Defenders of Earth (Book 2 of the Keepers Trilogy)

Chapter 7

I sit cross-legged on my bed, staring down at my notebook. In less than twelve hours, my secrecy might go down the drain.

I don't want to be a part of this. I want to go full-human. An alien lab that might be working for Simon won't get Calypso Hel'trakah. They'll just get Callie Everett.

I take my power into my hand and yank on the chain. It snaps.

There.

I take the locket into my hand, then pause. This isn't a tie to my alien life. It's a tie to my family. A mother who thinks I'm dead, a sister whom I've never met, and a father who betrayed me. Do I really want to get rid of them?

My father, yes. But Momma and Artie? Do I really want that?

 I leave the locket on and store the power under a loose floorboard along with the notebook. I consider throwing them out or flushing it, but I might still need them.

I curl up in a ball on my bed. Why did I agree to this? Why did I want to meet with them? What possessed me?

I didn't know my father was gonna give me up. I didn't know that Simon would already be on his way. I didn't know I didn't know I didn't know...

My brain is in a thousand places right now, and I can't make sense of anything. Even back on Azera, everything was simple. Wake up. Do work. Worship the Gods. Go to bed. The war didn't affect that.

Until the Training Base collapsed and Simon took me captive and I escaped to Earth. Until I spent three months adjusting to a culture that I knew nothing about beyond names. Until I found out that there are humans looking for aliens, beyond tin-foil wearing, Star Trek watching nerds (although they are right that aliens exist, their views on us are completely off and insulting).

Oh where, oh where, has this world gone?

I pull the sheets over my head and sing quietly to myself, so softly I can barely hear it. It's the lullaby that my parents taught to James, who then taught it to me, many nights when I was little-little and had just arrived at the Training Base. I was only one and a half then, and Simon was six- the oldest a Keeper has ever received their power. Less than 10 years later, he dragged four races into a battle over a girl.

A girl.

A girl with the ability to open up a gate between universes, yeah. But a girl nonetheless. A single person that he killed millions for. 

I continue to sing the lullaby, perhaps with a bit of desperation in it. It hits me then, just how much I changed. Five months ago, I was this happy, sarcastic bookworm who didn't have much that bothered her.

Now, I'm this irritable, scared, indecisive girl. Refugee. Whatever.

I don't sleep for a second that night.

***

I'm sitting in the kitchen, eating cereal, when Callie stumbles in. I didn't sleep too well last night, but Callie looks like she didn't sleep at all. There are bags under her eyes and she's unsteady on her feet.

"Hey, Callie," I say. "You ready for today?"

She shakes her head.

"Me neither," I admit.

"I'm scared," she whispers.

I don't quite know what to say, so I get up and hug her. "Thank you, Mark," she mumbles.