Seeing Magic (The Queen of the Night Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

anything else, I didn’t see the log before it was too late to avoid impact.
    I’m sure to an onlooker, the fall was spectacular. Flipping end-over-end, I heard the rushing of the water clearly. Unconsciously, I’d raced toward the river, so when I landed, it wasn’t on the forest floor. I bounced off a boulder with my left hip and splashed into freezing, fast current.
    I struggled to keep my head above the surface, spluttering and spitting because the water tasted metallic.
    Green Eyes cried out behind me, but his words made no sense. “Fiona, don’t leave me. Come back. Stay out of the water. She has power in the water. She’ll kill you Fiona, for being a MacDougall. She won’t let you produce a competing heir. FIONA, get out of the RIVER!  Don’t die!”
    What did he think I was trying to do ?  I didn’t know why he kept calling me Fiona, but understood the part about getting out of the water before it killed me. I fought the current, but it still carried me downstream. The rapids increased as the Cacapon River turned a bend and dropped in elevation. My left knee tore open on a sharp, protruding rock. The impact and the current pushed my broken body to the right. Once again, I somersaulted. This time I rolled over wet rocks, and not in the air. From my upside down vantage point, it seemed like someone hung from a bridge in front of me. Then my somersault ended when my head cracked on the final boulder of the rapids.
    ***
    The pain pulled me back to consciousness, but not for long, because the mushrooms still affected my senses. In my altered state, it seemed like I lay in the bed of a pick-up truck surrounded by several short men wearing burlap sacks with hairy, bare feet. They mostly had wrinkled, leathery brown skin but every time the truck hit a bump or a pothole they changed color to match the paint job. One of those potholes blissfully knocked me out again.
    ***
    I woke up on the living room floor of the cabin to the same high-pitched noise from early in the morning or late at night. Except this time, I could easily make out the sounds, because they were words. Several people spoke with high, squeaky voices.   Slowly, I opened my eyes. What peered back into my face made me question if the blow to my head had caused serious damage.
    The coffee table began to move. I tried to block the impact, thinking it would fall on me, but it didn’t. Instead, a piece of it broke away from the rest and approached me. Gradually, the coloring shifted and instead of a piece of the coffee table, it transformed into a tiny person. He camouflaged himself to blend in with his surroundings, like a chameleon. It was frightening and fascinating all at the same time.
    Somehow, I had the sense to marvel at how real my hallucination felt. It could be caused by a traumatic brain injury, which would be bad, or the mushrooms. I hoped it was the mushrooms, because the drug would eventually leave my system.
    I’d never done drugs although so many were available in Santa Monica. A lot of my classmates were the children of musicians or actors. Early on, I’d witnessed the repercussions from drug use. I’d always liked my brain the way it was. This trip was so real, and the characters so fantastical, I was beginning to understand the appeal. It felt like I’d been dropped inside a movie, except for the pain, which I assumed was a bad side effect of the spores.
    Mentally, I detached myself from the action and scrutinized the fantasy creature in front of me. The man stood almost two feet tall. His hairy, bare feet had long toenails that scraped the ground as he walked. He sported short, curly brown hair, big green eyes, and wore a brown, hooded robe made out of burlap. He also had a scruffy, short beard.
    He squeaked at me. This movie was so cool . “There you are, Mistress Maggie. Gave us quite a fright you did, taking a tumble like that and all. No, don’t try to move yet. Master Evan will be along presently. You just stay put