Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy (44 page)

Swiping his hand across his face, he tries to
dry his tears. “Libby, I told you about how I felt your presence when you were
born. You have idea how shocking that was for me. I followed the pull blindly.
I had to. I was bound to my mission. You asked me once about Howe showing up so
soon after your Inquest. I was the one who alerted him. I knew the Destroyer
would be revealed, even though I still didn’t know your identity. But I hadn’t
been idle since being released by the Guardians.
Quite the
opposite, actually.
I found every scrap of information I could on you.
And what I found did little to convince me that the Guardians were right.

“Then I started searching for something else, a
way to release me from my promise. I didn’t know who you were, yet, or what
exactly I was trying to get away from, but I knew I couldn’t let the Guardians
have you. A few months after feeling your presence, Helen surprised me with
amazing news. I was going to be a grandfather. By that time I knew the
Guardians were wrong about you. I was terrified that completing my mission
would put Helen and the baby in danger. I pressured every resource I had to
help me over the years, especially after meeting you, but I ended up alerting
the Guardians to what I was after.

“But like last time, instead of coming after me,
they took what they knew would really hurt me.”

His desperation hits me so profoundly, I feel
trapped by it.

“Libby,” he says, “the Guardians have Helen.
They took her husband and my granddaughter Hope, too. They’ve been holding them
since the night after Braden tried to arrest Milo at the theater. I tried to
get them back, but they made me promise to finish the mission or I would watch
them die. That’s why I was so scared when I thought you had figured out a way
to break Guardian promises. I couldn’t bear to see you fail, Libby. You have to
become what you were meant to be, but if you had released me from my promise I
was scared I wouldn’t follow through and my family would be killed. You may
hate me for making the choice, but I can’t say I regret it. They are everything
to me. I’m giving up my life to protect them and to warn you.

“When we spoke, when we played twenty questions,
there was so much more I wanted to tell you. I can’t believe how much I know
that I can’t share with you. Go to my house. There’s a box labeled
Libby
Sparks
in my den. It has all the information I was able to write down. Use
it in any way you can.”

Behind him, Braden starts to stir. He looks back
at him with a flash of panic in his eyes. He knows time is running out. He
turns back to the camera, the urgency in his stance making him tremble.

“Libby, if you were to ask me whether or not there
was more to the prophecy, I would say I’m very happy. I can’t tell you any more
than that, but I’m not the only person who knows. Find one of my brothers.
Learn
my
deadly secrets. What you don’t know is vital, Libby, but don’t
forget about the last stanza. It has more than one meaning. This isn’t the
first time you’ve been betrayed.

“If you asked me whether the Guardians were
capable of creating something worse than Sihirs out of Ciphers, I would tell
you I was ecstatic. Do you understand me?”

Mr. Walters’ anxious fingers are tap-dancing on
the laptop to the point of making the screen bounce back and forth. Braden
shifts behind him, a sign that his focus is starting to weaken.

“I’m hoping the Ciphers will all make it out,
but it’s a slim chance the ones here in Albuquerque are going to escape. I gave
the Guardians as little information as I could manage given my promise, but I’m
afraid it will be enough for them to realize what’s happening in time. If they
are captured—and if I know Blackwood—he’ll hold them at ransom and use Braden
against you. He wants you to surrender to him. Whatever you do, do not go after
Braden, and do not give yourself up. I mean it, Libby. Stay as far away from
the Guardians as possible! You have to survive, or nobody else will.”

Pounding on the door makes Mr. Walters flinch.
The last image I have of him is his frenzied face as he turns away to betray
everything I have worked for, everything I love.

Chapter 3
4

When

I sit on the jet, staring at the spot where I
sat with Braden so long ago, but now unable to touch it. My entire body is numb
except for the burning anger deep inside of me. I don’t know if it makes any
sense, but I’m not mad at Mr. Walters. I hate that he did it. I hate even more
that he was ever put in the position where he had to make the choice. But I
understand the choices he made, and I honestly can’t say I would have chosen
any differently. Not everyone knows the agony of losing someone you love. It
changes you forever. It builds a promise deep inside of you that you will never
let it happen again.

Lance slides in next to me and immediately wraps
his arm around my shoulder. He’s trying to help, but right now all I can think
of is how much I want it to be Braden’s arm around me instead. My stiff body
keeps him at a distance.

“The captain said we’ll land in Victoria in
seven hours,” Lance says.

I just nod. I don’t want to go to Canada right
now. I want to be back in Albuquerque, closer to getting Braden back. Lance and
Milo decided I couldn’t stay. And Milo refused to come with me. The idea of
being stuck on a plane with me for hours made him cringe. He couldn’t stand the
thought. That is how much he hates me right now. I don’t blame him. I hate
myself just as much. I managed to hurt the man I love so badly he can’t stand
the sight of me. And if that wasn’t enough, I know I’m in love with Braden. Yet
because of me, he is either about to die right now or is being tortured to the
point of breaking. Maybe I was never meant to be loved by anyone.

I try desperately to think of something else,
but can’t quite manage it. My mind goes back to why I am on this plane. Lance
and Milo were both sure I was going to run to the Guardian compound the second
they turned their backs on me.
Smart boys.
So Lance is
babysitting me while Milo and Dean work on figuring out how to rescue the
Ciphers. I could have stayed. Even with all three of them trying to stop me, I
still could have beaten them. But even I have to admit that I need some time to
think. Checking in on the closest group of Ciphers will give me that time.

Part of me knows I should be much more concerned
about making sure the other Ciphers who did escape are all fine and where
they’re supposed to be. They’re my army after all, my only chance at success,
but until I can figure out what Mr. Walters was talking about when he said
there is more to the prophecy, and that the Guardians can create something
worse than Sihirs, I don’t even know what to do with the Ciphers. I’ll get them
started on their training, but I can’t move forward until I have a plan. And I
honestly can’t even focus enough to think about making one until I have Braden
back.

“Milo is going to go to Mr. Walters’ house to
find that box he mentioned,” Lance says. “He’ll call as soon as he finds
something.”

I nod again. He may find the box, but I doubt
he’ll find anything useful, not until we decode everything. Mr. Walters’ notes
were always written in a code only he knew the key to. I’m sure he had the
foresight to leave us the key, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy
work.

“Do you think what Mr. Walters did even
worked
?” Lance asks.

“What do you mean?” I ask him, speaking for the
first time since boarding the plane.

“He gave us up to the Guardians to save his family.”
Lance’s expression grows even more serious. I miss his smile. Lance looks over
at me and asks the question he really wants to know the answer to. “Do you
think Blackwood killed his family? I mean, as soon as he had what he wanted
from him, why would he keep them alive?”

I have thought about them almost as much as
Braden. “I hope they’re still alive, Lance. I hope there’s enough humanity left
in Blackwood that he left them alone.”

“He didn’t let them go, though, even if he
didn’t kill them.”

‘No,” I agree. “No, they’re still there inside
the compound somewhere.”

“They don’t deserve that,” Lance says.

“None of us deserve any of this, Lance, but that
doesn’t stop it from happening.” He’s the one who likes to remind me about how
life isn’t fair. “But it’s not going to stay that way. We can’t let his family
suffer there. We’ll get them out, too.”

Lance nods slowly. Of course we’re planning on
rescuing the Ciphers for the second time, but he knows as well as I do that
Braden is in the same Guardian compound. He doesn’t bring it up. I think he’s
trying his hardest to make me forget Braden even exists. As if simply not
mentioning his name will disintegrate the constant pull I feel toward him, or
will bury my fear and my guilt for letting this happen to him in the first
place.

“We’ll have to find out where they’re keeping
everyone. The schematics Br … uh, the schematics we have aren’t going to tell
us where to find the Ciphers or Mr. Walters’ family. Nothing was labeled so
plainly. We need someone who can tell us where to look,” Lance says.

“We need Braden.”

Lance’s arm tightens around me. “Well, we don’t
have him.” The coldness in his voice falters more, the longer he has to think
about Braden being tortured by his own brothers. Milo may never have really
warmed up to Braden, but Lance and he became friends over the summer. “We have
to find someone else,” he says more softly.

“We will.” I need another Guardian, no, a Seeker
this time, for more than just information about where the Guardians are holding
everyone. Mr. Walters said there is more to the prophecy, and the only way I’m
going to find out what else I’m missing is by pulling it out of one of his
brothers. I’m going to enjoy doing it, too.

Lance’s body softens next to mine. He must be
watching my emotions very carefully right now. He’s worried about me. His
sudden warmth actually manages to reach me and I lean against him. “You know,”
he says, “maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t let Braden give you his Oath.”

“What?”

“They want to use Braden against you, right?”

I nod, not sure where he’s going with this.

“Well, if they had taken him and tried to force
an Oath on him to kill you and found out he’d already given you his Oath, what
use would he be to them? If they couldn’t have used him, they would have just
killed him. He’s alive right now because he’s still useful.” His mouth turns
down in a frown. “I really don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad
thing.”

I do. “It’s a good thing, Lance. It means
there’s a chance of getting him back.”

“But if you get him back, he’s going to try to
kill you.”

It’s twisted and bizarre, but I laugh. “Well, it
wouldn’t be the first time a guy I was in
love
with
tried to kill me, now would it?”

Only Lance could ever laugh with me about
something like that. He knows I’ve forgiven him. Still, it’s not a very deep
laugh. “Libby, are you really in love with him?” Lance asks.

I was falling before all this happened, and
maybe it’s the need to save his life that has pushed me over the edge, but I
can’t deny it anymore. “Yes.”

Lance frowns. “What about Milo?”

“I still love him,” I say. My heart twists in on
itself every time I think of Milo. “I never wanted to give him up, but I don’t
think that’s even my choice anymore. Milo hates me. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive
me.”

“No, he doesn’t hate you,” Lance argues. “He’s
just angry. Eventually he’ll see that most of what you did was only you trying
to protect him.”

“Only most of what I did?”

Lance snorts and rolls his eyes. “You know I
felt it every time you were with him or kissed him. That day you spent with him
in the Bosque, I could barely even focus on the baseball game or my brother. It
was great to know you were so happy, but it was very distracting. Nothing about
that day was for Milo.”

The guilt I have been battling since that day
assaults me worse than ever before. It was my choice to spend the day with
Braden. I tell myself I should banish every thought of it from my mind, but
those sweet memories may be the last I have of him. I can’t force myself not to
look back on them with pleasure.

The silence in the jet seems to layer itself
around us. I feel utterly buried by it when Lance finally speaks again.

“I’ll help you get him back,” he says.

I turn and stare at him. “What?”

“You’re going after him, aren’t you? I know you
too well. You’re not going to let him suffer because of something you think you
did. You’ll try to rescue him, and there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do
to stop you. So, I might as well help you and attempt to keep you from
seriously injuring or killing yourself in the process.”

“Just like when we were little,” I say softly.
That was always his job. When he and I would go outside to play my dad would
always tell Lance to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. Given how many times I
ended up in the emergency room, some people might say Lance didn’t do a very
good job. Just like now, Lance always did his best to protect me. The problem
always was
,
he never could talk me out of trying
something.

Lance pulls me back under his arm, and asks,
“When?”

I take a deep breath knowing he isn’t going to
like this, but it’s really the only way.

“Tomorrow, when I turn myself
over to the Guardians.”

End of Book Two

###

Keep reading for a sneak peek of Book Three of The Destroyer
Trilogy