Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy (4 page)

“Who wants me?”

Casey visibly tries to calm herself. There is
still terror in her eyes, but her body stops thrashing against her bonds enough
for her to focus and attempt giving me a clear answer.

“The spirits,” she says. Her body trembles
again, her focus slipping. “I…I was just trying to convince Nellie to break up
with her jerk boyfriend. I shouldn’t have tried to manipulate her with my
Spiritualism, but he’s really terrible to her.”

I grab her shoulder and shake her gently to get
her mind back on what I’m asking her. “What happened when you tried to tap your
Spiritualism?” I ask.

She shudders, both physically and spiritually as
the bonds yank against her once more. “As…as soon as I reached for it…something
grabbed me. Someone grabbed me.” Her body starts convulsing with sobs. “They
won’t let me go until you talk to them. They just keep screaming at me.”

She slaps her hands over her ears. I can’t hear
anything, but she folds under the pain of their attack. “I don’t want to be
here anymore. Let me go!” she begs her captors.

“Casey, calm down. Tell them I’m trying. Tell
them I’ll talk to them as soon as I can.”

“No, they say you have to do it now! They won’t
let me go. Please, Libby.” Her sobs are now shaking me, too. “Please, Libby,
make them let me go. I don’t want to be here anymore! Please, you have to talk
to them.”

“I can’t. I don’t know how yet. I can’t find
them. Tell them I’m trying,” I beg. Her hysteria is starting to make me panic.
What lengths will the Ciphers go to in order to get out of their prison? Please
don’t hurt
her,
I beg them, even though I know they
can’t hear me.

Suddenly Casey’s physical hands grip me so
tightly I know there will be bruises. “There isn’t enough time, Libby. You have
to talk to them now. They won’t be here later.”

 In my panic I jerk her body and spirit
alike. “Why won’t they be there? What’s going to happen to them?”

“I don’t know!” she wails.

“Ask them, Casey. I have to know what’s going to
happen. Ask them!”

“They won’t tell me! Something’s changing.
They’re scared. You have to save them,” she sobs feebly. Her voice weakens,
becoming almost nonexistent. “You have to save me. Make them let me go.”

The weakness of her voice terrifies me.
Desperation pushes me to act. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I can’t let the
Ciphers hurt her. Barreling forward, my spirit pours over Casey’s body. She
cries out in shock at my intrusion and tries to fight me off, but I smother her
effort quickly. I may not be able to do much with my Spiritualism yet, but the
sheer strength of my talent counts for something. Casey’s body slumps in my
arms as I wrap my spirit around hers, attempting to completely encase her and
cut off every other influence. I almost have her when I slam into a wall of
resistance.

The force of the impact rocks me, but I don’t
let go of her.

The Ciphers have no talents, or at least they
don’t yet, but when you cross into their domain they gain some kind of power
over you. I can’t even get to their prison, let alone fully understand it, but
I know enough about Spiritualism to know that you can only influence what’s
already there, not completely redefine part of a person’s spirit. Casey was
terrified, and they seemed to be using that to make it impossible for her to
fight for herself. Another thing I know a lot about is how to bury your talents
so deeply no one can recognize them. I’ve never tried doing that to another
person, but it’s my only hope.

Rough and fast, I start shoving Casey’s spirit
back into her body, smothering it with mine. The tether tying her to the spirit
world stretches taut, but holds. I shove harder, using every bit of my
spiritual strength to get her away from the Ciphers. When I finally get my
hands on them, they’re going to be sorry for ever doing this. Casey groans
against the force of my pushing, but she’s under too much stress to try and
stop me. One final shove more powerful than anything I have done before snaps
the line holding her.

She comes back to herself in a gasping rush. My
own spirit flies back into my body, leaving me disoriented and shaky. Casey
throwing herself into my arms doesn’t help.

“Thank you, Libby! Oh, thank you. Thank you!”

My senses and vision come back into focus. I
wrap my arms around her and laugh in relief. I can’t believe I did it. I was so
scared they were going to kill her. Pushing her back, I ask, “Are you all
right?”

She holds her hands up and watches them tremble
for a second before nodding her head. “Yeah, I think I’m okay. Thank you. I was
so scared.”

“I was, too,” I admit. “I’m just glad you’re
okay.”

Suddenly I become aware of Milo standing behind
me. I reach over my shoulder for his hand, and he grants my request
immediately. I know he can feel me shaking. His strength and love wash over me
and slowly start to calm me back down.

“Libby, what happened?” Casey asks quietly.

Her question brings the rest of my awareness
back into focus. The entire hallway is crowding around us, gawking in
fascination. “I don’t know,” I say, “but maybe for a while you should avoid
using your Spiritualism without a guide.
Just in case.”

She’s burning for answers, but the crowd
pressing in on us makes her nod.

Shaking herself, Casey starts to stand. She
steps on a few of her scattered belongings and stoops to gather them up. Casey
has never talked to me before this, but she was never outwardly vicious to me
either. Taking a chance, I move as if to help her gather her things and grab
her cell phone off the floor. She notices what I’m doing and watches from the
corner of her eye as my Speed-enhanced fingers program my number into her phone
in a blur nobody else will even notice. Her nod is almost imperceptible. I hand
her back her phone and move to stand up.

The entire crowd of students takes an
involuntary step away. Casey’s pack of friends moves away from her as if she’s
just contracted leprosy. I
sigh,
suddenly very glad
she has my phone number. She may need some new friends after this. But at least
she isn’t dead. I silently wonder whether she’ll have as many mixed feelings
about that as I often do.

The only one who doesn’t shy away is Jen. I
hadn’t noticed her there before, but the familiar little notepad and pencil in
her hand says she just caught every detail of what happened.
Every
visible detail anyway.
Thank goodness she doesn’t have Spiritualism or
my life would have just become a lot more complicated. The scowl on her face
says she’s probably thinking the same thing.

I stand up the rest of the way—putting Jen out
of my mind for now—and turn to find the comfort of Milo’s arms. The sight of
Braden standing twenty feet down the hall, out of Milo’s line of sight, traps
me with indecision. I should just ignore him, pretend he doesn’t exist. But I’m
about to walk away from the girl I just saved and leave her to a mob of
fear-crazed teenagers. Locking gazes with Braden, I ever-so-slightly tilt my
head toward Casey. My secret request is answered by his serious nod. Always
more observant than Lance ever was, Milo notices my distracted nature and turns
to see what I’m looking at.

 Braden is already gone.

I step away from the crowd, then, and silently
watch Casey get
up unassisted. If the way the others are
treating her is affecting her in any way, she doesn’t let it show. She simply
finishes up at her locker like nothing has happened and then walks away.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t get more than five steps down the hall before Ms.
Sanchez approaches her. I can only pray that Casey has enough sense not to give
our Spiritualism teacher the details of what just happened. It’s bad enough
that Casey knows the Ciphers are trying to contact me. I certainly don’t need
anyone else knowing, or even worse, figuring out why they want to talk to me in
the first place.

Outside of my circle of trusted friends, the
only ones who know the truth about the Ciphers are the Guardians and Seekers.
And not even all of them know. Braden certainly doesn’t seem to understand
everything going on. Of course, he could be putting on an act for my benefit, a
lure to get me to trust him, but when he came to see me after we clashed at the
theater the honesty behind his concern for me was too powerful to deny. I push
Braden out of my mind and watch Ms. Sanchez question Casey. The bell rings, but
I keep watching until Casey makes enough excuses to slip away down the hall.

Ms. Sanchez turns her missile-like glare on me,
facing me for the first time in months. The hateful, unrelenting quality of her
expression makes me wish she had kept up her practice of ignoring I exist. She
knows something of what happened just now. That much spiritual energy couldn’t
possibly be splashed all over the school without her noticing. And guessing at
her unpleasant aura, Casey didn’t give her the information she wanted. Good
girl. But I have the feeling Spiritualism class is not going to be a pleasant
experience tomorrow. She stamps away determinedly.

“You okay?” Milo asks as he starts pulling me
down the hall.

“Yeah.”

It’s an automatic response, but a second later I
catch myself and stop. Milo pulls up next to me and waits.

“No, actually, I’m not okay. I was right about
the Ciphers. The Guardians are going to kill them all.”

Chapter 4

Holding Out

Focusing has become a lost art for me. At least
at school it has. It was a problem before, but after what I just went through
with Casey, I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything since yanking her
back to the physical world. My last few classes have been a blur of mumbling.
My eyes watch the clock hands creep around the face like inchworms, one tiny,
lurching step at a time.

I only have one more class to go. When the bell
finally cuts my teacher off, I force myself to take a deep breath. I let the
desks around me clear out before I gather my own belongings. I try to avoid
bumping into people at all costs. So far, I only get menacing glares or pale
expressions, but I know that if I knock into the wrong person I’ll be accused
of purposely trying to injure someone. All I need is one drama queen or vicious
student to put my tenuous deal with President Howe back on the chopping block.

When I exit the classroom, Lance falls in next
to me. I look over at him with a questioning glance. He doesn’t notice. “What’s
going on?” I ask. The hallway is noisy, and I’m sure I spoke loud enough to be
heard, but he doesn’t answer.

We’re headed in the same direction, but we don’t
usually walk together. Lance and Milo both have their last classes on the
opposite side of campus from me. Lance is rarely ever this serious. A hint of
worry creeps across my skin, leaving goose bumps in its wake.

“Hey, is something wrong?” I ask Lance as he
follows me toward my locker. Everyone else in the hall is rushing to go home.
I’m the only one with one more class. Mr. Walters’ Destroyer training class in
always interesting, but I wish I were getting out of here, too. With Lance
acting weird, I’m not as interested in being on time for class as usual.

When Lance doesn’t respond to my question this
time either, I nudge him with my elbow.

“What?”

“Why are you brooding?” I ask. “You’re freaking
me out. Is something wrong?”

He frowns. “Something … odd happened in my last
class.”

“It’s that kind of day.” Please let this be odd
like a girl asked him out. That hasn’t happened since he threw in with me. I’m
about to ask him to elaborate, but I don’t get a chance. As soon as my locker
comes in sight Lance pushes in front of me and blocks it from view.

Odd.
That word doesn’t
adequately describe this day. I don’t think any word can.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking your locker.”

“What? Why?” My brain scrambles to remember if
there’s anything inside that I would rather he didn’t see. I try pushing him
away, but he isn’t budging. “Why are you screwing with my locker?
Afraid someone booby-trapped it?”

He pauses in his work and turns to look at me.
“Something
like
that.”

Oh. So it was that kind of odd. “What happened?”

“I was told that you should be sure to check
your locker.”

“By who?”

Lance shrugs. “Some kid ran into me after my
Western
Civ
class. I don’t know who he was.
Just mumbled it as he passed by me.”

“Great.” I stare at the locker, Lance’s hand on
the combination lock. “You’re not actually going to open it, are you?”

He hesitates. “Well, what else am I supposed to
do?”

“Call…” I cut myself off before making a huge
blunder. Calling the school guardian is not going to work. I’d rather open the
locker myself. “Um, let me open it. I can probably withstand something
unexpected better than you can.”

“No,” he says shaking his head. “I can’t.”

“Come on, get out of the way. My strength is
already double yours. If I get hurt I’ll heal twice as fast. I doubt it’s
anything too serious. The kids at this school aren’t smart enough to create
anything that’s actually deadly.” I try to push him away. He surprises me by
shoving me back.

“No, Libby, you don’t get it. I
can’t
let
you near your locker.”

Lance gestures at the Guardian emblem on his
blade. Ah, he
literally
can’t let me open the locker. His Oath to
protect me won’t let him put me in danger. It will actually cause him horrible
pain to let me approach my locker.

“Is that the only reason you won’t let me try to
open the locker?”