House of Leights (Secret Keepers, #3)(37)

My dad waited for a hug, stepping in after my mom pulled away. We exchanged words of love, as I did with Brad, and then it was time to go. Emma held a hand out to me and I hurried across to her. The heavy weight of my bag lifted off my shoulder and I spun to find Chase with it in his hands. “You’ll move faster without it,” he said simply, sliding it on the same arm as his bag.

I didn’t protest because there was no time, and he was right. Lexen also had Emma’s bag, but Callie still had her own. “I have control issues,” she said when she noticed me looking. “Daniel had no idea what he was getting himself into when he tied our souls together.”

Um, I’m sorry, what? She’d said that she was tied to Daniel and his land, but I never thought it was an actual, literal thing.

She waved at me, her eyes creasing with humor at my no doubt stunned expression. “Another story for another day. For now, all you need to know is that I have to be around him and House of Imperial for a certain amount of time, or my soul fades away. Too much time apart and I’ll die.”

“I own her soul,” Daniel added with a smirk, and she swatted him.

Emma leaned in close to me, her hand still holding mine. “They’re the real-life Hades and Persephone.” She let out a dreamy sigh, and a happy sort of feeling flipped in my chest.

I always had been a sucker for romance and a happily ever after. I just felt like life should follow the same path as the movies. You can go through lots of shit, bad times, grief, but eventually you got your happy ending. It was only fair.

Lexen opened the door then, distracting us all. Go time.

I almost broke his rule and laughed when I got out onto the porch. Because there were three pairs of black Converse sitting there, and it took us a minute to figure out which belonged to who. Luckily, all of us had different size feet. Callie had the biggest at size nine. Emma’s were eight, and mine were seven. Cascading, just like our heights.

The three overlords led the group; my father and Brad brought up the rear. I was just wondering where the cars were when four appeared in the distance. They cruised in through the trees, taking the same path – or lack thereof – that Chase had.

When they were about ten feet from us, they stopped and the drivers of the first two jumped out and opened the doors. Callie, Emma, and I were ushered into the wide back seat of the first car. Daniel took the driver’s seat, Chase the passenger, and Lexen got in the back. I turned to see my parents filing into the second black, unmarked, SUV. Once they were inside, the tint was so dark that I couldn’t tell who was sitting where.

No time was wasted, all four cars took off, somehow not hitting any trees, and then we were moving far too quickly for my liking. Chase turned: “Don’t worry, my father is in the second vehicle, making sure the trees get out of our way.”

For some strange reason, I wished I had seen his dad. It would have been nice to glimpse the Daelighter who raised Chase.

“Your dad might be chatting with Chase’s dad,” Emma whispered in my ear, giving me a wink.

I just stared back at her, because she was probably right. It felt weird, but at the same time it was my dad’s job to liaise with Daelighters. He should be fine. I also felt better knowing there was a powerful overlord in with them, protecting them.

The moment we were out of the trees and back on the main dirt road, I strained to hear a helicopter. Knowing Laous might be above somewhere, with a massive machine gun, ready to blow us all away, was giving me heart palpitations.

“Do you guys have weapons?” I asked. “Like guns or grenades or … anything?”

“Nope,” Daniel said from the driver’s seat. “Daelighters don’t use human weapons. We’re more inclined to use our own energy, the network, and the specific powers of our house to fight.”

Which was great, except right now Laous was using human technology, and I felt like we should as well if we wanted to stand a chance against him.

“Don’t worry about Laous,” Lexen added. “He won’t risk hurting the secret keepers. Not until he gets what he wants from you. That’s why I requested vehicles with the darkest tint. He won’t know for sure who’s in which car, and we need him to be confused enough that he hesitates.”

My hands were clenched tightly, which I didn’t even realize until Emma reached out to grab one, and Callie grabbed the other. The three of us clung to each other while Daniel practiced some racecar driving maneuvers.

“Don’t worry,” Callie said, trying to sound cheerful. “Dan can take a Lambo around a corner at eighty miles an hour. He’ll get us there in one piece.”

I really wasn’t reassured by that, but at least I knew it wasn’t his first time driving a car. At these speeds over dirt roads, our odds of surviving felt like they were on shaky grounds.

And now, more than ever, I really wanted to live. I was about to go to an alien world. That was not something I could miss.





11





We made it through the first section of the trees without an issue. I didn’t relax in all that time though; I wouldn’t relax at all until we were a hundred percent safe. There was too much at stake here, and the thought that something was going to jump out at us from nowhere had me on edge.

Daniel was living up to Callie’s confidence in him, barely braking as he swung around corners, spraying up dirt and rocks in his wake. I spent my time stressing, sweating, and turning to check my parents’ car was right behind us. The final two cars, which must have been filled with Daelighters, were bringing up the rear.