Page 15 of Beneath the Watching

The building’s bones creaked as a gust of wind rushed across the roof and the candles’ flames swayed in a draft. Thin trickles of smoke lifted from the wax, and I re-lit them with a gentle wave of my hand. She remained silent, observing the space around us.

Finally, she spoke. “I don’t know.” My heart thumped in my chest.

“You don’t know,” I growled. “There are too many things you claim you are in ignorance of.” It was right there, and I sensed she knew it. In her heart of hearts, she knew the truth and yet insisted on denying herself the knowledge she contained.

Changing the subject, she said, “I didn’t know you were a holy man.”

I couldn’t stop the deep laugh that bubbled from my chest. “One more thing to add to the list,” I replied. “Come with me,” I instructed her, taking a firm hold of her upper arm and snagging my Bible and notes with my other hand. She needed to leave, and it was better she continued to live in willful ignorance and lies for her own sake.

My grip didn’t loosen as I led her back toward my office. Once inside, I grabbed a jacket from the coat stand and pulledit on before clutching her again. I switched off the lamps after grabbing a messenger bag and slid my materials inside. Mabel looked around slowly, likely noting the piles of reading material, the clusters of candles, the exquisite woodworking and trim.

One window remained open, allowing the sweet fragrance of honeysuckle to fill the confines of the room. The combination of wood, paper, wax, and flowers was comforting, the scent filling me with a rare peacefulness due to its familiarity. A relaxing sensation my human ward had stolen from my psyche with her abrupt appearance in my stomping grounds.

Tugging her across the room, her steps faltered for a moment until she clasped my shoulder and caught her balance. Pulling a set of keys from my pocket, I unlocked the heavy oak door and shoved her through the opening as gas sconces flickered on and I shut the door.

Mabel remained quiet and uncomplaining about my slightly rough handling of her. My palm slid from her arm to grasp her fingers as I moved her behind me, my touch gentler. A steep staircase descended before us. “Hold onto the railing,” I said over my shoulder, my voice thick with want.

The air shifted to a much chillier temperature, and she stuck as close to me as she could, presumably attempting to absorb my body heat. Beings of my kind tended toward a natural higher warmth, and she would instinctually pursue the comfort my proximity offered. The cold should have bothered me more than it did, but my heavy wool coat and hellish blood solved the problem.

Despite the illumination of the lamps fixed to the walls a thick darkness pressed in, chasing the meager glow of the flames into the corners. The blackness reached out with dense shadows that curled around our bodies, ebbing, and flowing as the temperature dropped sharply. Mabel clung to my arm likea koala bear, causing me to think she was possibly afraid of the dark.

“Is something the matter?” I twisted to glance at her, my breath freezing mid-air as I exhaled. The fine mist shattered, raining down on her hair like powder.

Her teeth chattered as she shook her head. Suddenly, she stilled, digging her soles into the rough-hewn rock beneath our feet. I watched as she slowly turned her head side to side.

“What was that?” she asked, searching for something.

I yanked on her arm. “What?” We didn’t have time for this; I needed to get her out of here before she was discovered. She may not have known but her being here physically and not just spiritually indicated the likely presence of magic in her blood.

Despite my internal battle over the fact, I knew she had magic. Ilya could tell as well and while I didn’t have to worry about my friend, there were others that wouldn’t be so kind. It’d taken me a little while to be certain, but I now knew she wasfullyhere. She wasn’t here in spirit with the facsimile of a body, she was completely present.

She refused to move. “That sound. A voice?”

A chill ran down my spine. This was exactly what I was afraid of, that she’d be one ofthem. There was a quiet legend of a specific bloodline, a group of women gifted with immense magic. Rumors had swirled in private, but the gossip wasn’t widely known. I’d never discussed it publicly or with anyone I knew. I’d caught snippets of whispered tales in my travels throughout different Realms and kept the speculation to myself. With Kiara’s arrival, and now Mabel’s, I knew there must be some basis of truth to the stories.

Mabel had mentioned music I couldn’t hear, when Benjamin and Jack delivered her to me. Now, she was hearing voices. She possessed more than merely standard magic. The chatter I’dheard in the past mentioned specified gifts. Clairaudience was on that list.

“You’re the only one making noise. Move.” I yanked on her arm, and she tore away from my grasp.

Mabel took a tentative step to the right and closed her eyes. “I hear it. It's pretty. A woman.”

“Mabel, enough. We have to go,” I snarled. She appeared perfectly at peace, almost in a meditative state.

A small smile curled the edges of her lips, and she took another step as my heart fell down to my knees. Just before she tumbled over the side of a cliff she was completely unaware of, I grabbed her, earning a small gasp from her lips. The sound brought images to my mind that had nothing to do with our current situation and everything to do with what I dreamed of.

With my arms under her shoulders, I dragged her to the wall. Her face was pale and her mouth trembling as I sat down, pulling her onto my lap. A split second later, and she would’ve been gone.

“I told you we have to go,” I chided her, breathing in her scent, and resting my chin on her head. Several deep inhalations later, I calmed my frantic blood. She had no idea how close she had come to being lost; adrift somewhere she’d be eternally lost and beyond my reach.

Mabel pressed her forehead into my chest. “What was that?”

“That was nothing. There’s nothing there; it's a void. Like a black hole, for reference.” No one knew precisely what it was or why it possessed an odd consciousness. Supposedly, there was an ocean, a body of water of some type at the bottom, but no one in existence had seen it to be able to say for sure. It was only an assumption as far as I knew.

She turned her gaze up at me. “The voice?”

“There was no voice.” I hadn’t heard a thing; we were the only two below ground in the immediate area so any voice otherthan our own should be impossible. Rumors circulated that the ravine possessed sentience, but it hadn’t been proven.

I prided myself on having rare knowledge, but the crevasse was one I was annoyingly ignorant of, and I had no way to know for sure what she was hearing. It had to have been due to the magic in her blood.

---