Divine Blue [Book One]

Chapter Eighteen

Taylor's mouth dropped open. "The girl I kissed, Adrienne—I'm assigned to protect her?"

"That's correct. And you should refrain from any other intimate relations with the girl."

"What?"

"You can continue a close friendship with her, but your main task is to keep her safe when danger is imminent. Romance has a history of getting in the way of protection."

"What the hell?! How?"

"Your loyalty should lie with the responsibilities we give you. You must guard those individuals because of their inherent importance, not because you have feelings for them. If you don't put an end to it, there will be dire consequences," Sarai told her, avoiding the question.

"What kind of dire consequences?!" Taylor's voice rose an octave.

"Heed my warning, Taylor!" Sarai barked. "This is not a negotiation!"

Taylor went silent as she tried to let everything sink in, baffled. Her body quivered. What am I going to do? What does it mean?

They weaved in and out of the city streets before making their way back around to the west end of the city to drop Taylor back off. She had been quiet for the last ten minutes of the drive.

"Taylor, we're going to deliver you back to where your friends were so you can resume your outing, but we had to intervene so that you knew that using your powers is forbidden, especially when it is visible," Sarai explained. "We also were not prepared to have to tell you who you would be responsible for, but upon observing your exchange with the girl, I felt it necessary. You were prophesied to grow a kinship with the girl and that you would be her protector, but anything beyond this is dangerous."

The car turned down the alleyway that Taylor and her friends were in when it first appeared. As soon as it stopped, Taylor got out, slammed the door, and ran. She heard the car speed off behind her. She kept running, running like hell away from it all as fast as she could. She stopped when she finally ran out of breath. She hunched over and rested her hands on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath. Taylor felt a lump in her throat forming. She tried desperately to swallow it down, but when it refused to budge, she could fight it no longer. Her eyes filled with tears. She lifted herself back up to a standing position and began walking, tears streaking down her face. Everything about this night and everything that made her happy was about to lay in ruin.

Taylor took her phone out of her pocket and unlocked it to message Adrienne.

[Taylor]: hey! i'm back. headed your way. still at the bookstore?

Taylor wiped the tears from her face and forced the crying to stop, sniffing deeply through her nose. She took two big breaths and let them out slowly. She couldn't let them see that she was upset.

[Adrienne]: yes, ma'am! come on over baby. glad you're back.

Taylor wondered how she was going to be able to work through this. Why was this suddenly her reality? Why couldn't she both protect and have a relationship with Adrienne? This made no sense.

Taylor opened her camera on her phone as she neared the front doors of the bookstore. She turned it to 'Selfie.' Ugh. Mostly OK, I guess. She felt as if she looked like she had been run over by a Mack truck. She took one more deep breath, let it out, and pulled open the door.

After browsing through the selection of books and working to explain her meeting with Sarai and Samuel with as little detail as possible, she managed to convince them that there was an undercover operation and that she couldn't delve into the details. She was suddenly very aware of how much she had to lie in order to cover up this secret. And it was supposed to be a good thing?