“What is this council?”
“They govern the world from another place. They destroy spirits if they are interfering with humans. They have a history of standing with the angels in fights with Lucifer. They sit around their cosmic fires contemplating how to heal the world.”
“Mia, what if it’s not them?”
“Then I’ll wait this out until someone plays his or her card. But I’m hoping none of this will happen. I have all of you here to help me find Burt. You don’t know how much is at stake for this world if I don’t take us all back to where we belong. There have been so many battles fought, so many lives lost in order to keep the world a safer place for humans. Take me out of the equation, then angels die for the human race until they are gone. Take you out of the equation, then Brian and Varden aren’t born. Altair doesn’t get his wings. Abigor is killed, and another duke takes his armies and lets them run across the surface of the earth culling the human herd.”
“And this all started…”
“When you wanted to take a picture of me and Murph together,” Mia said and laughed. “He still has it hanging in the barn.”
“If we can make it to where we were before, then all is going to fine,” Ted said and reached out and caught a tear that fell from Mia’s face.
Mia studied his face. She could see the Ted she knew, minus the worry lines she had placed on the freckled palette of trust. “Promise me, if this all blows up in our faces, that you’ll continue on to create all your marvelous inventions. Do you know you and Cid make a machine that lets a locked-in patient be able to communicate with his son?” Mia’s hand shot to her chest. “Oh my god, Mark! If you and I aren’t there for Mark, he will hunt angels instead of saving them.” Mia’s hands were now clutching her chest in pain. She stopped moving as her eyes held a thousand horrors within their fixed gaze.
“Mia? Mia!” Ted laid her on the ground and listened for her to breathe.
Murphy was there kneeling.
“She’s not breathing,” Ted said.
“Breathe for her,” he said while he reached into her chest with his hand and grasped her small heart and squeezed.
Glenda hovered. Cid and Mike watched in amazement as Mia’s color improved and she coughed.
Mia looked up at Murphy. Her eyes held his for a moment before she said, “Do you mind? Who knows where that hand has been?”
“Bad Mia,” Murph said, removing his hand from her chest.
“Should we get her to a hospital?” Glenda asked.
“No!” Mia and Murphy said in unison.
“Trust me, I’ll be fine. I’m tired. I’m sorry for the excitement,” she said.
Mike squatted down, scooped Mia up, carried her into her room, and laid her in bed. Glenda insisted on putting another cover over her. Murphy stayed in the corner where he could watch over Mia.
Glenda went downstairs under the guise of making a cup of tea, but in actuality, she intended to smoke a pack of cigarettes and drink herself silly.
Mike walked the boys upstairs.
Ted used the bathroom first before he joined Mike and Cid, scratching his head.
“What’s going on in that noggin of yours, genius?” Mike asked.
“She was dead. And then she wasn’t.”
“The ghost brought her back,” Mike said. “A handy guy to have around.”
“If you have a heart problem,” Cid noticed. “I was upstairs listening,” he confessed.
“We were all listening,” Mike said.
“Mia died of fright. I actually saw someone die of fear. She was overwhelmed with it.”
“A lot of pressure for a twelve-year-old,” Mike said. “I know, I know, she’s not twelve in her head, but maybe there is kind of a disconnect between her head and her body.”
“Did you see him bring her back?” Cid asked.
“Yes. I think he’s done it before. She was not surprised to see his hand stuck in her chest,” Ted said.
Mike got up and looked out the window. “I can see Ma’s smoke from here. She thinks she’s hiding it from me. Trying to be a good example. She’s a great lady but a lousy mother.”
“Tomorrow we have to be on our A game,” Ted said. “That means we see and hear everything. If Mia is right, it’s not just finding Burt, it will be keeping her safe so she can convince him to break the candle.”
“No, Mia told me that if she doesn’t make it, she doesn’t have to be involved as long as Burt snaps the candle in two,” Cid said.
“Ted, Mia doesn’t intend on surviving this. She is going to protect us as long as she can. Our mission is to find Burt and have him snap the candle,” Mike confirmed.
“What if he’s dead already?” Ted asked Mike.
“Then it’s already over.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mia bummed a couple of aspirins off Glenda before they left the farmhouse. She asked if she could rest in the back seat of the station wagon. Murphy assured Glenda that he would make sure Mia didn’t roll off the bench seat during one of Mike’s quick stops. That left Glenda driving Cid and Ted in the convertible. She would take the lead, not trusting Mike to keep to the proper speed.
The goal was to make the Smoky Hill River Valley before noon. Glenda insisted they all eat a proper breakfast and would stop along the way for lunch. She had been drying her dishes when the phone rang. She was going to let it ring but thought the better of it.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Mrs. Dupree, this is Nordin.
