The Protector of Esparia (The Annals of Esparia Book 1) by Lisa M. Wilson

bullets.
    She snatched a small duffle bag hanging from a closet hook.  “I left my country behind,” she talked while packing the gun and bullets in the bag, “my uncles, and my son.”
    “Your son?”  Sophia had just entered the room.  In her arms were an assortment of shirts and pants, both Jessica’s and John’s.  “You left a son in Esparia?”  She deposited the clothes on the table.
    “I never told you, Sophia.  It was too painful to talk about.  Haesom.  My little boy.”  Gaylee plucked two shirts and a pair of jeans from the pile and stuffed them in the duffle bag. 
    John was at a loss.  “Haesom?  But Jessica…”
    “…thought he was made up.”  Gaylee finished the thought.  “She assumed her dreams were in response to her mom’s death, but they were very real.  Haesom was her uncle, Shallenon’s older brother.”  Gaylee stopped packing.  “And two nights ago she saw them murdered.”  Her shoulders drooped and she took a long, deep breath.  “Which of these shirts do you want?”  She held up a button up and a pull-over.
    John ignored her and turned on Sophia.  “What’s Esparia?”
    “Her country…Gaylee was a Protector.”
    “Since Shallenon’s dead, and now Haesom and his family are gone, the birthright falls to Jessica.  She’s the last of the Saylon blood line.”  Gaylee managed to cram both shirts into the bag.  She zipped it and thrust it at John’s chest.  He instinctively caught it.  “Will you sign that paper already?  We need to go now .”
    John had never seen his mother-in-law so agitated.  He slung the bag’s strap over his shoulder, grabbed a pen lying on the counter top and scribbled his name on the legal document.
    “Okay, I’ve signed.”  John put his hand on Gaylee’s shoulder.  “Where do you think we’re going?”  His voice was calm, quiet.  He knew she had snapped.
    “To Edia…To Esparia…To where ever my uncles took Jessica.  We’re going to follow her.  I’m going home.”  She looked around the kitchen.  “Where’s your first aid kit?”
    John pointed to a kitchen cupboard.  He looked to Sophia, hoping for some help, but she was weeping into a dish towel.
    “I’m going to miss you Gaylee,” the smaller woman sobbed. 
    Gaylee paused after retrieving the small pack of medical supplies and put her arms around her friend.  She kissed her forehead.  She too had tears in her eyes.  “Tell Jacob good-bye.”  Sophia silently nodded.
    Gaylee walked out the open kitchen door, down the path to where the cars were parked in the driveway.  John watched from the bay window as she retrieved a hooded cape from her auto.
    Sophia stood beside him.  “She’s telling you the truth.  I know her whole story.”
    “Hey, you two,” Gaylee called.  “Come out here, and Sophia, be sure to close the door behind you.”
    John shook his head, feeling completely bewildered, but decided to humor the woman.   He would go along with her delusions, only to prove them false, before calling a psychiatrist.  Sophia closed the door behind them and scurried to safety behind John’s car.  There was fear on her face as she crouched behind the vehicle.
    John poked the first aid pack into the duffle, then he and Gaylee walked from the cars, up the brick path to the kitchen entrance.  At the door, Gaylee felt around the trim, the deadbolt and the door itself.  Nothing happened.
    The brass handle remained the only hardware untouched.  “How appropriate,” she murmured, “a doorknob is the link to another world.”  She stared at the latch, her body rigid.  She gripped her cape so hard her knuckles turned white.
    “So, what now?”  John was losing patience.  He really wanted to make that 911 call.
    “Jessica didn’t tell you about all of her dreams from the other night, did she?”
    “More dreams than Haesom’s death?”
    Gaylee nodded.  “My uncle said that he set the mechanism with his own life force, so only