Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy (42 page)

Lance shakes me, hard. One of his hands grabs my
chin and forces me to look at him. His fiery eyes startle me enough to snap me
back to reality. “Libby,” he snaps, “
stop
it!”

“He’s gone,” I cry, “we have to find him!” I
struggle to get away from him but I can’t find the strength. Struggling only gets
me turned around in his arms. Lance crushes me against his chest and refuses to
let go. I can’t let him stop me. I have to find Braden! My arms are still free
and in my desperation to get away from Lance, I start beating against him,
yelling at him to let me go.

I don’t even see Milo and Dean
rush
into the room until Milo pulls me out of Lance’s grip
and grabs my face. The sudden lack of restraint catches my desperation and I
dart away from him. Lance yells for them to stop me. I try to reach the door,
but Milo catches my leg and I fall to the floor. My hand lands in something wet
and warm. My eyes squeeze shut against the image of my hand coated in red. The
smell of Braden’s blood down on the floor suffocates me. Panic makes me kick
out. I connect with something, and suddenly I’m free. But I only get one foot
under me before I’m pinned again. The weight of three bodies crushing me is too
much for my depleted strength.

Angry, terrified tears spill into the
blood-marred carpet. “Let me go! Let me go! I have to find him. You have to let
me go!” My voice cracks as everything becomes too much. I try once more to push
off the floor, but they have me trapped.

Milo’s head lowers next to mine. A bruise is
already forming on his left cheekbone. “Libby, you have to calm down. You can’t
just run off like this. It’s too dangerous. If the Guardians have Braden, you
can’t just go barreling into their compound. They’ll kill you!”

“I don’t care,” I sob.

The sudden lightening of pressure on my body is
too startling for me to react to it. I’ve lost my strength entirely now. I hang
like a ragdoll as Milo pulls me back up to sitting. He lifts my head to look at
him when I don’t do it on my own. “What did you just say?” Milo
asks,
his voice stiff.

“Milo, we have to find Braden. The Guardians
took him!” I’m begging him. He’s not really listening, though. He’s not looking
at me either. He stares at nothing as he thinks.

“You said you didn’t care. I said the Guardians
will kill you, and you said you didn’t care.” His eyes meet mine, hard and
unbending. “Libby, I know Braden was part of our team. I feel bad that he was
taken, but we can’t risk everything for him.”

“I’m not abandoning him!”

Milo rocks back on his heels when I scream at him.
“Libby, I’m not saying we’re going to write him off. I’m just saying we need to
stop, make a plan. Assess the risks. We’ll try ...”

I start to say that
trying
isn’t good
enough. Lance speaks first.

“No, we won’t. We’re not going after Braden,
Milo.”

Milo looks startled, maybe a little glad, but I
have a different reaction. “Shut up, Lance!” I reach forward to grab him before
he can say anything else. Dean, who I had forgotten about entirely, clamps down
on my shoulder and holds me back. Milo shakes his head at the bizarreness of my
hysteria.

“What do you mean?” Milo asks slowly.  

“We can’t go after him, Milo. Braden and Libby
both told me what would happen to him if he were taken. We can’t go after him.”

“Why not?”

My body pleads with Lance to stop talking. Why
did I ever promise not to lie to him? He doesn’t even acknowledge me.

“The Guardians have a way of forcing an Oath on
another Guardian. They can change it so that instead of protecting someone,
that person is bound to hurt them, to kill them,” Lance says. His grave voice
sinks into Dean and Milo both. “Braden was sure that if he was taken by the
Guardians they would turn him against Libby. If they don’t kill him, he’ll try
to kill Libby.”

Dean sighs heavily. He latched onto Braden from
almost the first day. It cuts me deeply when he says, “Maybe they’ll just kill
him. It would be better.” He falters before continuing. “Maybe he’s already
dead. There’s a lot of blood on the floor.”

“No,” I snap, “he’s not dead.”

Milo’s hand reaches out to me, but I turn away.
“Libby,” he says, “
there
is a lot of blood. Maybe it
would be for the best if he’s already dead.”

“He’s not dead! I know he’s not.”

Milo’s patience is beginning to run out. “I know
you want to believe that …”

“He’s not dead,” I said with finality.

Dean’s grip on me doesn’t lessen at all, but he
asks, “How can you be sure?”

His question makes me close my eyes. Over the
past months our connection has developed into something more than the sudden
explosions of familiarity. Those still happen quite frequently, but now I can
always sense him. It isn’t like what Lance gets from me. It is more of a subtle
reminder that he is there waiting for me to make him a part of my life, my
soul. And I should have. Regret deeper than I have ever known festers under my
skin.

“I know because I can feel him. He’s still
alive, Dean. I won’t give up on him if he’s still alive.”

“What do you mean you can feel him?” Milo
demands. “Did he give you his Oath and you didn’t bother to tell me?”

It’s the insanity of this moment that makes him
ask. He knows Oaths don’t work that way, but I answer him all the same. “No,
Milo, that’s the problem.”

He stares at me in confusion. Nothing is making
sense to him right now. I know nothing will make sense to me again until I know
Braden is safe, and beside me. I wipe my eyes and say, “If I had let him give
me his Oath as he wanted to do, the Guardians wouldn’t be able to turn him.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Milo asks. Frustration
and anger build around him. It very nearly crackles in the air. “If he was
willing, and you knew this was a possibility, why didn’t you take his Oath?
That makes no sense!”

“Because I was afraid of
losing you, Milo.”

He’s finally had enough. His hands fly up in
pure aggravation. “That is the most idiotic thing you have ever said! What are
you talking about?”

He saw it right before Braden was taken. He was
about to figure it out if he hadn’t already. He had been suspicious that there
was more than training going on between us. The chaos of the last few moments
has only pushed all of that to the back of his mind. All it will take is one
small reminder to bring it back. I have to do it, if I have any hope of
convincing them to help me. I have to do it. I bring my hands up in front of
him with my palms up. He frowns at the gesture before looking at his own hand,
the one that grabbed me when he saw the filament. It’s torture to watch the
recognition blossom in his eyes.

“No,” he says. “No, it’s not him. Libby, it
can’t be him.”

“It is,” Lance says. “Braden is Libby's
Spiritual Companion.”

Milo shakes his head at me. He knew from the
first time we went to the spirit world together that he wasn’t my Companion,
but that doesn’t stop his face from twisting into disgust as this revelation
sinks in. It must make him sick to know Braden has such a connection to me
after what Braden did to him. Even still, confusion momentarily overpowers the
hatred I know must be poisoning him. “But, why did that stop you from taking
his Oath?”

I can’t bear to answer him, so Lance does it for
me. “Every power Libby has, including emotions, would be amplified ten times or
more if Braden had given her his Oath.”

The confused frown developing on Milo’s face brings
back Lance’s combative side. Milo knows. He just doesn’t want to admit. I don’t
want to admit it, either. Tears spill down my cheeks, but Lance has hit his
limit of patience.

“For crying out loud, Milo!
Do I have to spell it out for you? You should have seen it before any of this
even happened. I’m pretty sure everyone else did! Dean figured it out the
moment he met them in Dallas. You can be so dense, sometimes, it’s a freaking
miracle you avoided the Guardians as long as you did! Wake up, Milo! Braden is
in love with Libby!”

Milo’s eyes snap up to mine as his vague
suspicions are confirmed. The murderous glint in them makes me cringe. His mind
seems to have suddenly cleared, the details he knows of both Oaths and
Companions, and my odd behavior the last few days—everything is now fresh in
his mind.

“Oaths are one-sided, Libby. You wouldn’t have
felt anything from him. The past few days … I wondered, but I didn’t think …”
His eyes close briefly and I know he must comprehend what Lance was trying to
tell him, that I would be affected by the Oath, by how it would amplify my
feelings.
My absolute panic to get to Braden.
My confession that I would risk death to get him back.
I’ve
even already admitted I pushed Braden away because I was afraid of losing Milo.

I know everything has come together when he asks
through clenched teeth, “Why didn’t you let Braden give you his Oath?”

A betraying tear slips down my cheek. “Because I
think I’m falling in love with him, too.”

He purposely drops his blocks to let me feel
exactly how much I’ve hurt him. Agony so rich it smothers me rolls off of him.
Furious, white hot rage scorches me, blackens me under his barrage. I break
under it, crumbling in on myself.

“Milo, please.
I am so
sorry. This is
all my
fault. I know I should have
tried harder, stayed away from him. I tried to push him away, but I couldn’t. I
never wanted to hurt you. I love you! I know I’ve screwed up. I’ve messed
things up so badly I don’t know if I can ever fix them, but I’m begging you to
listen to me right now. I didn’t want to give you up, so I refused to let him
give me his Oath. I was trying to hold onto you, but I may have cost Braden his
life. If they don’t kill him, they’ll change him because of my choice. I have
to find him. I can’t let him be hurt because I wasn’t strong enough to make the
right choice. Maybe it’s not too late yet.”

Milo turns a vicious glare on me. “What, you
regret not letting him give his Oath now?”

“Yes, I mean no. Milo, I didn’t mean for this to
happen. I was trying to hold onto you, but I have to help Braden.” Am I the
only one who understands this? I have to find him!

“How could you let yourself fall for him, Libby?
I trusted you, and all of this was going on behind my back?” His anger doubles
my guilt.

“I know I lied to you. I lied to you constantly,
about so much. I told myself I was doing the right thing by lying about us
being Companions because I didn’t want to hurt you. I was trying to protect
you. I know I hurt you, Milo, and I am so sorry for all of it, but I can’t just
abandon Braden. I can’t make him pay for my mistakes.”  

“I don’t care about Braden!” Milo yells.

“Milo, please,” I beg, tears pouring down my
cheeks.

His voice is hardened steel as he says, “No.
We’re not going after him. We are
done
with Braden.”

I try to run. I try to keep my promise to
Braden. But the second my exhausted body tries to move, Lance and Dean pounce
on me.
Milo turns away as I struggle and sob.

Chapter 3
3

Twenty Questions

They actually tie me to a chair.

A rope found in the garage has me bound in such
an uncomfortable position that I can’t find any leverage to try and break out
of them. They can’t keep me here forever, though. Eventually they’re going to
free me. I’m mentally sending death threats to Lance as he stalks back and
forth in front of me. Someone called him a few seconds ago and even I am forced
to put aside my grief to listen. Something’s wrong.

“How many got out?” Lance asks. He waits and
listens for several seconds. “No, they should have all made it out by now. The
entire route could have been taken in less than fifteen minutes even if their
physical abilities were compromised.”

Everyone is very still as we listen to the
garbled words leaking out of the phone. Lance’s brow furrows as the speaker
says something I can’t understand. He motions for Milo and Dean and mouths an
order for them to check in with the other Cipher handlers. They speed through
the ten other groups rapidly, giving a thumbs-up for each one. Only one handler
hasn’t seen any sign of the Ciphers he was supposed to pick up. He is waiting
outside the Albuquerque compound wondering what went wrong.

The fact that it’s the same compound Braden was
most likely taken to
doesn’t
escape my notice.
Something happened with this compound. They found out about Braden, and now
eighty-seven Ciphers are unaccounted for. My desire to rush over to the
compound has little to do with the Ciphers at the moment. Lance glances over at
me, and I can tell he knows exactly what I’m thinking. He is
not
leaving
me behind. I’ll find a way to make sure I go to the compound with him. Lance
listens, delaying making the decision that should be mine in the first place.

“There’s a car pulling into the compound?” Lance
asks suddenly. My attention snaps as tight as a piano wire. “What does it look
like, Cory?”
Silence.

“Black sedan.
Can you
see anything else?”

He waits again, his fingers tapping anxiously
against the phone. His eyes meet mine as he repeats what Cory is telling him.
“They’ve stopped at the main entrance.
Four Guardians with
two prisoners.
The prisoners are hooded, but one is tall and the other
is short. They’re taking them into the compound.”  

“How do they look?” I demand. I know he has to
be looking at Braden and Mr. Walters.

So does Lance. “Braden is stumbling, but walking
under his own power. Mr. Walters looks fine. They’re being pushed into the
building now.”