The Watcher: Prologue

It was patience that had allowed me to get this close. The colt stared at me with a smug, knowing look in those haunting gray-green eyes. He wasn’t like the others of his kind that I’d worked with. For one thing he wasn’t captive. He wasn’t bred from our stock.

He was altogether prouder and more magnificent. More intelligent as well – there was no mistaking the cleverness behind those eyes. It was hard to know for sure, not knowing his exact age, but I thought he was bigger as well. There was simply no denying it. He was a different creature entirely. And I wanted his trust.

You already have it, Fey, he told me. His voice in my mind was so deep, so regal, it was impossible to believe it belonged to this little fellow. It was impossible, in fact, to believe it belonged to anything but another Fey. Our captive stock had weaker voices.

I had to wonder at this colt’s boldness. I had done nothing yet to earn his trust, yet here I sat, so close to the beautiful, regal colt that I could reach out and touch him if I dared. I didn’t. I’d seen the damage they could do when cornered. Even foals were lethal.

Suddenly he looked up and away to the west. I am summoned. I must go.

With that, he was gone. I didn’t move, stunned into immobility by the pure magnificence of the Prismatic colt. We Fey are drawn to beauty, but more than that, we're drawn to power, and I could still feel it emanating off the place where that colt had stood. He was more than just a Flash.

He was a demi-god.

I knew I couldn’t resist searching for him, though I also knew it was highly likely I would never see him again.