Adelia was about to respond when Cecil’s booming voice cut her off. “Guardian angels can’t interfere with everything that happens to their charge. But you know, maybe he’s a bit confused on how to handle the situation. You should pay the guardian’s temple a little visit and seek him out. Your best bet would be to work together with him.”
Walter nodded. “I guess that’s my only option.” He paused and gave Phinneas a quick glance, but the elder’s face remained blank. He let out a small, inaudible sigh and then addressed the elders as a whole. “Thank you for your time and input. I’m going to pay a visit to the guardian’s temple now.” He bowed his head and then turned around and walked away.
As he stepped out the front door, he spotted the guardian’s temple not too far away. It was surrounded by a warm, golden yellow light and was the largest temple in The Realm. The building was enormous compared to the other temples and was overflowing with angels. He hurried down the cobblestoned road and was welcomed at the front door and shown inside to speak to their elders.
The guardian’s temple was set up differently than his, and the elders stayed on the lower level instead of on the top. Walter entered the room and saw five tall, well-built men sitting around an elegant wooden table together. They stood and greeted him warmly and then asked how they could help.
“My name is Walter. I’m a guiding angel. I’ve been told that you know who the charges are for each and every one of your angels.”
They all nodded at him and then one of the elders in the middle said, “That’s true.”
“I’m looking for the guardian who watches over the woman who’s also currently my charge. Her name is Melina Rowe. She’s in her mid-twenties and lives—”
The elder who'd spoken piped up again, cutting him off. “Yes, that’s Henry’s charge.”
Walter gave him a funny look. “You act as if you knew who I was going to ask about before I even said her name.”
The elder on the left spoke up. “That’s because you’re not the first one to ask which guardian angel is assigned to her.”
“Who else was here and when?”
“Last evening,” the elder replied. “He’s an elder of yours. I believe he said his name was Phinneas.”
Walter rubbed his chin. “Did he speak to Henry?”
“Yes. He gave him the details about the situation Melina’s in and then he left with him. We haven’t seen Henry since. Didn’t Phinneas tell you?”
“No,” Walter murmured. He noticed the strange looks the elders were giving him, so he quickly forced a smile onto his face. “It must’ve slipped his mind. Thank you for your time.” He bowed his head and tried to walk out as casually as he could.
Once he was outside and several feet away from the guardian’s temple, he stopped and shook his head. Something was going on. Something wasn’t right. He started to walk back toward his own temple with the intent of confronting Phinneas, but halfway there he realized the most important thing right now was Melina’s safety. And that meant finding Henry first.
He spun around and started in the direction of the summoning stone, a small crystal like stone that sat on a small pillar in the middle of all the temples. He had never had to use it before but had been instructed on how it worked. Once he reached the stone, he placed his hand on top of it and hoped he could perform the process correctly. It was his best chance at finding Henry.
Chapter Eight
“We should go to the Fall Festival after we take care of my wrist,” said Melina as they walked up the stairs to her apartment.
“That’s a good idea,” replied Tessa. “Almost everyone in town will be there.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Melina cradled her left arm close to her body as she used her good hand to open the door. Her wrist had been through a lot in the last two days with the pain from the vision and now these burns from the demon. She headed straight for the bathroom and, after shrugging off her coat, immediately put her wrist under the sink faucet and turned on the cold water. The initial sting made her wince, but it eventually faded.
“Where’s your first aid kit?” Tessa asked.
“It’s in the closet on the top shelf,” replied Melina.
Tessa reached up and grabbed the kit from the shelf and then laid it on the sink. She opened it up and took out the burn ointment and some large bandages. “These will do for now, but we should really get you to a doctor to be on the safe side.”
Melina turned the water off and gently patted her wrist with a towel. “Tess, I can’t go to a doctor. Look at these burn marks.” She held her wrist out to her friend to examine again. “They’re clearly finger marks. I can’t explain that to a doctor.”
Tessa inspected the burns for a second and then raised her eyes up to Melina’s. “I guess you’re right. But are you sure the ointment will be enough?”
Melina looked down at her wrist and slowly turned it from front to back. “It looks as if the demon burnt down just enough to make them second-degree burns. Ointment and proper bandaging will be good enough. Lucky for me, he was in his human form.”
“I bet they won’t make that mistake again, though.”
Melina’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Tessa reached for her friend’s wrist and gently applied the ointment with a cotton ball. “Well, you’ve gotten away from them twice now. I’m sure they’re more than ticked off and more determined than ever to catch you. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just stayed in their demonic forms from now on so they’re stronger.”
Tessa was right. They had warned her to not use her light shield again. And they were probably livid that she had gotten away once more. Melina gulped as a realization suddenly hit her. “Oh no.”
“What?” Tessa asked.
“The third demon, the leader, is even stronger than the other two and is probably going to join them now. I barely survived the attack from the two regular ones. What if I can’t handle an attack from all three of them? I bet I won’t even stand a chance.”
“You can’t think that way, Melina. You have to stop doubting yourself and believe in yourself. I do.”
Melina gave a slight nod. Tessa had always been such a great support for her, especially when her parents died and the future of the family bookstore had landed on her shoulders. She hadn't thought she could do it, but Tessa had helped her to see that running the bookstore was actually her dream come true in disguise. No, it wasn’t the same as being an English teacher and a freelance writer. But she was surrounded by the written word all day, she had the chance to meet new people who shared her love of writing, and she also got to pass on her passion to children by holding an after-school reading circle twice a week.
Thanks to Tessa, Melina succeeded with the bookstore when at first she'd thought she couldn’t. And here Tessa was, trying to do the same thing for her again. Her current situation was different, though. If she failed, she wouldn’t just be losing a business. She would be losing her life.
“Come on,” said Tessa as she finished applying the last bandage. “Let’s get to the festival. You’ll feel safer there amongst the crowd, and who knows, the festivities may even brighten your mood some.”
“Okay,” Melina said with a hint of a smile. She pulled her coat back on and followed Tessa out to the back where their cars were parked. They hopped into Tessa’s bright red Mini Cooper and headed for the town square.
They had to park a few blocks away, which didn’t surprise Melina. The opening day of the Fall Festival was always on a Saturday, so most people didn’t have to work. But the businesses that had weekend hours had closed up shop until the following Monday.
The festival was a huge event for the town, especially opening day, and nobody wanted to miss it. It had the normal carnival type rides and games, but what made it special was how involved the people of the community were with their own stands.
As they approached the festival, Melina focused on blocking out everyone’s thoughts. Once she was able to turn them down to a reasonable volume, she allowed herself to gaze around at the various attractions. Nina was there selling a variety of her famous soups and sandwiches. She gave Tessa and Melina a big wave as they walked by. Mr. Perkins, the scrawny old man who owned the local floral and gardening shop, was there with his mums, pumpkins, squash, and other fall vegetables. His wife, who was just as skinny as he was but had much more energy, was bustling around the tables making sure they were always fully stocked and nicely arranged. The Sweaney sisters, identical twins in their mid-thirties who both could’ve been models with their tall, slender figures and long honey-golden hair, had a booth set up for their handmade dresses, ties, scarves, hats, blankets, and quilts.
Melina had a stand, too, where she had raffle drawings for people to win free books, and also conducted mini reading circles for the kids every couple of hours. Fortunately, this year she had turned the reigns over to her head associate, Gwen. At the time, she thought it would give her a chance to enjoy the festival as a patron instead of a vendor, but now she was glad that she didn’t have to worry about it since she had something much more pressing to attend to.
They saw Gwen from a distance, and Tessa suggested they go and talk with her for a bit. Melina agreed and they made their way over to the small tent. Before entering, she tugged at her coat sleeve a couple of times to be sure that Gwen wouldn’t see the bandage on her wrist. She didn’t want to have to answer any questions.
“Hi, Gwen,” said Melina. “How’s everything going?”
Gwen looked up with her light blue eyes, her shiny black curls bouncing lively around her porcelain-like face, and smiled brightly. She had been best friends with Melina’s mother and worked at the store for her parents. When they passed away, she'd managed the store until Melina had graduated. Melina had asked her to stay on as the store manager, but she'd politely declined, stating that she had faith that two young, energetic women like Melina and Tessa could do it. She had agreed to stay on as head associate, though, to help Melina out a bit.
“Well hello, ladies,” Gwen replied as she glanced between Tessa and Melina. “Set up was quite easy, and we’ve already received several names for the first raffle,” she said as she held up and shook a glass bowl full of business cards and folded pieces of paper.
“That’s great,” Melina replied. “Who signed up to help you?”
“Hallie and Christine. They should be here in about an hour when the first reading circle begins.”
Melina nodded. Hallie and Christine were two high school girls who worked at the store a few nights a week after school let out. They were both sweet girls, always willing to lend a helping hand.
“Do you need help with anything until they get here?” Tessa asked.
“Oh no, I’m fine,” Gwen said as she waved her hand in the air. “So, did you two do anything exciting last night?”
Melina gave Tessa an awkward glance. Tessa knew she was a horrible liar, even if it was a little white lie, so she was thankful when Tessa took her cue and started rambling off vague details of their supposed evening.
She tried to follow Tessa’s story and nod when appropriate, but a voice suddenly popped into her head that she couldn’t seem to ignore. She turned away from Gwen and Tessa and closed her eyes as she tried to focus more on tuning it out. No matter how hard she tried, though, nothing seemed to work. She opened her eyes, and they immediately honed in on a tall, ruggedly handsome man walking in the direction of her stand.
“Lee,” she said out loud.
Tessa stopped talking and turned toward Melina. “Did you say Lee?” She looked up as Melina gestured to the man walking toward their tent. “Melina, he’s coming over here. Do you want to—”
“Shh!” Melina hushed Tessa as she quickly turned around. She didn’t want Lee to see her at first.
“Hello,” Lee said as he approached Tessa.
“Hello, sir,” Tessa replied. She gave Melina a quick, nervous glance and then looked back up at Lee.
“So, Rowe’s Bookstore, huh? Do you have books for sell here at your stand?” Lee asked.
“No, but you can put your name in the bowl to win one of your choice.” Tessa smiled as she held up the glass bowl for him to see. “We’re going to have a raffle drawing within the next hour.”
“Well, free is even better,” he said as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet.
Melina slowly turned around and smiled at Lee as he looked up at her. “Hi, again.”
“Hi,” Lee replied. He gazed down at the sign on the front of the tent and then back up at Melina, a look of recognition on his face now. “Melina Rowe. So this is your bookstore?”
“Yeah.” She nodded as she replied.
“Well,” he said as he dug a business card out of his wallet. “Here’s to hoping I win.” He tossed the card into the glass bowl and returned his wallet to his pocket.
Might as well use these cards for something,
Melina heard him say in her mind. She looked at him and then down at the bowl. His business card. It was almost too good to be true.
Lee gave a small wave to both Tessa and Melina and then sauntered off into the crowd.
Melina plucked the card out of the bowl and read what it said:
Atwood Jewelers: Fine jewelry since 1928.
Lee Atwood, Owner and President.
She looked up at Tessa and said, “Stay here. I’ll be back.” She shoved the card into her coat pocket and took off after Lee.
“Please be careful,” Tessa said in a low voice as she sat the raffle bowl back down on the front table.
Gwen appeared behind her and motioned in the direction of Lee and Melina. “New interest of Melina’s?” she asked with a smile.
The concern on Tessa’s face quickly disappeared as she looked at Gwen and tried to return her smile. “Yeah. I guess you could say that.”
Lee hadn’t made it too far away from the bookstore’s stand when Melina finally caught sight of him. She called out his name and started to rush toward him, not wanting to lose him in the crowd again.
He gave her a friendly smile, which Melina took as a good sign, until she heard his voice pipe up in her mind.
I hope she’s not some crazy stalker type.