The Guardian (The Gifted Book 1) (17 page)

Beth's face lit up and she whispered, "You met Randell for coffee? Like a date?" She clapped her hands. "Oh, this is good."

Rhea cringed, finally realizing she'd said too much. "No! It wasn't like that." But what was it like? She couldn't tell Beth what had really happened. Crap! Now what should she do? Then she remembered the pitch he'd given her in the hall. "He's working on a project and wanted to talk to me about one of the stories I did for class. Apparently it would fit well with what he is doing."

Beth still hadn't wiped the grin from her lips. "And what is this project?"

"I'm not supposed to say. You know how professors can be protective of their work."

Beth waved her hand dismissively, realizing she wasn't going to get anything juicy from her friend. "Fine. Fine. Whatever you say."

When Rhea got to her room after dinner, she started to go through her school notebooks and papers, filtering out the ones she would toss from the ones she would keep. She'd already packed most of her room with boxes she'd bought from a box sale in the dorm lobby. The entire time she worked, however, her mind was on the journal Randell had shown her and the meeting to which she'd agreed.

She sat on the floor near her desk, occasionally glancing underneath, hoping Grennal would show. It was a long trip for her to make, a couple days of travel. Rhea
had never understood why Grennal didn't move closer to her school. When she asked, Grennal simply said she couldn't move and wouldn't go any further.

Rhea finished sorting her papers and got ready for bed. She turned off her light and started to crawl under the blanket.

"I only have a minute," said the voice that drifted quietly from under Rhea's desk.

Rhea almost jumped out her skin. "Grennal! You're here?!"

"I just wanted to see you. How are your exams going?"

"They're over
, but forget that. Listen. I just found out there's someone from Luxatra here. He's supposedly a friend of my new professor, Randell."

"Wait. What? What did you say?" Grennal glanced from side to side, checking her surroundings.

Rhea knew she needed to talk fast. It looked like Grennal was going to have run at any minute. "I have a new professor. His name is Randell. He showed me a journal written by a friend of his. Grennal? It was written in Aduraun. He let me read a page. His friend wrote about being here a week and about needing to help someone, a woman. Grennal, the entry was from twenty-four years ago."

Grennal couldn't believe her ears. This was not supposed to
have happened. No one was to know Rhea was there. How had they found her? Wait. How long ago? "When did you say?"

"The entry was from May 1988,
twenty-four years ago. Grennal, he's been here longer than I've been alive. How is it he was here before me but still here to help me?"

Twenty-four years in the world of shadows. Grennal quickly did the math in her head. That would be about
nineteen Luxatran years. She thought back nineteen years and remembered what she had been doing before Rhea was placed into her care. She'd been miserable, heartbroken. If she hadn't had Rhea to focus on, to care for, she didn't know what would have come of her.

"Grennal?"

Grennal snapped out of her daze. "Right. Did Randell tell you anything else?"

"Just that his name is Daen and they want to meet me in the morning. He said he had more to tell me."

Grennal gasped. "It can't be."

From the sound of Grennal's voice, Rhea knew her last statement reflected hope
rather than disbelief. "Grennal? What's going on?"

"What did you say? You're meeting them tomorrow?" Grennal could
barely contain her excitement, her hope.

"I don't know. I said I would
, but what do you think? Do you think it's safe?"

"Meet them. Be cautious. Find out if Daen is a Guardian. If he is, trust him. Do as he says. If not ..." Grennal's head jerked to the right, "... be careful."
And then she was gone.

"Grennal?! Wait!" Grennal was gone. Rhea was on her own if Daen wasn't who Grennal thought he was.

28
Guardian

The sun was bright and the May breezes were warm against Rhea's skin as she crossed campus, heading for town. She had set out early, thinking it would be better to wait at the coffee shop than to continue to wear a hole in her dorm room rug from her pacing.

She didn't have to open the door to the coffee shop to see the place was packed. The carryout line was all the way to the door and the tables out front were full. She stepped away from the door as she slid inside and scanned the room for a table with
three seats. She'd spent a summer waiting tables once and knew the signs of people about to leave. Across the room she saw the signs.

Rhea casually but quickly crossed the shop to stake a claim on the table that would soon be vacant. Within a minute, they were standing and she was s
liding into her seat at the table.

The table wasn't in the best location, nestled close to the glass
-door refrigerator that held bottled drinks, yogurts, salads, and such, but it was a place to sit.

Johnny was working again and took her order as she sat down. With time to kill, she opened her journal and started to add more detail to what she'd already written. She was in her own space, oblivious to those around her and the amount of time passing. It was a skill she'd picked up somewhere along the way
, and it was now second nature.

"Rhea?" A gentle male
voice broke her concentration.

Rhea lifted her eyes from her journal and found herself looking at Randell's smile. "Hi." She closed her journal and shoved it into her backpack. "Please sit."

"Thanks." As Randell took his seat, a tall, athletically built man was revealed. "Rhea, this is Daen Mallaur, the friend I told you about."

She recognized him right away. He'd been the one in the hall after the last class. Now that she was getting a better look at him, she could see that he was young, not much older than
she. This didn't make sense.

Daen sat down next to her. "Is something wrong?"

Rhea's brows were scrunched towards her nose as she tried to understand what was happening. She didn't answer so much as she thought out loud. "You're close to my age."

Daen pressed his lips together, holding back a laugh. "I'm older than I look."

Rhea looked to Randell. "The journal entry you showed me yesterday was dated 1988." She looked at Daen. "Sorry. I was expecting someone who had written in a journal about the same time I assume you and I were in diapers." She gave Randell a stern look. "What's going on?"

Randell didn't refrain. He laughed loudly. "Oh! Trust me. He's the one." He leaned forward and whispered
, "He's a lot older than he looks."

Daen gave his friend an indignant look through his own laughter
before exclaiming, "Hey! I'm not that old."

"Perspective
, Daen. To us ..." Randell waved his hand around the room "... you are."

Rhea watched their exchange
, feeling a little bewildered. "Excuse me. Would you mind telling me what's going on?" Rhea had started to feel nervous.

"I apologize. Let me finish my introduction and you'll understand. This is Daen Mallaur, Guardian of the Libraim."

Daen gave a slight bow. "Nice to meet you."

Guardian ... he was the guardian
, like Grennal said, but she hadn't said anything about a ... whatever he said. "I don't understand. Guardian of the what?" She glanced back and forth between the two of them as they stared back at her in disbelief.

Randell leaned forward and whispered over the table
, "Rhea. You're safe with us. You don't have to pretend."

Rhea wasn't sure what to think. There were obviously some misunderstandings. They might know she
was Luxatran, but they were also assuming a lot more. "I'm not pretending. I don't know what a guardian is or a ... whatever you said. Why don't you fill me in on what you think you know about me?"

Daen took the lead. "The journal you read is mine. I came to this world, from Luxatra, almost
twenty-four years ago. I was sent here by the Libraim to help a woman. We believe you are the woman I was sent here to help." There. His cards were on the table. Now, how would she react?

Randell realized something wasn't right. How could she know Aduraun and not know about the Libraim? Randell didn't wait for her response. "When did you get here?"

Rhea knew it was time to come clean. She'd heard what she needed from them. Grennal had said to trust the guardian. "I was brought here when I was an infant and adopted by people of this world. What I know of my world I learned from Grennal. I see her in the shadows. I've only recently learned that she has kept a lot of things from me over the years. So, forgive me, I don't know what a Guardian of the Lib— what did you call it?"

Daen answered, "Libraim. It's the core of our existence. It sustains life and helps maintains balance in our world."

Rhea tried to process what that meant. It sounded simple enough, but she doubted it.

Before she could ask for further clarification, Daen leaned forward. "You weren't raised in Luxatra but you read and understood an entry in my journal? How?"

"Grennal taught me."

Daen said, "You mentioned her. Who is she?"

"Um." She wasn't sure how to explain. She didn't know the whole truth. "For a long time, I thought she was a talking ... well ... um ... she looks a little like a dog."

Daen lifted a brow. "A talking dog taught you Aduraun?"

Rhea expelled a laugh. "If you'd asked me a few months ago, I would have said yes. I recently learned that it's an illusion. She can change her appearance."

Daen stiffened; he could barely take a breath. It c
ouldn't be. He'd seen the similarity the first time he'd seen Rhea leaving the classroom. He saw it now. Each time he wanted to deny the similarities, but this new information—a woman, who could change her appearance—he couldn't ignore it. Could Rhea be ...? Was it possible? He had to know. "You said you were adopted. Did Grennal tell you who your biological parents are?"

Rhea shook her head. "No. She doesn't know."

Didn't know or wasn't telling, Daen wondered? Would she put her own daughter into another world to be raised by someone else? It couldn't be true.

Johnny stepped up to the table to take their order
, but Daen declined. "We can't stay. Please bring the check."

"You're leaving?" Rhea glanced between them.

"No, we're leaving. It's not safe to stay in one place for too long. I believe there are trackers hunting you. We need to get you to someplace safe."

Rhea tensed at what Daen was telling her and Randell gasped. His mouth opened and shut a couple time
s as he stared at Rhea.

"Randell? What do you see?" Daen watched his friend looking at a somewhat frightened Rhea.

"What's happening?" Rhea's voice was strained and anxious.

"She's got ... I didn't think it was real ... but she ..." Randell's eyes started to smile before his gaping mouth could do the same. "She's a Gaulette."

Rhea listened intently. What had he just said? What was a Gaulette?

Before Rhea could
inquire, Daen leaned in to ask, "How do you know?"

"Remember the entry in Raisal's journal about the silver thread? I just saw it, when she tensed. It wraps around her, encasing her like a spider web. What's strange is I didn't see it before today. It's as if something has happened. Her aura is becoming stronger and the thread is
now visible. Or maybe I’m changing, I don’t know for sure."

One more bit of evidence to support Daen's belief. "Interesting. I remember the thread. But you say you couldn't see it before today?"

"No."

"I don't understand. What are you talking about?" Rhea glanced down at her body and her arms. "What thread? And
what is a Gaulette?"

Randell quickly explained, "
Gaulette is a family name, my great-grandmother’s last name. I ... inherited a gift from her. I can ... read people."

Rhea's heart jumped. "Does that mean you're from Luxatra as well?"

Randell winced slightly. "Not quite. My great-grandmother, Raisal Gaulette, was from Luxatra and had the same gift. It's been passed down over the generations. The people of Luxatra are known for their ... how should I say this ... their ability to connect with life energies. These connections manifest in different ways. For instance, I can read a person's life energy and can tell if someone is lying or intends to do me harm. Your friend, as you said, has the ability to hide behind an illusion."

Before she could
react further on what she'd heard, the door to the shop opened and a breeze lifted a napkin off the table, sending it to the floor. Without thinking, Daen and Rhea reached for it at the same time and their hands touched.