Something was familiar about the combination, but Jason couldn’t put a finger on it, and the gap in his memory troubled him. He memorized the combinations of initials, then closed the article by pressing the ESC button. How wonderful it would be if he could just press a button and make all the pressure and pain inside of him go away as well. But it refused to let go. Jason pictured Emily again and clenched his fist—the fist he had used to punch Pariah—and a lightning bolt of pain shot through it.
“Ow!” Jason cried, unclenching his hand, but at that moment things got worse. The pain in his knuckles woke a fierce burning in his neck, and he doubled over with a cry.
“What is it, Jason?” Tyler was instantly at his side, a caring hand on his shoulder. Jason looked up and Tyler froze at the sight of his neck. “No way,” he said. “It can’t be. Did you—Goddammit!” Tyler’s look was furious when he met Jason’s eyes. “How could you fall in love with her?”
Jason’s mouth opened, but he didn’t speak for a moment. Then he asked, “How did you know?”
“The scar! You told me that during the battle Pariah had lashed her. He didn’t lash you. How could you possibly have a scar in the exact same place? You two must have formed a bond so strong that—” Tyler didn’t finish his sentence. He combed his fingers through his long blond hair, shaking his head. “This is unbelievable.”
Jason frowned, at a loss as to why Tyler was so incensed. “Is it really that important?”
“Don’t you understand what it means?”
Jason didn’t, so he shrugged and waited for Tyler to go on.
“If she’s dead,” Tyler said through gritted teeth, “you are bound to die as well. It’s a chain reaction similar to the one that happened with William and the Legate he was fighting, just a bit slower.”
Jason sighed and dropped his head. So the Beholder was bound to disappear, just like it had said in the Prophecy. Perhaps that was the way it was supposed to be. In the meantime, he had other problems to solve.
“Tyler, I have a question,” he said. “What happened when you got into the room with the shelves and boxes?”
“I noticed that you’d lagged behind in the corridor,” Tyler said, stroking Debbie’s hair, “and Emily seemed to freak out. She said we should go, then she’d return and get you. She was getting really nervous, and when I tried to calm her down, she snapped. When I approached her she shoved one of the boxes into me, and I got sent into a void passage.”
“Void passage?” Debbie asked, looking him straight in the eyes.
“Yes, some things are even invisible for Sighted. The boxes are the most convenient way to travel over long distances,” Tyler muttered. “You can’t see it even in the Sight.”
“Why didn’t we use one when we went from Paris to New York?” Debbie asked.
“She’s too clever. Every move had obviously been calculated in advance. She told me it was unsafe to show you three to a world invisible at the first level.”
“First level?” Debbie’s eyebrows flew up to her hairline. “Gosh, there are levels?”
“Don’t panic, Debbie.” Tyler smiled. “I just want to explain a few things to you.”
She let out a long, slow sigh. “But the more you explain, the less I understand,” she muttered.
Jason understood exactly how she felt, and from the look on his face, he could tell Matt felt the same. Theoretically it was all right, but in practice it wasn’t. Especially for Matt and Debbie.
“I only wanted to say that it takes longer to get to a place when you don’t intend to go there, and she sent me halfway around the world. When I ended up in Siberia, I knew there was something wrong. But for some reason I had no access to the Sight, which is why it took me so long to get back to New York.”
Jason was hesitant about his feeling towards Emily. One moment he had hoped she was just a victim in the story, as most of them were, but at Tyler’s words Jason became more convinced that she’d been one of the masterminds playing a cruel joke on him and the rest.
“Tyler, what is De-Energization?” he asked.
“What? Why?” Tyler’s face showed sincere surprise.
“When I got into the building and was about to fight, I lost all my power and couldn’t enter the Sight.”
Tyler frowned.
“No one seemed to be able to do it, not even Damien. Emily said it was De-Energization.”
“Well,” Tyler said, perplexed. “De-Energization is supposed to be an overall phenomenon. There are times when our ability to enter the Sight disappears—for example, when solar activity is tremendous. When De-Energization happens, Sighted lose their ability to enter the Energy world. But I’ve never heard of selective De-Energization. William and I didn’t have any problems in the Sight as we were flying towards Evelyn & Laurens.”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “Which means someone created it around the building?”
“Can that be possible?” Tyler asked, speaking to himself. “I don’t know. But I can find out.”
Since that incredible night, Jason hadn’t entered the Sight again. There’d been no need, and he didn’t want to. It hurt to think about all those things. They brought back memories of her, feelings he wanted to extinguish.
“Are they going to shut down McAlester’s?” he asked, hoping to divert everyone’s attention away from the Sighted world and its mysteries.
“They don’t know yet,” Matt replied. “They’re looking for a person who can take over. William’s project must continue to exist, for his sake.”
Chapter 40
Jason couldn’t sleep that night. Not because nightmares haunted him, though. He was sure there would be no more nightmares. The awareness of everything that had happened kept him awake, as did the question of what the future held, a topic they’d all tried really hard to avoid in their earlier conversation.
On his way home, Jason bought as many newspapers as he could carry, then piled them on the coffee table in his living room. He made himself a strong cup of coffee with cream and opened a pack of croissants to help make reading more enjoyable.
He didn’t have to look long before he came across a number of interesting facts. Among the heap of papers he found one from three weeks before. Part of him wondered if finding it had been just luck—or if an Energy formula had predetermined that he would find it. That didn’t matter, really. But it was there that he found news of a “short circuit” which had ostensibly caused a small fire on the third floor of the E&L building, though there was no mention of a ruined bathroom or of any damage to the neighboring building.
Had they managed to repair it and hide all traces of the fight? Jason knew that would have been a piece of cake to the Sighted, but a strange thought pressed in his mind. What if there hadn’t ever been a fight at all? What if it had all been an illusion set up by Emily or Pariah? No. It couldn’t all be fake. Emily’s boneless flight through the window was too stunning to be fake.
Jason flipped to fresher issues of the newspapers. The headlines were different, some really far from the truth, some closer to what had happened. One reporter even connected—without proof—the events that had happened in New York that night with the other mysterious killings and disappearances.
Jason laid the papers aside and stretched on the couch. He couldn’t close his eyes, because when he did, he saw her face. And her voice … her voice never abandoned him.
“When we came there I couldn’t control the defensive shield for an instant and saw your Light … I think sometimes you’re a little crazy, and blind—especially for the Beholder. You don’t see me the way I really am … The laws according to which our kind lives differ from the laws of common people.”
Bits of phrases she had said, words which would always be with him.
“… the ends justify the means.”
He wanted to know what “ends” Emily meant, but he guessed he probably never would. Somehow he would have to work past this, and the sooner the better. He had to return to work and find oblivi
on.
Epilogue
Evelyn greeted Jason with a hug, wearing the same wide smile she always wore.
“Are you ready to be back with us, honey?” she asked, stroking his shoulder in a motherly way. The creative work at Evelyn & Laurens was flowing again, their office as good as new. It was as if nothing had ever happened.
“Back at full throttle,” he replied, his lips curved in a smile.
“Very good. We’ve got some work for you three.”
Jason’s days returned to routine, but occasionally he got distracted by the memories of the previous week’s events. Debbie caught him staring out the window at one point, not hearing her at all. She came up behind him and squeezed his shoulder.
“Are you thinking about her?”
“What? No, I’m not,” Jason snapped. “It’s just … I’m afraid they’ll come back. I’m worried about you.”
Debbie clicked her tongue. “You aren’t that good a liar, sweetie,” she said and smiled ruefully. “But thanks for worrying about us.” She came around to his front and gave him a hug. “You’ll get over her.”
“It’s not going to be easy,” he admitted quietly, and she squeezed him tight.
A few days later Jason decided to turn things around. He’d had enough of all the pain and misery which had come along with being the Beholder; he needed a change. So he asked Debbie and Matt to join him for a drive out of town. Debbie eyed him strangely, unconvinced, since the weather was cold and gloomy. But Jason wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“Just the three of us,” he said, smiling. “It’ll be worth it. We need to get away.”
The disapproving scowl vanished from Debbie’s face, to be replaced by a look of acceptance. “Okay.”
The car waited in the parking lot, and his friends didn’t ask any more questions as they climbed in. By the time they were ready to go, it had started drizzling, but that didn’t bother Jason. Instead, he smiled.
“What’s so funny?” Matt asked.
A ray of sunlight popped through the pall of gray, hitting the hood of the car. A few minutes later the setting sun’s red circle showed from behind rapidly shrinking clouds.
Debbie squinted with suspicion. “What’s going on?”
“I’m just pulling a few strings,” Jason explained, still smiling.
“It’s you?” Matt exclaimed, mesmerized by the changes happening in the sky. “You’re doing that?”
The quickly spreading palette of colors could hardly be considered compatible—not according to a carload of interior designers—but on the vast canvas of the sky they looked divine. It was as if an artist had squeezed oils onto his palette and added surreal shades of topaz and turquoise along with hues of pink and primrose, spreading color through the overall purity of the blue evening sky.
A few miles outside the boundaries of New York, Jason pulled up on the shoulder and climbed out. Warm wind danced around them, tickling Jason’s neck, lightening the mood further.
“Come on,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
They followed him to a clear area, and when they were out of sight of the road, he stopped and stretched his hands to either side. “Give me your hands.”
The three joined together and watched the sun descending, a gorgeous shining body, majestic and dazzling. Jason closed his eyes and entered the Sight. Warmth coursed down his arms and tingled in his fingers. He squeezed his friends’ hands, bringing them a vision of his own making.
Debbie’s beautiful eyes flashed in his mind, changing to an image of Matt relaxing on a chair, his legs on the table as he flirted with Debbie. His strong, tattooed hands waved as he told a story and made them laugh. Then William McAlester was there, greeting them warmly with handshakes and hugs. In the next moment they all rushed through space until they ended up on top of a cliff, the warm, welcome wind ruffling their hair. Jason opened his eyes to watch the amber sun reflecting off a lake surface.
“Wow!” Debbie whispered. “This is so beautiful!”
Matt looked around in disbelief, lost for words, and Jason inhaled the flower-scented air. “Yes, it is.”
He stared straight ahead, focusing on the light of the sun until he saw a small figure emerge from it. Emily stumbled towards him, unseen by anyone else, and gave him a wan smile then waved goodbye. Her face was divine, even within the deadly paleness of her skin. The dark mane of her hair, as fierce as any lion’s, fringed her beautiful face.
Jason closed his eyes, not wanting to see the light any longer. Emily smiled one more time, her expression soft with wistful mystery, then stepped back into the blackness.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you so much for your interest in The Beholder. I hope you enjoyed it. It’ll mean a lot to me if you post a review on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Goodreads and let others know what you think of it.
Thank you so much for your time with The Beholder!
Book 2 of The Beholder Series, Path of the Heretic, is to be published soon!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ivan Amberlake is a paranormal/urban fantasy writer, member of Breakwater Harbor Books. In December 2009 he began writing his first novel "The Beholder" and in November 2011 it was selected for review by HarperCollins on Authonomy.com.
Ivan Amberlake loves hard rock music, sitcoms, sunsets and the sound of rain pattering against the roof.
‘THE BEHOLDER is a tight and fast-paced thriller combining the crawling claustrophobia of Stephen King’s “It” and the exciting arcane symbol-hunting of “Celestine Prophecy”’ ~ Joe Kovacs, #1 Amazon Bestselling Author of “Ginger the Gangster Cat”.
For more information about the author visit www.breakwaterharborbooks.weebly.com and www.ivanamberlake.weebly.com
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
The Beholder Page 21
