House of Leights (Secret Keepers #3)(43)

Seeing them like that, it only reminded me that Chase was not here.

Callie met my gaze. “They’re going to be okay,” she said, nodding decisively. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince me or herself. Personally, I needed to see with my own eyes that Chase was okay. Daniel as well, of course. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. But Chase was at the forefront of my mind.

I hesitated just for a moment before patting Callie’s arm. She wasn’t as tactile as Emma, but I wanted her to know that I understood, and that she wasn’t alone. She sniffled for a second, then pressed her lips tightly together, trying to smile.

Emma and Lexen rejoined us then, their bodies close, holding hands.

“Do you know if my parents’ car got here safely?” I asked as my eyes ran along the street, stopping at a large gate at the end. A very imposing sort of gate.

“They got here,” Lexen said, pointing toward one of the castles. Just on the other side of the fence I saw the familiar black SUV. “They’ll be in Overworld already, and we should be on our way, too.”

Emma shifted forward with him, but I crossed my arms and shook my head. “Nope. No way am I going without Chase. What if he’s in trouble? We need to make sure they get here safely. No one is a sacrifice in this situation.”

“What Maya said…” Callie’s face held a very stubborn expression. “In reference to Daniel.”

Lexen’s eyes were so dark now that I could not distinguish between pupil and iris, which was freaky. Thankfully, there was still some white around the very outside; otherwise, he’d be repping a hot, scary-ass demon from Supernatural. “This is not a game. Four secret keepers are all that stand between the end of two worlds.” I became his sole focus. “Especially you, Maya. Laous needs you to find the fourth keeper. Once he finds her, he finds the stone. Do you understand?”

Anger flared inside of me. It was a guttural kind of thing, unstable, and much deeper than I usually felt emotions. “I’m not an idiot,” I bit out through gritted teeth. “I understand the larger concept of what is happening here, but sorry, I’ve never been big on ‘sacrifice one to save many,’ so you need to figure out another plan, one which doesn’t involve leaving without Chase or Daniel.”

Lexen moved preternaturally fast, wrapping an arm around me and yanking me off the ground for the second time in an hour. I was over his shoulder before my mind fully registered what he had just done, and then we were walking. I blinked down at Emma, who was by my side. Callie was keeping up too, even though she lagged a few steps behind.

“I’m going to give you until the count of three,” I seethed, anger and astonishment warring inside of me, “to put me down. This is kidnapping. You’re supposed to be the good guys.”

Emma’s worried expression briefly morphed into something resembling amusement. “Lexen lives in a gray area when it comes to good and bad. It’s relative, depending on which side of the war you’re on. Plus, he’s got a history with kidnapping.”

“I like to refer to it as abduction,” Callie added. “Kidnapping is for children. Abduction is for aliens.”

I screamed as loud as I could, bringing both fists down and pounding on his back. “Let me go! You should never use your strength to force my compliance. That’s the best way to lose any trust I had in your people.”

Emma stopped walking, and that was probably the only thing in the worlds that would stop Lexen. He turned to her, and I ended up staring out into the street. “She’s right,” I heard Emma say. “Maya is a grown woman. She needs to do what she feels is right – the same way Callie and I did. We’re going to be a team, the eight of us. I can feel it with every fiber of my being. But for that to happen, there needs to be cohesiveness. A breach of trust will damage our dynamic severely.”

My body lifted as Lexen exhaled loudly. For a brief moment, I thought he was going to ignore her argument, but in the end his love and respect for Emma won. As my feet hit the ground, I took a step away from him. My instinct was to run, because I didn’t feel safe with Lexen at the moment. He had already demonstrated that he would do whatever it took for my compliance, in a bid to control the situation. Emma had stopped him this time, but maybe next time she would agree. Then we’d all be screwed.

“I’m sorry.” Those words took me by surprise, because I got the feeling he wasn’t an apologizer. “But you have to understand, I have thousands … no, hundreds of thousands of lives in my hands. Overlords put their people first. Their safety. Part of me wants to gather you three up and fly to the end of Overworld with you, out of the land of Daelighters and off to another of the sectors where I know Laous will never follow.” A blast of icy air hit me … disappearing as Lexen got himself under control again. “But I also trust in what Em is saying. The team thing. I … promise I will never force your compliance.”

He reached out and Emma went willingly into his arms. “Emma is always worried about losing her free will,” he said, staring down at her, before he turned back to me. “It was wrong of me to use my strength against you. For that, I am truly sorry.”

I relaxed and felt much more comfortable remaining near him. “Apology accepted. As long as you remember that I am a person, not a doll to throw around, then we should be all good.”