Free The Inner Circle: Holy Spirit by Cael McIntosh Page B

daytime,’ the bird said
solemnly.
    ‘ Over there?’
El-i-miir squinted through the dark. ‘It’s Sunday. That’s the day
of rest, so I suppose it should be safe enough.’
    The group headed over to Seeol’s 'big
building,' which turned out to be a very small tool shed. ‘It’ll
have to do,’ Seteal muttered, cautioned by the steadily increasing
levels of daylight. ‘I’m too tired to find anything else and the
sun will soon be up.’
    ‘ Allow me.’ Ilgrin
stepped forward to break open the locked door with a well-placed
kick.
    Once inside, the tool shed seemed
even smaller than it had before they’d entered, but there was room
enough to find a small corner in which to sleep.
    Seteal pulled her legs up beneath her
chin and did exactly that. Hours later she awoke. She was drowsy
and not at all startled, even though she’d been shaken by
El-i-miir. Seteal felt unable to properly construct thoughts and
soon felt her body moving without her approval. El-i-miir was
affiliating her.
    She moved slowly, as though she was
trying to stay quiet. Opening the door, Seteal slipped outside
without even breathing for fear of the noise it might make. She
walked several strides before coming to a stop in front of Ilgrin
and El-i-miir, where the woman released her aura and Seteal’s
regular consciousness returned. It was broad daylight.
    ‘ What’re you doing?’
Seteal hissed, fearing that they might be seen.
    ‘ I’m sorry,’
El-i-miir murmured almost inaudibly as she headed away from the
tool shed. ‘We couldn’t risk waking Seeol.’
    ‘ Who cares about
Seeol?’ Seteal spat grumpily. ‘Does he need his beauty sleep or
something?’
    ‘ No.’ El-i-miir
gently prodded Seteal along, as Ilgrin moved quietly by her side.
‘We need to get out of here without him knowing we’re
gone.’
    ‘ You’re abandoning
him?’ Seteal frowned, casting a glance back toward the shed.
‘Why?’
    ‘ He’s too dangerous,’
El-i-miir replied. ‘I don’t know what you did to him, but whatever
it was, I’m certain he’s responsible for everything that’s been
going wrong.’
    ‘ Don’t you think I
know that?’ Seteal grumbled. ‘I changed him. The darkness used to
well up and explode out. Now it just leaks
continuously.’
    Ilgrin raised his eyebrows. ‘You
already knew?’
    ‘ I figured it out.’
Seteal sighed. ‘I just didn’t have the heart to abandon him. I know
it’s silly, but I was the one who invited him along to begin
with.’
    ‘ Well, now the stakes
are too high,’ El-i-miir persisted. ‘We cannot be far from Veret
and if he’s with us, we’ll most certainly get caught.’
    ‘ It just seems so
cruel.’ Seteal bit her lip. ‘What will he think when he wakes up to
find us all gone?’
    ‘ Who cares?’
El-i-miir raised her voice, having travelled far enough away from
the shed to feel confident in doing so. ‘He’s just a
bird.’
    ‘ I know, I know.’
Seteal shook her head. ‘I’m being silly.’
    ‘ We can’t go far,’
Ilgrin whispered, making sure to keep his face covered beneath a
hood. ‘We have to find somewhere else to hide until
nightfall.’
    ‘ I know it’s not
great that we’re exposed like this,’ El-i-miir stated
apologetically, ‘but I figured that there’d be less of a chance of
waking Seeol if we made our escape by day.’
    The three hurried nervously across open
fields until finding a dense patch of woods in which to hide.

Lu-ke 3
     
    21-22. Now when all the people were
baptized, it came to pass that Lu-ke also was baptized. And while
He prayed the Holy Spirit descended in a vision with the body of an
owl.
     
     
    Joh-n 1
     
    32. And Joh-n bore record, saying, “I
saw the Spirit descend from the clouds and stand before a tree with
the body of an owl."
     
    Scriptures of the Holy Tome

 
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER Six
    It Begins
     
     
    ‘ Can I talk to you
for a minute?’ Seteal’s voice intruded upon El-i-miir’s thoughts.
She’d been watching Ilgrin