House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)

Okay, then, bastard read my school file. I glared as hard as I could at him, unable to speak still, but thankful the anger was washing away the pain.

“She wears a piece of starslight,” he continued in a matter of fact tone. “Now her guardians are missing after being called to Astoria through suspicious means. Emma is more involved in our world than any of us realized.”

Roland dropped his half-eaten green-apple-looking-fruit on the table. He didn’t seem surprised by Lexen’s revelation, and I leaned closer, my breath catching as I waited for him to speak.

“The council told me that Emma was a very important person in an investigation they’re doing,” he said, kind eyes locked on me. “Secret keepers are supposed to check in every two hundred and forty-four Earth days. The first family missed the last one.”

No, please, God, no. “They think my parents were the ones who missed the check-in?” I asked, my voice flat. Panic and dread unfurled deep inside of my chest, like an insidious smoke filling my body and choking the breath from me. I knew I should probably ask what exactly a secret keeper was – or what secret it was they kept – but right now I could think of nothing but this new revelation.

Roland gave me a sad sort of smile. “Yes, they believe it was. Somehow they were tracked down, and we believe killed by a Daelighter who is trying to break the treaty between our worlds.”

“How … how did I survive?” I choked out. “The fire, I ended up outside somehow.”

He shook his head. “If I had to guess … possibly your life was what was threatened to reveal their secret.” His eyes darted between his four children. “I know I would do a lot to protect my family.”

My heart shattered, exploding in my chest like a glass-filled balloon. Sharp slivers sliced through me, ripping apart my insides. I caved forward, wrapping my arms around myself to try to stop the blood from pouring out. I mean, I knew there was no literal blood, but it felt like there should be. It felt like I should be bleeding from a thousand wounds.

“Enough,” Lexen said sharply to his father. I hadn’t even realized Roland was still talking. I’d missed whatever he’d said next.

Unable to hold it in any longer, I jumped to my feet, sending my chair flying out behind me. I didn’t know where to go, so I hurried back the way we’d just come, down the stairs and through those front doors. When I was outside, that warm draygone light shining down on me, I took a sharp left into the nearest garden. My mind was desperately searching for something to distract me from the fact that the fire wasn’t just a random bad accident. It wasn’t bad luck.

It was murder.

My parents – who had apparently been lying to me my entire life – were cold-bloodedly murdered. I survived because they protected me, like they had always done. I might not have known everything about them, like their connection to this world, but I always knew they loved me. They proved that with the ultimate sacrifice. A sacrifice I would never have asked from them.

“Why?” I cried, falling to my knees, my legs unable to hold me up any longer. “Why did you save me? I would have preferred to go with you.”

Sobs shook my entire frame, hands covering my face as I mourned all over again. I had no idea how long I cried, but eventually strong arms picked me up and set me on my feet. Just like the time in his room, Lexen did nothing more than hold me while I fell apart on him.

“Why did they save me?” I was still murmuring, unable to stop the tears, unable to stem the pain.

His hand went to my spine, rubbing up and down slowly. This was becoming his signature move, and there was no denying it: Lexen Darken was an amazing comforter, despite his normal attitude problem.

“They saved you because you were singularly the most important thing in their world, Emma Walters. Your life is their gift, and they would be so proud of how strong you are.”

Surprise had me pulling back as I wiped away my tears. “You think I’m strong? Even though I cry on you all the time?”

His dark eyes flashed, that sprinkle of light almost mesmerizing as it moved about his irises. “You have fought me from the first moment we met. You have fought for your guardians. You’re fierce and annoyingly stubborn. I don’t know you that well yet, but … I sense you’re worthy to wear the starslight stone.”

Did that just happen? Did Lexen just pay me a compliment? Me … a human.

“Thank you,” I said, my voice hoarse. “It just hit me hard, hearing the truth about their sacrifice. I didn’t know about this huge part of their life … what exactly is a secret keeper?”

I got the general concept, but not how it specifically referred to my parents and Overworld.

Lexen remained close, although we weren’t touching anymore. “When the treaty was formed,” he started slowly, “the human government was worried that one day we would decide to take our stone back. They knew we were more powerful, if it came down to a war, so they wanted some reassurance. In the treaty, it was stated that a Draygo would be the one to bury the stone, but there would also be a secret sect of humans that would know the location also.

“A hundred or so humans were hand-selected to be told about the treaty. Ones who were educated enough to understand the complexity of this agreement between our two worlds. From those hundred, four who were pregnant at the time, were given an additional task. Their soon-to-be-born offspring would become the secret keepers of the stone’s location. They birthed their children in our world, one in each of the houses – all had to be born in the same year – so they would be bonded to each other and to our lands. Together these four can lead someone to the location of the stone.”

“How?” I asked. “That sounds next to impossible.”

Lexen shrugged. “I don’t understand everything, the treaty was before my time and information is scarce because it’s supposed to all be secret. But from what Father told me, the first family held a clue which would lead to the second family.”

“Who would lead to the third…” I guessed.

He nodded. “Yes, and the fourth had a map to the location of the stone. This map is connected directly to the Draygo, so if they moved the stone, the map would change. It meant that there was no way for the stone to ever disappear without humans knowing.”

“My parents were killed because someone wants to find the stone?” It was all starting to make perfect, horrifying sense now.

“This is what the council believes.”

“Which of my parents was birthed in Overworld?”

Lexen’s broad shoulders lifted in a half-shrug. “No way for us to know now, but it seems that whichever it was, they might have revealed the location of the second family. Which means we could very well be facing a serious problem.”

A memory flickered on the edge of my mind then, something I had not thought about in years, and I fought to recall even more. “My mom used to tell me this bedtime story,” I said, my voice catching again as the memories grew stronger. “Every night for years. She stopped when I was about six or seven, which is why my recollections are so vague, but I’m sure she told me about a boy who would ride on the back of dragons. She called him ‘the one.’ No … ‘the chosen one.’ I can’t really remember, but he was best friends with a merboy. The three of them, dragon included, would swim in the lake.”

When I focused on Lexen again, he was still wearing a solemn expression. “It sounds like she was quite well acquainted with our world,” he said.

“It was you, wasn’t it? The chosen one, the boy who rode dragons?”

He reached out and brushed his hand against my cheek, pulling away with droplets of moisture on his fingers. The last of my tears.

“When I was younger,” he said, “before my metamorphosis, Qenita and I would travel across the sectors. Xander Royale is one of my oldest friends. He’s the caramina she spoke of, the merboy.”

“So you’re how old?”