Free The Inner Circle: The Knowing by Cael McIntosh Page A

time to see a
monstrous figure erupt out of thin air. City folk screamed and ran
in terror as the winged beast swooped over them, snapping its
mandibles and scratching out with sharp talons. The events taking
place soon became too horrible to bear and yet Seteal found herself
quite unable to move, transfixed by the devastation below.
    The monster that was Seeol spotted a
small girl in a frilly pink dress. The child had lost her parents
in the pandemonium and would make an easy target. She ran and
cried. Seeol banked toward her. She screamed and wailed. Seeol
raked his talons forward. She died. Only when Seteal felt the pain
in her throat did she realise she’d been screaming. She didn’t
care. She couldn’t stop. She watched in dismay as Seeol tore the
child to pieces before rolling about, bathing his feathers in her
blood. He enjoyed it.
    What have I
done? The panicked thought invaded
Seteal’s mind.
    People abandoned their stalls and began
to run in terror, before spewing out onto the street and continuing
their journey. Seteal put a hand to her throat as she watched Seeol
picking off the stragglers one by one. He landed heavily to loom
over a disfigured man in a hooded coat, but a woman running along
the roadside armed with nothing but a shovel stole his
attention.
    ‘ My daughter,’ she
howled. ‘Mary!’ Seeol snatch her from the roadside and flung her
into the air. The woman screamed until she hit the earth many
strides away, her body split and twisted.
    The creature beat his wings and
launched himself into the air in pursuit of the crowd, whilst
Seteal watched on from the safety of her window. She couldn’t bear
it, couldn’t watch. It had to stop. It had to. She fell to the
floor sobbing.
    This is my
fault, Seteal thought bitterly. It was
her fault and she couldn’t let it continue. She refused. She turned
her focus to the Ways. Seteal’s vision doubled, momentarily
splitting everything in two. The room vibrated and the air rattled
out of her lungs. Her knees buckled.
    ‘ Seteal!’ El-i-miir
cried, her face filling her vision.
    ‘ I can’t--’ Seteal
began to reply, but thereafter her lips refused to function. The
entire world shuddered and then exploded with blinding light.
Seteal twisted sideways and the room plummeted away from her. Her
body toppled to the flooring and she fell disembodied into the
sky.
    Seteal had fallen unconscious. She knew
that she was in shock because she could still feel the floorboards
beneath her head. In her dream, she found Seeol, where the beast
was doings its best to destroy the city and everyone in it. She
pleaded with her imaginary Seeol. She begged him to stop. But she
was only dreaming. There was nothing she could do.
    Please Seeol! she cried desperately. Stop!
    Having dropped the man he’d been about
to tear, Seeol turned to stare at Seteal, or stare through her,
given the fact that she had no body.
    With a loud shriek, Seeol tumbled into
himself, his various parts shrinking back down to their ordinary
proportions. The bird’s face became a picture of horror as he tried
and failed to shake the blood from his feathers. He leapt into the
air and faded into the long shadows of late afternoon.
    Seteal opened her eyes for the
slightest moment and smiled. Seeol had stopped. It was finally
over.
     
    *
     
    Far-a-mael stalked into the room,
examining the Ways and absorbing the scene before him. El-i-miir
was leaning against the wall breathing in short and sharp gasps.
‘What happened?’ Far-a-mael demanded. He glanced at the open window
beneath which Seteal had passed out on the floor.
    ‘ You.’
Far-a-mael turned back to El-i-miir with a more purposeful grip on
the Ways. ‘How dare you affiliate me! Did you really think I
wouldn’t realise? Such arrogance. You’re really not that special, you know.’
    ‘ I--I--I’m sorry,’
El-i-miir stuttered.
    ‘ How long have you
been making a fool out of me?’ Far-a-mael barked. ‘How long?’ When
El-i-miir failed to