House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)

Did they have to be so nice all the time? The lines were blurring for me.

Meh, who the hell was I kidding? They had been blurred almost from the first second I moved onto their street and was told not to cross to the rich side. My fascination with these Daelighters was worrisome, but at least I understood what Cara was talking about. It was impossible to stay away once you’d tasted their world.

We left the school without a word to any teachers, and we weren’t the only ones. I was about to see the full scale of these Daelighters here on Earth. Well, at least here in Stars High. There were at least fifty students trailing out and climbing into their cars – all of which were worth more than the last three houses I had lived in put together.

“So … all of you are rich?” I said, half envious, half impressed with their setup here on Earth. “Couldn’t you have just gotten by with your exceptional good looks and photographic memories?”

Jero chuckled. “I’ll take the good looks, but photographic memory is not one of our gifts.”

“So the no books thing…?” I’d asked him before, but I wanted more explanation.

Lexen opened the door for me, which had me a little stunned, but … I also liked that he’d done something thoughtful.

“We have already completed all of our schooling,” he said as I climbed into the passenger seat. “We’re older than you, in a way. Therefore we’re not learning anything new. This is just to keep up appearances.”

“How are you older in a way?” I asked, when all of the Darkens were inside the vehicle.

They exchanged a smile like I was missing out on an inside joke. I hated when people did that. So freaking rude.

“We’re … older than you, that’s all you need to know.”

Fact of the day: Lexen was a dick.

“Why would your age be a secret?” I said, my tone filled with derision. “I mean, seriously, why the hell would I care if you’re old?”

Lexen tilted his head, flashing me one of his very rare grins. “Why are you asking if you don’t care?”

I bit back my frustrated scream.

“I’m fifty-five in human years,” Star cut in, shooting her brother a narrow-eyed look. “I’m the youngest.”

What. The. Freak?

“Fifty-five?” I repeated, trying to wrap my head around what she was saying. She looked younger than me. “So, I’m going to guess that Daelighters age differently to humans?”

Four head nods. Marsil filled me in: “We stop aging once we reach maturity.”

“You don’t age?” I almost collapsed against the shiny door of Lexen’s car. “My human brain can’t compute that sort of information.” I mean, did they die? Or were they immortal?

“Hence why we don’t talk about our age,” Lexen said with a shake of his head, starting the car.

I could sense Lexen’s urgency to get going, so I wasted no more time on questions. I buckled myself in. As soon as my belt clicked, we took off in a squeal of tires. I gripped the door, because Lexen was channeling a racecar driver on the way home, foot flat to floor, weaving in and out of traffic.

“Please remember that one of us is human,” I griped, my knuckles aching from the death grip I had on my handhold.

Lexen just laughed, the carefree sound mildly distracting me from my fear. “You’re safe, little human. I can handle her.”

I muttered about boys and their toys, closing my eyes for the rest of the way. Lucky there weren’t a lot of cars on the road. Well, except for all of the aliens following us. When we reached Daelight Crescent, the huge gates were already open and Lexen flew down the road, pulling into his driveway. We all piled out, and I realized that we weren’t going inside at all. Great, I was going to be stuck in my gym uniform.

Even worse, I would have to use that swirly light thing that Star had emerged from.

As though she had heard my worries, Star popped up beside me. “Don’t be nervous,” she told me. “It doesn’t hurt. The portal between our worlds is linked strongly at this gateway. You just need to step through and you’ll be on the other side.”

“More or less,” Marsil said, patting me on the shoulder.

I looked between the two of them. “Well, is it more or is it less? Because I’m not feeling very confident with that answer.”

They both shrugged and I bit back an angry retort. When I got nervous, I turned into an asshole. I was working on it. Among my many other faults.

“House of Darken takes the first light beam home, so we need to hurry.” Lexen was already walking, his words drifting back to us.

Star moved then, dragging me along; she was surprisingly strong. Then we were all hurrying. A glance back told me the street was filling with teenage-looking Daelighters, all of them ditching their cars in front of their mansions. There was not one person on this street who looked older then late teens, early twenties.

“Do you die?” I whispered to Star.

She looked astonished for a moment, and I realized that my blurted question might have sounded vaguely threatening. She recovered smoothly. “Yes, of course we do. We’re very long-lived but not immortal. We really do just age differently to humans.”

I sensed that was the best answer I was getting for a while, so I shelved any further questions and focused on the simple – and hideous – task of running to keep up with all the long legs around me. In the bright light of day, streets usually showed their grimier side, trash, graffiti, potholes. Not Daelight. It was pristine, not a leaf out of place in the hedges. Not a dead flower in the gardens. The asphalt was untouched. The lines were bright white.

There had been a reason my spidey senses went off the first moment we drove up to the gates. It was actually the only time I had ever given true thought to Sara and Michael’s crazy theories. A sense of something unnatural was laced into this street, making it impossible for me to continue to insist my guardians’ theories were pure insanity.

Damn, I really owed them an apology.

I have to find them.

I couldn’t consider any other possibility. My sanity could not handle another loss.

When we turned down the rose-covered lane, nerves kicked in again and wiped all other thoughts from my mind. Star was half dragging me; my feet were slowing on their own accord apparently.

“I’ll take her from here.” Lexen’s deep voice cracked through some of my nerves and I was able to recover enough to glare at him. “Don’t make me carry you,” he warned, before he reached out and pulled me away from his sister.

My eyes were no doubt wide and panicky as I turned to Star, silently begging her not to leave me. She just shrugged and hurried forward. Traitor.

“I don’t need your help,” I snapped at Lexen, hating the way he made me feel like a burden.

“I’m the only one you should trust to bring you to Overworld safely. But hey, feel free to try and make it on your own if you want.”

I growled at him. Like an actual growl rocked out of my chest. He blinked once, before one corner of his lips lifted slightly, like he was fighting a grin and had lost. Before I could growl at him again, because I was tempted to, a flash of light stole all of my attention and I found myself shuffling closer to the grumpy Daelighter without even thinking about it. The ball of light had been scary enough before I knew it was dangerous to cross. I was even less keen now to step into it.

I reached out and grabbed Lexen’s hand. “You won’t let me die, right? I know you hate humans, and I’m a human, so therefore you must hate me. And when you hate someone you give zero shits about them dying. Sometimes you even wish they would die.” I sucked in a few deep breaths, leaning forward and bracing my free hand on my knee like I was winded.

His strong hand wrapped around mine as he pulled me back up. I tilted my head all the way back to see his face better.

“I won’t let you die, Emma. You’re safe with me.” His voice was a low caress across my senses.

I swallowed hard. “You didn’t say if you hated me or not,” I whispered.