The Guardian King

Chapter Two

~ Ember

*

Sleep fell away as I inhaled the morning and my eyes flickered open. The day’s earliest rays of sunlight filtered through the sheer curtains and crept into the room. For the first time in over three months, I awoke without images of mountains dominating my mind. However, my mysterious guardian continued to visit my subconsciousness. I wondered if he would ever leave me.

*

I threw back the covers and crossed the room to sit on the cushy window seat. I pulled back the curtains and turned the handle on the window, pushing it open with a deep inhale. It felt… right. I couldn’t explain the ease and relief I experienced simply from breathing in the Colorado air

*

Ordinarily, I’d be out for a walk already, but this morning I didn’t have time to bask in the comfort of my new home. I had to get to work. I needed a place of my own as well as a job to fund one. Having used the money from the sale of my childhood home to pay off my student debt, my savings would only cover a down payment on a modest place, plus a few months of living if I was careful.

*

I made quick work of dressing for the day, as I remembered Beth would be putting out breakfast at seven o’clock and missing a meal went against my beliefs. A few minutes after seven I came down the stairs, ready for a day of job and apartment hunting. I let my nose lead the way to the breakfast room adjacent to the kitchen. My eyes automatically landed on the kitchen island. Trays of pastries, bowls of various fruit, and a carafe of hot coffee made my mouth instantly water. It was hard to believe Beth had no other guests but me. The spread could have easily fed a small army. Good thing I ate like one.

*

The only occupant in the kitchen was a man, standing at the stove, spatula in hand. “Oh, good morning,” he bid me with a smile. He stood about six feet tall with caramel skin and short sandy-brown hair. Before I could respond, Beth walked in through the back door. “Good morning, Ember. I see you’ve met your Uncle Isaac.”

“I was just about to,” I told her. “It’s nice to meet you,” I directed at the man named Isaac.

“Likewise,” he answered with a welcoming smile.

*

“Anything special I can make you for breakfast, Ember?” Isaac kindly asked.

“So you are responsible for that amazing smell?” I asked, taking a seat at the breakfast table in front of the back windows.

“In this family, the man does the cooking,” Beth stated. “But you can thank me for the baked goods.”

“Sounds like you two make a great team,” I replied. They smiled lovingly at one another; a look I thought only existed in sappy movies.

*

I grew up with a single mother who remained that way by choice. She told me she’d found true love already and seeking that again felt like an insult to my dad’s memory. I once told her she deserved to be happy, to which she responded, “I am happy.”

*

“So, Ember, what’ll it be?” Isaac asked, regaining my attention.

“Um, how about dealer’s choice?” I answered, practically drooling from the mere sight of all the food on the counter. I’d trained myself to eat modestly in public, only to supplement my appetite in private. I could eat twice as much as those around me, a fact that led to a lot of embarrassment. Isaac grabbed a clean frying pan, twirled it in his hand and proclaimed, “One chef’s special, coming right up.”

*

Ten minutes later, Beth’s husband placed a feast in front of me. A fully-loaded omelette, accompanied by hash browns, bacon, fresh-baked croissants, and a heaping pile of fruit. I smiled at the sight and immediately dove into Isaac’s cooking. I’d always had a deceptively large appetite, considering my small frame. Yet, somehow he’d predicted my intense hunger.

***

“More coffee?” Isaac offered as he removed my cleaned plate from the table.

“Yes, please,” I answered, wiping my face with a napkin. “Isaac, that was amazing. I wish I could cook that well, or at all really. I may never want to leave.”

“We are happy to host you as long as you like, Ember,” Beth said with sincerity as she moved to take he seat across from me.

*

Beth and Isaac‘s presence offered a comfort I could only explain by our familial relation. My gut knew the couple was trustworthy and genuine in their kindness. Making connections with people never came easy to me. However, in less than a day, I connected more with them than with people I’d been around my entire life.

*

When Beth took a drink from her coffee mug I noticed a small tattoo on her hand directly between her thumb and her wrist. The knotted design resembled an infinity symbol, only much more intricate. “That is so weird,” I noted. “My mom had a very similar tattoo in that exact same spot.” She exchanged an odd look with her husband and struggled to find words until she eventually said, “It’s a pretty common thing around here. It represents a marital relationship. It’s kind of a substitution for a wedding ring. Isaac has one too.”

“My mom’s tattoo symbolized her marriage to my dad? I can’t believe I never knew that,” I muttered, speaking more to myself that to Beth.

*

I sipped the rich coffee, enjoying it’s warmth, while Isaac began tidying the kitchen. “Aunt Beth, do you know of any businesses in town that are hiring?” I asked.

“You’re looking for a job already?” she responded with surprise. “You haven’t even been here a full day. Don’t you want to settle in first?”

“I don’t have time to settle in. I need a source of income. My funds are limited and I need to be able to pay for my own place.”

“I meant what I said earlier, sweetheart. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need.”

“I appreciate that, but I don’t have a plan at all. Do you really want a freeloader taking up one of your guest rooms for an indefinite amount of time?”

“You aren’t a freeloader, Ember. You’re my late brother’s daughter. We are blood. I want you to stay here until your path in life has presented itself.” I looked to Isaac for backup, but found he’d stealthily retreated from the room, leaving me and Beth alone.

*

When I looked back at Beth, she was sliding one hand nervously through her hair while the other fidgeted with the pendant on her necklace. One of the benefits to being a loner, I’d spent most of my youth people-watching. As a result, I’d become proficient in reading body language. The dilemma became, should I come right out and ask what she struggled to say or leave her be? With anyone else, I would’ve left it alone. But trust in others was a delicate and rare commodity for me. My trust in her would be short lived if I knew she kept secrets.

*

“What is it, Aunt Beth?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“The thing you don’t know how to say or if you should.” If my summation caught her by surprise, she hid it well. She smoothed the corner of the table cloth, before sitting up a little straighter in her seat. With her hands stacked on the table in front of her, she said, “Your mother left me with quite a weighty responsibility.”

“Then why did you insist that I stay here?”

“You misunderstand me, Ember. You aren’t the responsibility. It’s everything she should’ve told you herself, but didn’t.”

“Like what?”

“Everything,” she whispered.

*

Beth cleared her throat and continued, “Lisa knew you would come here once she was gone.”

“She told me to come to you if I ever needed anything.”

“It’s more than that. Just before she passed she made me promise to tell you the entire truth. A promise I never should have made, and wouldn’t have if I didn’t love her so much. She was my best friend long before my brother took an interest. Anyway, I had planned to fulfill my promise at her funeral. But then I saw you for the first time under the worst circumstances.… and I just couldn’t pile on to what you were already going through.”

*

After a few moments in silence, she cleared her throat again, reining in her own sorrow over mom’s death. “I tried to get through to her,” Beth said, “to convince her to finally tell you the truth.”

“You keep saying ‘the truth’. What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Oh, Ember. There is so much,” she whispered. “A part of me feels resentment towards Lisa, for putting this responsibility on me. You were her daughter, she should have told you everything a long, long time ago. But… your father’s death broke her. She was not the same person after losing him. I feared, if it weren’t for you, she would have lost the will to live altogether.”

“I knew it was painful for her to talk about him,” I admitted softly, “which is why I never pushed her.”

*

“When Lisa lost Jonas, she couldn’t cope with staying here,” Beth explained. “Despite how difficult it was for her to leave, it was far less painful than facing the memories of your dad around every corner. So she left. She claimed she needed a fresh start.” Why did my mother’s motives for leaving sound so familiar? Because I’d done the exact same thing. After losing her, I’ve been so lost and alone. The weight of my emotions led me to seek my own clean slate. What were the chances I would run to the exact same place she’d run from?

*

I experienced an internal struggle whenever my thoughts ventured to mom. So much about her past she never shared with me. When her mortality became apparent, I thought she would finally confide in me details of her life before I came along, as well as what happened to my father. I only knew he’d died before I was born. I’d wanted answers, but even when she’d reached death’s door, I never got them. I loved her more than I needed the truth, so I let it go and accepted I would never know.

*

Beth smiled softly, appearing to bask in a distant memory, before she said, “You know, your mother is the reason I go by Beth.”

“How so?” I asked.

“As little girls, we were inseparable. Annalise and Annabeth; attached at the hip. So, out of convenience, people began shortening our names and it stuck.”

“My middle name is Anne,” I replied. Beth nodded, confirming she already knew.

*

Beth swallowed hard as she circled back to the topic at hand. “I only ever wanted her to be happy. I knew, after Jonas died, that would never be here. In our last conversation before her death, I made her a promise. I swore when you eventually found your way here, I would tell you everything she couldn’t.”

“I don’t understand, if she refused to tell me about Middlebrook, why would she expect me to end up here?”

“It was inevitable. Everything you have ever been looking for is here. The answers you’ve been missing your entire life, your heritage, even your very purpose on earth.” I looked at her with skepticism as I asked, “How could you possibly know that?”

“The same way I know you feel a connection to me. A connection you don’t ordinarily feel with those around you.” My body grew rigid and I fought the urge to flee. No one had ever been able to see through me so thoroughly, but my own mother.

*

Beth looked at me apologetically and said, “I didn’t mean to alarm you, Ember. I can see you’re startled by how I seem to know so much about you. You needn’t be. We have a lot more in common than you realize. That is one of the most important truths I need you to understand.”

“I don’t understand anything,” I admitted with frustration.

“You will.”

*

Beth searched for words and eventually let out a soft chuckle. “I suppose I should appreciate the silver lining in all this. I get the honor of revealing just how incredibly exceptional you are.”

“Exceptional?” I repeated. I shook my head and definitively stated, “There is nothing exceptional about me. In fact, just the opposite. I’m quite uninteresting.”

“I can see how you would think that, given your upbringing. If you’d have been born and raised here, you wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable in your own skin. You would have grown up embracing who you are, rather than fearing and shaming what you do not understand about yourself.”

*

I leaned back in the dining chair as I expressed, “I am so completely confused. Could you please speak plainly? What exactly did my mom never tell me?”

“You were created to stand apart from humans. You were never meant to become one.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded impatiently.

“Ember… you’re not a human. You’re a guardian.” Every cell of my body began to vibrate. Tingles danced across my skin and my heart sped with delight, though my brain struggled to catch up.

*

While I willed my body to settle down Beth went on. “I know this must come as a surprise, but I also know there is a part of you that feels complete in hearing the truth of what you really are.”

“A… guardian?” I tested the word. I couldn’t deny, even to myself, that Beth was right. Though I remained clueless to what it meant, there was indeed a part of me that awakened at the revelation.

*

At my stunned silence, Beth took the opportunity to explain further. “Guardians are a race of beings blessed with a holy purpose as well as special abilities. We’ve secretly walked the earth alongside humans since the days of Adam and Eve.” It was the word ‘abilities’ that pushed me over the top. Overwhelmed by the load of information Beth unloaded on me, my head began to ache. However, my heart resumed pumping wildly with excitement.

*

After several breaths, I said, “Look, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you’re wrong. About me at least. I don’t have any special abilities and neither did my mom.”

“Maybe none that you were aware of, but I assure you, she most certainly did. Your mother had a powerful cloaking ability. It’s how she was able to hide the two of you so thoroughly, from the entire guardian community, for over two decades.” Her explanation, or lack-thereof, did nothing to assuage my bafflement. More questions flared up inside me. I didn’t even know where to begin.

*

I swirled the last few drops of coffee around in the cold mug, before I said, “If what you are saying is true, why didn’t she tell me herself?”

“She was afraid of losing you,” Beth claimed.

“Losing me?” I repeated in angry confusion.

“Your mom was adamant that she would never return. She feared if she told you everything, you wouldn’t be able to resist coming here. Though I didn’t agree, I understood her decision. Despite Lisa’s faults and hurtful choices, I loved her dearly.”

*

Before I could sort out my inner turmoil, Beth spoke again, “As for your abilities, they’re still dormant. But even without a guardian’s special abilities, which are different for each of us, we are still set apart from humans in many other ways. We possess heightened senses, increased reflexes, twice the lifespan, and to top it all off, an astronomical appetite combined with high metabolism.”

*

War raged within me. My brain refused to accept what Beth attempted to tell me, though my heart knew it to be true. For one thing, it would explain my eating habits as well as how Isaac already knew that about me. Because apparently, it was normal for a guardian. The only emotion I could grasp was anger. Anger towards my mom for letting me go my entire life without giving the slightest hint I wasn’t even human. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, yet I knew down to my core Beth spoke nothing but the truth. Hearing the words caused something deep inside me to snap into place.

*

I jumped to my feet, not even sure of where they would take me. “I’m sorry,” I told Beth as she looked at me with genuine concern. “I… I need some air.” I fled out the back door as though my hair were on fire. I let my legs lead me aimlessly through the back garden, where I paced through the foliage in an attempt to calm my mind. I was not human. My mother never gave the slightest clue that we were different from everyone around us. My hands shook with rage. However, confusion and anger aside, I couldn’t ignore the huge relief that accompanied the truth.

*

All my life I’d been separate, secluded, and alone. Now at least, for better or worse, I knew the reason why. A guardian. I was a guardian. Pieces of my identity began to make sense. Why I was undefeated in track all through high school and college. Why I could eat as much as I wanted and never gain weight. Why I seemed to hear, see, and smell, better than everyone else. Because I was a guardian surrounded by humans.

*

Though some questions were finally answered, all at once I’d discovered so many more. The first being; how could my own mother keep the truth from me? Resentment bubbled up and mixed with my anger, which only led to guilt. A part of me wouldn’t tolerate anger towards someone whose loss I grieved every single day. How could I process everything when she wasn’t here to answer for her actions. Did she even regret not telling me the truth? Why was it immensely difficult for her to tell me? As I paced through the garden, the biggest questions plagued me; what do I do with this information and where do I go from here?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note:

Just a reminder, this story will be updated every Sunday & Wednesday morning at 9:00 (cst)

Comments are greatly appreciated and a huge motivator for me!

Thanks so much for reading!

~ E. K.