The Protect Her Box Set: Parts 7-9 (4 page)

CHAPTER FOUR –
PAIGE

The sky dissolved into a familiar scene that for a moment caused my eyes to tear up. I hadn’t even realized that in my mind I had come to peace with the idea I would never see this place again.  It was the living room in the apartment I had shared with Benjamin since I made Calamata Island my home. Of course, that was before I knew his name was Benjamin. With no memories of my past life or work experience, I had been given a job as an assistant in his floral shop downstairs. He offered me a room to rent, and once I got settled I hadn’t left the island at all until a week ago. That was the night that a demon attacked me, I met Riley and had my world turned upside down. My old life had been a simple one, but I had loved it despite the fact that I didn’t have anyone to share it with. Not then.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“If we are going to figure out where I hid the relic, then we have to start at the beginning,” Benjamin said. He swept his arms around the room. “It makes sense to start here. This is where most of my happy memories currently are.”

“I still don’t understand how I’m supposed to help you remember,” I said. My feet took me across the room to the mantle above the fireplace. There were pictures of the last three years of birthday celebrations there. Benjamin had always made a big deal out of birthdays.

Since I hadn’t been able to remember my birthday, Benjamin decreed the day that I came to Calamata Island to be my birthday. He thought I’d be less likely to be sad as the years crept by without remembering that tiny, but important detail. That day was July 14
th
. Now I knew my real birthday was January 12
th
. That was one of those little details that caused confusing thoughts as memories in my past collided.

“We’ve only known each other for three years, and you said that you’ve had the relic for a hundred years. If you tied its location to clues within happy memories, how could they have anything to do with me?”

“That’s the beauty of the spell,” Benjamin said. He flopped down on the couch in front of the fireplace and ran a hand through his hair. “It was meant to morph over time and move the object automatically to suit what would, in theory, be an ever-changing array of memories.”

“Can you find the person who cast the spell and make them reverse it so that you remember?”

“I just said that the relic has moved from the original place where I hid it based on my happiest memories. Even if the spell could be reversed, which it can’t, it isn’t where I left it.”

I crossed my arms with a frown. “That sounds either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid.”

Benjamin smiled wanly. “I’d prefer you think it’s the first one.”

“I’m serious, Benjamin,” I said. I waved my arms to encompass the room. “I feel like we are looking for a needle in a haystack. And that needle is something that is really sharp and likely to stab and kill the person who does find it. How do you even know that the relic is still where you think it is, and someone else hasn’t found it?”

“If someone else had found it, there would be signs,” Benjamin said. He leaned against the back of the couch. “I thought this through many years ago. I’ve lived a long time. I feel like you are underestimating me. That’s something you’ve never done before.”

I felt my shoulders stiffen. “You mean, I’m not following you around like a little lapdog accepting everything that you tell me is the truth anymore?”

Benjamin sighed. “That’s not what I meant. You are…different.”

“Of course, I’m different,” I snapped. “I have all of my memories back, and most of them are pretty shitty to tell you the truth. I have the pleasure of remembering the bloody faces of my parents on our kitchen floor as they were dying. I remember winding up on the street looking for answers while being hunted by things that I didn’t know or understand. I had to figure all of that out for myself, and usually that information came from people who always wanted more than I was willing to give to get it. I’ve been attacked multiple times by demons, knocked out and left for dead, and all of that is because I’m supposed to be the vessel for some crazy goddess hellbent on revenge who has been dead for a thousand years. Forgive me if I’m not the wide-eyed naïve bumpkin that you thought I was.”

Benjamin got up from his seat and slowly approached me. My speech had left me breathless, and I felt tears burning in the corners of my eyes. Waves of regret, anger, and despair rolled through my body. He gently touched my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Paige. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I brushed his hand away. “Well, you did.”

“I know it probably doesn’t bring you any comfort, but I look back over my past and feel similarly. My pursuits haven’t always been black and white or pure. I’ve traveled far and wide and lived many years, and there isn’t a lot that I’d say I was proud of.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “You are an archangel for God. You lead all of the other angels here on earth. What could be so bad about that?”

His face tightened. “To have power does not mean I have found the secret to happiness. It essentially just means I am good at my job.”

Silence sprung up between us. I looked out the window at the street below. It struck me how quiet it was given it was the beginning of the day. Normally, the streets would be bustling with residents of the island getting ready for another day and another onslaught of tourists. I realized with a start that no one was out and about because it wasn’t safe on the island anymore. That was my fault too.

The weight of the guilt for a destiny that I didn’t want or ask for was heavy on my shoulders. I needed to do something. This prattle about the past didn’t help anything. It seemed to serve only to rub salt in old wounds.

“Fine, if you are telling me that currently the relic is in a location that only I can help you find, then let’s get on with it. I know you said Riley is safe with your brothers, but I want to get back to him as soon as possible.”

Benjamin’s lips pursed. “Of course.”

My patience was gone around Benjamin’s obvious dislike of the situation between me and Riley, but I decided to let it go. The sooner I had my hands on the relic, the sooner Riley and I could get out of here. I was discovering that I didn’t really care for the company of archangels. No matter what Benjamin said, I didn’t think there was any way that I could trust him the way that I used to; although I knew that I wanted to feel that way again. An archangel, especially the leader of all archangels, would be a powerful ally.

I hated that was the course of my thoughts, but it was the influence of years alone on my own. I learned how to play the political games to my benefit and put a chokehold on emotions like trust, loyalty, and morality. Those were the kinds of things that got a person killed in the dark world where we lived.

Riley had managed to slip through all of those boundaries though. I let my thoughts wander to him because he was the one who calmed me now, although he also incited instant anger. I thought that was perhaps the way love was. It had the power to sway emotions to any extreme. Right now, I was more than a little worried about him, but I had to get my hands on the relic. There was no way Benjamin would have let Riley witness our walk down memory lane. It was for the best. Riley was hardly Benjamin’s biggest fan either.

I took a deep breath and turned back toward Benjamin. “So we’re here. Any suggestions on how we figure out where to go next?”

“Every recent happy memory I have involves you,” Benjamin said quietly. “I wouldn’t know where to begin. I was hoping you’d be able to decipher some of them because you would have shared them with me.”

“The world’s most confusing and convoluted treasure map,” I said with a sigh. “Let me think.” I looked at the mantle again and the pictures there. The birthday celebrations had always been fun, but they involved many people. The community on Calamata Island had been welcoming to me, and although it had been difficult to grow close to any of the residents, they always showed up to the parties.

I shook my head to dismiss those memories. I looked around the room. What we were looking for wasn’t here. I left the room and wandered down the hallway. As I passed the kitchen, I paused to look into the small cheery room. When I came to Calamata Island, I hadn’t been able to cook a lick. Benjamin was a wonderful cook, and he taught me all kinds of recipes. We created exotic foods within the walls of the small kitchen and were transported all over the world through it. It made sense to me now. Benjamin had over a thousand years of practice.

“I don’t think I’ll ever master your Napoleon recipe,” I said off-handedly.

“It just means you weren’t meant to be a French pastry chef,” Benjamin said.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. It was an exchange we had had many times about several recipes that eluded me over the years. Those were happy memories too, but there wasn’t anything there that caused me to believe those could be linked to the relic.

Continuing down the hall, I stopped at the door to my room. I grasped the knob and swung it open. Then I stepped inside, and I felt a small jolt of energy burst through me. My magic was there, and that’s the signal I had been waiting for.

“It has to do with something in here,” I said. Benjamin hovered behind me uncertainly. “You can come in.” He had always been overly formal about entering my room. He said it was my private space, and he would never come in unless invited. In three years, that had always been the case.

Benjamin crossed the threshold as I stepped to the center of the room and did a small spin. The walls and every available flat surface were covered with gravestone rubbings from all of the local graveyards. It was a hobby that Benjamin had introduced me to, and one that had grown into a bit of an obsession. I pointed at several of them.

“Why did you teach me about gravestone rubbing?”

“One of the beautiful things about this place is the fact that so many people who lived long and vibrant lives wanted to spend eternity here,” Benjamin said. “For someone like me, I can appreciate the idea of having a peaceful afterlife even if it is something that I would likely never have. The gravestone is what is left behind to encapsulate their lives, and it is breathtaking to see the level of detail that some families create to remember their loved ones who have passed on.”

“I understand that,” I said as my eyes scanned the pieces of paper. “But why teach me that?”

There was a long pause. “There are only so many things for a young woman to do on an isolated island. When you first came here, I was afraid that one day I’d wake up, and you’d be gone. There was nothing tethering you to this place. You had a passable interest in the island’s history. I thought that if you came to appreciate the uniqueness of the island the way that I did, you’d want to stay even if your memories came back.”

I forced myself to ignore the rawness of the emotion underlying his words. Then my eyes came to rest on a rubbing that was buried near the bottom of one of my walls. I always told myself that I kept it more out of sight than the others because it was one of my first clumsy attempts at rubbing. In reality, it was for an entirely different reason altogether. I crossed the room and reached out my fingers to touch it.

“Mission cemetery,” I said without looking at Benjamin. “That’s where we need to go.”

“You are certain?”

“Yes,” I said. I looked over my shoulder at him. “Although I’m not sure you would classify it as a happy memory.” Surprisingly, Benjamin’s expression was serene.

He nodded. “Of course. I should have thought of that before.” He reached out his hand, and I took it. I barely even noticed the swirl of the scenery around us as it changed. We were standing above a massive, flat gravestone. On it, there was a listing for the members of an entire family. The detail around the edges of the stone was immaculate, even though the last family member had been buried over a century ago. It was one of the oldest stones in Mission cemetery.

“Martin and Rose Draton,” I said. “You told me about how Martin’s family wanted him to marry a well-to-do socialite to cement their status in society. Rose’s family were servants to the Draton family. Martin and Rose fell in love, and Martin lost his inheritance when they got married. He moved them all the way across the country to build a life for his new family. They had four children but lost them all because they were stillborn. But Martin’s love for Rose was unwavering, and when he died Rose passed away just a few days later. You knew them, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Benjamin said. “I was fascinated by them. In all my time on this earth and Heaven, I had never felt the depth of emotion that they clearly felt for each other. It was the first time in my life that I felt truly alone. Something stirred inside of me when I watched Rose move on and reunite with Martin in Heaven. I knew then that there was something missing in my life.”

I knelt down on the ground and reverently touched the stone. “I remember listening to the story, and I felt like I knew them. You’ve always been an amazing storyteller, and now I know why. You incorporated little details that brought the story to life, and you could do that because you were there.”

“I will take that as a high compliment.”

I forced myself to look up at him. “That day, you told me the story, and then you told me that you thought that you might feel the same way about me.”

Benjamin turned his face away from me. “Yes, and you told me then that you didn’t think that you could feel the same way about me.” He took a breath that seemed to shake his entire body. “You asked me why that would be a happy memory. It’s because, despite the fact that you rebuffed me, I had already realized I didn’t need to be alone anymore. I had it inside of me to feel the way that Martin felt about Rose. It isn’t something that is encouraged or even desired among my kind because what is the best for the majority is always prioritized above individual wants and desires. But that was what was missing from my life. I had found someone who brought those desires to the surface, and for that I will always be grateful to you. Even if I can’t have it with you.”