The Guardians of the Relic
Chapter 21

When Emily woke they had already landed. Athena exited the plane. She sat and stared blankly out the window. Emily was glad to be home again. She felt a little guilty about taking her frustration out on Ethan the night before. He was only trying to help. In fact, he was the only one who had helped her from the very beginning. The reason she had been so angry with him was because she knew he was right.

Emily was so used to doing things on her own. When her parents died, she took care of her brother herself. She never relied on anyone for help. Even when the sheriff and his late wife Donna had offered her and Michael a place to live, she had politely declined. She felt that it was her responsibility to take care of everything. But things were very different now. They needed the council’s help, whether she liked it or not. It was the only way to end this once and for all.

“Are you ready?” asked Ethan. It was as if he had known what she was thinking.

“Yes I am,” she said.

He grabbed her things and handed them to Rupert. Before he could follow him out, she said “Hey Ethan.” He stopped and turned around to face her.

“Yes?” he answered.

He was back to being formal with her and that was her fault. Just when he was finally starting to open up to her, she had hurt his feelings.

“I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to…” she trailed off. She couldn’t replace the right words.

“It’s okay. Forget it,” he said.

“You were right. We need to go see Alastair.”

“Then let’s go. We are running out of time.”

Athena refused to go with them. She said she would help, but she didn’t want the council to know about it. She also didn’t want them to know about Fay being held captive. They were to keep it a secret. Emily didn’t like the idea but she promised Athena that she would help her sister, so she had no choice. She wondered why Athena felt that way. She didn’t even want to see Glohone. Again, Ethan was right; it didn’t make any sense.

They didn’t have to go the antique shop. Alastair was already waiting in her apartment when she got there. Somehow it still creeped her out a bit that he was able to enter with no one in the building noticing him. She set her bags down and locked the door behind her.

“I’m sorry for the intrusion Emily. Erhan was able to track you. I need to speak with you,” said Alastair.

Emily studied his face. He looked much older, even though it had only been two weeks since the last time she had seen him. He wore a cloak whose fabric looked familiar. She pulled out her phone and searched for the picture of the evidence bag the sheriff had shown her. Just as she suspected, it was the same cloth.

“Still keeping tabs on me I see. I guess I’m lucky. I have so many bodyguards,” she said sarcastically.

“We will always look out for you Emily, whether you want us to or not.”

“Oh I don’t doubt it.” She paused and looked at his cloak again. The bottom was ripped “That’s what you were wearing when my parents were killed.”

Alastair lowered his head. When he lifted it again she saw the pain in his eyes. She then realized just how much their deaths affected him.

“Yes. I keep it because it was a gift from your mother.”

“What happened to them?” she asked. She was afraid to hear it, but she had to know. It was important to her to know the details.

“Beth stumbled upon the pendant while working on an archaeological dig site in London. She assumed it was just another artifact and brought it back to Elgin to be studied further. Naturally, she told your father about it. Peter then wrote a small article in the paper.”

“The Elgin Times.”

“Yes. When Erhan picked it up, I knew that they would be in great danger. So I confronted both your parents at your home one night.”

Emily remembered now. That’s the reason he looked so familiar. She had seen him that night. “You were in my father’s room. I saw you. I had come home late from a party and I didn’t want my parents to know, so I snuck in through the back door.”

Alastair pictured that night in his head. He continued. “I explained everything to your parents. Obviously they didn’t want to believe me at first and they told me to leave immediately. But then some time later, your mother came looking for me at the antique shop.”

“Did she purchase my jewelry box there?”

“Yes she did. She wanted something very unique for you.”

Emily thought of the key she found in the jewelry box. The box held more importance now than being just a reminder of her mother. Her eyes shifted to the luggage. She had placed the pendant in a small compartment in her luggage bag just before she got out of Ethan’s car. Ethan didn’t think it was a good idea for her to keep it with her, but she insisted.

“Emily, are you okay?” asked Alastair breaking the silence. He was staring at her intently.

“Go on. What happened next?” she asked.

“Well I think you get your stubbornness from her,” Alastair smiled. “When I told her to give me the pendant and forget it ever happened, she refused. She said her family or the people of Elgin were in great danger whether she gave it to me or not, and she wasn’t going to stand back and do nothing. So we came up with a plan, but it took time. I didn’t know it at the time that Beth had already hidden the pendant.”

“She knew,” said Emily. She finally started to understand her mother’s actions.

“She knew what?” asked Alastair.

“She knew that the plan wouldn’t work. She knew the only way to save everyone was to hide it. There wasn’t enough time to figure out a way to destroy it. It was too late.”

“That was not her decision to make Emily.”

Tears flooded her eyes. “It wasn’t. But it was still the right one.”

“Before we could meet that night, your parents disappeared. I knew something was wrong. By the time we got to them, Alkron had already found them. She refused to give up the location of the pendant and her secret died with them.”

“Well that’s not entirely true,” said Emily.

“You have it. I knew I sensed its power.”

Emily took out the pendant from her luggage bag. She held it up. Alastair’s eyes fixed on it. It was a very beautiful piece of jewelry. However, she saw it as nothing more than the instrument of her parent’s death. She handed it to him.

“How did you replace it?”

“That’s a long story and not really important right now. Alkron has Michael.”

Alastair’s eyes immediately shifted from the pendant to her face. “Then we don’t have much time.”

* *

Ethan slept like a baby. He was awakened by the loud ringing of his alarm clock next to his bed which he had set for two hours. He hit the red button and looked at the time. It was one o’clock. Two hours was all the time he could afford to waste sleeping. He got dressed, switched his laptop on, and checked his phone to see if Emily had sent him any texts. Nothing. It was risky letting her keep the pendant. He still didn’t like it, but she was stubborn. The light from the computer screen stung his eyes.

According to Michael’s tracker, he was outside town. Ethan refreshed the screen again to make sure. It came up with the same result. He zoomed in on the map and searched the address. The property belonged to Alexander Graham. He remembered that Emily had asked about him, but he really didn’t know much about him. He had a reputation for being a shady character. Ethan decided to put his hacking skills to use.

Alexander’s background seemed squeaky clean. He had lived in Edinburgh before moving to Elgin. There were a lot of records and Ethan scrolled through the boring stuff like high school, university achievements, and work history. Then he stopped.

Ethan blinked to make sure he saw right. He swallowed hard and stared at the death certificate. The death certificate of Alexander Graham. He jumped up when his phone buzzed on the table.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Hey, it’s me. I’m with Alastair. Meet us at…” she paused. “I’ll text you the address,” said Emily.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” said Ethan.

He hung up and stared at the screen. It didn’t make any sense. The “Alexander” he saw looked exactly like the one in all the pictures. Ethan grabbed his coat and called Rupert.