Page 310 of Seer Prophet

He’d gone still, rigid, like an animal listening to a distant sound, scenting a predator on the wind. His light was so heavily cloaked I could barely feel him, but something in his pale eyes grew still as glass, as if he were waiting. As if he expected something to happen.

My fear worsened, the longer I stared at him.

Whatever this was, he expected it.

He’d likely been expecting it before we got here.

I glanced behind us, back through the row of crates. I grew aware of my heart beating harder in my chest, the hair at the back of my neck prickling. I could practically feel someone there, standing directly behind me?but no one was there.

Something was definitely coming, though.

Revik just felt it before the rest of us.

The warehouse fell totally silent, absent now even of the sound of shuffled footsteps and hands touching the bars. With the prisoners standing so still and wordless, I didn’t hear clothing rustle against skin, or the sound of breathing, not even my own.

When Terian spoke, I jumped half a foot.

“I warned you,” he told me sadly. “I warned you, dear, dear sister. I did.”

My eyes jerked to where he stood, only a dozen steps from the boathouse’s far wall. I could hear the water out there, I realized, staring numbly at his face. It sloshed distantly against the metal exterior, a rhythmic pulse I’d managed not to hear until then.

The rest of our party turned to stare at Terian when I did.

Everyone but Revik.

Revik let go of me, stepping in the direction from which we’d come. His eyes, face and light aimed past the rest of us. A flicker of charged light left hisaleimias he stared, pale eyes fixed on the fissure between the tightly stacked crates.

When I met Terian’s gaze, though, I forgot all of that.

He was looking directly at me. I saw grief in his eyes.

More than that, I saw fear.

“I warned you,” he said, softer, clicking sadly. “I warned you, Alyson, dear. I warned you.”

Next to me, Revik tensed. I felt another hot coil of current slide through my light, but I didn’t look away from Terian’s face.

“In through the out door…”he whispered.

A ripple of light crackled through my spine, bringing a flush of deeper fear, so intense I couldn’t think past it. Even so, somehow I knew.

We were already too late.

Just then, another voice boomed through the hollow space behind us.

Every head turned, including every head of every prisoner in the two cages. We all stared into the same crack of dark in that towering wall of crates. My body stiffened, going rigid as a group of uniformed seers began filing out of the narrow opening. They flowed into the cleared space of the warehouse, filling it steadily, like ants pouring out of a hole in the cement.

In the front walked a tall figure wearing all black.

It took me another blink to realize he wore a traditional Arabic head covering and robe.

Even in the unfamiliar clothes and headgear, however, I recognized him. Well enough that my breath stopped, a choking sensation hitting the middle of my chest.

It was Menlim.

He wasn’t looking at me.

He looked only at Revik.

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