Heart of the Guardians: Adoring Destiny by Adrianna Adore (best books to read for self improvement txt) 📕

“No.” Dana explained again. “The only reason Geoffrey gave me all those airline miles is because they’re ready to expire. I told you, his dad flies all over the world for his job, he’s been saving them up for years and gave them to Geoff but he can’t afford to take any time off. Unlike us, he’s barely passing half his classes and his parents will cut off his allowance if he gets another F. Come on, be spontaneous, it’ll be fun! I’ve already booked the flights; you can’t say no! Besides, your teachers will let you make up the work and don’t even try to tell me you have a big exam, I know none of the professors are testing. Most of the classes are already half empty.”

“I don’t know.” Claire said. “We leave tomorrow? We didn’t plan anything, where will we stay? Europe is expensive, do you even know what the exchange rate is?”

“What part of all expenses paid do you not understand?” Dana asked, knowing she had won the argument. Claire’s resolve was weakening. “He had like a zillion miles to cash in. The package includes airfare, hotels and they even give us meal vouchers to restaurants. I put the rest of the miles on a prepaid card, we have plenty of money that has to be spent. Besides, all we need cash for is the bars and if a couple of hot American girls like us can’t get the local guys to buy us drinks then we might as well go check into a nursing home, our life is over.”

“I don’t have anything to wear.” Claire complained but Dana grabbed her hands and started dancing around the living room.

“It’s going to be soooo fun!” she yelled and jumped up and down. “Europe here we come!”

They started packing, shouting back and forth from their rooms about what to take and what the weather would be like and Dana felt good. She supposed she should probably feel guilty, after all she had technically stolen James’s BMW but he deserved it and definitely could afford it. She’d been surprised when she’d taken it to the dealer to see how much it was worth. The salesman’s eyes got wide when he saw it and was eager to write her a check. It was some kind of special car, he kept calling it an M5 and she didn’t even try to negotiate the price when he offered her eighty thousand dollars. She would come clean with Claire once they were in Galador, once it was too late to for her to back out. Until then, she’d keep the little charade going about one of her boyfriends’ giving her sky miles and they would spend James’ money like they were rock stars. She didn’t really have a plan beyond landing in Europe. She’d figure it out as they went along.

4

Misconceptions

They stood in the portal room, James and Frank in their tailored suits, Dimitri in his worn leathers. The safe cracker hadn’t done much damage, he’d drilled through the tumblers until he was able to spin the oversized wheel but now the door was sealed with chains. The bodies were all gone but the broken table, splintered chairs and dried pools of blood were still there. There were elongated footprints, misshapen handprints and claw marks all over the stone floor, too many to count.

“Something was waiting when they opened it.” Dimitri said. “They were probably attracted to the noise.”

He stared at the massive steel vault door, put a hand to it and felt the slightest hum of wrongness. It was a barrier between dimensions, the only thing that kept the devils of the old world out of the new one. The fallen angels or demons or Jinn or whatever you wanted to call them were real and twisted and had not changed since they were last documented and written about some four thousand years ago. The world was enlightened now, they didn’t believe in the supernatural things written in the Hebrew bible, the book of Enoch or the Dead Sea scrolls. Creatures from another dimension didn’t exist, it was all children’s stories.

“If you’re through sightseeing, let’s track these things. We have a job to do, put your dog nose to work and let’s get this done.” James said.

Dimitri didn’t dignify him with a reply but turned his dark eyes to the blood trails as they led out of the cave.

“Frank, can you get me a change of clothes?” James asked. “We’ll meet you on the grounds.”

“Of course,” he said, and hurried off.

“Didn’t know your kind still had slaves.”

“We don’t.” James said through gritted teeth. “Frank is a friend and a trusted advisor.”

Dimitri scoffed.

“You have no idea do you? You really are as ignorant as they say.”

James ignored the jibe and swept an arm towards the bloody footprints leading out of the cavern.

“The trail is already a day old, maybe you should do what you came for. Use your dog nose and start tracking,” he said.

“We should check inside the portal.” Dimitri replied.

“I’m not opening that door.” James said. “As soon as I’m king, I’ll have it welded shut. Nobody is ever going through it again.”

“Won’t do any good. Due to your countries pride and ineptness, it is not unknown. Too many people know of its existence.” Dimitri said. “Who knows how many diaries mention it, even tell the location. It’s not a secret among our kind and even if you dynamited the cave and buried it under tons of rock, a hundred years from now someone would dig it out.”

He placed his hand on the thick, steel door, felt the thrum of wrongness and cocked his head to listen.

“I believe your cousin is inside,” he said, “there are no bear prints leading out, no human either.”

James checked the passage and realized it might be true. Unless the wolves were carrying Stig, he hadn’t left the chamber.

“If he’s inside, he’s probably dead.” James said.

“Or just