Betrayal: Book 3 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 19.2 Take A Chance?

Cale bent over the recliner and kissed Alex's forehead. He frowned and placed his hand on her forehead. "Portal Guardian, please. Alex is not well and I don't want to leave her like this."

Mrs. Bonifay joined him and laid her knobbly hand on Alex's forehead. Then she gently touched the back of her hand to Alex's neck and then chest. "Only the child's head is hot. Her eyes are jumpin' more'n frogs."

Rile and Gabe clustered around for a look. Beneath her eyelids, Alex's eyes flicked back and forth frantically, as if in a nightmare. The Portal Guardian's wing of blue light swept over her.

"The memories of her last mission are too close to her brain damage and irritate it," she said. Her wings fanned slowly and her light pulsed rhythmically as she considered the problem. "As I cannot heal the damage, I shall erase the memories."

"Portal Guardian!" Cale gasped and clacked his claws in a blinding staccato. "You can't! That would be—"

"What?" Her voice and light sharpened. "You seem about to accuse me of evil, young Guardian."

Cale bowed his head and clasped his hands together so tightly that the knuckles turned white. "Forgive me, but our memories make us. To erase them without knowledge or consent seems...ill-advised."

"Go ahead," Rile said. "Those memories are torturing her. She'll be happier without them."

Gabe smacked his fist in his palm. "There, Portal Guardian. If Rile thinks it's a good idea, you know it's wrong."

"Listen, Perfect Eldest Son," Rile hissed. "Alex will not only be happier, she'll be a better Guardian without those memories. She was Alex before that mission and she'll be Alex without memories of that mission. Right, Portal Guardian?"

"Maybe we should pray about this," Cale said, voice rising in appeal.

Mrs. Bonifay patted his clasped hands.

"Silence!" The Portal Guardian's wings burst into blue flames that licked the walls of the apartment, but didn't consume anything. "Your petty in-fighting is tiresome and juvenile and all the while the pendulum swings to the darkness. The shadows whisper I will not survive this wave of the war."

"You're mortal?" Rile asked in astonishment.

Cale elbowed him. "That's so insensitive."

"You did not know I was mortal? You are so young."

"Amen," Mrs. Bonifay said.

The Portal Guardian's flames receded back into the blue light of her wings. "However, this one's comment about prayer and memories does hold truth. I have neglected my prayer life and shall rectify that. As for your teammate, I shall soften the edges of these memories and close up the one that most irritates her brain damage. Now return to your world and act like the Guardians you are, that I need you to be."

Her wings closed around Alex. The portal pulsed, as if impatient. Cale waited, head bowed, next to Alex.

Mrs. Bonifay tapped her sword on the floor. "Portal Guardian, please. Let him say good-bye. He's a good boy."

The wings around Alex retracted. Cale brushed aside the hair on Alex's forehead and touched his to hers.

"Goodbye, Alex, until the next life. I'll keep you in my prayers until then." He brushed his lips against her forehead and then walked through the portal.

Gabe gestured to Rile, who bowed with a mocking motion for Gabe to precede him. When Gabe looked about to protest, flames of blue light snapped at the edges of the Portal Guardian's wings, so he strode through.