Hell's Eyes

BRIANNA SHAFFERY

***

Herman found himself a bit anxious the farther from town they walked and how the ground they’d canvassed since had garnered them no results. There was absolutely nothing to see. He was about to say as much to Miss Hyacinth, when the flicker of a shadowy tail caught his eye. Quickly, he placed a hand on Miss Hyacinth’s arm and drew to an abrupt stop. Before she could utter a word of exclamation or question, he pressed a finger to his lips and tilted his head in the direction that had piqued his interest. Miss Hyacinth, thankfully, understood his meaning, and her eyes never strayed from his. Her only reaction was to arch a brow, to which he shrugged lightly and nodded. Elsie pressed her lips into a grim line. Returning his nod with a single bob of her head, she brought her bow up. Herman extinguished his glowing orb of light. Letting his magic simmer in his veins, he wove the first hints of energy between his fingers, not quite ready to unleash it—that was, not until he could confirm what he had seen. Silently leading the way, Herman kept his eyes up, praying his peripheral vision was competent enough to see the threat he feared lurked in the dim shadows. To meet a cerbertes’s eyes would mean cer tain death—or at least, certain psychosis if Mr. Noblémyn’s condition was anything to consider. That, and the hope that the creature’s eyes on its prey was not enough to bewitch him, paralyzing him with the image and belief that his own worst fears had come true, were the only two hopes he allowed his mind the room to spare at the moment. Elsie, on the other hand, wasn’t sure if she wanted to see. Half tempted to shut her eyes completely and rely only on her instincts to pick up on whether a beastly creature stood before her, she scrounged up the scraps of her courage and followed after Mr. Basil, keeping her

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