The Twelfth Keeper Boxed Set: Books 1-3

by Belle Malory

  As soon as the doughy bitter piece of waffle hit her tongue, Kennedy thought about taking that back. Clearly apology waffles didn’t always taste good. She chewed slowly, feeling each grainy bite dissolve against her tongue.

  She smiled as he watched her, forcing the bite down. As soon as he turned to clean up, she grimaced. Ugh, this was worse than his coffee. She looked around at the ground, wishing she had a dog she could toss the plate to.

  “I also wanted to talk to you about what happened before you left.” Phoenix moved around the counter, standing across from her. He looked like he wanted to come closer, but forced himself to stop.

  Was he referring to when he told her she loved him?

  Okay, maybe she had freaked out. She rushed off without saying anything. But she still would’ve gone to find Nika either way.

  “What if we skipped that conversation?” she asked, hopeful.

  “I need to know where I stand with you,” he said, inching closer. He swiveled her chair around, forcing her to face him. “I need to know if I should keep fighting…or if I should let you go.”

  His intense black eyes held hers, and then his gaze dropped to her lips. Kennedy swallowed, watching him stare at her as if he wanted to devour her. She wanted him to. She wanted to throw herself in his arms and never let go. God, he had to be the only guy in the world who could make waffle batter look this sexy.

  “Tell me not to give up, Kennedy,” he pleaded.

  An image of the dream she had of the two of them drowning in the Rec Center popped into her head. What if that was their future? What if it were better to cut things off now?

  No, she didn’t want to believe that. Even if she did believe it, she’d rather savor every second she had left with Phoenix than to throw them all away. “I don’t want you to give up.”

  It came out sounding more like an admission to herself than to him.

  Phoenix took her face in his hands, letting out a long breath. “Thank God,” he sighed. “I didn’t want to—but I would’ve. After what happened, I would’ve done it, if that’s what you wanted. But I’m so bloody glad you don’t. I feel like I can breathe again.”

  Kennedy couldn’t help but smile. Seeing how much she affected him was extremely gratifying, because he affected her just as much.

  “We should get going,” she said, eyeing the time on his brace.

  He nodded, dropping his hands. “I need to get cleaned up.”

  “Yeah, you do.” She reached up and wiped a clump of batter from his temple, showing it to him.

  He grinned. “Matilda’s right. We should leave this stuff to her.”

  “Don’t ever let her hear you say such things.” Kennedy scowled. “She would throw that in my face every chance she got.”

  ~ ~

  Kennedy had seen pictures of Maxwell Ryder, but up close he wasn’t what she imagined. Evil was supposed to radiate from him like the dark character in a scary movie, striking fear in all of their hearts with one cold look.

  This was the man who murdered Nika’s family, after all.

  Obviously she had an overactive imagination. Maxwell Ryder looked like your average guy, nothing remotely terror-inducing about him. The resemblance to Oz was in the eyes. They both had the same pale shade of green, although Oz’s seemed keener somehow. But that’s where the resemblance stopped. Whereas Oz was lean, his dad was beefy. Oz was impeccably tailored, but his dad dressed casually in a baseball shirt and loose jeans. Apparently the billionaire didn’t care about appearances.

  “What do you think?” Kennedy asked Phoenix.

  They both stared through the two-way mirror, watching closely as Vickard grilled Ryder about his emails to Plaffle.

  “Don’t know yet.” Phoenix crossed his arms over his chest. He was listening and watching just as closely as she was. “There’s something off about him though.”

  “I agree.”

  There was something…different about him. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

  Phoenix leaned against the frame of the mirror, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he continued to study Ryder. “By the way, all of the Peri-Guard units have confirmed their occupancy but one.”

  Kennedy held her breath for a moment, feeling that news sink into her like poison. She had really hoped Ryder’s plans ended when the commissioner was imprisoned.

  “We’re still not one hundred percent sure.” Phoenix glanced her way for a second before turning back to Ryder. “Tech is busy analyzing the video feed.”

  “If it turns out to be a recording, what happens next?”

  “We send half of the nearest station’s unit to cover until we can ship out another.”

  Meanwhile, they’d be walking around on eggshells, not knowing whether a Sae-yer ship slipped past undetected.

  She couldn’t think about that right now, or it would drive her crazy. She focused in on Ryder again. Vickard had been with him a while, and he was starting to get more aggressive. “Look Ryder, let’s stop playing games. You’re facing treason charges, which go beyond prison time. We’re talking about a death sentence here.”

  The two of them sat face-to-face staring at each other from across a small metal table covered with digital copies of the emails Ryder sent. A subtle smirk crossed Ryder’s face, as if he knew something Vickard didn’t.

  “I would advise you to cooperate,” Vickard warned.

  “Why’s that, General?”

  Ryder pronounced every syllable of the word general, his voice slightly condescending. He sat back in his chair and propped his feet out in front of him, looking as if he was waiting to hear the punch line of a joke.

  “Because it’s your only bargaining chip,” Vickard said in a low voice. He kept a stern face, not batting an eye. “You can’t buy your way out of this, Ryder.”

  The smirk grew a little bigger.

  “My, my, General. Thank you for clarifying that.”

  “Tell me why you wanted to clear a Peri-Guard unit.”

  Ryder didn’t respond to that question. Instead he looked around the small room, appearing bored. “Don’t I get a lawyer and a phone call?”

  Vickard simply answered, “In your dreams.”

  Ryder slid his finger over one of the emails, rotating the screen. “I don’t recall sending any of these.”

  Vickard slammed his fists down on the table, the noise echoing throughout the room. “There is no protocol here, Ryder. If I have to beat the truth out of you, so help me God, I’ll do it.”

  Kennedy flinched. She wasn’t even in the same room with them and her heart was racing. Ryder, on the other hand, looked completely unruffled. If anything, he seemed more amused by Vickard’s outburst.

  What was with this guy? How could a man responsible for such heinous crimes act so calm?

  As if reading her thoughts, Phoenix said, “He could be a sociopath.”

  Kennedy nodded, thinking that was a very real possibility. “It’s like he’s wearing a façade. He’s hiding something.” She shook her head, irritated that she couldn’t figure him out. “Do sociopaths have motives?”

  “Yes,” Phoenix said. “They’ll do whatever they need to, be whoever they need to in order to fulfill their goals.”

  If that were true, Ryder was playing a part. She suspected his position and wealth had given him whatever he desired over the years. Maybe he wanted more—something on a grander scale.

  “What if,” she swallowed, “our billionaire sociopath wants to destroy the whole world?”

  He didn’t say anything, but she knew what he was thinking. A sociopath might start by clearing their first line of defense. Before Earth came Olympus. Before Olympus, came the Peri-Guard.

  Kennedy looked out through the window again, narrowing her eyes on Ryder.

  Everything about him screamed, I know something you don’t know.

  Her initial judgment of him was wrong.

  Ryder was terrifying.

  Thirty

  Kennedy looked herse
lf over in the mirror, feeling like a princess in a dark fairytale. Black satin clung to her body in a dress that shimmered as she moved. She hadn’t even stolen this one. It had been neatly tucked in the back of her suitcase along with a note.

  Give it back when you’re done. That’s how borrowing works.

  Love, Rea

  P.S. It should look awesome on you : )

  She sighed at her reflection. Enjoying this felt wrong.

  “Stop with the sighs,” Lexie said, who was bent over by the bedroom window, buckling the straps on her shoes. “The soldiers deserve to have this night. Everyone should be there to support them.”

  Struggling with the straps, Lexie lost her balance and fell over. “Great Black Hole,” she groaned. “I knew I should’ve worn flats.”

  Kennedy bit back a smile as she watched Lexie drowning in the huge skirt of her hot pink gown. Getting all dolled up wasn’t something they did often.

  Alanna chuckled from the other side of Kennedy’s bedroom, the sound of it echoing the tings and lyrical clicks of her Caribbean accent. “I agree with Lexie,” she said, and smacked her lips after she applied a shimmery gloss. “We can’t be playin’ superheroes every second of every day. We need to take the time to enjoy ourselves too.”

  They had a point.

  Living in the moment was important while it lasted. Still…it was a shame they weren’t going to this ball under better circumstances. If the situation weren’t so precarious, her heart would have been in it.

  Lexie held an eye-dazzler up to her eyes. “What do you girls think—warm amber or sky blue?”

  Alanna scrunched her lips to the side, thinking. “Keep them green, girl.”

  Kennedy faced her reflection again, feeling her heart tighten a little at the sight of herself. She looked so feminine and so demure tonight—a huge contrast against the warrior she’d been working so hard to become. Breaking away from that person was hard to do without feeling guilty. “I know the troops deserve this ball, but shouldn’t we be doing something?”

  “We’ve taken every precaution we can,” Lexie answered. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

  “What about evacuating the citizens?”

  Lexie shook her head. “Come on, Kenn. Millions of people live here. Moving them all out would be a huge crisis, one that we can’t afford to take until we know for a fact there is an imminent threat.”

  They couldn’t afford not to move them out either. If Sae-yers slipped past that Peri-Guard post, they’d come to Olympus first. They said as much within the context of their threat.

  Alanna crossed the bedroom, standing next to Kennedy. “We can handle dem Slayers, Kennedy. You have to have more confidence.”

  Those words struck a cord in her. Where was her confidence these days? Sae-yers may have destroyed most of China, but that was before anyone knew what they were. And it was way before any of the keepers fully realized their potential.

  Reagan’s words about feeling the fun echoed inside her head. She was going to a ball, for crying out loud. Balls were supposed to be fun.

  Lexie stood up in a pair of stilettos that matched her dress. “Come on, Kenn. We’ll drink some champagne, dance with hot soldiers, and we’ll save the keeper stuff for tomorrow.”

  “Sounds like a good plan.”

  Heading out, she resolved to make this night about having fun. The three of them threaded through the passageways together, then used their spheres to get out of Section 9.

  Phoenix was waiting for her outside the entrance to the ballroom. Seeing him in his black tuxedo with his hair combed back caused her heart to speed up. The lines in his face softened when he saw her, making him look incredibly handsome.

  “You clean up real nice,” she said as he approached.

  “So do you.” He grinned.

  Music streamed in from the doorway. “Planning on saving me the first dance?”

  “Maybe.” She winked.

  Inside there were hundreds of people. Most of the men wore either tuxes or were in mess dress. The walls had been programmed to look like the top of a New York rooftop surrounded by towering skyscrapers. Servers walked around with trays of champagne and hors d’oeuvres. The dance floor was packed with people laughing and dancing and talking and…having a good time.

  It felt nice just being there.

  DOE employees and military men were usually the straight-laced kind. Seeing them like this, so happy and relaxed, made her feel like anything was possible.

  Slow music streamed from the speakers and Phoenix grabbed her hand. He pulled her towards the dance floor, wrapping an arm around her waist.

  For a moment, he held her like that, without speaking. They just danced. There was so much Kennedy wanted to say, needed to say, but it felt like her voice had been shut off. So she just let it be.

  After a while of dancing, Phoenix said, “I feel like there’s an ocean between us.”

  She looked up, seeing the uncertainty in his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  His eyes shifted over the room, staring out into the crowd. “Are we…okay?”

  No question could be more loaded than that one. If they weren’t, she certainly hoped they were on the way to being okay. She wasn’t giving him up again. Ever.

  “Everything I thought mattered was so insignificant. You were right, Phoenix. I do love you.” She shrugged, giving him a small smile. “There’s nothing that can outweigh that.”

  His arms tightened around her waist. “God, you don’t know how amazing it is to hear you say that.”

  Good thing he was holding her up. It had taken a lot of courage to tell him how she felt, and at the rate her heart was beating, she might’ve fallen over. “You could say it back, you know.”

  She meant to tease him, but he didn’t take it that way. Instead, he turned fiercely serious. “I love you, too, Kennedy.”

  Hearing him say it out loud was something altogether different.

  The dream of them drowning filled her mind. Knowing they may not have forever terrified her, but at the same time, it was nice to know they had this moment. They had right now. She rested her head against his shoulder. They danced slowly. She enjoyed every second of it. The song seemed to end too soon, changing into one with a faster beat.

  “There you are, Miss Mitchell. I need to speak with you.”

  Kennedy craned her head around to see Professor Mason standing behind them. “Is everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine, kiddo. I just wanted to ask you a few questions about Russia.”

  Phoenix leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Come find me later.”

  She nodded and reluctantly slipped out of his hold.

  A server came around with punch. Professor Mason stopped him, grabbed two glasses and handed her one of them. “Let’s take a walk,” he said, leading her away from the crowd. “First off, I didn’t find out about Jorgensen going after you until he’d already assembled one of Vickard’s teams.”

  “It’s okay,” she assured him. “I knew it was Phoenix’s fault. Besides, we got what we needed…but it would’ve been nice to have a little extra time to work on Nika. Forcing her to come back only managed to piss her off.”

  She’d tried and tried convincing Nika to come tonight, but the girl stubbornly refused to leave her apartment. “I’m not celebrating anything with those fascist pigs,” she declared.

  Aside from knowing they brought Ryder in, this was something she may never get over. DOE had to learn they couldn’t bend people to their will.

  Mason downed his punch and set the empty glass on the nearest table. “I wish you could’ve had that time. Truth is, I think Dominika needed it.”

  “About that,” she said. “I know I’m not a professional, but I don’t think Nika has any mental illness. Dr. Sigly may be using that excuse to DOE’s advantage.”

  “Still distrustful of the old doctor, eh?”

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  Mason grinned, stroking his beard. “She’s cer
tainly got a Mr. Hyde in her, doesn’t she?”

  Kennedy stared at him pointedly. None of this was funny.

  Mason cleared his throat once. “I know how you feel about her, kiddo. Trust me, I feel the same way. But Dominika has had second and even third opinions. Dr. Sigly wasn’t the only doctor to evaluate her.”

  Well, damn. She’d really wanted to pin this on Sigly. Still, it was frustrating. Kennedy would never believe Nika’s problems were so large that she was incapable of caring for herself.

  “If it makes you feel better, I’ll look into it,” Mason said.

  She nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Anyway, I have another reason for wanting to speak with you.”

  Kennedy raised a brow, seeing an excited gleam in Mason’s eyes. Whatever this was about, he definitely had her attention.

  “We’ve found a planet for you,” he said. “It’s not far, only about six months travel. The whole star system is made up of different water worlds.”

  His words caused her feet to stop moving. “You want to send me away?”

  “To train, kiddo.” He looked at her strangely. “This is an amazing opportunity for you. The planet is made up of humanoids. These people have powers like yours, but greater. We’ve been in contact with a few of their leaders, and they’ve agreed to let you visit. They’ve agreed to help train you.”

  Kennedy swallowed, feeling a buzz grow in her ears. Listening to Professor Mason tell her this made her want to cover them and scream hysterically. How could she leave?

  The blonde of Phoenix’s hair caught her attention from across the room. He was laughing over something Davaris had said, his face lit up.

  She couldn’t leave him. Not now. Not when two minutes ago he’d told her he loved her.

  Professor Mason saw where her gaze had traveled, and he connected the dots. “I see,” he said, sighing. “Tell me, Miss Mitchell. Did you know Jorgensen dropped out of a mission he’d been planning?”

  “Yes.”

  Shame washed over her. He’d dropped out because of her, and Mason knew it. Even though she felt guilty, she couldn’t say she wasn’t relieved to know he wouldn’t be going.