Secret Keepers: The Complete Series

by Jaymin Eve

  He was blunt. He suited Callie, who I felt had the same honest bluntness to her—from what I had seen in the ten minutes I’d known them all, of course.

  All eight of us were standing around the table now; no one had moved toward the food. It almost felt like … we needed this moment. The eight of us together.

  “It feels different now.” Maya broke the silence. “The energy between us. It’s stronger. More complete.”

  Emma quickly jumped in then and told the boys what had happened when the four of us touched. No one spoke, even when she was finished. I wondered if they were unhappy about it, but I wasn’t quite confident enough in this group to ask.

  “That’s what I was talking about before,” Chase said finally. “About how we’ll find the map Ava possesses. It’s something to do with the connection that the secret keepers have to not only Overworld, but also to each other. I think we need to go to the legreto of Royale, all of us together.”

  Lexen shifted forward, his eyes intense and focused. “This is a good theory. We should head out tomorrow.”

  Chase nodded. “Yes, we have no time to waste. The only reason Laous hasn’t ordered his human army to level Hawaii to the ground is he doesn’t realize we have Ava yet. The second he does....”

  “We’ll leave first thing in the morning,” Daniel said, sounding very boss-like. I remembered from Maya’s update in the boat that he was the only one to step into the overlord major role, and I could see the authority written all over him. “The plane is ready to go. I suggest we leave here about 3:00 A.M. Let the dark cover our tracks.”

  “I’ll make sure the helicopter is ready,” Xander said, closing off the conversation.

  Holy crap. They have a plane and a helicopter?

  Then I remembered they were royalty in their land, and it all made sense.

  Everyone focused on the food then, grabbing a paper plate each. I waited my turn, perusing the large selection. It consisted mostly of salads, sandwiches, fruit, and very little meat. Which was fine with me. On occasion I would eat raw seafood, but other than that, I wasn’t a huge fan of land-dwelling animals. Not for food anyway.

  I grabbed a garden salad with a creamy mustard dressing, two salad sandwiches, and a fruit cup and small tub of yogurt. Pretty much all of my favorite foods. Fresh salmon would have topped my salad off, but I was definitely not going to complain.

  This place seemed to be only partially set up for living; there was no table to eat at, so I just slid down against a nearby wall and put my plate beside me. Everyone sat on the floor, spreading out across the wall, and ate with me. I tried not to get excited about something that was not a big deal. Probably not to anyone else, anyway.

  While I was eating, I took some time to observe them all.

  Emma and Lexen sat close together. She picked at his food and he just shook his head with a brooding but indulgent expression on his face. Eventually he handed her his entire pasta, and she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. Callie and Daniel were a little different; they sat close as well, but each ate their own food quickly and without fuss. Maya and Chase were so sweet. She had her legs draped across his and he had an arm wrapped around her. They seemed far more interested in each other than food. Actually, all three couples were far more interested in each other. Food appeared to be a secondary need.

  I tried really hard not to look at Xander, even though there was a bit of a third-wheel feel in the group, and it would make sense for me to gravitate toward him. Thankfully, there were four people between us, so I didn’t even appear rude by not talking to him.

  Why do I keep thinking about Xander?

  I forced myself not to do anything except focus on each bite and enjoy the fact that I wasn’t alone. Outside of eating with Doc last night, I hadn’t had dinner with people for days, so this was a huge deal for me. I wouldn’t let any guy, even one who pretty much looked like a water god, ruin it for me.

  Chapter 6

  “Tell us about your life, Ava?” Emma asked, leaning over Lexen to see me. “Have you always lived in Hawaii?”

  I swallowed the last of my sandwich, pushing the plate to the side. “Yep.” I nodded. “Pretty much. For as long as I can remember, anyway.”

  “What happened with your parents?” Callie asked.

  I pursed my lips together, trying to think of a way to explain my family’s dynamics without making myself sound utterly pathetic. “They’re not terrible people, just … uninterested. In me, mostly. They’re scientists, all about the stars and way less about their kid here on Earth. Seemed the moment their responsibility to keep me alive was over, they decided to head out on a long holiday. Some sort of expedition cruise that will take them stargazing across the world. I have no idea if they’re planning on coming back or not. All they said was the full circumnavigation would take a year.”

  “How long have you been on your own?” Callie’s eyes were dark, her expression filled with understanding.

  “Since June, so almost six months.”

  It felt longer, and yet at the same time I could barely even remember my parents. They’d checked out long before they actually left me.

  “How did you survive on your own?”

  That question came from the end of the row. I turned toward him because I just had to look. No matter how much I tried to ignore Xander, something kept tugging me back in his direction. “They left me a little money, and I have two jobs. When they first took off I ended up living with a few friends, but then we had a falling out. So, from then I’ve just been sleeping on the beach. You know ... surfer life.”

  Homeless surfer life. His eyes narrowed on the “falling out” part and I prayed he wouldn’t ask me to elaborate. There was no way I wanted to go into the almost rape I’d experienced at the hands of one very drunk roommate. Joseph had given me the creeps from the start with the way he stared and brushed against me. At the time I decided it was fine to put up with, because at least I had a roof over my head. I just went out of my way to avoid him as much as I could. Unfortunately, one night he got wasted, and the lock on my door had not been enough to keep him out.

  I’d bailed that night and never looked back.

  “You’ll never be alone again,” Emma promised me, and with relief I turned away from the intense, probing gaze of the blond Daelighter at the end. “Despite everything Laous has taken from us, and the loss of ... Marsil….” She choked on his name before recovering. “There is one good thing to come from all of the bad. Us. The eight of us are a team.”

  Maya and Chase had touched briefly on Lexen’s brother, who had been killed in a battle with the resistance. The catch in their voices told me it was a very hard loss. It scared me to think that maybe one of the people in this room could be hurt while we tried to wrap this entire Laous mess up. I’d only known them for a short time, but already I knew I would mourn their loss.

  “I’m really overwhelmed,” I admitted, unable to keep the truth inside any longer. “Despite the Laous situation, meeting the rest of you feels like one of those ‘too good to be true’ situations, and that makes me want to keep pushing you all away. But ... I’m tired of always having to fight.”

  Letting them see me vulnerable was scary, but I felt like the only way to know their true intentions was to put myself out there fully and see what happened.

  Emma was draped completely across Lexen now. She crawled over his legs so she was close enough to hug me.

  “There was probably an easier way to do that,” Lexen said with a shake of his head.

  Emma tilted her head around to stick her tongue out at him, then shimmied back to her spot beside him. When she was there, she leaned out and said, “We have your back, Ava. Fighting is not so bad when we share the load.”

  Callie snorted from my other side. “Dibs not sharing my section with Emma. Girl can trip over literally anything.” She softened those words by blowing Emma an exaggerated kiss.

  Emma just laughed, seemingly completely unoffended. “So true. I feel sorry
for anyone who has to be next to my uncoordinated self, but I promise you won’t be alone. Or have any feeling in your toes.”

  “I’ll stand with you,” I said in a rush. “I can handle it.”

  Before she could reply, Lexen made an intense rumbling sound and then Emma was in his lap. He moved her so quickly I literally didn’t even see it happen. “I have enough coordination for the both of us,” he told her, and she practically melted into him. His eyes met mine then, and for the first time the endless darkness in them didn’t freak me out. “Em is right, you’re not hefting the load on your own anymore. No longer will any of us walk this road alone. The eight of us are meant to be together. We’re meant to rule Overworld together.”

  “You’re insane if you think our parents are going to let us unite the houses like that,” Xander said, his voice flat, but the mild undertones of disbelief were there. “Sitting together at lunch is one thing, but you’re talking about trying to overcome decades of hate and prejudice.”

  Daniel cut in. “No one said it would be easy, but there has been too much dissension in our world. The fact that Laous managed to recruit members of all four houses to his cause should tell us that we can all work together.”

  “It’d be nice if we all worked together for a cause to better our people,” Callie said. “Not one that could kill everyone.”

  From my position, Xander looked to be staring out into the wall opposite where we sat, his expression unreadable. He finally said, “I think that you’re all looking at this from a naïve, simple perspective. Hundreds of years of hatred and rivalry is not going to be undone just because the four of us are best friends. Or because the three of you have found your mates. But I will go with the majority … I’m willing to try.”

  He got up then and walked away, and I almost went after him. Mostly because I wanted to yell at him. I really loved the dynamics of this group. For the first time in months I didn’t feel alone, and he was making things awkward and uncomfortable—even if I did think that he made some decent points.

  “My mom always said that the first step to any change is simple … just take a step in the direction you want to go,” Maya said in her soft voice. “Be the change you want to see. We can talk about hoping and wishing for a difference all we want, but we’re the only ones in a position to actually do something about it. I think seeing the four overlords, major and minor, coming together, is that change that your people need to start seeing.”

  “Our people,” Chase reminded her.

  She shot him a rueful smile. “Right, still wrapping my head around that.”

  “I know I can get my parents in,” Lexen said.

  “Same,” Chase added.

  Daniel chuckled. “I’m already overlord major, so you know I’m in.”

  There was a beat of silence and we were all thinking the same thing. Xander said he would go with the majority, so hopefully he’d convince his parents as well.

  “We can’t do anything until we figure out the map and find the stone, though, right?” I asked.

  For some reason, knowing that this map was contained within me, I really needed to figure out how to do that part first.

  “Right,” Lexen said, getting to his feet with Emma somehow still in his arms. He dropped her gently down and they remained close together. “First thing is to figure out where the stone is and prevent a war and the possible destruction of two worlds. Then we can figure out the best way to move our world forward. As a team. The fates didn’t bring us all together for nothing.”

  Speaking of fate in a literal manner gave me chills. I wasn’t religious, but I believed in powers bigger than me. I communed with Mother Nature a lot. You couldn’t surf the massive swell, feel the power of the ocean, and not believe that there was a greater power out there.

  Everyone else got to their feet then and the three overlords quickly discussed their next steps.

  “We need to inform our people here about what is happening now,” Chase said. “I think most of them should return to Overworld. We’ll keep a few here for backup security.”

  “I agree,” Lexen said, then turned to me. “We’ll make sure your friend is safe.”

  I nodded gratefully. “Thank you. Doc is a good man who’s already been through a lot of tragedy. Nothing can happen to him.”

  “It won’t,” Emma promised. “The Daelighters are strong. They will protect him if needed.”

  Lexen nodded. “Okay, so it’s late afternoon now, and we have to be at the helicopter by 3:00 A.M. Might be best if everyone rests now.”

  I was tired, for no other reason than my entire world had been turned upside down today.

  “Aliens are real,” I murmured, chuckling to myself.

  “Insane, right?” Maya chuckled with me. “When my parents first told me, I seriously wondered if I’d heard them correctly or if maybe I was losing my mind.”

  Emma, who was midway through a yawn, rubbed at her eyes. “I was pretty sure it was a dream. That maybe I’d died in the fire with my parents and everything after that was some weird afterlife.” Lexen’s face went scary when she mentioned dying, and it was very clear he did not want to even think about that possibility.

  Callie broke the heavy air of Emma’s sad confession. “I’ve known since I was small. It was lucky my mom didn’t let me go anywhere except fight class, because it wasn’t until I was like ten that I learned that not everyone was aware of the aliens walking amongst us. I’d have probably started blabbing about it to anyone who would listen if I’d been in school.”

  I waved my hand at her. “All little kids believe in aliens and ghosts and monsters. No one would have thought anything of it.”

  She shook her head. “I find that so weird. It shows how little I know about kids and friendships. I never had any friends until I met Daniel. He’s my first best friend, and now there are all the rest of you guys as well. It’s helping me understand human nature a lot more.”

  She probably didn’t know then that a true friendship, unconditional in its love and loyalty, was one of the rarest things to find. And the most precious.

  My room consisted of a bed, two side tables, and two lamps. The lamps were nice, with pale blue covers and dangling gems all around, but otherwise there was nothing distinct or interesting to look at. I was supposed to be sleeping. The early morning start would be here before I knew it. But I couldn’t shut my mind off. No matter what I tried, there was no way to stop thinking about everything I’d learned today.

  Especially Xander.

  He was like me. I had finally found another person—alien—who felt the same way about the water that I did. His people actually lived under there. I expected envy to hit me hard, bitterness that I wasn’t Royale enough to be able to live under the water. But there was only overwhelming gratitude. Because of Daelighters, I got to be more than human, experience more than regular humans could dream of. I’d always loved my differences.

  The voice of hope inside of me would not shut up. You can fit in with them. Whatever had happened when the four of us secret keepers touched was cemented deep inside of me. The connection. The bond.

  I must have drifted off at some point, my sleep solid but short. The clock read 1:30 A.M. when I opened my eyes again, and I knew there was no way I was going back to sleep anytime soon.

  Since I needed to pee, I got out of bed and silently moved about the quiet house, using the closest bathroom. When I was done, I wandered into the “surveillance” area. No one else was awake yet, and I decided it would be easiest to just wait for everyone here. Settling back, I watched the different images flash by. It was hard to make things out clearly with the dark and grainy night vision of the cameras, but I just searched until I found one near the beach. Seeing my water would have to be enough for now.

  “What are you doing up?”

  I jumped at least a foot, landing rather ungracefully in the chair and spinning around to Xander. “Couldn’t sleep,” I said, pressing a hand to my chest. I could feel my hea
rt beating against it. “Why are you up?”

  I hadn’t turned any lights on, and it was only when he stepped closer and the illumination of the screens washed over him that I realized he was wearing nothing but a pair of board shorts. “Need to swim,” he said, sounding less like his usual belligerent self. “Too long out of the water and I start to go a little stir-crazy.”

  Oh yeah, I got that.

  He turned then, like he was just going to walk out, and I tried hard to ignore the bereft feeling inside of me.

  He paused, his voice gruff as he said, “Do you want to swim as well?”

  I was up and at his side so quickly that my head actually spun. “Yes, thank you,” I said somewhat breathlessly. “I need to swim.”

  His face was mysterious, shadows washing over the hard planes. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but it felt like there was less animosity between us. It was almost comfortable standing here with him. Not waiting for him to change his mind, I ditched the sweats he’d lent me, draping them over a nearby chair, and then clad just in the underwear and midriff shirt again, followed him out of the room and into the elevator.

  When we got outside, Xander took a few moments checking around the front of the house before he’d let me leave, and I waited, hopping from foot to foot. When we finally started to move, the low, warm breeze brought the scent of salt and water, and whatever tension I’d been holding inside eased as soon as my feet hit the sand.

  “We don’t have sand in Overworld,” Xander said quietly, both of us staring out across the dark water. “It’s one of my favorite human things.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. It was one of my favorite human things as well, which no doubt would only annoy him. I chose to stay silent. The water called us down, and I let out a low breath as it swirled around my feet. It was a few degrees cooler than the air; the perfect temperature in my opinion.

  “Stay close to me,” Xander said when I was shoulder deep. “Laous is still out there. It’s a huge risk having you exposed like this.”