Timeless 5th Excerpt
Here's the 5th installment from Timeless. Hope you enjoy it. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.
The guard shack was actually a
small building set above the site. Lights shined out the two windows on the
eastern face of the structure. Regan stopped as she spied Kennedy sitting in a
chair before a desk reading a book.
“Well that’s a relief,” she said
on a sigh as the tight band of anxiety tying her stomach into knots released.
“Let’s leave him to his book and
go back and open the wine.”
“Or we could go down and see
what effect, if any, the lightning had on the monoliths. The strikes have to
screw with the magnetic field of the stones?”
“Have you not tested it yet?” he
asked, his tone laced with surprised.
“They’ve kept me busy analyzing
the data from our dive and helping in the preservation lab for the last few
days.” It had more to do with liability for her injury than the need for her
help in those areas.
“We could go down and see if
they register any type of magnetic qualities now that the lightning has
passed,” he suggested.
“We didn’t bring anything to
test it with.”
Quinn withdrew a pocketknife
from his jeans. “If they’re magnetic this will stick to the side of a stone. It
won’t be scientific, but we’ll be able to tell if the lightning charge has had
an effect.”
The crunch of the gravel beneath
their feet had a soggy sound. The rain stopped as they reached the scaffolding
and Regan lowered the umbrella and folded it into its compact form.
Quinn caught her hand as they
strolled through the arch of the first monoliths. The air felt waterlogged,
almost muggy, and smelt like the loch.
He paused by the second stone,
the one that had received a direct strike, and touched it with his pocketknife.
The metal adhered to the stone as though glued there.
“I’ll be damned.” He pulled free
the blade and replaced it several times.
Curious to see if all the
monoliths were affected or just a few, she tugged at his hand and they strolled
around the henge in a counter clockwise direction. In a random pattern, they
stopped at several stones to test them. Each showed the same magnetic ability.
“I’ve never seen anythin’ like
this,” Quinn said.
“Neither have I.”
She paused before the stone
she’d been working on before her dive. Hannah had finished removing the algae.
The flashlight’s illumination made the hieroglyphs look as though they writhed
upon the face of the stone.
“I haven’t looked at the
markings up close. They appear alive somehow,” Quinn said as he rested his hand
on the side of the stone and rubbed his fingers over it.
“Alive. That’s a good way to put
it.” Regan touched one deep groove in the center of the monolith. Warmth seared
her fingertips and the stone latched onto her skin with the ferocity of a
hungry leech. A shudder, soul deep raced through her system as prickles of fear
and power raced through her system.
“Quinn—“ His name was jerked
from her, a plea and a warning. But it was too late.
Light blazed between the
monoliths bathing Quinn’s tall form in fire.
Teresa J. Reasor
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