House of Leights (Secret Keepers #3)(19)

“Did you have any trouble on the way?” Chase asked. “We heard that Laous and some of the resistance were in your area, which was why we moved with haste.”

My father’s rumbly drawl sounded coarse against the smooth accent of the Daelighters. “Yes, Maya was almost taken. She managed to escape … even though she’s not sure how. Luckily we got to the government facility before anyone found her again.”

I knew how … even though no one had believed me. There was no doubt in my mind that my escape was all to do with Chase. As if he’d heard my thoughts, I was suddenly staring into those green, pearlescent eyes. Not human. Those eyes were definitely not like any human’s.

Swallowing roughly, I reminded myself that breathing was not optional. “I’m glad Maya was not hurt,” Chase said, holding my gaze for another moment before he turned back to my father. “She’s very important.”

Those words were a splash of cold water to the face, reminding me that my life had literally just gone to hell, and that I was an idiot for lusting after an alien. These feelings had to be because of shock or something. That was the only thing that made sense.

Deciding it was better to brave the trees, I fell back to walk beside Brad. He leaned down close to me. “What’s going on with you and alien dude?”

He said it very softly, but for all we knew they had supersonic hearing. We really needed to find out more about them.

“What do you mean?” I muttered. God, please don’t let me have been obvious…

“I’ve never seen you stare at anything – except your mom’s cooking – like you’re staring at him.”

There was no way to stop the embarrassment I felt from flooding my face. Luckily, I tended to just get a little color in my cheeks when I blushed, not a full-on red, so it would not be hugely obvious. Except to Brad, who knew me very well.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I finally said stiffly. “I’m just fascinated … because they’re not human.”

He smirked, and it took all of my self-control not to smack him in the face. My mom followed Buddha’s teachings. She was all about peace and love. Meditation. Unfortunately, not a lot of her daily practices translated to me. I had a temper that took some time to appear, but when it did, I was like a crazy little ninja, throwing and kicking and breaking things.

Let’s just say I was working on it.

And Brad was pushing all of my buttons right now.

“Leave it,” I bit out when he opened his mouth to say something more.

His grin grew wider, and I sucked in deeply, trying to calm myself. I thought I might blow when he leaned down again. “Just so you know, he looks at you in the exact same way.” My stomach did that stupid flip-flopping motion again, and my chest felt like it might burst from all the feelings in there.

Brad tilted his head to the side, and I thought he looked a little sad. “Be careful of that one, Maiz. He’s not human.”

Like I was going to forget that anytime soon. But it didn’t seem to matter to my hormones. They were on the Chase train, with no intention of getting off.





6





I was pretty fit from gymnastics and cheerleading, but apparently I was not hiking-through-the-forest fit. After thirty minutes my thighs and calves began to ache, and after an hour I was pretty much ready to just hand myself over to Laous. Anything to end the torture.

I’d grown numb to finding bugs on me, the itchy arms from brushing across tree sap and whatever else was on their leaves, the stumbling over exposed roots. Brad was doing a lot better, and he helped me out on more than one occasion. I also managed not to stare at Chase too much. Which was a win.

Eventually the trees cleared and we ended up on a long road. There was a car waiting for us, black and huge, like one of those old army vehicles. I was pretty sure they didn’t make Hummers anymore, but this reminded me of that style of car a lot.

“It’s specially designed to keep you safe,” Chase told our group. “It’s bullet and bombproof. Along with being resistant to a variety of Daelighter energies.”

“What are Daelighter energies?” Brad asked, and I was grateful he did, so I didn’t have to show how interested I was in the answer to that.

Chase opened the doors for us first and we all climbed in, except the three Daelighters he’d been with. “They’ll walk the rest of the way,” he told me. “We don’t trust transport like this.”

Right. Walking was clearly their thing.

Once we were all buckled into the harnesses, Chase started the vehicle and with a rumbly roar we were off. He then answered Brad’s question from before.

“There are four houses on Overworld. All of us have different energies and abilities. House of Leights is mine. We have energy derived from the trees in our land. Our powers correspond to that.”

I could have guessed that by the way they moved through the forest. Another huge difference between us: he was one with the trees; I was one with my air-conditioned house. Eventually I was going to convince my body that he was off limits. Way off limits.

“House of Darken is a land of beasts and magic. Their powers are to do with nature as well – storms. They can control the lightning and winds. Bring about thunderstorms.”

Beasts and magic? I really wanted to ask what sort of beasts they had. Every mythical creature I’d ever read about flashed through my mind, and I was more than a little intrigued to know more.