Shattered Secrets (Book of Red #1) (31 page)

The trees thinned out, allowing the sun to beat down on us in all its sizzling glory. Sticky sweat made my hair cling to my neck and back and shoulders; if I’d been fully dressed—not in the tank and shorts I’d slept in—the heat would have been even more miserable.

“Come on. We’re almost there.”

“How do you know where he is?” I asked.

The corners of her mouth twitched as if she wanted to smile, but then she shook her head, and her mouth fell into a grim line. “On the rare occasions our parents actually cared about us on vacation and wouldn’t let us hang out past our mostly non-existent curfew, Will would go out on the boat, and I’d claim to come here to go for a walk.” Megan put her fingers to her lips, then ran a few steps ahead. “I hear our ride.”

Picking up our pace, we broke through the last of the thick mangroves. A huge white yacht sat at the end of the boardwalk, its motor purring. Will stood on the dock beside it, hands crossed in front of him, smile on his face.

Megan climbed over the railing—this dock clearly wasn’t intended for public boating—and onto the sleek decking with polished wood floors gleaming in the sunlight. “Get us out of here.”

Will offered his hand, and beside me, I noticed Derick’s eyes narrow, the puffy skin around them twitching. He was jealous; this is what bothered him at Will’s house last night, why Derick tensed every time our ally checked to make sure I was okay, and why he gripped the steering wheel like he wanted to break it in half when Megan mentioned Will loved me. In all our years of friendship, I’d never seen Derick act this way toward another guy, but then again, we weren’t always boyfriend and girlfriend—or on the run. We were just friends who merely wanted more without saying as much.

But didn’t he trust me?

I wanted to slap myself. With the way I’d acted recently, why would he? He knew as well as I did that I kept something from him.

Ignoring Will’s outstretched hand, I clutched 
History of Kalós
close and climbed onto the gigantic vessel that would take us God knows where, then followed Megan into a living room complete with a sectional sofa facing a big screen TV on the wall. She plopped onto the couch, tucked one leg under her, and started crying.

Red, wet face and snotty sniffles kind of crying.

“Hey. You’re gonna be okay.” The words sounded fake and foreign tumbling from my lips, but she sniffled and looked up anyway.

“You don’t know that. You can’t even mean it. And why aren’t you crying? Those guys beat up Derick and
shot
at us.”

“She’s not crying because it’s not her nature,” Derick said, leaning against the archway between the deck and living area, Will two steps behind him, smiling at me. “Do you know what she did when those guys kidnapped her, when they bound and gagged her and stuffed her in the trunk of their car?”

Megan jumped a little, a small squeak escaping her lips, and slowly turned her head toward me, but I couldn’t take my gaze off Derick. He looked menacing, terrifying, arms crossed over his chest, veins bulging around his toned muscles, eyes locked on me and not Megan.

I had a feeling that even though we’d apologized, he still wanted the truth. Now.

Could I give it to him?

“She fought back, Megan.”

She reached for me. “I know. I couldn’t believe it when she told the cops. I couldn’t believe I was friends with someone so brave, so calm. I would have panicked when I woke up in the trunk of a car, but Abby not only stayed calm, she seemed to take notes.”

Derick didn’t stop. “So you know she escaped through the woods, had her head bashed in hard enough to earn herself a concussion, then when she awoke tied up again, she tried so desperately to free herself that she fell off a couch and dislocated her shoulder—?”

“I may have cried at that point,” I said, hoping to break the tension in the room. What’s wrong with him?

Derick sat on the cushion between us and placed a hand on her knee, earning a nasty scowl from Will. “The point is, Megan, that any
normal
girl would have cried the whole time—and not just from the pain; any
normal
girl would have cowered in on herself and probably been killed. But Abby’s not normal. Neither of us are. That’s how I rescued her.”

Will sat on the other side of Megan, staring at the leather-bound book on the table. “What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m trying to say is: Abby and I are not from this place; we’re not human.”

Will’s cheeks flushed, and he reached back, hand clenched into a fist, ready to lean across my best friend and hit Derick, but within one breath, my boyfriend disappeared.

“What the…?” Will dropped his hand to his lap, shoulders slumped, a deep crease in his forehead. “He’s not kidding?”

I shook my head. “He’s not kidding.”

Slowly materializing back into visual existence, Derick said, “What would we have to lie to you about now? You’re helping us, against your own father. We need you to trust us, but we also need you to know how dangerous this is, how dangerous
we
are.”

“He’s not much of a father,” Will muttered, clinging onto the saddest part of Derick’s explanation. “And I’ve known you both for a long time and don’t find either of you particularly dangerous. You need my help. We just have to keep Megan safe.”

Megan turned up her chin, defiant. “I’m not going home, not after that, not until your dad is behind bars, Will. He
shot
at me!”

“Well, his lackeys are the ones who actually shot at you.”

Did he not understand what Derick was trying to say? That they were risking everything, their lives, by being near us? I couldn’t let my best friend put her life on the line for me. Not when Aedan’s words kept playing through my head.

You did this
. “Maybe—”

Overhead speakers blared to life, preventing me from telling them to run far away from us and never look back, and someone announced we were departing and heading south—and that Will needed to get to the control room.

“Who’s that?” I asked. We weren’t alone and we’d just revealed a lot of better-left-unknown-things about ourselves. Great. Just great.

“The closest thing I’ve ever had to a father—the captain of this ship.”

Will took off toward a set of black glass doors behind us, slid them open and then slipped through, leaving us alone with Megan. She looked from me to Derick, leaning forward as though she wanted to touch him to see if he was real, then leaned back again, her face still marred by a day and night of crying.

After a few awkward, silent seconds, Will strode through the doors and returned to his seat. “Where were we?”

“We were at the part where you explain why you really want to help, where you’re taking us, and how well we can actually trust you now that you know the truth.” Derick sat still, confidence rolling from him in waves.

“Call my assistance an act of rebellion to protect a hot friend.” Will nodded pointedly at me and winked, making my cheeks burn. “And I’d say who you can trust is limited. My father left his
research
papers on the counter. He must not know we’re friends—not that he’s ever around
to
know. So, I figured we’d take a trip to Key West or something. It’s not unusual for me and my friends to disappear for a few days when we’re on vacation.” Will glanced at the black glass doors; there was something sad and small about the way he looked. He needed friends and a real family and adventure, and our problems were his perfect escape. “Harvey won’t know the difference.”

Your powers grow stronger, as does your essence’s light. Hiding here is impossible now.
Those were Boredas’s words, and Mr. Crawford said protecting humans was our job. Mr. Crawford—“We can’t go to Key West.”

“Why?” everyone asked at once, staring at me, mouths agape as if I’d just ruined their big plans.

“Derick, your parents said they’d be on the next flight here, and Boredas can track our essence. We can’t hide.”

“Your essence?” Will grabbed the book and nodded. “Kalós, huh? What does it mean?”

“Good. It means good. And according to Derick’s father, we have the power to influence positive human emotions—and we have other abilities.”

He thumbed through a few pages. “Should have known you weren’t angels or demons, or vampires or werewolves. None of those interesting things.”

“Those
interesting
things don’t exist except in the imaginations of man.” Derick laughed then, reclining against the back of the sofa, and propped his ankle on his knee.

“So what are you?”

“Good guys with supernatural abilities.”

“Like invisibility.” Will narrowed his eyes. “And you fight…?”

“Arsonists, terrorists, sociopaths—basically really bad guys with supernatural abilities,” I said, remembering my conversation with Mr. Crawford.

Megan’s cheeks drained of color. “Arsonists? Really? And supernatural… terrorists?”

“Yes,” Derick said. “I believe we fight gargoyles, as well.”

“You do?” Megan asked, eyes big and round.

My knowledge of our newfound world equated to practically nothing, and Derick had a three-month head start on me, but his father didn’t say anything about gargoyles. “He’s joking.”

He shrugged. “Poor timing?”

“Just slightly.” I sighed, scooting closer to my friend. “You don’t have too much to worry about, Megan. Our ancestors have fought these beings for years, but they’re stuck outside this world for now. With the exception of a few, the terrorists, murderers, and sociopaths roaming the world don’t have supernatural powers; they’re simply bad guys that have no one to guide them. The really bad guys and the good guys can’t get here because the doors to allow our kinds to enter are closed.”

If I figured out a way to open the doors, an influx of horrible people with the purpose of terrorizing humans could take over the world, but life would go on as intended, a life where Kalóans guide and protect humans. And Mr. Crawford could go home; maybe he could hide his wistfulness from everyone else, but when we were in the woods behind my house, I saw how he longed to return. He wanted peace for a place ruled by someone trying to kill me, someone working
with
our enemy.

Opening the planes would be suicide. My father hid the Guardians here for a reason, and he hid us without knowledge of how to return to Kalós… except, somehow I did have knowledge. The book tried to show me earlier, the image it painted, the one Derick couldn’t see, the breeze on my shoulders that lifted my hair and surrounded me with serenity unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

“When did you guys learn all this?” Megan asked as I rubbed the back of my neck; a tension headache was building, tension from the gnawing urge to travel through the planes and the strange intuition that told me we were better off right where we were. “Because I know you, Abby, and keeping secrets isn’t something you’re very good at.”

“Derick found out in September, and I found out a few days ago.”

“And I’d say she’s pretty good at keeping secrets ever since she met this book.” Derick plastered on a fake smile and tapped the cover of
History of Kalós
.

My mouth watered with salty fluids. “Derick, I—”

“And you aren’t the only one who stays awake and reads all night long.”

I wondered if the book told him about my secret, if it jotted down line after line about each of my actions and explained my plans and emotions. Yep, I’d definitely have to check for an entry with my name on it. “What else did you learn?”

“Not enough to know how to remake a Safe Zone, but I learned enough about why this Zone broke.” He made a point of looking at me, as if to say
I know it’s because we fought and it’s all your fault because you’re keeping something from me
.

“So,” Megan said, sliding closer to Will so they could read at the same time, “can you start with the basics?”

Derick chuckled. “You’re assuming we understand the basics.”

“You’re a couple of mythical beings and know nothing about your mythicalness?” Incredulity colored Will’s face, his thin lips pressed together but not tight; he wasn’t totally disbelieving.

“Well, aside from what we’ve told you about us being good with supernatural abilities and fighting bad guys with much of the same, we know there are classes of good guys, I’m the last remaining Guardian who can open the door between our planes, and there are people who want to kill me so they don’t need my permission to enter and exit the human plane. Is that basic enough for you?”

“Okay, but how did… how did you find out?” Megan tied up her hair, somehow perfecting a sleek ponytail, even after all the running and screaming and being shot at. “Start with that.”

I smiled as I remembered how Derick discovered what we are. “Well—”

“Emotions and age play a role in how our abilities present themselves. I was happy, beyond happy, and when I walked through my front door, my parents couldn’t see me.” Derick saved me with his generic explanation. Megan already knew about my first kiss with Derick, but neither of my friends needed to know how we’d reacted to it.

“What about you?” she asked.

“Something similar”—or the exact same moment—“except I didn’t realize it until after Derick rescued me, and even then his parents had to break it down for me.”

“
His
parents?” Will closed the gigantic book, then set it on the table. “Why would your mom and dad not tell you themselves?”

“Another thing I only recently discovered: I’m adopted. My real parents gave me away. They were Elders and had a duty to fulfill, but they brought me here first.”

They both looked at me, like really looked at me, and I saw pity in their eyes. They didn’t owe me any of that; my adopted parents were way better than their birth parents, but rubbing that in would have been cruel.

Especially after Mr. Banaan tried killing us.

Derick recounted his part in my rescue, taking time to mention every gory detail about the nasty shack Boredas trapped me in, probably to scare them; he explained how my parents somehow lived with—and hid—the knowledge that a day would come when I’d have to leave. Then he went over all the other glorious particulars of our abilities, our travels here, the book and how it mysteriously writes itself, and unfortunately, about how the Safe Zone broke.