Heir of Secrets Read online

  Heir of Secrets

  The Starbright Series

  Book Three

  By Rachel Higginson

  Copyright@ Rachel Higginson 2014

  This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights: you are not allowed to give, copy, scan, distribute or sell this book to anyone else.

  Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.

  Any people or places are strictly fictional and not based on anything else, fictional or non-fictional.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copy Editing by Carolyn Moon

  Cover Design by Caedus Design Co.

  Other Books Now Available by Rachel Higginson

  Love and Decay, Season One, Episodes One-Twelve

  Love and Decay, Season Two, Episodes One-Twelve

  Love and Decay, Volume One (Episodes One-Six, Season One)

  Love and Decay, Volume Two (Episodes Seven-Twelve, Season One)

  Love and Decay, Volume Three (Episodes One-Four, Season Two)

  Love and Decay, Volume Four (Episodes Five-Eight, Season Two)

  Love and Decay, Volume Five (Episodes Nine-Twelve, Season Two)

  Reckless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 1)

  Hopeless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 2)

  Fearless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 3)

  Endless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 4)

  The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 5)

  The Relentless Warrior (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 6)

  Breathless Magic (the Star-Crossed Series, Book 6.5)

  Heir of Skies (The Starbright Series, Book 1)

  Heir of Darkness (The Starbright Series, Book 2)

  Heir of Secrets (The Starbright Series, Book 3)

  The Rush (The Siren Series, Book 1)

  The Fall (The Siren Series, Book 2)

  Bet in the Dark (An NA Contemporary Romance)

  Striking (The Forged in Fire Series) This is a co-authored Contemporary NA

  To Stella Victoria, my Star.

  Chapter One

  I tracked the little bastard to the far side of the barn. I knew the evasive runt had been watching me for a while, but I hadn’t been able to get away until now.

  As stealthily as I could, I slipped a butterfly knife from the pocket of my denim, cut-off shorts and flipped the blade open. The knife wasn’t exactly made from the strongest steel, but it had been blessed by a priest, so I knew it would get the job done.

  If only I could get the job done.

  I lost it in the obscurities of the dark corner. No surprise there, since it was made of the same material as the Darkness it cowered in. But I was so frustrated!

  The Shadow had been bothering me all morning, buzzing around my head like a pesky fly and landing on me whenever I stopped paying attention to it so I could actually do my job. Brian, Tristan’s dad and my summer employer, had been giving me concerned looks all day. He no doubt, thought I was bonkers.

  I kicked the hay-covered ground and pressed deeper into the corner. It was around here somewhere…

  I just… had to…

  I threw myself forward and stabbed my knife into the slatted floor. This was the oldest barn on Tristan’s property, the original Shield’s barn. The walls swayed back and forth wildly when there was any hint of wind and the roof sagged on every side. My knife sunk into the weathered wood but caught the Shadow by the tail.

  He sizzled beneath the tip of my blade but it wasn’t enough to end him. I’d have to remove my weapon and stab him closer to the middle of his slimy, slender body. He would definitely run though.

  I would have to be fast.

  I lit up just a little bit so that I could be as capable and ready as possible. The dark corner of this barn glowed in the soft light of my inner Star, and the hay around me shriveled and turned black with the heat.

  On the count of three. One… Two…

  “Is this like your come-hither position?” Jude’s voice cut through my thoughts and made me jump out of my skin.

  I accidentally pulled my knife back and the wounded Shadow tried to slink away. I pushed up on my free hand and launched my body in a belly flop. Not my most graceful moment, but I got the damn thing! Putrid, black slime splashed in my face as the tiny demon burst like a water balloon.

  I let out some sound that was half-triumphant scream, half-frustrated growl. I couldn’t decide whether to be satisfied with my kill or irritated that I’d gotten slimed in the face.

  I rolled onto my back and looked up at Jude. He stood over me with a shit-eating grin on his face. His hair had been recently shaved on the sides, but the top was longish and wild. Sometime over the summer, I’d started to believe he shopped in the children’s department because his shirts were tight and formed to his body and he was so super skinny. He was nothing but long, lanky limbs and sculpted muscle.

  Jude Michaels, the dark angel that stalked me, bothered me and all around annoyed the ever-loving hell out of me. He had been assigned to watch over me until I turned eighteen. Basically, Team Evil sent him over to keep the contract they had with my counterpart, Seth, in working order.

  If something happened to me, Seth got a free shot at hacking Aliah’s head off. If something happened to Jude, Aliah got to take the sword to Seth’s head. Jude was the third party in the third-party-soul contract Seth had signed with Aliah to keep me safe until my eighteenth birthday. And I was an innocent victim in all of this.

  Okay… innocent wasn’t exactly the right adjective to use.

  I hated every part of this stupid contract. I preferred Seth by my side with his soul fully intact. And if I could never set eyes on Jude again, I would be one happy girl.

  “That wasn’t very nice,” Jude pouted. “He was a friend of mine.”

  I snorted. “Did you want to join him? I could make that happen.”

  Jude scowled and pulled a cigarette from behind his ear. He lit up and watched me climb to my feet. I gave him my back and used the bottom of my t-shirt to wipe my face clean. I smelled like sulfur and hell. There was no hiding this. I needed to leave early or “accidentally” fall in the lake.

  Again.

  Tristan’s dad probably thought I was the biggest idiot he’d ever hired. Even though I’d worked on his farm for the past two summers, I had never acted like this much of an airhead before.

  But in the past, I never had to contend with Shadows that bothered me so aggressively, or a Darkness so intent on driving me crazy. Always before, they had left me alone because they didn’t know who I was.

  Not so anymore.

  “You’re grumpy today,” he took a step closer. “Is it because you smell bad?”

  “Are you really smoking in here?” I gestured at all the dry hay at our feet. “Do you want to burn this place to ground?”

  His smile returned. “Now that sounds like loads of fun.”

  “I will murder you, Jude. Do not take out all your evil impulses on this family. Brian was nice enough to give you a job. You! He gave you a job. Obviously, there were some charity-driven motives involved. Do not piss on their innocentl
y bleeding hearts!”

  He got right up in my face. The scent of burning tobacco filled my nostrils and crackled in my lungs. “That’s two death threats in less than two minutes. You’re clearly projecting. Seth’s gone and doesn’t want you anymore. Your human crush has moved on. Even Aliah doesn’t want anything to do with you these days. I’m saddened to see you take out all that pent up hostility on me. It’s kind of pathetic, Stel. Do you need to talk to someone?”

  “Can it be you?” I forced out in a voice dripping with acid. “Can I talk to you about it?”

  He shook his head, looking completely disgusted. “No, are you crazy? Don’t be weird.”

  “You don’t be weird.” I made another swipe at my face, not bothering to turn around this time. “What are you doing back here anyway? Following me?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Just making sure you don’t injure yourself. Wouldn’t want you to accidentally stab yourself with your itty-bitty butter knife.”

  “This is not a butter knife! And it did the job!”

  “Come on, that thing doesn’t even come with a child warning label. You’re making a mockery of the fine art of killing.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “I bet that Shadow didn’t even take you seriously.”

  “He’s dead. I’m alive. It doesn’t matter if he took me seriously or not because I still won.”

  He grew uncharacteristically thoughtful when he scolded me, “Just take this seriously, Stella. We don’t have time for you screw this up.”

  “We?”

  “Yeah, me and my soul. You forget I’m part of this contract, too.”

  That didn’t sound right. I got the distinct impression that Jude was hiding something. I didn’t know what triggered my instinct, but I couldn’t deny the fact that Jude looked… suspicious. More suspicious than usual. But then he sucked in a long drag of cigarette and blew it out directly in my face. I forgot about being suspicious and decided to try out my itty-bitty butter knife on his jugular.

  I threw my hands up, completely exasperated with this boy-demon. “Look at what I’m wearing! What exactly do you expect me to carry?”

  He pulled a sizable dagger from his cargo pocket and waggled his eyebrows at me. I stopped myself from laughing. When he showed up to work this morning, I had thought his choice of cargo capris was a little ridiculous for work on the farm; but then again this was Jude, and nothing he did made any sense. He probably didn’t know any better than to assume everyone dressed European Chic in the middle of Nebraska. Now his big pockets made sense.

  “I don’t even want to know why you have that thing with you,” I bit out. “Like you said, nobody’s making any attempts on my life these days.”

  “You’re not the only one with enemies, Starling. Get over yourself.” He slid the dagger back into his pockets and his tattooed collarbone blinked at me in the dim light of the barn.

  I opened my mouth to deliver another witty line when a voice called from the front of the barn, “Jude?”

  “Back here, Gorgeous,” he answered without turning away from me. To me, he said, “You finished fighting crime? I need this space now.”

  Was he kidding? “Are you kidding?”

  His lips twisted into a lascivious smirk. “Just testing out as many country clichés as I can before this gig ends.”

  “I’m not even going to ask what that means.” I tried to shove by him but he caught me by the arm.

  “Roll in the hay. Obviously.”

  “You’re so gross.”

  “So are you,” he shot back. “And you have a little bit of goo…” He fingered a few strands of my hair. “You should do something about that.”

  Before I could reply, Bree Henry bounced into our corner. “There you are!” she exclaimed and then noticed me. “Oh, Stella.”

  “Don’t worry,” I quickly assured her. “I’m just leaving. This lovely place is all yours.”

  Jude grinned stupidly at me. “See you later, Stel.”

  “Not later enough.” I finally got by him only to brush by Bree.

  “Oh, Stella! What is that smell!”

  I ignored her and stomped through the barn. I could hear them talking about me, but the driving need to get out of whatever was happening between them overrode the desire to stand up for myself.

  Bree and Jude? Gross.

  Worst couple ever.

  Despite my attempts to flee, I still heard Bree ask, “What was she doing back here?”

  And then to my utter horror, Jude replied, “Come here, I’ll show you.”

  Bree giggled uncontrollably and I knew for certain that was not what I was doing back there. But it was so nice of Jude to plant the seed. I was sure those rumors would be all over town before supper tonight.

  “Gross, Jude! She smelled so bad!”

  I stepped out into the light of the afternoon and breathed in the fresh freedom. I should have let the Shadow live.

  Nothing was worth going through that.

  I decided I would avoid all dark corners or empty barns for the rest of the summer. And maybe I should figure out a way to warn Bree away from Jude. As much as I couldn’t stand her, she didn’t deserve to have her heart torn out by someone that evil.

  I jogged over to the Malibu that had officially become mine over the summer. My mom upgraded to a new model, and the keys were passed to me so I could have the means to get around the Nebraska countryside.

  Not that I needed a car to get around… but it was for all those human moments when flying wasn’t exactly practical.

  I popped the trunk and glanced around the gravel drive, looking to make sure nobody was over here. I pulled a fresh shirt out and as fast as I could, exchanged the gooey, smelly one for a clean, red Mead High basketball tee. I balled up the old one and stuffed it into a plastic sack. After too many days of this same routine, I’d learned to stay prepared. I grabbed some fresh facial wipes next and attended to my neck, face and the ends of my ponytail. Finally, I redid my hair into a high messy-bun and called it good.

  I had more work to do before the end of the day, so I hurried as quickly as I could to get back to the main part of the farm.

  Tristan’s dad was one of the many commercial farmers around here. And during the peak seasons, he always hired high school students to fill his slave labor quota. During the first part of the summer, we got our hands dirty with serious manual labor. While he never let us have the fun jobs, like driving the combines, he did make us work for every bit of our minimum wage paychecks.

  The second half of the summer was usually more fun. The Shield’s had a stand they kept in Omaha, the closest big city, that sold all kinds of produce. Although the produce stand wasn’t a mainstream source of income for them, they kept enough product on hand to sell during the summer for extra cash. Tristan, Piper and I got to be in charge of the stand in town and that made the hottest months of the summer infinitely better than the first part.

  We were preparing the stand now, but it didn’t start for another two days.

  I found Piper and Tristan loading up the individual wooden pieces that we would have to assemble on site into the back of Tristan’s truck. Building the stand and setting up would take a few days, but after everything was together, Piper worked on her tan, Tristan picked up every girl our age that walked into the little kiosk and I read my latest book.

  This was how summers went by for the last three years and I hoped this one would be no different. I needed some stability in my life. I needed for something to be relaxed and normal. Routine.

  “There she is,” Piper drawled. “Did you have a nice break?”

  “I didn’t… Yes,” I sighed. “Lovely.”

  Tristan chuckled and dropped down on the open bed of his truck. He was shirtless and sweaty. His short dark hair glistened in the afternoon sun and droplets of sweat ran down his forehead and muscled chest. Honestly, at any other time in my life, I could have easily spent hours ogling this boy.

  But those days were over.<
br />
  Actually, seeing him like this and not feeling any stirring of butterflies, created an ache in my chest so strong I thought it would split me in two.

  Looking at Tristan like this, when other, normal girls would drool and pant and throw themselves down at his feet, while I felt nothing but the hollowness of loss and loneliness, made my eyes sting and my nose run.

  Gosh, I missed Seth.

  Missed him so much my fingers trembled and my throat started hurting. I hadn’t seen him since school got out. Not even a glimpse.

  And the last time we had been face to face wasn’t exactly under the best circumstances.

  Unless you considered trying to kill each other the best circumstances.

  My mood switched so completely that my body rocked with the force of my depression. I felt more alone than ever these days. I had always felt the difference between Piper, Tristan and me. But now that distinction had grown into a distance that spanned worlds.

  My solitude had grown into a living thing that separated me from the world I was supposed to protect and the boy that was supposed to protect it with me. I stood in the middle of the ocean, an island by myself.

  And that kind of silence had started to affect me… change me… poison me.

  In an effort to feel more like myself, I shared some gossip with my friends. “You will never guess who I saw meeting Jude in the barn.”

  “Which barn?” Tristan asked logistically.

  I gave them a suggestive eyebrow raise. “The old barn.”

  Piper gasped, “Who?”

  “Bree!” I whisper-shouted my juicy secret.

  “No way!” Piper punched me in the arm.

  I grabbed my bicep and rubbed it soothingly while adding the appropriate amount of drama to my tone. “Yes way!”

  Tristan grunted but didn’t add anything to the conversation.

  Piper rolled her eyes at him and asked, “I thought Bree and you had a thing?”