The Guardians

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I placed the letter back in the envelope it was in and started on my way to find Blaine.

“Wait, where are you going?” Conscerion asked as he chased after me.

“To find Blaine for an explanation and to discuss our possible strategy where else?”

“But you promised we’d go see Leah right after I gave you the letter!”

“Later Conscerion, I need to settle this first.”

“Later, later, later! That’s all you ever say! Don’t make a promise you can’t keep!”

I turned to Conscerion sadly. He sulked as he walked by my side. I apologized to him for the empty promises but that was all I could do. I realised that even after we made our strategy we could be required to act immediately and therefore might have time for even a quick visit. I looked at Conscerion again. Maybe I should just give him his collar back…

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I stared at Blaine, fury coursing through my veins. I already couldn’t believe that he hid something so big from us, his fellow Guardian but it was more unbelievable that he had already taken a course of action to look for a spirit mage to destroy the book without even consulting us first!

“Why Blaine?! Do you think that we are so incompetent that it’s no use telling us? Did you really think that you could handle something like this alone?!” I shouted.

“It’s not that…” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

Blaine was older than me by quite a few years but the scene looked as if I was the adult reprimanding a child.

“Then what is it?!”

Blaine stared at the ground as if contemplating on whether or not he should tell me the real reason. Conscerion on the other hand just stared into space as if in a daze. I knew that he wasn’t interested at all. All he was thinking of was Leah. It was admirable how loyal he was. Forbidding a key from seeing their owner was probably the same as forbidding a child from seeing their parents. Conscerion was the type of key who gets easily attached to his owner. That’s why he was so particular about choosing his Master. Caring and loving…I realised then that whatever frustration I had felt towards Blaine had disappeared. Nobody had ever been able to do that before. Well maybe Arianna when we were little but that was then. Whenever I was sulking or was mad, I would often hide out in my room. I wouldn’t let anybody in, not even my parents but for some reason Arianna always managed to weasel her way in. And when she did, she always managed to cheer me up. I don’t know what it was she did or how she did it all the time but she never failed. That was what was so intriguing about her.

“It was because I was afraid you would choose to aid him…”

Blaine uttered, disrupting my train of thought.

“Sorry, what did you say?” I asked in a bit of a daze.

“It was because I was afraid you would choose to join Valdor Knight.”

Fury that was diminished by happy memories of the past, bubbled up once again.

“How could you even think for a moment that we would-“

“Because the thought crossed my mind for a quick second!” he defended, “So I thought…that if I thought of it then maybe you guys would too…”

Disgust and regret filled Blaine’s usually caring eyes. He had been so hard on himself for even thinking about helping Valdor Knight that it had forced him to think he had to do everything alone. Maybe to atone for the thought or maybe to protect me and Celeste but whatever the reason, he needed to know that it was over. That we weren’t gonna let him suffer alone any longer.