Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy (29 page)

I’m dead.

“Libby! Libby, open your eyes!”

Should I be able to hear people screaming at me
when I’m dead?

I risk opening my eyes.

Braden’s face lights up. Then he rushes in to
kiss me. What flashes through me at his touch is just as intense as the
explosion, but filled with joy instead of pain. He pulls away before I can even
react. I’m too delirious to understand why he’s trying to shake me to death all
of a sudden.

“What were you thinking? You could have killed
yourself! I told you to never do that again. If I hadn’t been here to shield
you after the blast you would have been torn to shreds!” Braden yells.

“I … she … she was trying to kill Lance,” I
stutter.

“I don’t care! You almost got yourself killed!”

Shaking off both the explosion and the kiss, I
finally manage to sit up. I push Braden back weakly and stare at him. “I
couldn’t let her hurt Lance, or you. You would have done the same, and you know
it.”

His shoulders shudder and fall. Anger dissipates
and is overwhelmed by relief that he didn’t just watch me die. “For you, yes, I
would have risked my life,” he says. His frenzied expression turns mildly
joking. “For Lance, though? I don’t know about that.”

“Lance!” My eyes dart around for him, and find him
lying only a few feet away.

“He’ll be alright,” Braden says. “The blast
didn’t hit him that hard. He was behind my shield for the most part. He’s just
shook up. He was actually yelling at you a minute ago.”

As if on cue, Lance groans and rolls onto his
side. I grasp his hand and gently pull him up to sitting. His hand goes to his
head, but he looks fine otherwise. I throw my arms around him in relief. A
second later, another set of squealing tires races up to us. Milo jumps out of
his car and rushes over to the three of us still sprawled out on the ground.

“What on earth just happened?” he demands.

“Libby just tried to destroy the world by
getting herself killed,” Braden says seriously.

Everybody turns to stare at him. What is that
supposed to mean? My being
alive
is supposed to destroy the world, isn’t
it?

Chapter 2
2

Goodbye

“We have to go back,” I say. I try to push
myself up off the ground, but my head starts swimming right away and I nearly
pass out. Only Braden catching my arms and pulling me into his lap saves me
from smacking my head on the concrete. That sets Milo off. He rushes forward to
yank me out of Braden’s arms, but Braden is too smooth for that. He stands and
carries me to his car before Milo takes three steps. Milo catches up, though, when
Braden reaches the car and stops to open the door.

He grabs his arm, almost making him drop me.
“Where are you taking her? Get your hands off her, Braden!”

Braden’s usual calmness snaps. He rounds on Milo
and says, “She almost died, Milo! She needs to get to a hospital, now.”

“Wait,” I say weakly, but nobody listens to me.

“
What,
and I’m
incapable of taking her? She’s my girlfriend. I’ll take her to my dad. Now let
go of her!”
Milo growls.

“
You
aren’t taking her anywhere. I’ve
seen you drive.”

Okay, I have to agree with Braden on that one.
Milo is a maniac behind the wheel. He’s almost as bad as Lance. I don’t bother
voicing my opinion, though. Milo’s already barreling over anything I might have
said.

“My driving is fine! Give her to me. You don’t
know what she
needs half as well as I
do,” Milo says.

Pressed against Braden’s chest, I can feel his
whole body constrict. Anger and frustration build in him. I can feel it rumble
up his chest, about to explode. Milo is wrong. Braden has no Perception, but
he’s told me that he can feel me now just as I can him. My pain is being echoed
in him at this very moment. He knows exactly how battered my body and spirit
are, and I know there’s no way he’s backing down.
Flashes of
Braden professing his love for me and running off with me in his arms like some
fairytale prince gone postal almost sets me to giggling hysterically for some
reason.
I feel even worse than I did after breaking my block, but I dig
up enough strength to reach up and grab Braden’s shirt, distracting him before
he can blurt out something we’ll both regret.

“You aren’t taking me anywhere,” I say to him.
Milo snorts and reaches out to me. “Neither are you, Milo.”

His lips press together in irritation. “What?”

“I’m not going anywhere with anyone. I’m going
back to the spirit world, right now.”

They both just stare at me like I’m crazy.
Braden is the one to say, “Libby, I don’t think you’re in any position to make
demands.”

“That’s what you think.”

I don’t try to muscle my way out of his arms because
I know I can’t. Instead, I simply leap out of my body, leaving it limp in
Braden’s arms. Actually, staying in Braden’s arms is just about the only way
I’m making it to the spirit world anyway. His power boosting mine is still
barely enough to get me to the boundary. I practically stumbled through it,
falling to my knees on the other side. I don’t even get the chance to try and
stand up on my own. A pair of hands scoops me up into a familiar pair of arms.

“That wasn’t fair,” Milo says.

“Neither was the two of you trying to tell me
what to do. I can take care of myself. Now put me down.”

He pulls me tightly against his chest, and says,
“No.”

“Where’s Braden?” He better not be on his way to
find me. I cannot have both of them here in the spirit world at the same time.
I can’t imagine Milo convincing Braden to stay behind, not after almost
watching me die.

“He’s taking care of Lance.”

“How on earth did you get him to do that?”

Milo shrugs casually, but I can see the smirk
hiding underneath. “Lance was hurt more than Braden thought. He cut his head
when he was knocked down, and might have a concussion. He went completely white
and passed out right after you jumped. Braden is loading him into his car so we
can take him to my dad as soon as I get you out of here.”

I feel horrible for leaving Lance when he is
hurt, but thank goodness there was something to keep Braden from following
Milo. The last thing I need right now is Milo finding out about Braden being my
Companion. I’ve already got enough to deal with in this trip to the spirit
world. My chest constricts thinking about why I was so adamant about coming
back here. Tears threaten to escape and I demand one more time that Milo put me
down. Stubborn to the end, I get the same answer as last time. No more
discussion. He starts walking despite my arguing. I’m determined to get back on
my own feet, but Daniel finds us before we get very far. He spots me being
carried by Milo and sprints the rest of the way to meet us.

“Libby, are you all right? You disappeared so
quickly I was afraid the Sihir got you!” Daniel exclaims.

I cringe, never even considering what jumping
away like that might have looked like to the Ciphers. More spirits come running
up behind Daniel. Their questions start flying before they even reach us.
Wilting against Milo’s chest, I suddenly want to slip back into my body and
escape them. Their panic and fear are so overwhelming. And they’re all looking
to me for answers and hope.

“Where’s Saia?”

“Is Libby hurt?”

“What happened?”

“Are the Guardians going to take more of us?”

“Can’t we stop them?”

Questions bash against me relentlessly. For a
moment, I can’t answer them. I suddenly have to face the reality of what I have
to tell them. Their friend and leader
is
dead because of
me, because I couldn’t figure out a way to stop the Guardians from killing her
body and sending her into a deranged frenzy. She’s gone forever, and I did
nothing to prevent it. I turn into Milo’s chest and hide my shame-filled tears.
He strokes my hair gently as I try to calm myself. The Ciphers surrounding us
quiet.

“Libby, what happened?” Daniel asks quietly.

“She … I …” I can’t speak through my grief. I
killed her. Tears spill down my cheeks and I turn away from all of them, not
caring about the weakness I’m showing. Milo has to answer for me.

“Saia’s Sihir came after Libby,” he tells
Daniel. “She hurt Lance, too, but he’ll probably be fine. The worst was maybe a
concussion.”

Daniel’s head hangs sadly. “How did she get
away? When Libby disappeared I was sure she had been killed. There’s no defense
against a Sihir, and I knew Libby would never give up someone else just to save
her own life. What happened?”

“I don’t really know. I didn’t get there until
after everything had already happened, but Braden said Libby pulled her spirit
out of her own body, but stayed in the physical world, and somehow managed to
smother the Sihir with her own spirit and destroy it.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Daniel
says. “Forcing your spirit to leave your body is only supposed to happen when
you travel to the spirit world. You aren’t supposed to be able to keep your
spirit in the physical world. And how was she able to destroy the Sihir? That’s
not supposed to be possible either, not with a freestanding spirit like a
Sihir. No one should have been able to kill it.”

“But Libby did,” Milo says proudly.
“Just think of how much power and control that must have taken.
Do you have any doubt she can do what she was born to do?”

“I’ve never doubted,” Daniel says, “but I hate
that she had to use her power like this.”

Milo pulls me a little closer.
“So do I. Saia was a good woman, and a great leader.
I
respected her a lot.”  

“So Saia is really gone,” Daniel says, not a
question so much as a resigned and saddened statement.

“Yes,” I whisper finally, “she’s gone. I killed
her, Daniel.”

He shakes his head and pats my shoulder in his
familiar grandfatherly way. “No, you didn’t, Libby. The Guardians killed her
and turned her into something unnatural and deadly. She never would have wanted
to hurt anyone. You stopped her from killing. Saia would have wanted that. She
would have been tormented forever if she had hurt someone.”

I know he’s doing his best to make me feel
better. He’s right, I’m sure, but I just don’t see it the way he does. Arguing
won’t do anything but make him feel even worse than he already does.
The red shooting through his grief-filled eyes displays his pain
clearly enough.
I don’t want to add to that, so I keep my misery bottled
up tight. He takes my silence as a sign that his words have helped, and offers
me a small smile. Turning away from me, Daniel tells the rest of the gathered
Ciphers that Saia has left them forever. Sobbing and outrage erupt from the
crowd, but for only a moment. Daniel quiets them immediately.

“Please, everyone, gather at the Central
Expanse.” Some are reluctant to go, but the crowd begins to lessen as the
Ciphers travel away from us. Daniel turns back to Milo and me, and says, “Come,
it’s time to honor Saia and say goodbye.”

Not long ago, I thought everyone in the spirit
world was dead, a place for spirits to gather after the body dies. Attending a
funeral in the spirit world would have sounded positively bizarre back then.
Now that I know the truth about the wonderful people here, it would be strange
if they didn’t do something to mark the passing of one of their own. I just
wish this was the first one I’d ever been to. Braden has searched and scoured
everything he can get his hands on since we found out the Ciphers were being
killed, but Saia is the third to be taken. And I was powerless to keep it from
happening.

Eight murdered in as many months. Eight times
the Ciphers have gathered in this place to say goodbye to one of their own.
Like the previous two memorials I have attended, everyone forms a circle around
the strange depression in silence. There is no body to be buried or cremated
ashes to scatter, not even a picture of Saia with flowers surrounding her
smiling face. All there is are the people who knew and loved her gathered in a
single place to mourn their loss.

I try again to convince Milo to let me down, but
he pretends he can’t hear me. Daniel begins the memorial service with simple
words that match his strong, yet unassuming nature. “I know none of us likes
coming here for such a reason, but not coming to say goodbye would be even
worse. I’ll admit that I feel completely lost without Saia. She came to us
seventeen years ago and almost from the very first minute she became our
leader. Gentle and quiet as she was, I don’t know how she managed it, but she
did. She could calm almost anyone with her genuine desire to help a person,
inspire a downhearted spirit, and lead the most lost soul back to the right
path. Saia did so much for us. She believed more than anyone that we would one
day be free of this place. If not in the way she planned, Saia is free of her
prison now. But we aren’t.”

Daniel’s eyes well with tears and no matter how
hard he tries, he can’t stop them from falling. He isn’t the only one. Nearly
every face sparkles with moisture. Daniel continues through his pain. “Saia
wanted more than anything to see every one of us back with our families. I
don’t plan on abandoning that dream just because she isn’t here to see it come
true. The Guardians took Saia because they knew she was one of our strongest.
They think they’ve hurt us, hurt our chances of escaping them, but they
haven’t. Everyone standing here right now is going to work even harder. We
won’t let Saia down and we won’t let Libby down either. We are going to go
home.”

His words turn toward memories of Saia with
others stepping forward to share as well. I am considering asking Milo yet
again to put me down so I can share how much Saia’s motherly influence affected
me. I only get as far as opening my mouth when I spot Braden slowly making his
way through the crowd to me. A thin filament of spiritual energy spirals out of
my hands and races toward him.