Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy (20 page)

Faced with no other options, Milo drives me to
school. He has no idea about my excursion last night, so he doesn’t press me
for more answers. However, when he sees a decidedly bushed Lance in the
hallway, Milo scrunches his face in thought. I kiss him fiercely and dash down
the hallway to get as far from them from possible. He will get his answers
tonight.

My limited energy finally stalls in third
period. I sink down in my desk and fall asleep in the middle of one of Mr.
Carlton’s lectures about the importance of math in the real world. I’m forced
to wake up and stay awake for gym, but crash again as soon as I touch my chair
in Spiritualism. With almost five hours of sleep now, I meet Milo for
Perception and do my best to pretend I’m as close to fine as I ever am. I have
to resort to pinching myself every few minutes to stay awake, but I make it.
Not until seventh hour when my Naturalism class takes a rather chilly trip
outside—which  sets me to shivering again—do I get the chance to pull out
my cell phone unobserved.

I open my contacts and scroll down to Braden’s
number. I pause for a moment as I realize he’s put his full name in. His last
name makes me stop.
Hunter
. My quiet giggle draws the attention of the
person standing next to me. As soon as he realizes the noise came from me, he
turns back and sidesteps to get away. I ignore him and look back at the phone.
Braden really wasn’t kidding when he said he was a hunter. His awful pun makes
me smile. It’s the first time I’ve smiled all day.

I select his name and start texting.

Need u 2night
.

A second later the phone vibrates in my hand and
I open his response.

Can’t stay away, huh?

Is it possible to roll your eyes at someone
through a text message? I cut off his banter with my reply.

7156 Coronado Drive. 6pm

His response takes a while to come back this
time.

Milo’s house?
Why?

Time 2 plan.

Again, the response takes several minutes before
coming back.

You’re telling Milo about last night?

This time it’s my turn to hesitate.

Have to.
Can’t explain
everything without telling.

Have you changed your mind?
he
texts back.

No. Will u come?

Yes.

I slip my phone back into my pocket after giving
him a few more instructions and actually try to pay attention to my teacher,
Mrs. Davis. The cold is at least keeping me awake. I’m shivering pretty badly
by the time we’re finally allowed to go back to the classroom. Everyone else is
warmed up a few minutes after returning to class, but I spend the rest of the
hour trying to keep my jacket around me as tightly as possible.

Mrs. Davis notices my shaking after a few
minutes. Apparently she isn’t inspired to help me, though, because she goes on
with her lesson without saying anything to me. Oh well, it’s not like the school
nurse would actually be able to help me get over the aftereffects of an
extended trip to the spirit world. She’d probably just stare at me as if I were
crazy. I go through the rest of Mrs. Davis’s class and Mr. Walters’ class
devoting all my currently-stunted mental power to planning for tonight.

When we get back to Milo’s house after picking
up Celia from a dance rehearsal, I breathe a sigh of relief when I realize
neither of Milo’s parents
are
home yet. His dad will
be gone most of the night, but it’s Mrs. Hanover I’m really glad to have a
break from. She is sweet and wonderful when she and Milo aren’t fighting with
each other, but I want to discuss everything about Braden without her here. If
she knows what a Spiritual Companion is, I have no doubt she’ll see the signs
of it and possibly blurt it out in front of everyone. Not only does Celia get
her perky attitude from her mother, but she gets her struggle with keeping
secrets from her as well. Best to give her the Cliff’s Notes version of everything
later.

Celia bounces off to her room to change her
clothes, and Lance, Milo, and I head into the den. Milo pulls me into his arms
right away. I snuggle against him as Lance flips on the TV and searches for a
sporting event of some kind to watch. He knows I’m going to explain last night
to Milo, so he stays unusually quiet and acts pleasant to Milo as I try to work
up the courage to start talking. I can’t manage it before the doorbell rings.
Well, maybe Milo will be less likely to freak out if there’s more of an
audience. Maybe I’m just a chicken.

Milo gets up and let’s both Casey and Mr.
Walters in. When I asked them to meet with us earlier this afternoon, I was
greeted by with rather different responses. The gleam in Mr. Walters’ eyes was
a little disconcerting, but the fear in Casey’s didn’t surprise me at all. She
is definitely not the fighting type. After a few minutes of catching up on
whether they were able to make any progress on some of the things we talked
about in class, we fall back into silence. With the distractions gone, my mind
turns back to last night. For some reason it suddenly feels about twenty
degrees hotter in here. I glance up at the clock above the gigantic fireplace
across from me.
Five-fifty.

My heart starts racing. He’ll be here any
second. I’ve run out of time. I have to start talking now. I have to prepare
Milo for what I’m about to drop on him. If Braden shows up here without me
explaining why to Milo, things will get ugly very fast. Trying to keep myself
from fainting is a strain even when I tap my Naturalism for help. As connected
as we are, Lance picks up on my anxiety and mutes the TV. Milo catches the
silent exchange and sits up straighter, his expression reverting to suspicious
irritation.

“Okay,
what’s
with you
two? You’re both exhausted, and you’ve been acting weird all day. I want to
know what’s going on,” Milo says.

“I, uh, made it to the spirit world last night,”
I say with a hopeful smile. Good news first, then bad.

Milo lights up with excitement, as do Mr. Walters
and Casey. “Libby, that’s amazing! How did you do it? After your session with
my mom went so badly yesterday she was sure you’d have to find someone else to
help you get there.”

Here we go. “I did have help, Milo.”

“What do you mean?” he asks, his eyes narrowing
dangerously. Maybe giving me the benefit of doubt, his eyes travel to Casey.
“Casey? I thought you didn’t know how to break a block.”

Casey shakes her head. “I don’t.”

“It wasn’t Casey,” I say. I take a deep breath.
“Before you get mad…”

Milo’s entire body turns rock solid.

“Milo, please just listen for a minute. I didn’t
have any other choice!”

Slowly, Milo stands and walks across the room
from me. I can’t feel anything from him. He’s always been very adept at hiding
his emotions from me, but I could always feel him when they were really
intense. It’s a testament to how far he’s come in a few short weeks that he’s
blocking me completely right now. I know he must be furious, angry, hurt. I
stay back, crushed by the weight of his silence.

“You went behind my back to the one person I
specifically said not to trust!” Milo snarls.

“I know I did, Milo, and I’m sorry, but you
heard your mom yesterday. Milo, she said she couldn’t help me. And after Casey
told us about the Ciphers disappearing, I felt like I had no other choice.”

“You told me you wouldn’t go to him!”

My eyes drop to the floor. No I didn’t. I never
promised him I wouldn’t accept Braden’s help. I only ever agreed to let his mom
try to help me one more time. I have no desire to point that out. My guilt for
going behind his back makes me deserve the accusation whether it’s founded or
not.

“Why would you do something like that?”

“I had to. The Ciphers were in trouble, are in
trouble.”

It’s a valid reason, but Milo’s anger hasn’t
dissipated in the least. “And you had to lie to me about it?”

“I tried talking to you about it before, but you
wouldn’t listen to me.”

“What was there to listen to? Braden is a
Guardian. He has no place in this mission at all!”

My understanding hits a wall, but pure
aggravation finds a way through. “That is not your decision to make,” I say
tightly. “I love you, and I want your input on everything we do, but this is
my
life, Milo. I’m the one who has to defeat the Guardians. I’m the one who will
die if I don’t. This was my decision to make, and I made it. I’m sorry you
didn’t agree with me, but I had to do this.”

Milo storms over to me, in my
face and even more irate than before.
“We could have found someone else.
Anyone else!”

“I didn’t need to find anyone else,” I say,
trying to make him understand. “I tried to tell you that Braden is different.
He wants to help us. He let you go even though he shouldn’t have, and he got
punished pretty severely for doing it. He warned me that even though the
Ciphers stood up for me, the Guardians freaked out after the theater and he
told me I should be extra careful. He watched out for Casey after I helped her
and the school hated her. He’s even willing to take a huge risk and spy inside
the Guardians for us.”

Everything I just said is completely true. I
think they are good enough reasons for him to at least
consider
what
Braden could do for us. Milo has the opposite reaction.
Milo’s
slate gray eyes turn as dark as his diktats.
I don’t understand why
until he speaks.

“How do you know all of this?” He closes his
eyes, refusing to look at me. “Last night wasn’t the first time you talked to
him, was it?”

“No,” I say so quietly I hope he doesn’t hear
me. My heart deflates when the entire room goes silent. Everyone heard me.

Milo’s response is a single word.
“When?”

Being honest might make things worse, but I
don’t want to lie to him again. “The night of the theater, he came here and
found me when I was out on your porch so he could warn me about the Guardians.
He showed up at school the first day back after the break, and he’s been around
since then.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about him right away?”

“I was afraid of what would happen. You hate the
Guardians so much. I was scared you’d get in a fight and get hurt, or get in trouble
for hurting Braden.” Despite Braden’s doubt of Milo’s abilities, I have no
doubt Milo would have hurt him. Maybe he wouldn’t win the fight, but with
Milo’s rapidly growing fury, neither would Braden. Pure hatred for fuel can get
you a long way.

“You were protecting me?” Milo scoffs. “No,
Libby, you were lying to me. How dare you! How can you even think of trusting
those murderers? They tried to lock me up! They almost killed Celia! I won’t
have anything to do with the Guardians.”

“Braden wasn’t the one who came after Celia that
night, Milo. Not all of the Guardians are like that. He wants to help us. He
already has,” I say desperately. I really wish so many people weren’t here. Why
didn’t I start this conversation earlier? Because I’m a coward, and now I’m
paying for it. I have to try and convince him, though. “I never would have
gotten through my block last night without him!”

“That’s a bunch of crap, Libby! If he could do
it, so could my mom. She’s been a Spiritualist her whole life,” Milo argues. “She
would have figured it out!”

“It wasn’t about figuring anything out. She
admitted to me that she didn’t have enough talent to do it, and she never
would!”

I’m shouting at him, but I can’t help myself. He
has to understand. I’ll tell him about Braden being my Companion if I have to.
This is more important than anything, more important than us. “If she could
have helped me, she would have done it yesterday. Blocks are rare. She didn’t
even realize that was what my problem was until you told her. Even then, she
isn’t strong enough when it comes to the spirit world side of her talent. She
couldn’t help me. Braden could. He was my only chance at getting to the
Ciphers, so I took it.”

Milo throws his hands up.
“Why
him?
What makes him so special, Libby?”

I choke on the answer I almost spit out. I can
feel Lance squirming behind me. Calm down and keep your head, I tell myself.
“He had a block when he was younger. He knew how to break mine because he had
to go through the same thing.”

“You can’t trust someone like him! He could have
hurt you. He could have killed you! Do you even understand that?”

“Yes, I do, Milo. I tried to convince you to be
there to protect me, but you wouldn’t.”

“You didn’t even give me a chance after you
decided to ignore what I told you!”

A sliver of steel creeps back into my spine.
“Would you have agreed to it if I had asked again?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead he asks another
question. “So you turned to Lance?”

“What other choice did I have?”

Again, his only response is silence.

“I know what’s at stake, Milo. The lives of
every Cipher in the world depend on me being able to save them. I know it was a
risk to trust him, but what would my life be worth if I let all of them die? I
had to do it.”

Turning away from me, Milo puts his hands on his
head and doesn’t say anything. I still can’t feel his emotions, but I can feel
his Perception working hard to keep it that
way,
and
hopefully to calm him down, too. He speaks without turning around, flat and
unpleasant. “Maybe you had to take the chance, but you didn’t have to lie to
me.”

“I’m sorry I lied, and I’m so sorry I hurt you,
but I did what I thought was right by accepting Braden’s help.”

“What have you proved by doing this?” Milo
demands. “So he showed you how to break your block. He’s probably going to run
back to his Captain and give him all the juicy details! Whatever we gained by
him helping you is going to be blown in a few hours if it’s not already. He
hasn’t done anything but what his Captain told him to do, get close to you and
gather information. You’re smarter than that, Libby! What were you thinking?”