Page 96 of Joy Guardian
“As far as I know, she didn’t even leave Teneris until we ran. She never went to the temple. Is this the only one engraving? Or are there more?”
“There are many more. The Joy Guardians have been having a hard time translating the English texts.”
She turned the bookmark in her hands over and over again as if the answers about Melanie’s fate were hidden in the strip of paper, ready to be discovered.
“I don’t understand… I saw her leave with my own eyes. She hesitated because she wanted me to come with her, but I didn’t want to leave Rha. Then she was pushed in and… did she come back somehow? Do you think she is here again?”
I shook my head.
“These writings are thousands of years old. The Joy Guardians have had them in their temple forever. They think their First Priestess of Joy wrote them.”
Dawn smiled through the tears shining in her eyes.
“Knowing Melanie, she could’ve certainly become the Priestess and made the fae worship her. In fact, that’d probably be the only acceptable terms for her to stay here. So, do you think she came back?”
“And the River of Mists transported her thousands or even millions of years into the past? She then either became friends with the First Priestess or became her herself? Who’s to know?” I spread my arms.
“You said there were texts in English that we can translate? There have to be some answers there. If Melanie wrote them…” She looked stunned, slowly shaking her head in disbelief. “She came back… I can’t believe it. She wanted to return home so badly. Why would she come back? Do you think she wasn’t happy in our world? Or was she forced to return?”
There was no way to tell for sure, of course, not at least until we knew more from the surviving texts. But I recognized a need for reassurance in Dawn’s voice.
“Maybe she came back because she missed you?” I said.
“Missed me?” Dawn exhaled a humorless laugh. “That was not the relationship we had.”
Dawn and Melanie had always been different, even as children. A lot could’ve happened in the thirteen years that I wasn’t there too. But I knew they always cared about each other’s well-being.
“Remember when she pushed a boy for pulling your hair so hard he made you cry?”
“He punched her in the eye for that.” She cringed.
“And she brought him in front of the parent council and gave a speech about why and how he should be punished for that.”
“She had a slideshow and color charts to go with her presentation. And she was only in fourth grade back then!” Dawn laughed, and I loved seeing a smile on her face again.
“You know she would’ve made an excellent lawyer,” I said. “But she calculated the cost of law school early on and decidedthat the business education was cheaper and quicker to get. She wanted to get her degree faster and start earning sooner.”
Dawn nodded. “She did that. She took classes every summer and graduated from her university a year sooner than her class.”
“Do you know why?”
Dawn huffed. “Because Melanie has always been bossy and ambitious. She couldn’t wait to start climbing the corporate ladder. That was all she lived for. Even the night we were taken, she kept worrying about some work presentation she was supposed to do.”
“She always worried,” I agreed. “She worried about everything. After my mom died and they found out that your mom had the same gene?—”
“Wait a minute. They knew my mom was going to die before she even got sick?”
“We knew there was a high chance of that happening but, you know…the hope was always there?—”
“Why did no one tell me? I didn’t even know how bad things were with her until her last days.”
“Did she pass while I was gone?” I asked in a strangled voice.
Dawn nodded with her gaze down.
“Dad did too,” she muttered softly. “They’re all gone now.”
Her chin trembled. And I felt like the older cousin once again, wrapping her in my arms.
