Phoenix Contract: Part Five (Fallen Angel Watchers) Read Online Free PDF Page A

fingertips. Magical energy filled the room, as wispy and intangible as mist. It tingled with an effervescent serenity that swept away all doubt and worry.
    “Tell me what you see in the bowl,” Madame Ah-Loi instructed in a no-nonsense tone.
    “The bowl is empty,” Aiden replied automatically. She’d already inspected the receptacle thoroughly and knew it did not contain anything.
    “Are you so certain? Not all truth can be seen with the eyes. Certain truths must be witnessed with the heart. Look,” Ah-Loi commanded.
    Aiden glanced down, staring into a clean white mist that slowly snaked upward with the graceful flutter of a dancer’s veils. Silvery-white fluid filled the bowl. The liquid’s surface was glassy smooth and as reflective as a highly polished mirror. She gazed through fingers in the miasma and saw herself looking back. But instead of a two-dimensional reflection, her twin appeared to exist in three dimensions.
    Startled, she sucked down a deep breath. Without warning, the world tilted and tumbled and pulled her inside out. She underwent a surreal distortion as her mind was sucked into another space and time.
    “What do you see?” The seer’s voice echoed from a great distance through the mist.
    “Me. I see myself,” Aiden whispered, turning to look in all directions. She encountered more mist and her own reflection circling her on all sides.
    “Very good. Now, tell me, what do you wish to see?”
    “The truth. About what became of Cassio, the last Phoenix, five hundred years ago. Can you show me?” Aiden asked. She reached out to touch a silken strand of mist as it drifted past her hand. It intertwined between her fingers, kitten-like in its affection.
    “Yes, I can show you.”
    Aiden’s world cartwheeled out of control, and images flowed through her mind, a real life movie in rewind. Back and backward through time, past places. People. Events.
    “But be warned…” The seer’s voice was faint and far away, so weak that the rest of her words were lost to time.
    A brilliant white flash left Aiden momentarily blinded.
    She blinked and spread her hands as icy water flowed over her face and arms, and the wind whipped around her in a gale.

Chapter Twenty-Four

     
    Mariah suspected her master would be the death of her, one way or another.
    They followed the Highland path, a narrow strip of exposed rock defined on either side by emerald moss and lichens. Calling it a road would have been too generous. Below, a swollen stream flowed into one of the land’s countless lochs beyond a dense forest of green. Above, a snow-capped peak glistened, crowning the mountain with a white lightning-bright crown.
    Mariah had admired the landscape before the dreadful frozen rain began and a bank of pea-soup fog rolled in, blanketing the vista and destroying the view.
    Now, needles of frozen rain stung her hands and face as she clutched at the doe hide cloak with numb fingers and struggled to keep the driving wind from stealing it away. The cloak was fine protection for the mild Mediterranean winters of her beloved Savona but provided no respite from the blistering cold of Northern Scotland. Her only concern had become remaining upright in spite of her physical misery.
    Mariah wasn’t built to endure such abuse. Her delicate build and short stature were better suited to a life spent in study. She wore her long brown hair worn in a loose braid. With each step, her feet dragged as if weighed down by frozen bricks. She trudged forward in excruciating agony, but the man leading the way up the rugged trail had no regard for his follower’s physical discomfort. He set a backbreaking pace and negotiated the steep incline with demonic determination.
    Taking her eyes off the rocky trail, Mariah glared daggers at Cassio’s back. A sudden gust of howling wind blasted slushy water into her face. The impact struck like a slap. An alarmed cry escaped her as her foot slipped on an icy patch and her entire leg went out from