House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)

I was of course telling myself this to make this new world I’d fallen into seem less dangerous for me. Because I was on the stronger side.

Yeah, right. As if life was nice and simple like that. Good. Bad. Right. Wrong. Strong. Weak. Nothing was ever that black and white.

The teacher was back at the board now. He had drawn three columns; above each he wrote, Starslight Prep, Darken Exports, and Daelight Crescent.

When he turned around, he clapped his hands together. “For the rest of the week we’ll look at this house’s initial contributions to Astoria. Firstly, they started a world-leading education institute, making sure our young folks received the very best learning they could. A vast majority of government leaders, business people, scientists, and revolutionaries in modern America did their schooling right here. We have ties to the top colleges – as most of you know.”

I found my hand in the air before I could stop it. Mr. Perkins called on me.

“Have there been students in this school from these four houses since 1875?” I asked, deliberately not looking at Jero.

“Yes, more or less,” he replied, “there have always been representatives from the four houses in Starslight. They’re very proud of this school. There’s no other place they would send their children.”

I knew Jero was staring at me, but I didn’t look his way. I had no idea why I asked that question. It slipped out, but I just had this weird feeling that the Darkens I knew were fairly new to this world. Like Star only coming across yesterday. From wherever.

I hadn’t been sure if “supernaturals” being here was a new thing or not. Apparently not new in general, just for the few I’d met only.

The rest of the lesson was spent on the many ways Darkens now ruled this world. Their exports business seemed to have interests in multiple industries, and I was amazed at how many of their products I had heard of.

When the bell rang, students jumped to their feet as conversations sprang up around us. “We’ll continue on with House of Darken tomorrow,” Mr. Perkins yelled over the departing students.

Jero followed me from the room, his giant frame towering over me. An added benefit of him as security detail was that students tended to get out of our way as we walked along. It made getting to class so much easier.

“What’s next for you?” he asked when we were standing near one of the moving sidewalks.

I glanced at my schedule and let out a groan. “Gym. Seriously?”

“Not a fan?” he asked, watching me closely.

I shrugged. “Honestly, I suck at physical activities. I’m great at knitting, reading, sewing. Cooking, even. I make a mean apple crumble and double-choc brownie. I also jigsaw puzzle like a pro. And I’m great at shopping … for shoes and clothes. But never … I repeat never have I chosen to exercise.”

“No sports? Jogging? What about … gymnastics?”

I snort-laughed. “Almost broke my cheek on the balance beam. After that my parents finally started accepting me as an indoors kid. Puzzles and books showed up in my room the next day.”

His laughter boomed out around us and we drew even more attention than we already had. “Of course you would like puzzles.” He continued to chuckle. “Think I might just call you the crazy cat lady from now on. Get in early.”

I nodded with all the seriousness I could muster. “Oh, definitely, that’s in my ten year plan.”

“I’ll bet it is.” He grinned. “Well, I don’t have gym, but I can walk you to that section of the school. Lexen will be in that class with you.”

Well, that’s just great. He was definitely the one guy I wanted to make an absolute fool of myself in front of. Because he didn’t already think humans were stupid and pathetic enough.

“Why does Lexen hate me … or humans?” I lowered my voice on the human part. “I mean, the rest of you don’t seem to feel the same way.”

Jero’s face closed off; all of the open happiness he had been showing faded in an instant. I sucked in a deep breath, wondering if I had hit on a sore point. “Never mind,” I said, forcing fake cheer into my tone. “Not my business.”

I turned and jumped on the closest moving path, not even caring if it was going in the right direction. I didn’t look back to see if Jero had followed me. Why did I ask that? Why was I allowing my emotions to get involved, allowing myself to get attached to these Darkens? I mean, I didn’t know them at all, and I no doubt meant nothing to any of them.

Plus, I had an actual family to find, so it was time for me to pull myself together and stop acting stupid.

“He doesn’t hate you.” Jero’s voice startled me, and I spun around to find him right behind me. Dammit, did they have to be so much more stealthy than me too? “Mostly he’s not happy about being forced to come here. And your question in class … there have always been representatives from all four houses here, but it was voluntary. Usually those from the lower echelons of our society, those wanting to enjoy the treaty between our people. Now there are some new laws … let’s just say he disagreed with the council on this new order. His future is not working out how he expected. He’s trying to deal with it in his own way.”

I turned back to face forward. “I know how that feels,” I murmured. My entire world went up in a ball of flames. The future I’d imagined, gone in an instant.

We were silent for the rest of the journey, Jero only grabbing my elbow to assist me on exit. He already knew I was never going to nail one of these dismounts. He left me at the gym door and I reluctantly made my way into the girls’ locker rooms to get changed. Ignoring the stares from the others who were already inside, I focused on dressing in the provided uniform of white shirt, black shorts, white knee socks and tennis shoes, before slinking my way out into the huge gym facility – cursing under my breath the entire time.

It was a circular room, mostly indoors, and there was a running track, courts for a variety of sports, including tennis and volleyball, an Olympic-size pool, weight area … and the list went on and on. It was like I’d stumbled into a multi-billion dollar professional athletes training area. A shit-ton of money that was completely wasted on someone like me.

Joining the back of my class, I attempted to stay out of sight, knowing Lexen was somewhere here. The teacher stepped to the front of the group. I caught glimpses of his white cotton shirt, a whistle hanging against it.

“Today I’m splitting you into two groups.” The whistle jumped up and down in time to his shouting. “One will be on volleyball, the other soccer. First, though, everyone jogs to warm up.”

He blew the whistle, and while I heard a few groans, all of the students started running without much complaint. I wiggled on the spot, contemplating what excuse might work to get me out of this class. I really felt like forced gym classes were a form of discrimination against the eternally uncoordinated.

Was there a protest group against this? I needed to look into that.

“You’re supposed to be running.” The low voice had my chest clenching tightly, goosebumps already sprinkling across my body. How did his voice do that to me? Every single time.

He had at least distracted me from my panic of running, so I pasted a smile on my face when I turned to him. Holy shit, why? Just, why? As if Lexen wasn’t already far too lethal on my hormones, someone had to put him in a gym uniform. The shirt was fitted across his broad shoulders, powerful muscles in his arms and upper body very visible. I forced myself not to stare at his ass, which I already knew was amazing, and would no doubt be clearly defined in those pants.

“I don’t run,” I finally squeaked out, crossing my arms over my chest, goosebumps and nipples saluting the world. Stupid disloyal body. “And aren’t you on the football team?”

He nodded, his eyes never leaving mine. God, he was intense, but not in an overwhelming way. More like a throw him on the ground and tear his clothes off kind of way.