House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)(93)
The blond man let out a huff. “So now he will be heading for the next secret keeper, the one born in House of Imperial.”
Well, shit. “We need to find them first!” I demanded, on my feet as my chair screeched across the floor.
“We’re working on it,” the council informed us. “It is extremely difficult to find these humans without the piece of stone you had. That stone was a sliver from the original piece gifted in the treaty.”
Saywhatnow? I’d been wearing something that important for years and had no idea. My parents really should have told me, but knowing them as well as I did, they no doubt wanted to protect me for as long as they could.
“What will the necklace do? How is it a key?” I asked.
A small woman with silver hair stepped forward. She had been hovering at the back of the council group, not sitting. The moment she pushed to the front, all conversation died and everyone turned to her. She was definitely someone important.
Her silver hair threw me off at first, but her face was unlined, her eyes almost as dark as Lexen’s.
“Did you bleed on the stone, at all?”
Her question took me completely by surprise, and I was a little slow to reply. “Uh, yeah, I probably did.” I touched my now healed shoulder. “I got stabbed by a tree. I had blood all over me.”
The woman gave a single nod. “That sliver of stone is the key to finding the original stone. It can be used as a scrying tool, when activated with the right blood. Your blood on it will lead to the second secret keeper, the Imperial born human. Then it needs to be dipped in the blood of the second secret keeper to track the third, and so on.”
That was why Laous reset the justices. He wasn’t trying to make sure any of us got to safety. He had found my necklace and knew he had what he needed. So he’d tried to kill us all.
“What is our next step?” Marsil asked. As he stood tall, decked out in all black, with shit-kicker boots on and a heavy expression, he totally looked like a warrior.
“With Emma’s permission, we’d like to take a little of her blood and see if we can track the second secret keeper ourselves.” She looked directly at me, and I nodded without hesitation. I would do anything to make sure Laous didn’t get his hands on him or her.
She continued: “While we do that, everyone else will return to their normal lives. The treaty is not under any direct threat.”
Ambra stood. Her graceful form seemed frailer than the last time I’d seen her. “Will the overlord families return to Astoria? To Starslight Prep?”
Everyone on the council nodded this time. “Oh yes, they must finish their school year,” the silver-haired woman answered. “Laous might have initiated it for the wrong reasons, but the human government is loving this sign of ‘trust.’ It’s important to keep up appearances, especially now.”
School, right, totally forgot we still had that thing going on. Ambra joined her sons in looking unhappy, all except Lexen, who was watching me with an amused expression.
The entire council stood. Each lowered their head into a half bow toward Roland and Ambra.
“We will be in touch when we have any information,” silver-haired lady told the Darkens. She then turned to me. “Do you mind?” she asked, holding her hand out. Rising to my feet, I took a step toward her, and she reached out and placed her hand in the crook of my elbow.
A brief prickling sensation followed, and when she pulled back there was a thin trace of red following her fingertips. “That should be enough. Thank you,” she said, lowering her head slightly to me. Much easier than a blood test, that was for sure.
She faced Lexen. “I’m really glad you and your draygone mate are okay.”
Dead silence filled the room. I wiggled a little on the spot, immediately uncomfortable.
Lexen was the only one to still look relaxed. In fact the asshole laughed, like she’d just amused him immensely. My mouth dropped open as he crossed to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulder, dwarfing the tiny female. “Colita, I never could keep anything from you.”
My stunned face must have tipped him off to my astonishment, because he released Colita and stepped over to me. “She’s my drenita, or as humans would call it, godmother. She’s also a powerful seer, able to scry visions of the future in the sacred legreto.”
“The same sacred waters I was born in?” I asked, my eyes flicking between him and Colita.
She nodded. “The very same. And you’ll be happy to know, that having been born in those sacred waters, you – and the other three secret keepers – have the longevity of life that is part of all Daelighters. Even though you are almost completely human, in your blood runs some of our energy.”
Jero laughed. “Are you telling me that pretty girl here is hooked into the network? That’s fuc … damn awesome.”
Roland, who seemed to find Jero amusing – had to be the only one who did – let out a chuckle. “We can show her how to plug in – one day, when she isn’t due back at school.”
That sounded like a good idea. I was full up on new experiences at the moment.
“Wait,” I called, halting the council just as they were leaving. “If secret keepers live forever, what happened to the ones before us?” I knew that all four had to be born in the same year, so I assumed the other three with me were all around my age. But the treaty had been active for over a hundred years.