Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy
Read Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy Online
Authors: DelSheree Gladden
***
Secret of Betrayal
Book 2 of
The
Destroyer Trilogy
***
DelSheree Gladden
Also
by DelSheree Gladden
Escaping Fate
Twin Souls
Book One of the Twin Souls
Saga
Shaxoa’s Gift
Book Two of the Twin Souls Saga
Qaletaqa
Book Three of the Twin Souls Saga
Inquest
Book One of the Destroyer
Trilogy
Darkening Chaos
Book Two of the Destroyer Trilogy
Wicked
Hunger
Book One:
SomeOne
Wicked This Way
Comes
Coming July 2013
Secret of Betrayal
Book Two
Of The Destroyer Trilogy
By
DelSheree Gladden
Kindle Edition
Copyright 2012 DelSheree Gladden
License Notes
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Copyright © 2012
DelSheree Gladden
All rights reserved.
Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
The characters and
events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons,
living or
dead,
is coincidental and not intended by
the author.
For Ryan, Everett, and Abbey
For always supporting me
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Linda
Ulleseit
and Angela
Fristoe
for
reading Secret of Betrayal and writing such wonderful recommendations! Thank
you to
Phyl
Manning for her expert editing skills and
for teaching me more about commas and antecedents than anyone else ever has.
Thank you to
Apryl
Baker, Maggie Banks, R.M. Keegan, and
Tess Black for all your help and suggestions.
Thank you to my husband, Ryan,
for reading this book several times and helping me
create
a story that will pull readers in and keep them turning pages.
Book 3 Preview - Darkening Chaos
Secret of Betrayal
My life has been about betrayal from the moment I first
drew breath. I should be used to it, expect it. But I never see it coming.
Blood and Kissing
The plan to convince everyone I wasn't going to
destroy the world unfortunately didn’t work out very well. My little episode a
couple of weeks ago where I took out a Guardian strike team almost
single-handedly dashed that idea to pieces. The whole thing was televised on
national TV. The only thing that saved me from a swift death was a surprising
rally from allies I didn’t even know I had. They saved me once, but that was a
small miracle. I knew I had to come up with another plan if I wanted to stay
alive. I just didn’t expect it to be actually destroying the world. But that’s
exactly what I’m going to do. If I can survive my first day back at school,
that is.
Things were going so well back when I had a
broken ankle and the wary sympathy of everyone who saw me. Now everyone has
returned to cringing away from my presence and whispering about me. I don’t
know why I expected this day to not be positively horrible. School is always a
terrible experience for me. Ms. Sanchez, my Spiritualism teacher, is trembling at
the front of the room. She’s trying very hard to give her lecture without ever
glancing in my direction. Her normally sharp, staccato voice is barely more
than a whisper right now.
Which is too bad, because even with
my boyfriend’s mom helping me to develop my Spiritualism talent, I’m still
struggling.
How long have I been in this class? It’s got to
be almost over, but I’m pretty sure I only sat down a few minutes ago. It feels
like years. Just to be sure, I let my eyes wander away from my terrified teacher
to find the clock. I know it hangs above the exit sign, but my gaze only makes
it as far as the rectangular viewing window in the door below it. My body goes
rigid with shock at the curious face staring back at me. His green eyes
brighten when he sees my reaction.
I’ve already got my boyfriend, Milo, and my
ex-boyfriend, Lance, irritating me to death with their suspicions of each
other. I don’t need this right now.
Suddenly he turns away from the door, making me
lose sight of him. I bolt up from my chair, fearing that he is going to … I
don’t know what he might do, but I doubt I’ll like it. Ms. Sanchez yelps and
drops her book in response. It slaps against the ground and wakes up the rest
of the class with a start. Nobody says anything. They just stare.
“I, uh … I have to use the restroom,” I say
quickly. No need to hide my Speed anymore. I have my bag packed in under a
second, and I’m rushing out the door before anyone can take another breath. The
door whooshes shut behind me with a noise so soft it sounds like a sigh, a
grateful acknowledgement of my leaving. Even the building hates me.
I realize I’m standing in the middle of the
hallway staring like an idiot at the wall in front of me, and wake myself back
up. Where did he go? I glance around and nearly cry out when I find him
standing right behind me. A good six inches taller than my five foot six, his
presence instantly crowds me.
“Braden,” I gasp, “what are you doing here?”
“I thought you might be happy to see me given
your invitation to switch allegiances,” he says, “but you didn’t even give me
enough time to move away from the door. If I knew you were that desperate for
new recruits, I would have come to see you sooner.”
Irritation boils under my skin to the point of
making my entire body itch.
Cocky, arrogant jerk.
I
didn’t make that offer because I was desperate. I mean, I am—I can use all the
help I can get—but I only made the offer because having a Guardian on my side
would be invaluable. After two weeks of quiet, I thought I was through with
Braden surprising me. “I ran out here so fast to make sure you weren’t going to
try and kill any more of my friends.”
“I only ever tried to arrest Milo, not kill
him,” Braden argues.
“I think you mean kidnap.”
He stares me down. “Call it what you want. I
still wasn’t trying to kill him. And I’m not here to kill, arrest, or kidnap
any of your friends this time, just so you know.”
“Then why are you here?” I ask.
Stepping in closer to me, Braden is only inches
away before I can think to stop him. My skin reacts with a strangely familiar
burst of electricity. It’s a weird feeling I don’t understand in the least, and
certainly don’t like. I shove him away from me and glare at him as I wait for
his response.
“I’m here for you this time,” Braden says.
A scouring flash of terror runs through me. I
scramble and tap into my Vision to make sure he isn’t going to try and kill me
where I stand. It fizzles and doesn’t tell me a thing. Luckily, my other
talents are going strong. More than that, some instinct tells me Braden won’t
hurt me. He may try to kill me one day and prove me wrong, but my heart rate
slows back down as I realize it won’t be today. He takes a step back to
reinforce my instincts, but his presence lingers on my skin a moment longer. I
can’t explain the way he affects me. He’s a Guardian, a member of the
brotherhood whose sole purpose in life is to murder me, but his brash curiosity
and honesty refuse to let me really fear him. Or maybe it’s more than that. The
physical sensation touching him elicits isn’t hormones. It’s something else. It
takes me a few seconds too long to take a step away.
“Why are you here, Braden?”
“Penance,” he says with a grimace. I don’t
understand and he knows it. He leans back against a row of lockers with a frown
and shoves his hands into his pockets. With a build somewhere between offensive
lineman and dancer, Braden is obviously capable of taking care of himself, but
his posture makes him look momentarily vulnerable. “Well, you didn’t think I
could lose my entire strike team to a girl and not be punished for it, did
you?”
Is he actually here to accept my offer? I’m not
sure how I feel about that possibility.
“Did you get kicked out of the Guardians?” I
ask. A tiny sliver of guilt that I might have cost him his job tries to wriggle
its way into my mind. Braden’s laugh takes care of that.
“Kicked out? No. It’s much harder to get out of
the Guardians than you might think.” He says it lightheartedly, but his
expression darkens as he speaks. My own stomach turns queasy as I remember Mr.
Walters, my Destroyer teacher, showing me the ugly scars that crisscross most
of his body. He was not only a Guardian once, but a member of the elite, and
very secret Seekers, as well. I still don’t know how he got those scars, but
I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know. Braden and I may be pretty far from
friends, but I don’t necessarily want the same thing to happen to him, either.
“So what does your punishment have to do with
you being at my school? If people see you they’re going to report you. You
better go before we both get in trouble.” Or before Milo or Lance see him. They
have no idea that Braden came to see me later that night after he attacked
Milo, but just the sight of him near me will put them both on the offensive.
And after weeks of having to deal with each other, both convinced the other is
going to get me killed, they are more than ready for a fight.
Braden doesn’t look interested in leaving. “My
punishment has everything to do with being at your school, Libby. And I
wouldn’t worry about people seeing me or getting in trouble,” he says
cryptically.
“What do you mean?” I ask. A sinking feeling is
already gathering in my belly.
“People are going to see me a lot starting
today, especially you,” Braden says.
What does he mean by that? Does he want to be
here … around me? I don’t know how to take that comment. The reason he’s here
does finally sink in regardless of my confusion about his motives. My stomach
drops out completely. I groan as I finally understand. “You’re the new school
Guardian, aren’t you?” I heard that our old one had been transferred, but I
hadn’t thought much about it. Until meeting Braden, I thought one Guardian was
pretty much the same as any other.
He nods, looking rather amused at my fallen
countenance. He’s enjoying this way too much for it to be a punishment. “My
captain thought a fitting reprimand for losing my team was to put me in charge
of keeping a close eye on you. He thought it would be helpful to get to know
you better for next time.”
And I didn’t think my day could get any worse.
“Next time?”
“You know there’s going to be a next time,” he
says gravely.
“Will you be there?” I ask.
Braden sinks against the locker, his expression
truly serious for the first time. The color of caramel, his hair is too short
to hide him, but he seems less oppressive, unsure. He sighs. “I don’t know.”
Not exactly the answer I was hoping for, but I
suppose it’s better than an emphatic yes. Braden only gave me the barest
details about what happened when he told his captain I had performed a second
Inquest on Milo and unlocked his supposedly absent talents, but I suspected
there was much more. Something changed Braden from willing Cipher hunter to
possible defector. I told him that night, that if he ever wanted to switch
teams, I would take him. Every time I think about the offer, I tell myself it’s
purely because his inside knowledge will be invaluable. But to be perfectly
honest, I can’t stand the thought of having to kill Braden. There is something
about him that makes even the idea of hurting him turn my stomach.