"Guardians,"
Angela murmured. Her little superior smile edged toward a smirk when I flinched
at her word, coming so soon on the heels of my thoughts.
Yeah, I could
definitely believe Angela read minds.
"Bethany, would
you and Doni go upstairs and get one of my moonlight journals from the chest in
my bedroom?" Angela reached inside the neck of her dress and drew out a
thin silver chain with a long, crystalline skeleton key hanging from it, and
handed chain and key to Bethany.
As the two of them
held hands and hurried out of the room, heading for the stairs, Angela's smile
faded entirely.
"It's real,
isn't it?" I whispered. "The things in my dreams." I swallowed
hard. "And you don't want Doni to hear what you're going to tell me about
fighting it."
"Right, and yet
not entirely." Angela took hold of my hand. "My dear Athena... How I
wish you weren't so perceptive, that you hadn't inherited your grandfather's
gifts and the responsibilities that come with them. And yet I know, from long
years of experience, we are born to duties and burdens. We destroy our souls if
we refuse them." She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, all the while
gazing into my eyes. "First, I sent them away because there are things I
don't want Bethany to hear. I made a promise to her mother to protect her from
the very things you must face because you are Ford Longfellow’s granddaughter.
Until Doni starts dreaming too … why worry her?”
"Why don't you
want Bethany to know?"
"Her bloodline
has done enough already for Neighborlee. Her mother was another foundling, just
like your grandfather, like Lanie Zephyr and her friends."
"Her mom?" I shivered, the cold coming from deep inside, as I remembered when Bethany's mother died. We were only nine. Sometimes being young helped to make the heavy sadness fade, but other times it just made the impact worse, and last longer.
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