Free Bound by Light by Anna Windsor Page B

felt like she was in danger?" Jake asked as Merilee picked up the spiral-bound sketchpad.
    Merilee flipped to the first page, which was dated a week earlier, and went totally still, both mind and body.
    The Stone Man, or rather the charcoal shadow of him, glared out at her from the stark white page. Malice radiated from his outline, from every blurred, indistinct feature. At first glance, he seemed stiffly human, statuesque—but the image shifted even as Merilee stared at it. He was birdlike now, with a giant maw. Wait, wait. No. He was too rounded, maybe scaly, like a reptile, only large. Even in two dimensions, he had a vastness about him, an endlessness she couldn’t begin to describe.
    "Charlotte knew she was in danger." Amy’s voice penetrated Merilee’s stunned haze.
    Merilee looked up, surprised by the young woman’s sudden surge of elemental energy. More powerful than Merilee would have expected given the girl’s age and size—but then, Charlotte had picked Amy as an apprentice, obviously with good reason.
    "Charlotte thought something was stalking her. Some creature too powerful for the coven to fight." Amy pointed toward the notebook. "It looks human, but it’s not. That’s all she knew, or all she told me. That, and she said he—it—was evil. Very, very old, very strong evil."
    Even as her mind pushed against it, Merilee forced herself to look back at the changing charcoal image of the Stone Man.
    That creeping, slithering cold gripped her again.
    Stalking. Yes. He was stalking Charlotte. And now . . . he’s stalking me.
    "Do you know who he is, or what he is?" Amy asked from seemingly very far away as Merilee turned a page in the journal—and almost flinched back from it.
    Familiar winged creatures glowered at her from the next page, standing atop a carpet of shed black feathers, leering grins revealing hooked fangs ready to gouge and slash.
    Merilee almost pulled her fingers back from the likeness.
    Charlotte dreamed about the Keres. Why? Was she already thinking about suicide when she drew these?
    Sibyls or anyone else who knew about the Keres could go to them of their own free will, if they wished to take their own lives—but the death spirits couldn’t come off Káto Ólimbos to claim victims anymore. That was part of the treaty.
    Still, Merilee had never known of anyone but Sibyls—usually only air Sibyls—who saw visions of the Keres under any circumstances.
    She tried to quiet her increasing unrest and confusion by turning the page.
    The next drawing showed the sea at night, dark moonlit water, so peaceful, yet somehow ominous. The Stone Man came next, larger, more frightening, sketched in black pencil, though still lacking detail, and seeming to shift even as she tried to get a fix on his appearance.
    And the Stone Man again. This time Charlotte had sketched so fiercely her pencil had ripped through the next and last page, which showed a tidal wave crashing into Manhattan, toppling buildings like toys.
    "Why did this happen to Charlotte?" Amy asked, loud this time, but Merilee had no answers. All she could do was look from the picture of destroyed New York City to the young woman and shiver, and try very hard not to throw up.
    "We don’t know any more than you do," Jake said, his words rumbling out smoothly, almost hypnotically.
    From the hallway near the kitchen, shouts broke out, and Amy squeezed her eyes closed. "They’re arguing again. It’s been happening all week."
    One man was yelling about needing to get out of the city. A woman screeched back that their place was here, fighting if it came to a fight.
    "How can we battle an enemy we can’t even name?" the man hollered, and the wall rattled like he had punched it.
    Jake’s muscles bunched as if he might be getting ready to stand, but the next thing Merilee heard was a police officer encouraging everyone to settle down, no need for all this screaming.
    The noise died away.
    Jake relaxed a little, but Merilee didn’t.
    Neither