Secrets of the Guardian (Waldgrave Book 3) Read Free

bed. “What’s all of this?”
    Lena cast her eyes at Edward Daray’s journals. The problem of her heritage had ever so briefly managed to slip from her mind. She realized that she wasn’t even sure where Griffin was, or what he had done with his day since leaving her in the basement. “It’s just some old stuff I found in a corner. It’s very interesting, actually…”
    Rosaleen smiled, sending wrinkles running into the corners of her eyes. “Your grandfather was just like that. The two of you would have made quite the pair. He was always looking for an adventure.”
    “Oh.” Lena frowned. She could still see the terror in Ben’s eyes as Pyrallis shot him down. “Yes, I suppose he was.”
    Mrs. Ralston reached toward the nearest of the diaries and flipped it open. When the pages appeared blank before her eyes, she looked up at Lena. “What’s this one about?”
    “Um…” Lena peered over her shoulder. On one page was the end of a manifesto, and the other was a brief entry concerning a Council meeting that Edward had attended; it recorded sections of the deposition of his son, Pyrallis Daray. “Well, that’s the thing. I’m not quite sure yet.”
    Mrs. Ralston sighed as she smiled at Lena. “And let me guess—you need to go somewhere to find out what the rest of this is about?”
    Lena sat back. She felt her jaw physically drop. “Well, I’m not sure yet, but yes, probably, yes. How did you…?”
    “Hmm.” Mrs. Ralston stood up. “Exactly like your grandfather. Always on the go, always getting into trouble.”
    She walked to the door and turned to face Lena one last time. “Now, I don’t want you leaving this room until tomorrow morning. If you need anything, give me a shout. I’ll watch Devin for you.”
    And then Lena was alone, staring at the books on her bed.
     
     
    Lena abided by Mrs. Ralston’s rules and stayed in her room until five the next morning, when she crept away and walked around until she found the door with one of Doctor Evan’s assistants stationed in front of it. He was a younger man, probably in his mid-twenties with dark hair, dressed in generic looking scrubs, drinking a cup of coffee, sitting in a chair just next to the bedroom door.
    Lena chimed in as she approached. “Hey.”
    The young man, who had up to this point been staring at a spot on the wall across the way, straightened up and set his coffee down on the floor as he turned to look at her. “Hello, can I help you?”
    Lena nodded toward the door. “How is he?”
    The young man looked at her hesitantly. “Well…well I’m not sure if…”
    Lena looked at the ground. She didn’t like what she was about to do, but she didn’t want to leave without knowing if Devin was going to be okay. She looked the man in the eye. “I pay your boss. Literally, out of my pocket and into his, the way it’s been for several generations. So tell me what’s going on in there, or—“
    “No. That’s not what I mean.” He stood up to face her properly. “There’s a lot of damage, and everything that can be done is being done. He’s in a lot of pain, which we’re alleviating as much as possible, but you have to understand that he’s lost a kidney and parts of his liver. He’s going to lose several sections out of his small intestine, which is where most of the complications came in. All of the organs that were hit either contained toxins that they filtered from the blood, or digestive enzymes, which are now spreading throughout his body as we try to clean them out.”
    He paused. Lena swallowed and tried not to look too worried, even though she felt it. She felt terrible; all of this was her fault. The young assistant continued.
    “Now, he’s lucky as far as human-borns go, because he appears to be resistant to infection, but you need to understand that what’s happening to him now is just as dangerous, if not more so, because his body is being attack by its own toxins and digestive processes.”
    He watched