"Me? Are you kidding? I'm not - " She shut her mouth. "I have enough problems," she said flatly. She paused as something he said sank in. "Wait, why do you think my parents were being naive?" she asked sharply. "What did they do?"
James drank a swal ow of tea. "Frankly, I think I need a little something in this before I continue," he said. "I've kept this secret for a long time, and I stil have to tel you the worst part." He got up and rummaged around in one of the cupboards, eventual y pul ing out a smal bottle ful of amber liquid. He held it out to Elena questioningly, but she shook her head. She was pretty certain she would need her head clear for the rest of this conversation. He poured a generous amount into his own cup.
"So," he said, sitting down again. Elena could tel that he was stil anxious, but also that he was beginning to enjoy tel ing the story. He was a natural gossip - the way he taught history was as gossip about the past - and this was even more familiar for him, because it was gossip about Elena's parents, people they both had known. "Thomas and Elizabeth were both terrifical y flattered, of course."
"And..." Elena prompted.
James laced his fingers across his stomach and watched her, his eyes shadowed. "They agreed that, when the child was twelve years old, they would give her up. The Guardians would take her away, and they would never see her again."
Elena was suddenly very cold. Her parents had raised her intending to give her away? She felt like al her childhood memories were shattering. In an instant, James was at her side. "Breathe," he said gently.
Gasping, Elena shut her eyes and concentrated on inhaling and exhaling deep breaths. That her parents, her beloved parents, had taken her on as some kind of temporary project, was devastating. She had never doubted their love until now.
She had to know the whole truth.
"Go on."
"Honestly, that was the end of my friendship with your parents, and the end of my involvement with the Vitale Society," James said, taking another long drink of his whiskey-laced tea. "I couldn't believe that no one else in the Society saw the problem with raising a child to the cusp of adolescence and then giving her up forever, and I couldn't believe that your parents - who I knew to be loving, intel igent people - would agree to such a plan. We graduated and went our separate ways, and I didn't hear from your parents again for more than twelve years."
"You heard from them then?" Elena asked quietly.
"Your father cal ed me. The Guardians had contacted them, ready to take you away. But Thomas and Elizabeth wouldn't let you go." James smiled sadly. "They loved you too much. They didn't think you were ready to leave home -
you were only a child. They realized that they had agreed too quickly to the Guardians' plan, that they didn't real y know what was in store for you, and that they couldn't let their daughter go without knowing for certain that it was the best thing for her. So Thomas asked for my help protecting you. They knew I had dabbled in sorcery when I was in col ege" - he waved his hand modestly when Elena looked up at him - "only smal magics, and I had mostly given them up by then. But he and Elizabeth were desperate. So I gathered what knowledge I could, intending to help them." He paused, and a gloom settled over his face.
"Unfortunately, I was too late. A few days after our conversation, before I even set out for Fel 's Church, your parents were both kil ed in a car accident. I checked up on you over the years, but it didn't seem like the Guardians had gotten their hands on you. And now, here you are. I don't think it's a coincidence."
"The Guardians kil ed my parents," Elena said dul y. "I knew it, but I didn't know... I thought it was an accident." She was struggling to wrap her mind around the secrets of her childhood. At least in the end her parents hadn't been able to give her away. They had loved her, as she had thought.
"They tend to get what they want," James said.
"Why didn't they take me then?" Elena asked.
James shook his head. "I don't know. But I think there's a reason you're at Dalcrest now, where it began for you and for your parents. I think that some kind of task wil arise here, and you'l come into your Powers."
"A task?" Elena asked. "But I had Powers once, and the Guardians took them away." They had mercilessly stripped her of her Wings and al her abilities. Were they going to return them when the time was right?
James sighed and shrugged helplessly. "Plans sometimes have curious ways of presenting themselves, even those that are fated from the start," he said. "Maybe these disappearances are the first sign of it. I don't know, though. As I told the class, Dalcrest is the hub of a lot of paranormal activity. I tend to think that, when your task presents itself, you'l know."
"But I'm not..." Elena gulped. "I don't understand what this al means. I just want to be a normal girl. I thought I could now. Here."
James reached across the table and patted her hand, his eyes deep Wells of sympathy. "I'm so sorry, my dear," he said. "I didn't want to be the one to burden you with this. But I wil give you any help I can. Thomas and Elizabeth would have wanted that."
Elena felt like she couldn't breathe. She had to get out of this cozy kitchen, away from James's avid, concerned eyes. "Thank you," she said, hurriedly pushing her chair away from the table and getting up. "I have to go now, though. I do appreciate your tel ing me al this, but I need to think."
He fussed around her al the way to the front door, clearly unsure of whether to let her go, and Elena was almost ready to scream by the time she reached the porch.