Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy (16 page)

I’m praying Braden is wrong, but somehow I know
he’s not. I’ve been scared my whole life. The Ciphers screaming at me was
nothing compared to watching my dad
die.
I can’t face
him again. I can’t watch his eyes fill with pain and horror for a second time.
I can’t be the reason he dies. “Braden, can you come with me? I don’t think I
can do this alone.”

“No, I … I don’t think so.”

He hesitates.

“I’m not sure, actually. I did it alone, but I
had to do it that way because being there alone was part of my block,” Braden
says. “Do you want me to try to come with you?”

“Yes. Please, Braden. I killed my own father. I
can’t go through that again by myself.”

“I don’t know if it will work, but I’ll try,
okay?”

I sink against him and don’t object when his
arms pull around me more tightly. “Thank you.”

“Are you ready?”

I nod, and together we both step forward.

Shrill, shrieking voices immediately surround
us. I can only spare a second to realize that Braden did indeed come with me
before the voices turn into faces and hands trying to tear at me. This is my
nightmare. Night after night these terrors have come for me. Five years of
waking in the middle of the night, terrified and covered in sweat.

“They’re just Ciphers,” I whisper. One of them
grabs me and tries to pull me away from Braden. A scream bursts from my mouth
as I yank my arm away from it and cling to Braden. I want to keep my face
buried in his chest until this ends, but he slowly forces me to turn around and
face them.

“They’re just Ciphers,” I tell myself again. The
words are almost too garbled by my trembling to understand.

“Why did they come for you that night?” Braden
asks, his mouth pressed up against my ear so I can hear him over the screaming.

“They were trying to warn me,” I say.

“That’s right. They weren’t trying to hurt you.”

“They were trying to help me. I might have died
if they hadn’t pulled me into the spirit world. I would have lost all my
talents even if I didn’t die.”

They terrified me that night, but they saved me,
too.

“They aren’t trying to hurt you now, either,
Libby. Look at them, find out why they’re here,” Braden prods.

I didn’t realize I had closed my eyes. The nightmare
I see at night plays behind my eyelids as well as in front. Slowly I force my
eyes open and am shocked when I realize the screaming has begun to quiet. Their
mouths, rather than frightening, gnashing teeth, are pleading vacuums. Their
cries are wailing now, begging. A woman at my side reaches out to me. My whole
body is wracked with horror, but I thrust my hand forward. She takes it gently
and begins leading me away. I clutch at Braden and drag him along behind me.

Time is fluid in the spirit world, but I feel as
if we have been walking for hours when the woman guiding me finally stops. The
other Ciphers gather around us again, ringing the three of us in the center.
No, four. She wasn’t here before, but now there is another woman in the circle.
Tall and beautiful, her long black hair hangs in perfect waves around her
heart-shaped face. She glides forward and takes my hands from the other woman.
Her gentle features frown in concern.

“Libby, you have to wake up, child. You’re in
very serious danger. Your father is trying to take away your talents. He’s
trying to take away your destiny. You must wake up and stop him.”

“But if I stop him, he’ll die,” I tell her.

Her mouth frowns deeply, bringing the slightest
wrinkle to her perfect face. “I know, Libby, but he knew the risks when he
began.”

“No,” I cry, “he didn’t. My mom lied to him. She
never told him it might kill him. She didn’t tell him it might kill me.”

The woman shakes her head. Grief billows out
around her. “I’m sorry, Libby, but he did know. He knew before he ever asked
your mother. He knew the risks of the ritual. He just didn’t know how to
perform it. That information was what he got from your mother.”

I start shaking my head back and forth angrily.
“No, that can’t be true. How can you possibly know that?”

“Just because we are locked in this world
doesn’t mean we are blind to everything else. Being here gives us power, Libby.
We can never join the physical world again, at least not without help, but we
can observe it, see things that you cannot,” she explains. “Your father knew
that performing the Serqet could kill you both, but he thought that would be a
better fate than watching you become the Destroyer. He was blinded like so many
others. He didn’t see the magnificence of destruction you hold in your hands.
He didn’t understand.”

“He wouldn’t do that to me. He loved me,” I
whisper.

“Yes, he did. He thought he was protecting you
from a terrible fate. He thought he could save you, by either taking away some
of the talents that would mark who you are, or by ending both of your lives. He
didn’t understand that there is great beauty in the aftermath of destruction.”
The woman places her hand on my shoulder. The strange otherworldly coolness of
her touch makes me cringe. “Libby, you must wake up and stop your father. It’s
the only way to save the world. You must do this.”

“Save the world?” I ask. “I thought I was
supposed to destroy it.”

She smiles sadly and presses her hand against my
cheek. “Through destruction, you will save everyone. It is the only way, Libby.
Now wake up, and stop your father.”

“I … I can’t. I can’t kill him,” I cry.

Braden comes up beside me. The woman releases my
hands and gives them to Braden. He pulls me to his chest and cradles me. “You
have to do this, Libby.”

“I can’t, Braden. Please don’t make me go
through that again.”

“I won’t make you do anything. You have to be
the one to choose. I’ll take you back right now if you want, but it will mean
never reaching the Ciphers, never saving them, never knowing your purpose. It
will mean dying by a Guardian blade on your eighteenth birthday,” Braden says.

I try to ignore the pressure of
his own
Guardian blade against my back. I can’t die like
that. I can’t let the Ciphers die that way, either. They are mine to protect.
No matter the cost to me, I refuse to be responsible for their deaths.

Pulling my consciousness to the surface, I blink
and find myself lying in my childhood bed. Pain screams out of me through every
pore. My body tries to thrash, to get away from the fire in my veins, but I am
trapped here. Tears spill down my cheeks as my eyes find my dad leaning over
me. His hands are lying gently on my body, one close enough to touch if I can
just find the strength to lift my hand.

My spirit convulses in a ragged sob. I didn’t
mean to kill him last time. I was just trying to make the pain go away. This
time I know, I know that he will take his last breath as soon as our hands
meet, as soon as I break his focus. Staring up at him through bleary eyes, I
beg for this nightmare to end. A comforting hand rests on my shoulder,
completely unseen by my father in this strange realm. Instantly, my pain begins
to ease, my strength returning. Braden’s fingers squeeze me softly.

“He’s already dead, Libby. You aren’t killing
him this time. You’re just showing yourself that you are stronger than your
worst memory. Stop him from hurting you. Claim your destiny, and all of this
will end. Don’t let your nightmare win,” he whispers next to my ear.

His strength and certainty seep into me. My
fingers twitch. One at a time, I lift them from my blankets.
Then
my palm, my forearm, my elbow, hovering just within reach of my dad.
I
have to do this.

“Daddy, I’m sorry,” I whisper before I extend my
fingers and clutch his wrist.

He gasps once as terror fills his eyes. His face
contorts in agony as he screams, and then he falls to the ground.

I spring out of bed to hold him, but the scene
has already disappeared. I stumble in the emptiness of unconscious thought. Only
Braden’s quick response saves me from sprawling on the ground. He holds me up
by my arm awkwardly.
The shock of everything changing so
rapidly holds me with indecision for one long second.

Then everything comes crashing back in. I fall
into Braden’s arms and sob. We sink down and he holds me without question.

It is an eternity later before I realize Braden
is speaking to me, his quiet words whispering to me that everything will be
okay, that he won’t leave me. I pull against him even more tightly and try to
calm my shivering body. Another interminable amount of time passes before my
eyes are dry and my grief-inspired hiccups have stopped so I can speak.

“Thank you for coming with me,” I tell him. “I
never could have done that on my own.”

He presses his hands against my cheeks and
brushes away a straggling tear. “Yes, you could have, Libby. You are the
strongest person I have ever met. There isn’t anything you can’t do.” He pulls
me into a hug and I feel the shudder that runs through his body. “I had no idea
it was going to be that difficult. I didn’t understand at all what you went
through.”

“Thank you.”

Pulling back from me, Braden says, “You might
want to hold back on thanking me. This isn’t over yet.”

Chapter 1
3

Saia

I’m so tired.
So bone-deep
tired.
My physical body is still sitting on the floor with Braden back
in my room. That’s where I want to be right now. I could crawl into my bed,
close my eyes, and never dream again. But I’m not dreaming this time. I am once
again standing on the brink of my subconscious and the spirit world. Its
ephemeral warmth calls to me, but I tremble at the thought of stepping into it.

“Braden, maybe I should do this alone.”

“Absolutely not,” he argues.

“The Ciphers aren’t going to hurt me. They want
me here.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t know that for
sure. What if those crazy ones that grabbed Casey are angry at you for taking
so long? They may come after you, and this is your first real trip to the
spirit world. It’s dangerous enough without the possibility of an ambush.
You’re not doing it alone.”

“It would probably be less dangerous for me
without a Cipher Hunter as my guide. Like you said, I doubt any of them will be
thrilled to see you. I should go alone,” I argue.

“Nice try, but I’ve been coming here for years,
before I ever became a Cipher hunter. I do have a few friends in there,” he
says.

“Then why did you make me promise not to save
you if one of the Ciphers came after you?” I demand.

He shrugs and smiles at my irritation. “It’s
always better to plan for the worst. Now, are you ready to go? I don’t know how
much of the night we still have left, but I doubt it’s much.”

He takes a step forward, trying to pull me along
with him, but I slip my fingers out of his grasp and hang back. He turns and
sighs.

“Braden, there’s another reason I think I should
go alone. I’m not going in there just to visit or explore.  I need
information from the Ciphers, information I don’t know that I want you to
hear.”

The hurt in his eyes strikes a brief note of
shame in me, but I can’t put everything I’ve worked for in danger just to save
Braden’s pride. His stung feelings quickly morph into frustration. “After
everything I’ve already gone through with you tonight, you still don’t trust
me? What, you want me to promise again that I won’t tell my Captain about
this?”

“Yes,” I say firmly.

Braden’s jaw tightens and his eyes close
briefly. When he opens them again he stares straight at me. “Just let me give
you my Oath and you’ll never have to worry about trusting me again, Libby.”

“Are you absolutely convinced what I’m doing is
right?”

He hesitates. “I … I don’t know. After what
happened tonight, I’m starting to believe it, but I just don’t know yet.”

“Then I don’t want your Oath.”

“Why are you fighting me on this? What does it
really matter whether I give you my Oath because I believe in your cause or
because I lo-”

“Don’t even say it!” I snap.

For some reason, he thinks me stopping him is
funny. His irritating, smug smile taunts me as he walks back over to me. He
slips his hands around my waist, and says, “What does it matter whether I give
it to you because I believe you, or love you? Either way, I’m following you
down whatever road you decide to take. You’re not getting rid of me, Libby Sparks.”

“It just does. It matters to me, okay?” I say as
I push him away from me. “And you don’t love me. You barely even know me.”

Braden shakes his head and pushes up his sleeve.
The Guardian blade seems dull in the strange light surrounding us. He’s still
looking at me as if I’m the most foolish girl he’s ever met as he brings his
left hand up. He holds his arm right in front of me so his blade is almost
touching me. The emblem is right next to my skin, colder even than the air
around us. Braden presses his fingers against the emblem. I can feel the power
building in him as if he were touching me instead. My body is humming from his
presence as well as the pent up energy of the promise about to be made.

“Libby, I promise that I will not tell my
Captain anything that has happened, or will happen tonight, or any other time
we’re together.”

I sigh in relief, but he isn’t done yet.

“And I promise that I really am in love with
you.”

The weight of his honesty sets me back on my heels.
Shock hijacks any response I might have offered to that. He really does love
me. My eyes snap shut and I have to take a very deep breath to keep from
tipping over. How did this happen?

My spirit body eventually seems to piece itself
back together and I open my eyes without fear of fainting. Braden is standing
in front of me still, waiting for me to react. I refuse to respond to whatever
he thinks this is. I have an army to meet. I force myself to take his hand,
because I have no idea where to go in order to find them, and say, “Let’s get
this over with, please.”