Page 7 of Enchanted Hero
“We’d like the security video.”
“Unfortunately, the tornado damaged the cameras.” He lifted his shoulder. “I’ve already checked, and there’s nothing to see.”
Thin lips pursed a grimace. “You’ll furnish me with a guest list?”
“Of course.” On which Everleigh would be absent.
“Do you have any theories about what happened?” Dr. Garrison now stepped forward, studying him with unsettling regard. This man may be more dangerous than the agent. “Any suspicions?”
Alexander shook his head. “You’re the scientist, Dr. Garrison. I’m sure you realize how ridiculous this sounds.”
Neither the agent nor the scientist appeared intimidated. “I’m surprised at how easily you’re dismissing this, Mr. Stone. Don’t you want to know what happened? Unless…” The researcher inclined his head. “Doyouknow something about what happened?”
This conversation was over. “As I said earlier, I don’t believe there was a man. Now if you’re finishe–”
“Agent Andrews, Dr. Garrison,” one of the police officers interrupted from across the room. “You need to see this.”
Agent Andrews grimaced, yet nodded. He stepped toward the officer, but stopped, said in a low, dark voice. “We’re not finished, Mr. Stone. We’ll be seeing you.”
No doubt with more questions he couldn’t answer. Grainy cell phone footage made good social media fodder, but a firsthand account from thousands of people was something else entirely. If he wasn’t careful, someone might find out who he was.
What he was.
“That didn’t happen. Nope. There wasn’t a man in the center of a tornado. Nope, nope, nope,” Everleigh spoke to no one as she opened the door to her small two-two, then again as she padded into the living room, dripping water all over the cream carpeting, barely missing the ivory sofa. She repeated the denials as she switched on the lights, then again as she looked at herself in the mirror.
She shuddered. Her long dirty blond hair hung in tangled strings down her back, her black slinky dress resembled a witch’s rag and twigs stuck toeverypart of her body. She needed a shower – or a hosing – but first she had to somehow explain the impossible night, starting from the moment she confronted the powerful Alexander Stone and ending with a man commanding the tornado. There was only one reasonable explanation:
She’d lost her mind.
Yet on the slight chance she was still in control of her faculties, whathadhappened? Had fear and stress altered her perception of reality? She might believe in the supernatural, but she didn’t see a rabbit in every hat. It was more a belief in the extraordinary than a blatant acceptance of magical beings.
Yet how else could she describe him?
Perhaps she’d hallucinated, which would’ve been entirely reasonable given the circumstances. Maybe a man had gotten caught in the tornado, and it only appeared he was standing. Perhaps she should’ve told the emergency workers what she’d seen. She’d wanted to remain anonymous, but not at the expense of someone’s life. She reached for her phone, only it rang before she could dial. She relaxed as a picture flashed of Sam Rosen, her colleague, friend and the only person who knew tonight’s mission.
She spoke as soon as it clicked on, “Sam, you won’t believe what happened. I’ll tell you all about it, but first I have to call the poli–”
“Did you see him?” Sam’s normally calm voice rose in pitch, the words so swift they jumbled together.
She frowned. “Stone? Yes, and what an arrogant, overbearing and powerful… strike that last part. Anyways, he was–”
“Not him,” Sam interrupted. “The guy in the tornado.”
The phone nearly slipped from her hands. “You know about him?” Her voice emerged barely audible. “Other people saw him?”
“Everyonesaw him. It’s all over social media. I’ll text you the link.”
Everleigh stared at the phone, as video confirmed the memory of her one-person show. It showed her huddling in front of a violent tornado, a thankfully unidentifiable silhouette. Suddenly a man appeared, not spiraling out of control, not moving with the wind, but standing tall in the tornado’s center. Huge, muscular and commanding, he moved his arms against the side of the tornado, almost as if pushing it… and it responded! Then both man and tornado vanished.
Oh. My. Goodness.
“Can you believe it?” Sam was giddy. “A magical being exists, and one lucky person witnessed it firsthand. Everyone is searching for her, and of course, him. Have you ever seen anything like it?”
“Actually I have,” she breathed. “The first time.”
“The first time?” he echoed. “You saw it through the window?”
She swallowed. “Sam, I’m going to tell you something, but you have to keep it a secret. Promise?”
