Secret Keepers: The Complete Series

by Jaymin Eve

  My nose crinkled as I stared around trying to figure out where the hell I was. It was a room of egg-shaped pods. Everything was very white, like I could barely make out another tone or shade in the place. Daniel stepped out of the egg we’d apparently been in, and started making his way through the other pods, which were closed, but I could see shadows within them. Were they…?

  Holy crap. This place was filled with dead souls, or dead … Daelighters. Whatever the hell they were. It was taking every ounce of my willpower not to start freaking out. I just kept telling myself I was stronger than this. I’d faced struggles my entire life. I could manage this next little hurdle.

  Hurrying after Daniel, I caught up to him in moments. When the long white room ended, we exited out into a dark world. I couldn’t see what was above us, but I got the feeling that it was not sky up there. That panicked feeling returned, so I forced my mind to focus on the rest of this world around us.

  We were on top of a cliff. The white building behind us was tall, seeming to hold many more floors than the egg one. There were a few other scattered buildings further back as well. In front of us was a series of staggered cliffs … levels, like a staircase for giants. I moved forward, trying to comprehend what it all was.

  “The Cascading Justices,” Daniel explained, his voice low. “When someone dies in Overworld, they come here. They end up in the incubation level first, where we just were. There they are weighed. Their good and bad deeds are tallied, and then they are given choices. Those who have pure souls are allowed to be reborn, or they can spend their days in the utopian land at the base of the justices. Those who have darkness in their soul are dropped into the justices. The purer of a soul you have, the lower you’ll start. Eventually you’ll get to the bottom level. The truly terrible souls, like my uncle’s, end up on this first level.”

  He pointed down over the cliff to what looked like a ton of trees below. “It’s next to impossible for them to journey to peace from here, so they get stuck living out their days in one of these levels.”

  The top levels were filled with monsters, and lava, and creature-infested water. All the things which were not going to make the afterlife easy or comfortable or fun.

  “They can die again?” I asked, trying not to stare at the screaming souls in the level with the fire and lava.

  Daniel shook his head. “No, there’s only one death. This is their afterlife, where they can enjoy torture over and over without relief.”

  Whoa. “Remind me not to be an asshole during my life, because I really don’t want to end up there.”

  Daniel actually smiled at that one. “Most beings have more purity than darkness in their souls. These upper levels of the justices are reserved for the truly evil. If you land in one of the bottom three, you’ll eventually make it to utopia. To redemption. You just have to work a little harder for it.”

  “What’s the normal lifespan of a Daelighter?”

  Daniel’s expression turned contemplative; there was a decided spark of something in his face then. Amusement, I would guess. “We’re long-lived, let’s just put it that way. Age is not something that brings death.”

  That was amusing. And terrifying. And impossible to comprehend. Tied to him and this land now, I wondered if I too would be “long-lived.”

  “So Laous killed me…” It was the elephant in the underworld, what had happened to me. I was starting to wrap my head around it … around what I had become. I was ready to learn more. “He got my blood. I’m sorry I didn’t stop him.”

  Daniel’s arm brushed mine and I wanted to touch him so badly I had to clench my fists and plaster my hands to my sides.

  “None of this is your fault,” he told me.

  I changed the subject. “How did you find me? It seemed like you appeared from nothing as soon as he cut my throat.” The roar had been Daniel, I knew that now. Without a doubt.

  He hesitated briefly, and some of the fury was back in his expression. “The council knew he took you to Imperial. They can track him through the transporter and network, even though they’re often a step too late to actually stop him. So I was already here, searching for you. Then when he tried to kill you, he dropped his warding. I know your energy; I found you through the network. I came straight for you.”

  He’d saved my life. His quick actions and sacrifice of his own soul, or whatever happened, had brought me back to life. This was the part of the story I truly couldn’t understand. “Why did you save me?” My voice was doing some sort of stupid breathy thing, but Daniel had literally saved my life. It was a big deal. When he didn’t answer, I hurried on, “Surely it’s going to be inconvenient to have me attached to you for eternity.”

  Or however long I was going to live now.

  He turned away from me to stare out across the world he was the ruler of. I didn’t push; there was no rush. He would either answer eventually … or we could just live in this awkward silence.

  “It was my duty to keep you safe,” he said without inflection. “I failed at that duty.”

  I thought he was going to leave it at that, but then he continued: “I’ve been left for dead before.” A hard murmur. “Discarded on the floor like I was nothing. When I saw you there, all of the blood surrounding you, I just … couldn’t let you die like that.”

  No part of me believed he’d been a victim like me. Even when he was hit with that special stone, his energy shorting out all over the place, he’d still fought against it.

  But maybe he was talking about a time when he was young. Which had all of these soft feelings hitting me again. Baby Daniel should have been protected, and I hated that he had lived a life where that wasn’t possible.

  “What is the plan now?” I asked, straightening. Death had rattled me – understandably so – but I was ready to take this asshole down. I also needed to know where my mom was. Laous had been weirdly cagey about that.

  Daniel turned to face me, expression somber. “The council is taking immediate action. They’ve called a meeting, and all overlords are required to attend. They’ve been trying to keep this under wraps, but they’re starting to see that it’s bigger than they can contain. It’s time for everyone to know what’s been going on, to prepare for the fallout should Laous succeed in breaking the treaty with Earth.”

  “If I’m with you, I can leave the underworld?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I have the energy of House of Imperial within me. I will keep you tethered. The strongest tie your soul has is to me – Imperial is second – because I was the only thing there for it to cling onto.”

  It was his heartbeat I heard when mine stopped. His heart keeping the blood pumping in my body.

  “Thank you,” I said, with more passion than I usually showed. “I’m sure I’ve seemed a little ungrateful, but I know you did everything you could to save me. I’ll forever be in your debt.”

  Daniel just stared at me, and again I was getting the sense that he didn’t know how to feel about his new burden either. With a final nod, he turned to head back to the egg building.

  I hurried to follow after him, not wanting to be left behind in this strange world. As we stepped back inside, I noticed there were Daelighters everywhere. Whoa. Either they came out of nowhere, or I totally spaced the first time we walked through.

  As we passed, many of them lowered their heads to Daniel, some placing hands on their forehead in what looked like a gesture of respect. For all I knew that was their way of flipping each other off, but it didn’t feel like that.

  Daniel nodded to each in return, and I sensed his discomfort as he continued forward in long graceful strides. I had to take three steps to keep up with each one of his. At the back of the room of eggs, there was a sink next to another doorway.

  “You might want to wash up best you can,” Daniel said, before he pushed open the door.

  Glancing down, I shuddered at the red staining my skin and clothes. Hurrying forward, I let the thick water run over me, and without almost any scrubbing it sucked the
blood from my hands and arms. There wasn’t much I could do about my clothes, but by the time I stepped into the room after Daniel, most of my skin was blood free.

  The new room was a small, stone-lined area, nothing like the white, sterile environment of the eggs. The only thing in there was a ball of light … actually, it was more like a ball made up of lots of strands of light, that moved about constantly.

  “This is a transporter,” Daniel explained when I joined him, close to the lights. “This is just a small one, which will take us to the large permanent one between Earth and Overworld. That transporter is the one which gives us power and keeps our network functioning. Most of my council and advisers have gone on ahead, so we need to hurry.”

  “I really should change first,” I said, waving my hands across my bloody clothes. Thankfully my Converse were dark, so if there was blood on them I couldn’t see it.

  He shook his head. “Most of it is off your skin, which I needed to happen, because seeing you coated in blood was not doing much for my control. The rest can wait. We don’t want to be late. I need to hear what they have to say. I need to be there to keep my house in order.” He held out a hand and I stared at it. “You’ll have to hold my hand. You can’t navigate the network without me.”

  Okay, then. My independence was pretty much toast anyway. Might as well get used to being a puppet. I reached out and his hand engulfed mine. He was gentle for such a huge guy.

  “Do your tattoos mean something?” I asked, catching sight of them as he turned.

  I wanted to know all the things about him, and this world I was now in. Maybe there was actually a chance at the freedom I had always craved, if I could just learn my place.

  He ran his free hand across the maroon marks on his head. “They’re the symbols of an overlord. Each holds different meaning, written in the old language. Most Daelighters who are fit to be overlord are born with them. Some develop them later, or like Laous have them marked on their skin with ink.” He ran a hand across his shoulder and down his chest. “My marks are all the way down to my waist on one side. We’re the only House to have this happen.”

  “What do yours mean?”

  No doubt that was a hugely personal question, but what the hell. Our souls were tied together. Did it get any more personal than that?

  Daniel let out a derisive sound. “Bringer of light. Keeper of souls. Unification of worlds.”

  Those words hung heavy in the air, like they were more than just words. Like they were a prophecy of sorts. They suited him, though … felt right.

  Daniel pulled me a little closer and I let him do it. Before I knew it, we were stepping toward the ball of light. He reached out, grabbed one of those strands, and my cry was lost as we were sucked into the brightness. Immediately I closed my eyes, because the sensation of travelling along this stream of energy was disconcerting and nauseating. I felt like a wimp not taking it all in, but I was also trying to give myself a break from the pressure to be perfect all the time. A break from having to always be strong. I’d lived in a world of fear and anger and control for eighteen years. Then I died. It could have all been a waste. I would not squander whatever time I had been given now.

  “You can open your eyes.” Daniel’s rumbly voice sounded mildly amused.

  When my eyes flung open, I immediately tried to take in everything around us. Which was impossible, because there was so much to see. Hundreds of Daelighters were already gathered, but they were standing a little away, clearly waiting for this all to start. Moving past them, I focused on everything else. We were on a huge circular platform with a diameter of at least a mile, or maybe even two. A ball of light – the permanent transporter we’d just stepped from, I would guess – was right in the center of it all.

  The platform appeared to be made of metal, and carved into the metallic-like surface were lots of symbols like those marked on Daniel’s neck and side of his head. More of their ancient language, no doubt. Moving away from Daniel, I remembered my almost-death – and new dependency – and halted before turning back to meet his hooded gaze. He seemed to know exactly what was worrying me.

  “You don’t have to stay by my side, Callie. As long as you are within a few hundred feet of me, you won’t fade away.”

  I sucked in a relieved breath. That was a win, because I’d freaked that maybe I’d literally have to stick to his side at all times. “It will get easier,” he added.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, wondering if he meant that figuratively or literally. Because in lots of aspects, I was already coming around to the entire concept. Maybe I’d have a breakdown later, but so far, I was okay. I’d always been very good at taking things in stride. As long as I understood what was going on, that there was a logical reason for what was happening, my brain could deal.

  He took a step closer to me and I tilted my head back to keep his face in my line of sight. It was odd for me to have to look up at someone like this; my height usually gave me the advantage.

  “I don’t know for certain,” he said, “because this sort of bond has never happened in my lifetime, or to my knowledge, but we did learn during our schooling years that a soul link can charge up over time. Your soul will grow stronger again. Eventually, you’ll be able to spend extended periods of time away from me and my land.”

  OhmyGod. I didn’t think, I just launched myself at him, hugging my arms around him. “Thank you,” I murmured. “Thank you for that sliver of hope…” My voice caught, but I pushed through to add, “And thank you for being the only alien I could imagine being bonded to.”

  It was an irrefutable truth. There had been a comfort with Daniel right from the start. I’d never given Michaels the time of day, but those inner securities never kicked in with the Daelighter I was hugging. Fate had doubly blessed me, because without Daniel I would be dead, and if another Daelighter had been the one to bond me, I might have wished I was dead.

  When I pulled back, there was a moment of awkwardness there, but then it drifted away in the breeze. I turned back to stare out across the view, and he stayed at my side.

  “That’s House of Darken,” he said, pointing toward a land filled with snow-topped mountains, and gorgeous valleys and streams. It was so pretty that I let out an exaggerated sigh of appreciation.

  “I’ve never seen anything like that before. It looks almost like a fairy tale,” I murmured, awe lacing my words.

  Daniel made a sound of agreement. “My best friend is the overlord minor there. He will take over from his father one day. Lexen and his draygone are the rulers of this land, and they would not tolerate anyone hurting her.”

  Draygone? That had sounded an awful lot like dragon, only all drawled out and slow. But surely they didn’t have dragons … that would be … impossible? The fact I was on an alien planet and still somehow thought things were impossible was not speaking highly of my intelligence.

  Only one way to find out. “Is a draygone … a dragon? Like the myth on Earth?”

  Daniel’s lips twitched, probably at my lame attempt of mimicking his accent. “Yes, they would be closest to your dragon. Daelighters have been crossing to Earth for thousands of years, long before our treaty arose, creating the similarities in our language.”

  Okay, that was pretty cool. Also, the fact he had a best friend with a pet dragon … yep, Daniel would definitely be the quarterback in my high-school fantasy.

  “So, overlord minor is like … second in line?” I asked, trying to piece this world and its leaders together.

  “Yes,” he confirmed. “Overlord major is the highest leader of the house, together with their partner. The overlord can be male or female, depending on who is more suited to the crown. But always in the same family group. There are other roles for members of the overlord’s family, but the major and minor are the most important.”

  And Daniel was an overlord major. Almost. Which was a really big deal. Before I could freak out more, he pointed toward his left.

  “That is House of Royale.�
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  There seemed to be three distinct landscapes surrounding this disc, all of them extending out into the distance with no end in sight. House of Darken was the largest, taking up a decent portion of the space, but the House of Royale, where he was pointing now, was a close second.

  It was a world of only water, beautiful blues and golds mingling together in a long calm line of tranquility. My heart started to hammer hard in my chest as I stared and stared. “Daelighters live there?” I asked, taking a few steps forward.

  “Yep, they’re our legreto … water dwellers. Able to exist on both worlds.”

  Wait a freaking minute. “Water dwellers?” I choked out. “Like … merpeople?”

  I loved mermaid movies when I was young – literally my favorite for years. I knew every line of the few I owned word for word, and watching them were some of the only times I could remember being happy.

  Before Daniel could stop me, I was sprinting toward the edge of the round circle, heading toward the world of blue, green, and gold. Low, heady laughter followed me as I ran, my heart almost bursting with joy as I let the beauty of the water entrance me. Somehow, Daniel was right at my side when we reached the edge. I stared down into the clear depths, trying to see something.

  “Xander Royale is another one of my best friends,” he explained, and I tore my gaze from the water to him. “He’s the overlord minor of Royale. I’ll make sure you meet him, one day, when everything calms down. He might even be able to show you some of their world below.”

  I gasped and reached out to grasp onto his shirt. “I would love you forever.”

  He chuckled again, tilting his head to the side, examining me. I swallowed roughly, suddenly feeling a little exposed. Probably a little too soon to throw out the L word, even if we were soul-bound.

  “What?” I asked when he continued to stare at me that way.

  “You’re just really different to the person I first met in NOLA. You should let your guard down more. It’s a good look on you.”