Betrayal - Book 3 of Guardians Saga - EDITED

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. Blue light streamed from the Portal Guardian's ethereal wings, flickering across Alex's skin like a strobe light.

The Portal Guardian's wings fanned slowly and her light pulsed rhythmically as she looked Alex over. "The memories of her last mission are too close to her brain damage and irritate it," she said. "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, Portal Guardian," 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?"

Cale put a hand on Rile's arm and shook his head. "This isn't how we should be handling this. What if we took some time and prayed together about it?"

Mrs. Bonifay placed her wrinkled hands over Cale's and smiled comfortingly.

"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," The Portal Guardian said with an air of resignation.

"Amen," Mrs. Bonifay said.

The Portal Guardian's blazing blue wings retracted, and the flames shimmered back into the atmosphere. "Your teammate's comments about prayer and memories have some truth to it. I have neglected my prayer life and shall rectify that. As for your teammate, I shall soften the edges of these memories and only close up the ones 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 stood close by, his head bowed and grief clearly etched on his face.

Mrs. Bonifay then stepped forward and tapped her sword upon the ground. "Portal Guardian, please at least let this boy say goodbye before he has to leave," she pleaded.

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

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