Embracing The Shadows (Shadow Series #5)

25 - Recorder

Our footsteps softly squeaked against the floor as I led the way once more down the hallway. Stiles lightly bumped his shoulder against mine when he returned to my side. He anxiously glimpsed over his shoulder to see how far back Lydia was from the two of us.

"Did you see him, too?" He whispered to avoid being overheard.

A perplexed expression knitted on my facial features as I squinted my eyes at him in confusion, eyebrows furrowed at the base of my forehead. My lips parted at his words. My brain worked harder to understand his question.

Did he mean the Sluagh? I wondered to myself.

"See who?" I whispered back.

He matched the befuddled look on my face when my response wasn't the answer he expected. His mouth opened to clarify until Lydia unknowingly cut him off.

"This is it," she announced.

Stiles and I tore our attention away from each other and watched Lydia sidestep around us to approach the cell faster. She reached the cell first with her gaze locked on the man, who sat in the center of the small room on the floor.

His legs laid crossed beneath him, similar to a mediative position with his arms rested on top of his legs. My eyes shifted from his calm pose to the white bandage wrapped around the entirety of his forehead to shield others from his third eye Deaton warned us about.

Stiles and I slowed to a stop on either side of Lydia. A few feet laid between the three of us and the glass walls connected to Valack's cell. None of us fully knew the extent of the man's abilities, even if we were protected by the glass.

"Tell me what you saw," Valack spoke.

His head slowly raised up from his chin and peered at us. A strong look of curiosity stared back at us in his dark eyes in the dim lighting of the cell. Stiles nervously glanced at Valack before he briefly glimpsed at me from behind Lydia's figure.

"Me?" He asked with a slight point to himself. He shifted on his feet in an anxious state.

"The creature in the previous cell—"

"A Sluagh," I interjected.

My friends snapped their heads in my direction, shocked by my knowledge of the strange supernatural creature. I looked at them from my peripheral vision without completely removing my gaze from Valack. The man inside the cell nodded his head in approval, impressed.

"That's correct, Ms. Argent," he continued in an overly calm tone. "Did you also know that the myth is that they can take on the appearance of the lost souls that have become inextricably bound it to?"

A heavy cloud of exhaustion fogged over my brain and prevented me from recalling the information on my own. Dad explained a handful of supernatural creatures to Allison and me when he showed us the bestiary for the first time.

The blood drained from my face when the realization behind his words hit me. Allison was inextricably bound to me. That's why I saw her inside the cell as the Sluagh.

"Happen to have seen any lost souls, Mr. Stilinski?" Valack transferred his focus on Stiles before his eyes darted back to me. "What about you, Ms. Argent?"

I stared back at him with my jaw clenched.

How much did this man know about our lives? I thought to myself.

"Everyone down here," Stiles answered.

"Don't give up on us yet," Valack responded. "We're all works in progress."