Shattered Secrets (Book of Red #1) (30 page)

Will’s cell buzzed again, and a number flashed on the screen, one I’d recognize anywhere, one I’d dialed a thousand times: Derick’s.

I tapped the TALK button, then pressed the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Abigail, thank God.” Mr. Crawford sighed. “Where’s Derick?”

“He went back for the keys,” Mrs. Crawford said in the background, “He’ll be fine. Tell her she and Megan needn’t worry; they’re safe where they are.”

Megan sat up and grabbed my forearm. “W-who is it?”

“Someone who will help.” Someone whose knowledge of where we were and who we were with didn’t even come as a shock.

“Did you hear Lillian?” Mr. Crawford asked.

“Yes.” My shoulders slumped, and I breathed deeply for the first time in several minutes. “How’d you know this number?”

“The Safe Zone is broken. You two aren’t happy, and you fought.” Mr. Crawford didn’t ask.

Nothing could be hidden from a Cognizant and someone with the ability to read minds. I’m sure his wife saw the whole fight once the magic lifted, and anything she didn’t see, Mr. Crawford swiped from my thoughts.

We failed
.

“You did not fail, Abby. People argue, but this was more than that, something we couldn’t see that changed who you are. We never knew this was coming, which bothers us to no end. Magic powerful enough to create Safe Zones where even your best friend thinks you’re a stranger doesn’t fade easily. Whatever happening between the two of you, you’ll figure out how to make it right again, but for now you need to worry about finding safety.”

Can
we figure it out? The book wants me to keep a secret only I can know, not that I do, but I can’t even tell Derick
that
much.
“As soon as Derick gets back with the keys, we’re going to meet Will at some park near the Mote Marine.”

“Abby?”

“Yes, Mr. Crawford?”

Megan shuddered and whispered, “Derick’s dad?”

I nodded.

She pointed at the phone. “They knew you were here? They lied to the police?”

“Kalóans aren’t supposed to keep secrets from each other,” Mr. Crawford said, “Our purpose is to protect human life; to do that we must work together. Whatever you think the book wants you to hold back, you shouldn’t. It goes against everything we stand for.”

Curling my fingers around the cell, I suppressed the anger and frustration and rage all now boiling inside me. How could he say that? How could he, with a level and smooth voice, possibly say that Kalóans aren’t supposed to keep secrets? Mr. and Mrs. Crawford kept huge secrets from me, from their
son
. They allowed us to stumble upon the truth of our lives on our own, and they allowed us to be afraid, to run away and hide. Yet we still had no idea who we were at our core and what everything going on around us meant. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer. “How dare you say that, Mr. Crawford? After everything we’ve been through, how dare you? If we aren’t supposed to keep secrets, why did
you
?”

He sighed, long and thoughtfully. “I don’t know. Your father wanted you to live a normal life for as long as possible. He thought if you were going to be raised in a different plane, you should follow that plane’s customs. He asked these things of me as he handed me that book, told me to make sure you received it.”

The book. Something about that didn’t sit well with me. And my father. My father lied to me, too, not Brendan Doran, but Joseph Nichols. I wonder if they met, and if they did, I wonder if they liked one another. Brendan obviously trusted my dad and mom with my life. I imagined if I had to send off a child to live with strangers, I’d probably have wanted my son or daughter to grow up ‘normal’, too. “What about Derick?”

“I’d planned to tell him until he met you, and then I thought if he knew, the friendship the two of you shared would have been tainted. Abby, you need to understand that we did what we believed was best.” Mr. Crawford sounded resigned, like he knew I’d won the argument, that he had no right to do what he did, but hearing the submission in his voice only made me feel worse.

Megan leaned forward and pressed her hand to her mouth. “Your foot doesn’t look so good.”

Glad for the interruption, I glanced at my toes and noticed a large circle of red in the sand. A strange sensation burned through my chest, one worse than anger or frustration, and I nearly dropped the phone as I looked back the way we came. “We left a trail.”

“Tell her she should move, Adam. Tell her Derick is right behind her and that she should slowly, quietly, head for the car.” Warmth and comfort filled Mrs. Crawford’s familiar voice, but she may as well have sounded cold and dead for all the good it did.

I scrambled to my feet, dragging Megan up by her hand, and then limped toward the car all while attempting to keep my traitorous foot off the ground.

“Are you moving?” Mr. Crawford asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay. It’s too dangerous for you kids to be alone, or travel back here; we’re on the next plane to Florida. We’ll call you when we land.”

Thank God.

“And, Abby, put some space between yourself and Will Banaan. He’s fascinated with you, as any human boy would be—especially as you grow more fully into your powers—but he could get himself killed. Even though your life is in danger, you have to remember what we were created for.”

Fire. Aedan. Will and Megan dead on the beach.
You did this
.

A tear slid down my cheek. “I understand.”

Crack
.

Jumping, I wiped my eyes and looked over my shoulder but saw nothing as I returned the phone to my shorts pocket.

“It’s just me,” Derick whispered, his warm fingers linking with mine. “Who were you talking to?”

“Your parents.” My voice cracked, revealing more than I liked right now. In so many ways I wanted to believe Mr. Crawford and share everything with them and Derick, but if I did and I was wrong, what harm would that bring? “Did you get the keys?”

“Yep, and I got this.” He hefted
History of Kalós
in front of him.

The book. That’s what nagged at me before and made me feel as though we were forgetting something, and just the sight of the embossed symbol on the cover emboldened me, made me feel bigger and more courageous than I really knew myself to be. We were created to protect the very things chasing us, not run from them, and that book held the clues we needed.

“Smart thinking.”

“Figured we shouldn’t leave anything as massively important as this behind.”

Derick unlocked the doors and helped Megan and me inside, then handed the book to me. As we pulled out of the parking lot of the Silver Sands condo, a place we’d probably never see again, I spotted Mr. Banaan’s bodyguards breaking through the trees along the side of the building where Megan and I were just hiding.

So close.

I grabbed some napkins from the glove box, then pressed them against my cut. “What happened in there, Derick?”

“What happened in
there
?” Megan interrupted, face between the seats, glaring at me. “What happened out
here
? What happened on the beach? Don’t give me the ‘leave it at that’ either. I’m not stupid, and I’d prefer not to think I’m losing my mind.”

Derick laughed. “We’re aliens from another planet, come to eat your brains and kill all your children.”

“
Derick
!”

He shrugged. “She won’t react much differently if you tell her the truth.”

I opened my mouth to protest but quickly snapped it shut. Who was I kidding? Hey, Megan, we’re really magical spirits from another part of Earth that you can’t see. I’m a Guardian, and Derick is a Romancer. He can also make himself invisible, while I’m not quite positive of my other abilities, unless you count seeing through odd disguises. Oh, and we’re falling in love which creates this stupid tingly sensation in our chests. Let’s not forget we have people after us from the
other
plane, who want us dead and are working with the Elder of our true home.

Yeah.

Right.

She’d believe that.

Totally.

“Let me out.” Megan pushed my seat, knocking me forward over and over, color returning to her face and replacing the pale, sick look she wore earlier with an angry, defiant one. “Let me out now. I’ll walk. I’ll call my mom. Hell, Mr. Banaan won’t kill me. Just let me out of the fucking car.
Now
.”

“We’re going to meet Will, Megan. He’s going to help us—and you.” I took a deep breath. “And I’m not so sure Mr. Banaan would have an issue killing you if you got in the way. Will said his father will kill for blood money, and I have no idea what he was offered for us.”

“What the hell is up with the two of you? Why the hell are you so important?” She flung herself against the seat and crossed her arms over her chest. “And don’t keep secrets from me like you’re keeping from him.”

Derick tossed an accusatory glare my way, his narrowed eyes practically screaming
this is your fault
.

Questions I couldn’t answer. Great. “Why did you come over?”

“I felt drawn to you all day, like maybe we knew each other from another life. And then the fog lifted, and I realized I knew you from
this
life. And maybe I just wanted to see if my best friend realized the guy I’m into is in love with her.”

Derick’s knuckles turned white around the steering wheel. “I hate to interrupt your little tiff, but can someone, please, tell me where we’re going?”

“Some park by the Mote Marine. Will said Megan would help us find it.”

Megan blew her bangs from her face. “Just keep going straight, then turn left on Ken Thompson, just across the bridge to City Island.”

“Thank you,” I said, glancing over my shoulder, then froze. A big black Suburban with dark tinted windows and little lights inset into the grill followed not too far behind us. “Derick, tell me we’re invisible.”

Megan turned to look out the back window, with her hands on the back of the seat, then whimpered.

Derick checked his rearview and pulled to the side of the road, into the grass. “We’re invisible.”

The Suburban blew by us, then Derick started driving again. Megan sat back and chewed on her nails, her knees bouncing up and down. I placed my hand on Derick’s over the shifter.

No one spoke.

his is it. Just park anywhere,” Megan said, flipping her hand between me and Derick, indicating the few empty spaces around the white-rock and shell lot.

This place practically cried ‘kill me here, and no one will know’. But I trusted Will enough, and maybe I shouldn’t have—especially if he was in love with me. Maybe we should have turned around and protected him the way Mr. Crawford implied, but what other options did we have?

“Where’s Will?” Derick’s voice carried a sense of disbelief, a high-pitched squeak that told me he had the same sense of a looming murder on his mind.

Megan shrugged. “On his yacht. Probably.”

Derick and I exchanged mystified, eyebrow arching glances. A kid our age with a yacht? Must be nice. Not sure why they wouldn’t want to live this way all the time instead of reserving yachts and huge houses and parties for vacations.

We got out of the car and jogged up a path through the damp grass. The path eventually turned into a planked boardwalk over marshes, winding around sandy-white thick and twisted roots of mangrove trees; little brown and green anoles scattered as we passed. The little lizard’s flight echoed what I’d felt inside until Derick rescued the book. What I’d mostly been doing since Boredas and Ruckus kidnapped me: running and hiding.