The Nexis Secret: YA Fantasy Romance (The Nexis Angel Series Book 1)

by Barbara Hartzler

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” He drew in a sharp breath, the hollowness in his voice hitting me in the stomach.

  “Are you even listening?” I could practically feel his stare, but I just looked straight ahead. “Tony was right there and the guy had just left. You weren’t close enough.”

  He puffed out his chest. Silence hung heavy in the room. Nobody asked me to elaborate and I wouldn’t volunteer any more details. No way.

  “It still doesn’t prove anything.”

  On my heel, I pivoted toward him, only to find a hard line chiseled into his jawbone.

  It burned my eyes into slits. “Do you want to go back to that gallery and see for yourself?”

  “Maybe I will.” He stared me down, as if he could get me to surrender.

  “Be my guest.” I pursed my lips at him. “But you won’t catch me stepping one measly toe in that building ever again.”

  “Enough. We’re getting off track.” Tony sliced his hand into the space between us. “My turn. All I remember was how Lucy almost fainted, like she’d seen a ghost or something. I went over to help her up. She pointed to a weird symbol on one Felicia’s paintings and mumbled something about the Seer and Felicia. I told her to show me.”

  “That’s when you raced out of the gallery.” Brooke adjusted her glasses like giant microscopes as she studied my face, then Tony’s.

  “That’s right.” He leveled his gaze at her. “We followed them down the street. At the subway entrance I saw his profile. He definitely had the symbol around his neck, the same one on the painting.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest, angled at Bryan like some kind of guy challenge.

  “So you’re saying Felicia’s dad is part of the Watchers, Felicia, too? That she’s some kind of double agent?” He squared off in Tony’s direction.

  “That’s it. That’s where that symbol is from.” He dropped his arms and smacked his forehead. “I don’t know how deep they’re in, I’m just telling you what I saw. What we saw. Do you really think we can trust her?”

  “Of course I do. She’s a member of the Guardians. A full member.” Bryan turned back my direction for a nanosecond. Long enough it burned me.

  “And yet, she put some kind of Watcher symbol on her painting, whatever that means. Strange, don’t you think?” I stepped in, matching his pointed stare.

  He backed up. “It’s still not enough proof to convict her.”

  “What are you talking about?” I pounced forward, caught in some kind of cage match. “I’m not asking you to convict her, or whatever you full members do. I’m just asking you to believe me. I’ve never even heard of the Watchers, or anything else you’ve been keeping from me. Why would I lie?”

  “Lucy, I’m not saying you’re lying.” His hand eased out, caressing my elbow. “I just think you might’ve seen things wrong, misunderstood something. There’s got to be some other explanation.”

  “All I wanted was a little trust, but I guess I’m asking too much.” I jerked back my arm. Pressure pounded up my eye sockets, threatening to spill over. I bit into my lip, hard. As a tear slid down my cheek, I ran across the room, into the darkness of the turret.

  “Don’t be like that. C’mon, Lucy.” His words faded into the shadows, but his footsteps clomped closer. In seconds, he stood over me in utter darkness, no flashlight in hand. Moonlight from the portholes slid along the outlines of his features, outlining his forehead, eyelashes, the tip of his nose. Gritty fingers brushed my cheek. “I’m sorry, I really am. I want to believe in both of you.”

  With his breath on my forehead, his hand on my cheek, I could barely breathe let alone think. “I get that, but I know what I saw. There has to be some kind of explanation.”

  His mouth curved up as he came closer. “We’ll find it, together.”

  I nodded up at him and he pulled me in, wrapping his arms around me so tight. I hugged him back, not ready to face the others just yet.

  He pulled back an inch. “Hold up, you said the symbol was the mark of the Seer, right?”

  Again I nodded, craning my neck up at him. “You think we could find it in one of these books?”

  His lips spread, white teeth gleaming down at me. “It’s scary how you read my mind sometimes.”

  A thousand tingles fluttered up and down my arms. If he was right and I said another word, somehow I knew he’d kiss me. And I couldn’t take that right now. Even one kiss could completely unhinge the tenuous peace we’d just brokered.

  As if he’d turned the tables on me, he put some distance between us. “Bring the flashlight over here.”

  A circle of light bounced around the turret, onto Tony’s face. “I’ve got the girls searching the card catalog for books on symbols.”

  “Guess everyone can read my mind.” Suddenly the space between us grew cold. “Lucy found some great books in here last week, maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  All my questions about this new group he mentioned, the Watchers, would have to wait. But I wouldn’t forget, they were burned into my brain.

  The boys each took a section, pulling out books, scanning the indexes. I ended up in the back section without a light, so I dug out my cell phone and scanned titles. They were hard to make out in the bluish glow, but something else caught my eye. The shelf’s boards were lined with carvings, intricate shapes in the wood.

  And there it was.

  The strange swirling eye inside a triangle, dashes radiating from the outer corners. My fingers bumped across the indentations and I dug out a clump of dust. As soon as I pressed into the triangle, a metal clanking sound clicked into motion like giant gears turning.

  The shelf shot back a few feet, then shifted behind the section beside it. A gaping hole opened up in the wall.

  “What was that?” Bryan aimed the flashlight at me. Its light spilled down a wrought-iron set of stairs curling into the abyss. “What’d you do?”

  “You said to find the symbol.” I pointed to the shelf carvings. “I pressed it and poof, there you go.”

  “Cool.” Lenny peeked his head into the opening. “A secret passage.”

  “Way to go.” Tony held up his hand and I high-fived it.

  “Let’s check it out.” I gnawed on my bottom lip, shifting toward Bryan.

  His mouth curled up again, and this time I wanted to smooth my fingers against his lips. But now wasn’t the time.

  “Hey girls, we found a secret passage. Anyone ready for an adventure?”

  About time he listened to me for once.

  Chapter 19

  A gaping black hole stared back at me. Secrets lay buried down there, I just knew it. The way you know it’s about to rain or where to look for the moon. I grabbed the flashlight from Bryan and tiptoed down the creaking steps, swiping at cobwebs the whole time. Ten or twelve feet later, my shoes hit some kind of crumbling stone floor, about as far down as a basement.

  The circle of the flashlight illuminated a picture of truth right in front of me. As the others clambered down the spiral staircase, I stood perfectly still, palm flattened against my chest. Carvings etched into the ancient stone depicted intricate scenes. On a square tile the flashlight beam highlighted a group of men chiseled into the stone, one head and shoulders taller than the rest.

  “It’s a Nephil,” Lenny breathed in my ear. “They’re the whole reason we exist.”

  I wanted to ask him to explain why the Guardians had to exist, but I didn’t. I already knew the answer. One group wanted to bring these strange creatures back, the other wanted to stop them. Plain and simple, yet centuries had passed without either side gaining the victory.

  “I heard the Watchers built secret tunnels and passages, but I never imagined in a million years it could be here, at Montrose. I thought it was all just legend.” Bryan eased the flashlight from my grip. He shone it around the circular stone vestibule, lighting up an archway that opened into a long corridor—leading straight into darkness.

  “You did not hear about this.” Brooke shoved his shoulder
, and the beam faltered. “How is it you always know everything?”

  He aimed the spotlight at her. “I don’t know everything. Harlixton gave me a book that mentioned a legend of secret tunnels, that’s all.”

  “So you didn’t ‘hear’ it.” Her fingers bent and lifted in air quotes. “You actually read about it.”

  “Now who knows everything?” He turned back toward me and exhaled a sharp breath.

  Dust blew off the wall, revealing another carving next to mine, at the entrance of the tunnel. With shaking fingers, I brushed the remaining dirt away. “You’ve got to see this. Do you think the whole tunnel is lined with them?”

  A picture formed as the dust cleared. Noah’s ark. I tried not to think about the strange words from my even stranger vision in the chapel library just last week. But sure enough, they came blaring back through my mind. Genesis six domination. The Nexis motto.

  “There’s only one way to find out.” He flashed the light down the tunnel.

  I couldn’t see anything but blackness.

  “I got this.” Tony whipped out his pocketknife. In a few minutes he rigged the flashlight to dangle from pieces of fishing line, the knife anchored into the ceiling.

  “Impressive.” I bumped his fist, careful not to add the extras I shared only with James. Wherever he was, I had a feeling he’d be happy knowing someone else had my back.

  The group fanned out down the arched tunnel, cell phones in hand, fingers digging out dirt. I started with the pictograph closest to the light. As I sifted away the dirt with my fingers, a startling scene stared back at me. A bearded man, arm outstretched, knife held high over a child on a pile of branches.

  My heart skipped a beat or two, then pounded wildly against my chest. “So it’s all true. Even Abraham was a Seer.”

  There was no question in my mind any more. This was real, which must mean I really was the Seer. Why was it all happening now? I needed more answers.

  “Cool, let me see.” The rigged up light illuminated Lenny’s orange hair, casting strange colors on the stone picture. As if the branch altar were alive with fire.

  “Come see mine. I’ve got Jacob’s ladder.” Laura’s voice echoed off the stones.

  Five heads jostled each other to get a peek of the two foot square carving. On tiptoes I craned my neck around until I could see the whole picture. A robed man, wrestling with lines in the shape of a wing, on a ladder.

  Somehow, an electric current zapped the musty, dank air. How did I, or my family, fit into such lauded history? It all seemed unreal.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene. Jacob’s vision of heaven was famous, so he was obviously the Seer. The puzzle almost snapped into place, but something was missing. “Wasn’t he the younger son?”

  “In those days, the father could choose who to give his blessing to. That’s what happened with Jacob, because Esau turned down his birthright.” Bryan’s eyes locked on me, like a heat-seeking missile.

  “As if seeing is a blessing.” The words trickled from my mouth, barely a whisper.

  “What’d you say?” In the dark, his hands landed on my shoulders, turning me toward him.

  I didn’t know how to answer him, my mouth just hung open. If I really was the Seer, which was still a long-shot, could I turn down the “gift?” But then it would just go to Paige and she’d have to deal with all of this. And I couldn’t do that to her, not even hypothetically.

  “Guys, you gotta come see this. Bring the flashlight.” Tony’s voice rang out from deep in the dark tunnel. Saved by the baritone.

  Lenny doubled back around us to unhook the flashlight, traipsing through the blackness ahead.

  I lingered, unwilling to go into the unknown, not yet. With my fingernails, I dug out dirt from all corners of the stone tile. In the lower right-hand corner, I uncovered a symbol. The same one I’d seen on Felicia’s paintings.

  “C’mon, they’re leaving us behind.” Bryan tugged on my hand, but I wouldn’t budge. “Hey, is this the symbol? I’ve seen it before, somewhere.”

  Black shadows engulfed his body as if he’d disappeared into the darkness. When I flashed my phone at him, he was running his fingers along his chin scruff.

  “What is it?”

  His eyes ping-ponged from the symbol back to me. “It’s the Seer’s symbol, all right, a Watchers’ symbol.”

  “So wait, there’s a Seer’s symbol and something called a Watcher and you knew about it all along?”

  He raked his fingers into his two inches of hair. “There was an old legend in one of the books Harlixton gave me. The Watchers built ‘sanctuaries’ near important Nexis or Guardian places so they could keep an eye out, police things if necessary.”

  “Great, another weird group.” The light from my phone dimmed, submerging his face in shadow. “Who are the Watchers? What do they do, besides watch?”

  His choppy laugh fragmented off the stones. “They’re the ones who think Nexis will bring about the end of the world. They hate how the Guardians handle things, so they formed their own group.”

  All light from my phone faded and blackness surrounded us with its silence. His calloused palm encircled mine.

  “Don’t be mad.” His words floated around in the darkness, like an apparition. “I seriously just remembered this. One of the Watchers’ goals is to mark the Seer, so both Nexis and the Guardians know who it is.”

  “What does that mean?” I tried to drop his hand, but he clamped down tighter. “For a Guardian guru, you sure forget a lot.”

  “I don’t know. It was all just legend. Until now. I never thought it would play out in real life.” Suddenly a square light cut into the darkness, his phone aimed at my face.

  A patch of light in the shadows was all I saw. I held up my phone to see his face, too. “If Felicia’s dad is a Watcher, allegedly, then they probably know everything the Guardians are up to. At least here at Montrose.”

  “They don’t know the whole truth. Montrose is just a small piece of the pie. There are Guardian outposts all over the world.” The way he said that, his eyes wide, stole my breath away.

  “The whole world?” I heard his head rustle before I saw him nod. A sudden chill crept up my spine. I gripped his hand. “This is way more than I ever bargained for.”

  He squeezed back. “You’re telling me. That’s life, honey.” With a soft tug, he led me deeper into the tunnel.

  As I followed him into the shadows, the truth pierced me like an arrow between the eyes—he’d really given up a lot for the Guardians. A normal life, a normal school, maybe a girlfriend or two. I wasn’t sure I was willing to give up that much. Not yet, anyway.

  Dark heads huddled around the flashlight. Just another weird carving, in a really bizarre underground tunnel. Goosebumps prickled up and down my arms, as if they knew more than I did. Then I saw it.

  A young girl with a halo around her head. Hollow eyes, a vacant expression, arms outstretched with a tray in front of her. The loudest gasp ever ripped from my mouth, stole my breath away. Five heads turned my way.

  I gulped in lungfuls of musty air. “Are you kidding me? This is the girl from the Nexis book. Was she a Seer, or something? This is getting too weird.”

  With their faces engulfed in shadows, each pair of eyes captured the light, illuminating the truth even in the dark silence. To them, this wasn’t brand new information. They already knew. More than that, I glimpsed the faintest hint of surprise when Brooke glanced at her brother.

  “That’s St. Lucia. You really haven’t told her anything, have you?” Her full lips jutted out, almost in anger. Those normally soft eyes narrowed into slits as she stared him down. Maybe I should’ve been taking notes from this girl all along. “Well, you’re just going to have to tell her everything now.”

  “I know.” In slow motion, he wagged his head up, then down, as if he didn’t want to admit the truth. “I guess I just wanted to protect her from all of this.”

  “Hey, I’m right here.” I elbowed his ribs.
“Just tell me the truth.”

  “Okay, I can do that.” He hung his head, barely looking at me. “I’m sorry, I assumed we had more time, that Nexis would leave you alone until senior year at least. Boy, was I wrong.”

  “Dead wrong.” Tony’s whisper sputtered like gravel into the thick air. “Now not only is Nexis involved, but the Watchers, too.”

  “Hold on a sec.” I blinked at their shadowed faces. “You’re saying her name is St. Lucia?”

  He nodded. “Was.”

  “And you couldn’t tell me any of this before?” Fire flared through me, from my fists down to my feet until I couldn’t take it any more. I hurtled myself down the tunnel, away from those lit-up stares. Jagged rock bumped against my fingertips, unyielding as the tracks of sewn-together flesh hiding deep beneath my hairline. The stone scratched into my skin. All of a sudden I stopped, as my nails traced unknown ruts in the rock. Were there carvings on both sides of the tunnel?

  A vague whisper hissed in my ear, forming a faint word. Look.

  A chill crawled up my skin, steeling my stubborn resolve. I planted my shoes against the dusty stone floor and forced my gaze in the opposite direction of the others following. Whatever lurked behind me in the darkness couldn’t stay hidden for long.

  Pounding footsteps echoed off the arched stone. Tony shined his light on my face, then his chin dropped to his Adam’s apple. “Whoa, this has to be a Watchers’ tunnel for sure. Check this out.”

  More clomps resounded behind him, until everyone crowded around me. Slowly I turned on my heel. A strange pile of carved rock-like shapes reached high into the sky, with figures trying to climb the makeshift tower.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Heads bobbed up and down in the spotlight. I narrowed my eyes at the stone tile, but I couldn’t make sense of it. “I don’t get it. What does the Tower of Babel have to do with anything?”

  Bryan cleared his throat. “It’s where Nexis started. When they couldn’t reach heaven on their own, they worked up a new plan to make their own heaven on earth. They made it their mission to find the twelve sacred stones and use them to make their own half angels.”