Heir of Secrets Read online

  “We’ve never had a thing.” He ran his hands over his shaved, sweat-soaked head. “We just, I don’t know… She wanted to have whatever we had with Jude.”

  “Are you jealous?” Piper asked immediately. I tried to ignore the triumphant smile on her face, but it was kind of hard not to. She was definitely gloating.

  Tristan barked out genuine laughter. “No, I’m not jealous.”

  “But shouldn’t you warn her?” I demanded. I couldn’t; Bree would never listen to me. But she might believe Tristan. “Jude is a super bad guy. You should tell her not to get involved with him.”

  He looked between Piper and me as if he were waiting for one of us to sprout a second head. “I can’t do that. Bree can date whomever she wants. Imagine how that would look to her if I stepped in and told her to stop going after Jude.”

  “Like you care about her. Like you’re her friend.” I argued his point, but I knew he was right. The thing was, I didn’t care that he was right. I didn’t particularly like Bree, but I didn’t want her mixed up with the Duke of Darkness. Jude was nothing but bad news for her.

  “Stel, she gave me a breakup speech, a completely unnecessary breakup speech. If I tell her to stay away from Jude because I don’t think he’s good for her, then Piper’s right. I look jealous. And I am not, in any way, jealous.”

  Piper and I shared a look.

  “He’s right, Stella,” Piper grimaced. “He will look jealous. And so will we if we say anything. Besides, how bad can Jude be?”

  “Bad,” I promised her. “Really bad. Like the embodiment of evil bad.”

  “Yeesh, I know you guys don’t get along, but that’s kind of harsh.” Piper hopped up next to Tristan and wiped her brow with the back of her hand.

  Summers in Nebraska were hot. The temperature today was close to a hundred and the humidity settled over me with choking intensity. The sun burned high in the sky and showed no signs of cloud cover.

  I loved this weather. My skin glowed under the thick warmth, and my blood tingled as it absorbed the sunlight and heat. Of course… I was made from this stuff, so it only made sense. My human friends were dying out here.

  “You don’t know him like I do, Pi” I insisted. “He’s just… he can’t… he’s going to… destroy her.”

  “Who’s destroying who?” Jude popped up on the other side of the truck grinning at me.

  I shot him a pointed glare and then glanced around for Bree. She was nowhere to be found. I didn’t think that was a good sign.

  “That was fast,” I challenged him.

  “You just automatically think the worst of me, don’t you?” Jude walked around to where we were loitering and gave Tristan and Piper a helpless shrug.

  Oh, sure, make me the bad guy.

  Tristan wasn’t sold for a second but Piper frowned uncertainly.

  “Only because you are the worst!” I pointed out.

  “Here we go again.” He reached for another cigarette but there wasn’t one behind his ear. He pursed his lips and started patting his pockets. To Tristan he said, “She’s lonely. Aren’t you supposed to take care of that so the rest of us don’t have to suffer?”

  I saw red, but Tristan just laughed it off. “We’re all suffering, Man.”

  I felt my Light glow brighter as it flushed my skin with outraged heat. Tristan! He was supposed to be on my side. Jude smiled at Tristan like he’d just made a new ally. The two of them could have each other.

  Tristan’s farm sprawled out to the horizon in every direction. We were in the heaviest populated area, but beyond the multiple barns and sheds, farmland greened the ground and boasted of rich earth and careful consideration.

  Brian was a really good farmer. He could make anything grow, or that’s what I’d heard his wife say on multiple occasions. I could appreciate how well off Tristan’s family was, but I appreciated the scenery more.

  Cornstalks stood taller than me, soybean fields rolled over acres, and hay stacked into huge bales dotted the east side of the fields; everything was in its row, and flourishing with life. I loved it out here, especially in the summer.

  My dad kept a small farm that provided enough for us to live by, but nothing like this. Lincoln’s dad had the biggest farm that I knew, but Tristan’s family wasn’t far behind him. As children, we used to spend our time walking the length of the fields, or playing hide and go seek in the tall corn stalks. We would jump from bale to bale or swing from the rope that hung in the middle of one of the newer barns. We would climb up to the loft with rope in hand, secure our foot in the small loop in the bottom and then jump. We were airborne for long, gravity-less moments and then the momentum would catch us and we would swing in wild circles. The hay that pillowed beneath us would catch us if we fell or slipped. Barn kitties would skitter around the floor while we played and laughed.

  This farm represented so much of my childhood, just like Tristan did. It was hard to let this go, or begin to let it go. This was not my life anymore. Even while I was a whole year away from the fullness of my powers and just as far from taking over the Protectorship, still, I could already feel myself pulling away. I could feel my soul turn to other things, and my interests become more serious in nature.

  As much as Tristan’s dig cut at my very fiber, at a belief system I’d held since childhood, I knew this was how it had to be. I loved Tristan, but not like I loved Seth.

  Not anymore.

  “Where’s Bree?” I asked abruptly.

  Jude shrugged. “How should I know?” He finally found a cigarette in his back pocket. He pulled it out and put it to his lips even though it was a little bent in the middle. He turned his head and cupped his hand around the end. From my angle, I watched him light it with the tip of his finger, although he hid it well from Tristan and Piper.

  “Just making sure she’s still… alive.”

  “Geez, Stella! He’s not a serial killer.” Piper jumped off the back of the truck and fanned out her shirt. “How are you not sweating?” she demanded from me. “I’m melting!”

  “I’m sweaty!” I lied. “I had to change my shirt because I was so disgusting.”

  Piper eyed me carefully but seemed to accept this answer.

  Jude snorted out a puff of smoke but didn’t press my half-truth. “You kids busy tomorrow night?”

  “Yes,” I answered immediately, although it was also true.

  “No,” Piper smiled at him which grated against every one of my nerves.

  I just finished telling her that Jude was the embodiment of evil and she was ready to set up plans with him? How did that make sense? Tristan stayed suspiciously silent, too. I expected him to come up with any excuse not to spend a second longer around Jude, but he just sat there… waiting to hear Jude’s suggestion.

  “Well, if the rest of you are down, my parents are out of town this weekend. Bree is helping me throw together a little shindig.” He threw what was left of his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. “You’re invited.”

  Piper looked at me with pleading eyes. “Sounds fun, doesn’t it?”

  “I can’t go.” And I couldn’t. Even if I wanted to go, I couldn’t.

  “Don’t be boring, Stella,” Jude goaded. “It’s just a party.”

  “And I just have plans. Seriously, I would go if I could. But I have this… family thing tomorrow night. I’m going out of town.”

  “Oh yeah,” Piper sighed. “I forgot about that.”

  Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Where are you going again?”

  I dropped my head back and blinked up at the blinding sun. “Far away.”

  “Well, Piper and I will go,” Tristan answered for her.

  I heard the complete shock in her voice before she asked, “What? Like together?”

  “Yeah, like together. Not like a date, but we can go to things together, Piper. The world won’t end.” I almost laughed at Tristan’s challenge. This seemed like a horrible idea. I wondered why Tristan was now trying at their friendship. Before, when it
actually mattered what I thought, he never tried this hard.

  “The world might actually end tomorrow,” Jude interjected. “Is that why you’re leaving, Stella? Is it because the world is going to end?”

  I chuckled at all the double meaning to his questions. “No, the world will be just fine for the foreseeable future. I’m just doing this weekend thing with my parents. It’s no big deal.”

  It was actually a huge deal and I had been freaking out about it for months. Tomorrow, for the first time in my life, I was invited to the Council Summit in the Lower Realms. I would actually travel off planet and hold court with the Elders.

  I experienced a mild panic attack just thinking about it.

  I didn’t really know what the Elders wanted with me, which only made me more nervous. But I also knew they were planning to name the traitor that had been such an issue over the last year. The traitor was responsible for countless deaths, including the Star that had been in charge of the planet before me.

  “Then I’ll see you guys tomorrow night?” Jude asked expectantly.

  “We’ll be there,” Tristan confirmed.

  “Very cool. I’ll text you the address, Shields.” Before I could wrap my head around the fact that at some point Jude and Tristan had exchanged numbers, Jude finished his goodbye with, “Right now, Stella’s going to walk me to my car.”

  “I am?”

  He smirked at me. “Maybe not. But I thought for sure I was about to get another death threat, or at the very least, a lecture on the destructive nature of teenagers.”

  I perked up. “You’re right. I was going to walk you to your car.” I waved at my friends. “Call me later,” I told them both.

  They waved me off. The day was almost over. Tomorrow we would take the kiosk pieces into town and set them up.

  Jude and I walked in silence until we were out of earshot of anyone else. The employees parked in a wide, gravel space designated for us. It wasn’t exactly an employee lot, but something along those lines. During the winter months, Brian pushed all the snow to this area, making it prime snow-fort-building territory.

  “Your parents are out of town?” I shoved him in the back.

  He stumbled a little and shot me a devilish smirk over his shoulder. “Oh, and where are you and the fam taking off to? A bed and breakfast? The Ozarks? Give me a break. You’re going off planet.”

  I sucked in a breath. He wasn’t supposed to know that. More proof there was a traitor feeding information to Aliah’s camp.

  “Is that what your party is about? You think that with me gone you can do whatever the hell you want?” And I meant that quite literally.

  “Yeah, Stella. With you out of the picture, I can throw the high school kegger I’ve always dreamed of. Aliah promised to give me a promotion, just as soon as I get a bunch of country high school kids drunk.”

  Well, when he said it like that, it made less sense that he was throwing a party and inviting my friends.

  “Then what’s this about Jude? Why the sudden need to make friends and influence people?”

  He reached my Malibu and leaned against it. “Someone’s been catching up on their summer reading.”

  “I’m being serious. If you hurt my friends in anyway, I will kill you.” I took a step closer to him, hoping to come across as intimidating. “That is not one of my flippant threats, by the way. That’s the real deal. If something happens to Piper or Tristan, you’re finished. I don’t give a damn about what that means to the contract. I will end you.”

  “God, you’re cranky.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “It’s almost unbearable.”

  “Shut up,” I growled. “I have a lot going on right now! And you’re not helping.”

  He smirked at me. “Am I supposed to be helping you?”

  I ignored him. “No shenanigans tomorrow night. I’m going to have someone watch your house. I’m serious.”

  “The replacement Stella? Do you think she’s more fun?”

  I pushed him again. “There’re about thirty replacement-Stella’s. I’m sure all of them will be as over you as I am.”

  I pulled open my door and double checked that my keys were still in the ignition and my purse on the floor. This was the country; every car out here kept the keys in the ignition and left their doors unlocked. That was just our way of life.

  Jude stopped me with a hand on my door. “Seth says hi by the way.”

  “Yeah?” I didn’t even bother taking him seriously. “Did you have the weekly Darkside meeting last night?”

  He chuckled. “Something like that. But I’m just kidding. He didn’t say hi.”

  “You’re such an ass.”

  He smiled at me and it almost seemed genuine. “Be careful tomorrow. I’ve heard multiple things about this traitor of yours. You wouldn’t want to cross paths with him. Or her. Or it. Or me.”

  “I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to cross paths with him, or her, or it… or you. What happens to the contract if something happens to me off planet? Are you still the responsible party?”

  “Don’t let something happen to you, Stella. I’m not messing around.” And he really wasn’t. He was incredibly serious.

  “I’m almost hoping something does.” I smiled at him and dropped to the driver’s seat. He glared at me while I turned the car on and pulled out. He was right about one thing, I was cranky.

  But I felt much better now that I knew he was, too.

  Chapter Two

  “Mom!” I yelled as soon as I walked in the door. The house was quiet and still, so I didn’t think anyone was home, but I couldn’t stop the compulsion to call out for someone.

  I threw myself into a chair at the kitchen table and immediately began ripping my hair out of the hair tie. I smelled like farm, sunshine and Shadow. And those things did not mix well together.

  I looked at the refrigerator and imagined a cold bottle of water inside. But I sat there and just kept imagining it.

  I was exhausted. And not from work, because that was… well, it was work and it didn’t really bother me. I was exhausted from life.

  And I was still a week away from being seventeen.

  I shouldn’t feel this… weary.

  But I did.

  I felt it to my bones.

  I missed him. So much. So very, very much.

  For a long time, I tried to understand his decision to leave me. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let myself believe he did this for me. He did this because he loved me.

  But those feelings had faded and now I felt instead, like he’d abandoned me. He didn’t even ask me what I thought he should do. He just left.

  Me.

  He left me.

  And he left me to pick up the pieces of the world he shattered around me.

  I swallowed the emotion that rose like an ocean wave in my chest threatening to knock me down and sweep me away. I wouldn’t cry about this anymore. I wanted him back so I would fight for him. I couldn’t fathom not fighting for him. But his absence cut me deeper than any sword ever could.

  I just wanted him near me. I wanted him laughing with me and fighting beside me, I wanted him running missions and protecting me. I wanted his arms that felt like a sanctuary around me and his lips that felt like heaven on me.

  I never wanted to face leaving him again.

  I wanted this stupid part of my life to be over.

  The kitchen door thrust open and I spun around, expecting my parents. Jupiter stumbled into the kitchen, dripping neon-tinged blood all over the hands that were trying to hold his insides together.

  “Oh, my gosh!” I jumped out of my chair and ran over to him. “What happened?”

  He mumbled something completely incoherent and staggered forward. The fast flow of blood sloshed all over his booted feet and the formerly clean kitchen floor. It sizzled as it landed, burning pock marks in the tile. He collapsed onto one knee and I caught him under his shoulder just in time to keep him from face-planting.

  He lurched to
the side in an attempt to lie down, so I helped him onto his back. He clutched at his insides, physically holding in some funky looking innards and all that too-bright, too-hot blood. I couldn’t tell if he would be able to heal from this or not.

  And that scared the hell out of me.

  “What do I do?” I pleaded with him.

  He shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he rasped out. “I just need… I need a moment.” His eyes fluttered shut and I let out a strangled cry.

  I grasped his shoulders and dug my fingernails in. “Wake up! Wake! Up!”

  “Seth.” His voice was a throaty command that sounded wet from too many fluids. “Seth is out there.”

  “No,” I denied him. I tried to press my hands against his blade wound. Now that I knew Seth was out there somewhere, I could easily identify the weapon that did this to Jupiter. It would look like a pirate sword. It would be thick with a curved blade that came to a point. It would be as familiar to me as the man wielding it.

  “He’s out there, Stella. Go to him.” Jupiter’s red eyes dulled to a pale pink.

  “I’m not leaving you,” I promised him. “Screw him.”

  “I’m fine,” he grated. “My body… my body is healing.”

  I felt the tug to hunt down Seth. I couldn’t even pretend to ignore it. My heart pulled me in the direction of my Counterpart, my body hummed with a longing I didn’t fully understand and my chest eased in just the slightest way.

  He was near.

  He had just stabbed his mentor and father figure. But he was close.

  Wait, I should process this.

  “He stabbed you?” I all but shrieked at the nearly-knocked-out Jupiter.

  He nodded.

  “He stabbed you?” Jupiter wasn’t nearly as freaked out as I was, and fatal injury or not, I really thought he should have a little enthusiasm about the events that brought him to my kitchen floor so that he could bleed out and burn a hole through the tile with his alien blood.

  I heard a car pull up outside. My head popped up and I looked down at Jupiter guiltily. I couldn’t leave him here.

  Even if that was my parents.