretching upward through the trees before fading into the sky.
“She wasn’t really there,” Lee said.
“No.”
Hermes examined the remaining energy.
“A projection.”
“Was it Anukar?”
“Perhaps.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“It may have been someone borrowing her appearance.”
Lee let Aether Sight fade.
“Can the Anunnaki find me through the Aether Soul?”
“Not directly.”
“Then how did that thing know where I live?”
Hermes looked toward the crater.
“The celestial stone in your backyard shines brightly to those capable of sensing it.
Your repeated use of Aether has made this property even more noticeable.”
Lee glanced toward his phone.
Lilith’s final message remained on the screen.
I couldn’t tell whether she was saving you or killing you.
“Could Lilith’s vision have caused this?”
“No.
A vision observes possibilities.
It does not summon them.”
Lee rubbed the back of his neck.
“So a federal agent broke into my house, the Anunnaki arrived, and now someone is projecting themselves into my yard.”
“A productive afternoon.”
“Hermes.”
The god’s faint smile disappeared.
“The projection was an examination.
Someone searched for a reaction.”
“To see what I can do?”
“Most likely.”
“And I almost showed them.”
“You showed restraint.”
Lee looked at the last traces of gold fading among the trees.
He had wanted to throw fire through the window.
The instinct had come quickly.
Too quickly.
“If I had attacked?”
“You would have revealed at least one ability to whoever created the projection.”
Lee clenched his hand.
“The trial starts now.”
Hermes raised an eyebrow.
“You have not rested.”
“I’m not going to sleep knowing they can appear outside my house.”
“Then fear is making your decision.”
“Maybe.”
Lee looked at the place where the golden figure had stood.
“But fear isn’t always wrong.”
Hermes considered him.
“No.
It is not.”
He lifted his staff.
“Three days inside the Void.
No fire.
No shadow tendrils.
No Mimicry.
No Harvest.”
“I remember.”
“You will also surrender your enhanced healing during the trial.”
Lee turned toward him.
“That wasn’t part of the agreement.”
“It is now.”
“You can do that?”
“Inside the Elysian Void, yes.”
Lee stared.
Hermes smiled pleasantly.
“Your expression suggests you are reconsidering.”
“I’m considering whether calling you a liar would offend a god.”
“It would not be the first time.”
Buster barked at the empty yard.
Lee closed the curtains.
“Let’s do it.”
The Elysian Void opened around him.
Stars filled the endless darkness.
Galaxies turned beyond the horizon, their light reflecting from the polished marble beneath Lee’s feet.
The Greek arena rose from golden mist.
Columns formed around the circular floor.
Bronze braziers ignited along the outer walls, carrying the scents of olive wood, sea salt, and hot sand through the air.
Buster appeared beside Lee.
The dog looked around, spotted a drifting golden spark, and chased it across the arena.
Hermes stepped onto the sand.
Milo and Ajax waited at the center.
Neither appeared pleased to see Lee.
Milo wore only a belted training garment and leather wraps around his hands.
His thick arms rested at his sides.
Ajax stood in bronze armor with a spear in one hand and a large shield in the other.
Between them floated the equipment Hermes had shown Lee.
The lightweight breastplate.
The greaves and vambraces.
The round shield.
The sword marked by faint lines resembling lightning beneath its blade.
The armor appeared solid now.
Close enough to touch.
Lee reached toward it.
Ajax struck his wrist with the shaft of his spear.
Pain shot through Lee’s hand.
“Pass first,” Ajax said.
Lee rubbed his wrist.
“I was just looking.”
“You were reaching.”
Milo stepped forward.
“The trial has five stages.”
Lee looked toward Hermes.
“You said Milo and Ajax designed it.”
“They did.”
“Then why is it called the Trials of Heracles?”
Milo’s expression remained stern.
“Because Heracles was remembered for strength.”
Ajax planted the butt of his spear in the sand.
“But strength alone was not what allowed him to survive.”
Hermes walked between them.
“Heracles endured pain, solved problems, obeyed difficult commands, and occasionally created disasters through poor judgment.”
Lee frowned.
“That last part sounds less inspiring.”
“Legends often improve with editing.”
Hermes gestured toward the waiting equipment.
“The armor responds to more than Aether.
It requires discipline from the person wearing it.
These trials will determine whether you possess enough discipline to begin carrying it.”
“Begin?”
“The equipment will grow with you.
What you earn today is only its first form.”
Golden light moved across Lee’s body.
The warmth of his enhanced healing disappeared.
His muscles remained stronger than those of an ordinary fifteen-year-old, but the constant flow of restorative Aether had stopped.
Lee suddenly felt every bruise from his recent training.
The ache in his shoulders.
The soreness in his ribs.
The stiffness in his knees.
Hermes stepped back.
“Three days begin now.”
The arena vanished.
The First Trial: The Weight
Lee stood at the base of a mountain.
Gray clouds hid the summit.
Rain fell across a steep path of broken stones, turning the ground slick beneath his shoes.
A massive wooden beam rested across the trail.
Heavy iron chains had been wrapped around it.
Milo stood beside the obstacle.
“Carry it to the summit.”
Lee looked up.
The path disappeared into the clouds.
“How far?”
Milo pointed.
“To the summit.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“It answers the only part that matters.”
Lee crouched beneath the beam.
The wood settled across his shoulders.
Its weight drove him to one knee.
He grunted and tried to rise.
Nothing happened.
Milo watched without offering advice.
Lee adjusted his position and placed both hands against the beam.
His legs trembled as he forced himself upright.
The first step nearly sent him face-first into the mud.
The second was worse.
By the tenth, his shoulders burned.
By the hundredth, the iron chains had rubbed through his shirt and cut into his skin.
Lee tried using Aether to reinforce his legs.
Nothing responded.
Hermes had sealed everything except Lee’s natural strength and whatever improvement his body had retained.
He kept climbing.
Rain ran into his eyes.
The beam shifted every time his footing slipped, throwing its full weight toward one shoulder.
Halfway up the mountain, Lee collapsed.
The beam struck the ground beside him.
He lay in the mud, gasping.
Milo appeared several steps ahead.
“Stand.”
Lee spat rainwater.
“I need a minute.”
“You have one breath.”
“That isn’t a minute.”
“Then use it well.”
Lee inhaled.
Pain expanded through his shoulders.
He exhaled.
Then crawled beneath the beam again.
Hours passed.
Perhaps longer.
The trail steepened until Lee had to climb on hands and knees with the beam chained across his back.
He considered giving up more than once.
Not seriously.
But enough for the thought to take shape.
Every time it did, he remembered the cyclops standing above his father.
He remembered William’s burned shoulder.
He remembered the golden figure outside the fence.
Lee reached the summit after night had fallen.
He shoved the beam from his shoulders and collapsed beside it.
His palms were torn.
Blood stained his shirt.
His entire body shook.
Milo stood over him.
“What did the trial teach you?”
Lee struggled to breathe.
“That you’re a terrible person.”
Milo’s mouth twitched.
“Again.”
Lee stared at the beam.
He had spent the first half of the climb fighting its weight, trying to overpower it with every step.
The climb had become easier only after he adjusted the chains and balanced the beam across both shoulders.
“Strength isn’t just how much I can lift.”
Milo nodded.
“It is how long you can carry what must be carried.”
Golden light consumed the mountain.
The Second Trial: The Lion
The light faded.
Lee stood inside a circular stone enclosure beneath a bright sky.
There were no weapons.
No pillars.
No exits.
A growl rolled through the arena.
A lion emerged from the shadows beneath the far wall.
It was larger than any natural animal, with a golden mane and shoulders nearly level with Lee’s chest.
Old scars crossed its muzzle.
Its claws scraped against the stone.
Lee lowered his stance.
The lion charged.
Lee jumped aside.
A paw struck his ribs and hurled him across the enclosure.
He hit the ground, rolled, and barely avoided the lion’s jaws closing around his leg.
Pain tore through his side.
Without enhanced healing, it remained.
Lee tried striking the animal’s throat.
The blow only made it angrier.
The lion swatted him again.
Claws ripped through his sleeve and opened three burning lines across his upper arm.
Lee backed away.
The lion followed.
Every instinct told him to attack.
Milo’s training told him something else.
Watch.
Decide.
The lion favored its front right leg.
A scar crossed the joint, and the animal placed less weight on it whenever it turned.
Lee waited for the next charge.
At the last moment, he stepped toward the injured side.
He caught the lion beneath the neck, used its momentum, and twisted.
Both crashed into the ground.
Lee wrapped one arm around its throat and locked his legs against its body.
The lion thrashed.
Its claws tore at the sand.
Lee tightened the hold.
The animal began to weaken.
Then he saw the golden band around its neck.
A thin chain extended from the collar into the wall.
The lion was not attacking because it wanted to.
It had been trapped inside the arena.
Lee released it.
The lion spun and roared inches from his face.
Lee stayed still.
It could kill him before he regained his feet.
Instead, the animal backed away.
Lee moved toward the wall and examined the chain.
A bronze pin held it in place.
He pulled it free.
The collar opened.
The lion stepped away from the chain.
It looked toward Lee once, then walked through an opening that appeared in the stone wall.
Ajax entered the enclosure.
“You could have defeated it.”
“I could have strangled it.”
“The result would have been victory.”
“No.
It would have been the fastest way to finish.”
Ajax studied him.
“Why does that matter?”
Lee looked at the claw marks across his arm.
“Because not everything fighting me is my enemy.”
The enclosure dissolved.
The Third Trial: The Hydra
Lee appeared in a swamp.
Dark water surrounded patches of mud and twisted roots.
Mist moved between dead trees, carrying the smell of rot.
A wooden sword rested in his hand.
A round training shield covered his left arm.
Ajax stood upon a dry rise behind him.
“Reach the far bank.”
Lee looked across the swamp.
The opposite shore lay several hundred yards away.
“That’s all?”
The water erupted.
A serpent’s head rose from the mud.
Then another.
Then five more.
The hydra towered above the swamp, its long necks twisting around one another.
Black venom dripped from its teeth and hissed where it struck the water.
Lee raised his shield.
The first head attacked.
He deflected the jaws and struck the creature’s neck.
The wooden blade somehow cut through scale and flesh.
The head fell.
Two smaller heads pushed from the wound.
Lee stared.
“That seems unfair.”
Ajax watched from the rise.
“Continue.”
Three heads attacked together.
Lee blocked one, ducked beneath another, and felt the third bite into the edge of his shield.
He twisted, freeing it, then retreated through the mud.
Every head he removed created two more.
Soon the swamp filled with snapping jaws.
Lee stopped attacking.
The hydra advanced.
He studied the creature.
The heads moved independently, but the body remained slow.
Thick legs sank into the swamp each time it shifted position.
Lee looked toward the dead trees.
Then toward the path to the opposite bank.
He did not need to kill the hydra.
He needed to cross.
Lee struck the nearest tree with his sword.
The rotted trunk cracked.
A second blow brought it down across the mud.
The hydra attacked.
Lee raised his shield, allowed one head to bite its rim, then pulled sideways.
The neck followed.
Two other heads snapped at the first.
Their teeth collided.
Lee ran.
He crossed the fallen trunk, jumped onto a patch of roots, and moved behind the creature’s body while the heads tangled around one another.
The tail swept toward him.
Lee dropped flat.
It passed over his head.
He rose and sprinted for the far bank.
A head lunged from behind.
Lee turned, slammed the shield into its snout, and used the impact to throw himself backward onto dry ground.
The hydra stopped at the swamp’s edge.
It hissed but did not follow.
Ajax appeared beside him.
“You did not defeat it.”
“That wasn’t the mission.”
“What was the mission?”
“Reach the far bank.”
Ajax nodded.
“Remember that when pride tells you every obstacle must be destroyed.”
The Fourth Trial: The Choice
The swamp disappeared.
Lee stood inside a burning village.
Flames spread across wooden rooftops.
Smoke filled the narrow streets, and people shouted from every direction.
Ahead, a giant boar crashed through a market.
Its tusks shattered wagons and threw burning debris across the road.
To Lee’s right, a house collapsed.
A child screamed from inside.
To his left, two armed men dragged an injured woman toward an alley.
Farther ahead, the boar charged toward a group of villagers trapped against a stone wall.
Lee looked down.
He wore no armor.
Only the training sword and shield.
Hermes appeared on a rooftop.
“You cannot save everyone.”
Lee stared at the chaos.
“Then this isn’t a trial.
It’s a trap.”
“Many trials are.”
The boar lowered its head.
The trapped villagers screamed.
Lee ran toward them.
He struck the side of a wooden cart and shoved it into the street.
The boar hit it.
Wood exploded.
The impact slowed the creature but did not stop it.
Lee stepped into its path and raised the shield.
The boar struck.
The shield cracked.
Lee flew backward and hit the wall beside the villagers.
His injured ribs screamed.
The boar turned for another charge.
Lee saw a burning support beam above the road.
He climbed the side of the damaged building, ignoring the pain in his arm.
The boar charged.
Lee kicked the beam loose.
It fell across the animal’s back.
The boar collapsed beneath burning wood.
“Move!” Lee shouted.
The villagers escaped through a side street.
The child inside the house screamed again.
Lee ran toward the sound.
The roof was already failing.
He entered through a broken window, covered his mouth with one sleeve, and crawled beneath the smoke.
The child had been trapped beneath a fallen table.
Lee lifted it enough for her to crawl free.
A ceiling beam cracked overhead.
He shoved the child toward the window.
The beam fell.
The world turned black.
Lee awoke in the street.
The village was gone.
Hermes stood over him.
“What happened to the woman in the alley?” Lee asked.
“You did not save her.”
His chest tightened.
“The villagers?”
“Saved.”
“The child?”
“Saved.”
Lee pushed himself upright.
“You made it impossible.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because power will not always allow you to save everyone.”
Lee looked away.
“Then I chose wrong.”
“Did you?”
“I left someone behind.”
“You chose the greatest immediate danger, then the person you could still reach.”
Hermes crouched in front of him.
“Guilt may remind you that lives matter.
It must not convince you that every loss is proof of failure.”
Lee thought of his father.
Of the vision he had not prevented yet.
“What if I choose wrong when it’s real?”
“You will.”
Lee looked at him.
Hermes’ expression remained calm.
“You will misjudge situations.
You will arrive too late.
You will trust the wrong person.
Strength does not free you from consequence.”
“Then what is the point?”
“To become capable of making the best choice available.”
Hermes stood.
“And to remain yourself afterward.”
Golden light swallowed the ruined village.
The Fifth Trial: The Labyrinth
Lee opened his eyes inside a stone corridor.
A wooden sword rested in his hand.
His damaged shield had been restored.
The corridor extended in both directions beneath flickering bronze braziers.
Ajax’s voice echoed through the maze.
“Reach the center.”
A roar shook dust from the ceiling.
Heavy footsteps struck the stone.
The Minotaur came around the far corner.
It stood more than eight feet tall, with a scarred bull’s head and a human-shaped body covered in dark fur.
A two-handed axe rested across its shoulders.
Lee turned and ran.
The axe struck the wall behind him.
Stone fragments cut across his neck.
He rounded the next corner and found three separate passages.
No markings identified the correct direction.
The Minotaur roared again.
Lee chose the left path.
It ended at a blank wall.
The Minotaur entered the corridor behind him.
Lee raised his shield.
The axe struck.
Wood shattered.
Lee crashed into the wall.
The Minotaur grabbed his shirt and lifted him.
Lee struck its face with the wooden sword.
The blade broke against one horn.
The creature hurled him across the corridor.
Lee hit the floor.
Pain pulsed through his entire body.
The Minotaur lifted its axe.
The world flashed gold.
Lee stood at the beginning of the maze again.
His injuries remained.
Hermes’ voice entered his thoughts.
The trial resets.
You do not.
“That would have been useful to know.”
You would have been reckless anyway.
Lee entered the maze again.
Then died beneath the axe.
The maze reset.
On his third attempt, he tried climbing the walls.
The stones shifted and crushed his hand.
Reset.
On his fourth, he attempted to sneak past the Minotaur.
It smelled him.
Reset.
On his fifth, he studied the air.
A faint breeze moved through certain passages.
He followed it.
The Minotaur found him near the center.
Lee survived for several minutes before the axe caught his leg.
Reset.
Hours became a day.
The maze changed each time.
Lee stopped trying to memorize the route.
Instead, he learned its rules.
The braziers burned brighter along paths leading inward.
Water flowed away from the center through narrow channels carved in the floor.
The Minotaur always approached from the direction Lee expected least.
By the beginning of the third day, Lee could reach the central chamber.
But the Minotaur always waited there.
The chamber contained no exits.
Only a circular floor surrounded by high walls.
Lee entered for the final time with half a shield and a cracked wooden sword.
The Minotaur stood across from him.
Its axe scraped against the stone.
Lee was exhausted.
His ribs hurt each time he breathed.
One eye had swollen nearly closed.
His left hand could barely close around the shield strap.
No healing came.
No fire answered him.
No shadows rose.
He had only what Milo and Ajax had taught him.
The Minotaur charged.
Lee watched its feet.
The creature favored power over balance.
Every strike committed its full weight forward.
Lee stepped aside.
The axe struck the floor.
Lee hit the Minotaur’s wrist.
The wooden blade cracked further.
The creature backhanded him across the chamber.
Lee rolled with the impact and forced himself upright.
The Minotaur charged again.
This time, Lee retreated toward the wall.
The creature raised its axe.
Lee waited.
Every part of him screamed to move.
Not yet.
The axe began to fall.
Lee stepped inward.
The blade struck the wall behind him and buried itself in stone.
Lee drove the broken sword beneath the Minotaur’s arm.
The creature roared and released the weapon.
It grabbed Lee around the chest.
His ribs compressed.
Lee hammered his elbow against its injured side.
The grip loosened.
He dropped, hooked one leg behind the Minotaur’s ankle, and drove his shoulder against its knee.
The creature fell.
Lee climbed onto its back and locked one arm around its neck.
The Minotaur thrashed.
It rolled, crushing Lee beneath its weight.
He refused to release the hold.
The creature stood and slammed him into the wall.
Once.
Twice.
Darkness gathered at the edges of Lee’s vision.
He tightened his arm.
The Minotaur staggered.
Lee remembered the lion.
He remembered the collar.
The creature was not trying to escape.
It was reaching toward something carved into the floor.
A chain.
A golden chain connected the Minotaur’s ankle to the center of the chamber.
Lee released the chokehold and rolled away.
The Minotaur turned.
Confusion replaced rage in its eyes.
Lee crawled toward the chain.
A lock held it to the floor.
The Minotaur reached for him.
Lee raised the broken sword.
The creature stopped.
Both stared at each other.
Lee looked at the lock.
Then at the Minotaur.
“You’re trapped too.”
The creature’s breathing slowed.
Lee inserted the broken sword into the lock.
The wood cracked.
He pushed harder.
The lock opened.
The golden chain fell away.
The Minotaur stepped back.
An opening appeared in the chamber wall.
Beyond it waited Milo, Ajax, and Hermes.
The Minotaur looked toward the exit.
Then at Lee.
It lowered its head.
Not in defeat.
In acknowledgment.
The creature walked through the opening and vanished into golden light.
Lee remained on the floor.
Hermes entered the chamber.
“You reached the center.”
Lee laughed weakly.
“I thought I had to kill it.”
“You assumed.”
“You wanted me to.”
“I wanted you to decide.”
Milo approached.
“You endured.”
Ajax followed.
“You observed.”
Hermes stopped before Lee.
“And when victory was within reach, you questioned what victory required.”
Lee tried to stand.
His legs failed.
Milo caught one arm.
Ajax caught the other.
Together, they pulled him upright.
Golden light filled the chamber.
The pain in Lee’s body faded.
His ribs restored themselves.
The swelling around his eye disappeared.
Cuts closed across his hands and arms.
The damaged training equipment dissolved.
In its place, the Olympian armor appeared.
The greaves formed first, wrapping around Lee’s lower legs in overlapping bronze-and-silver plates.
Vambraces covered his forearms.
A lightweight cuirass settled across his chest, flexible enough to move with him but harder than any metal he had touched.
Small pauldrons guarded his shoulders without restricting his arms.
The armor bore no crest.
No name.
It felt unfinished.
Waiting.
The round shield appeared in his left hand.
Greek markings circled its edge, faintly illuminated by his Aether.
The sword formed in his right.
Its blade was straight and double-edged.
Lines beneath the metal flickered like distant lightning, though no electricity escaped them.
The weapon felt perfectly balanced.
Not weightless.
Not effortless.
Real.
Hermes rested one hand on Lee’s shoulder.
“This armor will grow as you do.
It will not make you invincible.”
Ajax struck the center of Lee’s breastplate with one fist.
The impact forced Lee back a step.
“It will not correct poor positioning.”
Milo squeezed Lee’s sword arm.
“It will not replace strength.”
Hermes smiled.
“And it will not protect you from stupidity.”
Lee looked down at the armor.
“What does it do?”
“In its current form, it strengthens your natural Aether reinforcement and reduces the cost of maintaining it.
The shield can absorb a limited amount of directed energy.”
“And the sword?”
“It channels the Aether you place into it.”
Lee focused.
Fire moved toward the weapon.
Hermes struck his wrist with the staff.
The flame vanished.
“Not yet.”
“You just said it channels Aether.”
“I did not say you were ready to fill a divine blade with stolen fire.”
Lee lowered the sword.
“What should I call it?”
“When it has earned a name, you will know.”
“That sounds unnecessarily mysterious.”
“It is a divine tradition.”
The arena returned around them.
Buster raced across the sand toward Lee.
He stopped several feet away and barked at the armor.
Lee knelt.
“It’s me.”
Buster approached cautiously, sniffed one greave, then sneezed.
“I’ll take that as approval.”
Hermes stepped toward the edge of the arena.
“The trial is complete.”
Lee looked up.
“How much time passed outside?”
“Seventy-two minutes.”
Lee stared.
“Three days in here.”
“A little more.”
“And only an hour outside.”
Hermes nodded.
Lee looked at the armor again.
The trial had felt longer than three days.
Every injury, failure, and choice remained clear in his mind.
He had expected victory to feel powerful.
Instead, he felt tired.
And more aware of how much he still did not know.
Hermes raised his staff.
The Elysian Void began to fade.
“One warning before you return.”
Lee tightened his grip on the sword.
“What?”
“The figure outside your home was not the only observer.”
The stars disappeared.
Lee returned to his bedroom.
Buster appeared beside him and immediately collapsed across the blankets.
Only seventy-two minutes had passed.
The curtains remained closed.
The house was silent.
Lee dismissed the armor.
It dissolved into fine golden light and returned to the Void.
His phone rested on the bed.
Thirty-four unread messages waited in the group chat.
Three were from Ella.
Five were from Emerson.
Most of the others were from Declan, who had apparently begun interviewing every animal near his house.
Lee opened Lilith’s private conversation first.
A new message waited.
Lilith: The golden figure is gone.
Another had arrived several minutes later.
Lilith: Something else stayed behind.
Lee moved toward the window.
He carefully pulled the curtain aside.
The forest beyond the damaged fence appeared empty.
Then Aether Sight opened.
Golden energy washed across the yard.
The projection’s fading trail remained among the trees.
Beneath it, almost hidden by the celestial stone’s glow, another trail stretched across the grass.
Dark blue.
It began at the crater.
It ended directly beneath Lee’s bedroom window.
Lee looked down.
A symbol had been carved into the wooden siding.
Three curved lines surrounded a single open eye.
Hermes appeared behind him.
For the first time since Lee had met him, the god looked afraid.
“What is it?” Lee asked.
Hermes stared at the mark.
“A challenge.”
“From who?”
The symbol opened.
Not physically.
The carved eye moved.
A red pupil formed at its center and turned toward Lee.
A woman’s laughter whispered from the wall.
Lilit had found him.