House of Leights (Secret Keepers, #3)(28)
What would that even look like? All I could picture were those old Halloween costumes with the tree trunk you pulled down over your body, arms stuck out through holes in the side, legs through holes in the bottom, face through a cutout section of the trunk.
I almost laughed out loud at the mental image.
“You won’t turn into a tree.” Chase brought my attention back to him. “But you will have some advancements on regular humans. You’ll have the same longevity as Daelighters. You can be killed by normal means – you’re not resistant to bullets or anything. But if you don’t suffer a life-ending injury or get one of the few diseases that can hurt us, you will live for many years longer than humans.”
What. The. Frack?
Was he for real? “That’s terrible!” I almost shouted. ‘I’m going to outlive all of my friends and family. I didn’t sign up for that!”
Chase’s hand came down onto my arm, and again he soothed the crazed emotions inside of me. “I understand. But you should know that there are certain foods from our world you can give to your family to lengthen their lives considerably – increase their good health.”
His eyes bored into mine, and in those green-glass depths I found my calm again.
“If there have been secret keepers for over a hundred years, and we don’t die, what happened to the ones before us? Or the ones before them.”
I had so many questions. It felt like the moment I learned one thing, it only opened the door for a million more thoughts.
“There was only one set of keepers before you,” Chase told me. “One of them – Callie’s father, actually – was killed in an accident. The moment the line of four is broken, another four have to be brought in.”
Right, made sense. Because one of us led to the next one. “Poor Callie,” I said, my eyes drifting toward the porch, even though she was no longer there. “She said her mom was a horrible person, and her dad died.”
Chase nodded. “Both secret keepers had it rough, in different ways. Emma’s parents were killed by Laous in a fire.”
Sounded like I’d been lucky to have the life I did. My parents were getting a huge hug when I went back inside. “I’m glad they’ve finally found happiness,” I told him. Now we just had to make sure Laous didn’t screw it all up for everyone.
Turning back to look into the forest, I asked: “What did you want to show me? The thing I need to trust you for?”
He reached forward and put his hand on a nearby tree trunk. “Touch it,” he said, inclining his head toward the rough bark.
I took a moment to observe the spot I was about to drop my hand. You know, just in case there was a spider, or ant, or thorny plant. Nature might be beautiful, but it was also deadly as hell. Just ask that girl who died last month from a parasite going into her brain after she ate some tropical fruit. The story had been all over the news. For a while there, I gave up fruit completely.
“You need to relax your mind.” Chase’s voice interrupted my thoughts, and with real effort, I managed to focus on the feel of the roughness under my hand. “Let nature take away the human stresses and allow you a sense of peace.”
It should have been an impossible task. My mind had never been this full and confused in my life, but somehow, with his last instruction, I felt the tension drain from me. Tingles ran under my hand, tickling the palm, sending all the hairs on my arms up to attention. A part of me wanted to immediately wrench my hand away, because this was bordering on the weird again, but the stronger part was determined to learn everything I could. I needed to be prepared. Laous could have shown up on my doorstep a week ago and I would’ve had no idea what I was up against. That was not okay.
“Can you feel the energy?” Chase’s smooth voice sent more goosebumps across my skin. “To me it feels familiar, but also ancient and beyond my understanding.”
He nailed the description perfectly. I sensed, in a small sliver, the true enormity of nature. It had been here long before humans and would be here long after we’d all but destroyed this world. It had seen the rise and fall of every civilization, and it was still standing.
I felt completely insignificant. Like a speck of nothing.
“It’s incredible,” I breathed, unable to stop the tears from springing to my eyes. I’d never seen this beauty, and it had always been around me. How had I been so blind? I’d missed so much.
A warm weight pressed against my cheek, but I didn’t open my eyes. I just let Chase rub his thumb across the planes of my face, dispelling the tears there, while I continued to feel everything.
“The trees on Earth are not like the Galinta,” he said, voice low. “They long ago lost the ability to move and speak with words, but they can still communicate. They send messages to each other all day long. It’s Earth’s very own version of a network. And it’s essential to the survival of your world.”
“The same way your network is essential to your world?” I breathed.
“Yes…”
While I continued to explore this new connection with the world, he told me as much as he could about our two worlds. The reason for the treaty, how Overworld needed a permanent transporter, and how Earth had been having a lot of very serious weather activities, which calmed down once the stone was buried somewhere near the equator.