Search (SEEK book 1)

Mood Ring

There's no time to react to the disembodied voice. It's only a fraction of a second before a freaky green ball rises up over the grove of towering magnolias. Nearer and nearer it comes as though it has been there the whole time waiting for Jonathan's command.

At first it's only one glowing bubble, but then more spheres swoop up into the indigo sky, just a quick flash before they dive back into the trees like a brief swarm of bees.

"Oh my god, did you see that?" I point with a trembling finger. I know immediately that I'm witnessing something exotic and exciting—and also terrifying. "There are so many of them!"

"I told you. They're curious, but scared," Jonathan says.

Mayet gracefully materializes, fluttering her wings and looking at me expectantly with those wide eyes.

"Of me?" I ask. But he doesn't need to answer, it's written all over Mayet's face.

"Keira, follow me."

A creeping shiver ripples through me. The fairy's voice sounds too familiar, like the wind chimes that hung outside my bedroom window back in Destin.

"They're not afraid of you, they're afraid of the hunters. SEEK's in there. We should wait, but you're already paler than you were an hour ago."

"I'm fine," I say, irrevocably bewildered by his distinction that I am somehow different from the other SEEK hunters. I'm not.

"I believe you. No judgment. You're the victim here." He slips down the hill behind me, grasping at branches to slow himself.

I scamper through the familiar underbrush. I get that Jonathan's trying to make me feel better, but nothing can stop me from feeling dreadful right now. There's nothing anyone could say right now that would ease my guilt. And certainly not the guy who's making me want him just by existing. It wasn't my intention to be a heartless murderer when I pledged my oath of servitude to SEEK. I thought I was fighting for something worth believing in. I thought I was helping the country, not just Lindy.

"Let's not talk. I need to concentrate." I say, kicking up dirt as I scurry down the fern-covered hill, chasing after his fairy.

Jonathan trips, trying to keep up.

I duck under the canopy, sick roiling in my stomach. This forest is now my own personal hell. A graveyard of all the Khayal I alone have murdered. If they are what they appear to be, truly kind and innocent—I swallow hard, choking on one thought—then I am wicked.

Consumed by a haze of remorse I almost miss the distinct pounding of gunfire in the distance. "Hunters," I growl and stalk toward the sound.

"Not that way." Mayet flutters in front of me, shaking her head wearily. "Your Ka is over here."

I take an uncertain step toward her, keeping my eyes trained on hers. "You know where my Khayal is?" I ask, surprising myself with a degree of excitement.

"Irkalla is there." Mayet flashes her green teeth and points a slender finger north. "She's hiding, waiting for you."

A 10mm peppers shots again, still a few miles from here. I turn to Jonathan, "Is she being hunted?"

"They're always being hunted." He nods, still holding the Glock like a dirty diaper rather than a weapon. "Just the way it is."

Something deep inside me begins to uncoil, like a copper wire springing loose from its pipe. The gunfire and the rest of the Boone melt into the background. The only thing left in my vision is the path to my Khayal, the only sound the faint fluttering of Mayet's graceful wings and Jonathan's breathing behind me.