House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)

A male and female appeared to be the spokes-Daelighters for the council. They switched between English and another language, making it hard for me to follow along.

“They’re talking about your guardians,” Jero said, startling me.

I swung my head around to stare right at him.

“Saying that someone has violated the treaty by luring them to Astoria … and then kidnapping them. That whoever is involved better release them now or there will be consequences.”

I swallowed roughly. “How do they know they’re here? And why do they care about humans so much?” I whispered back.

He shrugged. “It’s not that they care so much, it’s more that the treaty is important to them. Kidnapping humans … huge violation. They will do everything to make sure this is rectified.”

Every world was built on politics, apparently.

I listened harder now, wanting to know what information was being released to the public, but it was impossible to follow the mixed language.

“…the fate of both worlds rests on this treaty,” the male voice said.

“…forestima judicia letins warnt death,” came from the more feminine tones.

Over and over they went on, apparently moving topics rapidly.

“You have one cycle of the moon-phase to release the Earthlings,” the male said in conclusion. “One more cycle before we enact a punishment of the highest order. Our secret keepers have been targeted, the four families who hold the key to the safety of the stone. This breach will not be tolerated.”

The audience seemed to hold their breath, an unnatural silence filling the land. Then noise exploded around us, along with a mild level of mayhem. Fighting, curses, threats. Lexen, who had been lingering near the middle of his platform, stepped forward until he was right on the edge of the Darken area. I was only getting a glimpse of his side profile from where I stood, but his face was fierce, eyes locked out in the crowd.

Jero and Marsil jumped up to join their brother, both of them apparently forgetting they were supposed to be keeping an eye on me. Which was a relief, because I could finally clutch my ribs again as I leaned into the platform. The hot throb of pain was not going anywhere, and pretending I was fine was taking a toll.

Distraction came from Lexen when he shot sparks of fire and ice high into the air above all the Daelighters. Whatever dragon power he possessed was enough to distract and calm the crowd somewhat. All of the other houses were also using their particular brand of power on the rowdy Daelighters. Royales sent out rain, because they could control water, apparently. Made sense. Roland, Lexen’s father, added his power to the Royale rainstorm, wind and lightning whipping from him and across the cloud land. Darkens must control weather to some degree. Imperials’ swirls of fire were so hot that even a few platforms across I could feel the hot gusts on my face. And the Leights, well … they had turned into trees.

Trees?

My brain continued trying to refute what my eyes were seeing, but there was no denying it. The Leights' bodies had changed from human-looking supermodels into literal trees with trunks and branches and arm-shrub things. They didn’t have branches out the top, with leaves, like a normal tree. Their heads were bald and barky, all that long hair turning to bark across the surface. Their bodies grew to six times their previous size, big and powerful, and much faster than I would have expected. I mean, I’d never actually imagined a redwood jogging along a path of course, but if I ever had I would have expected them to be kinda slow, cumbersome.

I swallowed a screech as a Leight got a little too close to some of the Imperials’ flames, his barky skin catching alight in a whoosh. Luckily the Royale overlord sent a huge splash of water into the crowd, dispersing the lethal flames.

Rather quickly, considering how loud and out of control the Daelighters had been only a moment ago, the leaders of the four houses calmed their people. Apparently, when they did work together, there was a special sort of magic between them.

Pressing myself back out of sight, I waited for everything to finish moving back to order.

Trying to breathe through my pain, I thought about all the questions still unanswered. One of the main was Laous … it felt important to know what plans he’d been trying to initiate since killing Daniel’s father. More specifically, why had he decided to push for all the overlords and admirals of the four houses to go to Astoria? This was a new order, and the reason Lexen had been so pissed on Earth: the first “forced compliance” of the treaty terms. There had to be a reason Laous decided to make it happen now. When did they first go there? Had Star said something about it being almost a year?

Which would make it just before Christmas and New Yea…

Everything inside of me froze and I struggled to suck air into my lungs. I recognized the panic attack I was having. It wasn’t the first, that was for sure, but I couldn’t recall any of my therapy techniques to calm myself.

Because I’d just had a realization.

My parents were killed eight months ago. The houses sent their royal leaders just before that. What if Laous somehow figured out a way to use these overlord minors to track down the secret keepers? What if the only ones who had a shot at finding us were ones who held the power of their houses? There was no way he could get the actual overlords to go, so he chose the next best thing.

My gaze locked on Lexen, grief tearing through me with enough force that it actually felt like my heart was being slashed by a blunt knife. He’d promised me he had nothing to do with the fire, and I’d believed him, but what if he’d helped without any knowledge, inadvertently killing the only two people I’d had in this world. My family.

A sob escaped before I could stop it. Followed by another.

I crumpled forward, the pain in my heart so much stronger than the pain in my ribs. Emotional pain eclipsed physical pain every time. I would take a million shattered bones over a broken heart, that was for sure.

Pushing through my pain, I worked hard to reassert my logic. It was wrong to blame Lexen. Whatever he had done had probably been outside of his control. I knew enough about him to know he would never deliberately hunt down and burn innocent humans to death. I had to keep my faith in him, because everyone deserved a chance to explain themselves.

This resolve calmed me. I managed to stand straight again and turn my attention back to the crowds. The inter-house fighting had fully abated. I felt eyes on me and somehow knew it was Lexen, but I couldn’t bring myself to look in his direction, afraid I would break down again. The last thing I needed was him noticing I was upset and coming to ask me about it. I wanted to talk to him when I was calm and collected, not when I’d just had a terrible revelation and was processing. Right now I was likely to start screaming accusations at him, and that was unfair.

His gaze continued burning a hole in the side of my head, so I took a few steps back, and then a few more, hopefully slow enough to not look suspicious. The council had just started to speak again, and I used the distraction to hurry to the back of the Darken platform, out of their line of sight.

I was done with all Daelighters. Part of me was desperate to get back to Earth, back to what was familiar. But that wasn’t going to happen until someone returned the Finnegans to me. No way was I going home without them.

“Are you okay?”

The soft words took me by surprise. I swung around to find Lexen standing at my side. His arms hung loosely and he looked relaxed – well, as relaxed as Lexen ever looked. The darkness of his eyes captured me as always, my fascination with those depthless pools growing every time I stared into them.

“I’m fine,” I choked out. “Just … this is a lot, you know.”

His face was a hard cut of lines; his jaw looked clenched. “The council is going to find your guardians. They have assured us that this is the number one priority for them.”