Haven's Secret (The Powers Book 1) , livre ebook

PUBLISHER S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.
Paperback ISBN 978-1-4197-5262-9 eISBN 978-1-6470-0210-7
Text 2021 Melissa Benoist and Jessica Benoist-Young Book design by Deena Fleming
Published in paperback in 2022 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. Originally published in hardcover by Amulet Books in 2021. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
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For Grandma and Grandpa and our long drives through the mountains whistling to symphonies; you gave us our love of nature.
PROLOGUE
When it came for her, she didn t realize that she d been slipping away piece by piece for a very long time. She only knew that the small things that once brought her joy-cold creek water rushing over her bare feet; the prick of a bramble on the pad of her finger; the soft, wrinkled nose of a newborn piglet; a human hand cupped in her own-those things no longer made her feel . That was how the Danger worked. It wriggled inside you and got to know your weakest parts. By the time you recognized its presence, there was nothing left to save.
Except.
The Danger had a blind spot. It did not know what it was like to love someone more than you loved yourself. It did not recognize the meaning of putting someone else first. And so for a while, she remained elusive. The Danger chipped away at her, but it had nowhere to burrow, take root, and flourish like the garden she carefully tended. That s how it went for a while: the girl running, the Danger chasing, the girl always one step ahead . . . until the day she lost the thing she loved most in the world, and the Danger finally understood.
It met her in the woods behind the house. She knew it was coming. She knew better than to fight back. It made its presence felt in the swirling wind, the bending trees, the keening animals, the shadows cast by the waning moon. It filled her, and she let it. It fused to her body from the inside out, banishing all the parts she d kept hidden and protected for so long.
She had thought she d known what to expect, but the Danger filled her with an unimaginable emptiness-something far worse than the sadness of loss. It was the loss of self. She fought to wrest it back, realizing her mistake. She could have healed, grown stronger. The Danger had taken hold of her grief and tricked her.
It was too late, even for her.
Once, she had been trusted with unimaginable power.
Now, she was nothing.
And the Danger wasn t finished.

CHAPTER ONE
On the morning of the day everything changed, Parker McFadden woke up at her usual time of seven o clock, prepared to do all the things she normally did, because everything was still normal, for the most part. The first thing Parker saw when she opened her eyes was her room, which faced east. When she looked out her window and squinted, she could see the blue of the sky and the tips of the buildings between her house and the Pacific Ocean.
Parker s walls were painted a very satisfying, cheerful shade to mimic the cheerfulness of the outdoors. According to the swatch from the paint store, the color she d chosen was Positive Vibes Yellow, and Parker had to agree. She wondered what it would be like to be the person who named paint for a living. She rolled onto her side and reached toward the shelf her dad had installed on the wall next to her bed for her necessities. Then she pulled out the thin notebook she kept stashed under an innocuous stack of novels. She turned to page fifty-six and searched for an empty spot, then jotted Paint Namer in teeny-tiny print under College Basketball Ref and Boatswain in a list titled Careers. Then Parker tucked the notebook back in its spot, making sure to push it all the way in so you could barely see it beneath the larger books.
Parker could hear the slight rustling sound of her sister, Ellie, beginning to wake up in the bunk beneath her. According to the alarm on her phone, Parker had two more minutes before it was time to get up and face the world. She switched it off so it wouldn t ring, then lay back with a sigh. Parker always woke up two minutes before her alarm went off-it was her superpower. It was as if her subconscious brain wanted to eke out a couple of precious minutes of Parker being Parker and only that-not one half of Parker Ellie. And today especially, she wanted to enjoy these first two minutes in peace.
Parker was buzzing with excitement. Energy coursed through her in a million tiny zaps. Any other day she might have jumped out of bed and hurried down to the kitchen. But today she stilled herself and took a deep breath, savoring the moment.
Today Parker was a newly minted twelve-year-old.
She stared at the wall next to her bed, then shifted her gaze to the wall at the bed s foot. Both spaces were covered in a collage of photos, pictures ripped from her parents old magazines, posters, and art: an accumulation of the first eleven years of being Parker McFadden. But were they reflective of this new era? Would they hold up now that she was twelve? Probably not. Parker immediately began taking mental notes for a redesign.
On the wall adjacent Parker s bed, she had one WNBA poster from the 2008 season championships (for athletic inspiration); a picture of her and her sister at a park with their mom when they were small (her mom s face in profile, partially obscured by windswept hair); a photo of her ultimate frisbee team from last year when they won the championship (See! Inspiration works!); and one drawing of a red tulip-by her friend Clara-which Parker thought looked a little like a balloon, which was nice, because Parker preferred balloons to tulips. Beneath her, Parker heard a sleepy yawn. She glanced at her phone: one more minute left, all her own.
Then the door burst wide open, and Parker sat bolt upright in bed, nearly knocking her head on the ceiling. Ellie shrieked from the bottom bunk, where she d been officially jolted out of sleep.
Surprise! shouted their dad, spilling into the room, his arms laden with gifts.
DAD! shouted Parker. Don t you know anything about privacy?! WE ARE TWELVE NOW.
Dad, I was sound asleep, mumbled Ellie so softly Parker could hardly hear her from up above.
Sorry, sorry. At least he had the decency to look sheepish. Just then, Ellie s alarm started going off to the tune of birds chirping.
Ahhhh! shouted Parker.
Ahhhh! shouted Ellie. Parker peeked over the edge of the top bunk and saw her twin sister emerge from beneath a pile of blankets and fumble for her phone. She hit off, then glared at their father, insomuch as Ellie could glare. (She looked like an angry hedgehog, or something similarly adorable.) Dad! I had one precious minute of sleep left!
Let me just try this again, their dad said, collecting the gifts from the floor and backing slowly out of the room. He tugged the door closed behind him. There was a long silence, followed by three short knocks. Ellie and Parker locked eyes. Ellie rolled hers, making Parker giggle. Parker snorted and stuck out her tongue, causing Ellie to collapse in a fit of laughter, her hair framing her face in an unruly crown.
Parker s heart thawed a little at that. Sometimes it wasn t so bad being half of Parker Ellie. She brought a finger to her lips and Ellie s eyes widened, but she nodded. Then Parker slid out of bed and crept stealthily down the ladder to the ground below.
Hello? Can I come in?
Just a second! Ellie shouted, choking back laughter.
When Parker had both feet on the floor, she crept across the room toward the door. Then she nodded at Ellie.
OK, Dad! You can come in now, Ellie called out.
Their dad opened the door slowly.
Sur-
SURPRISE! Parker shouted, leaping into his arms.
The packages went flying-again-and their dad caught her with an oomph. Then his foot snagged on the carpet and they both tumbled backward. A second later, Ellie jumped on top of them, knocking the wind out of Parker and making them all crack up. For a split second, everything felt perfect.
Dad, you were super convincing this time, Ellie said. For a second I thought you actually forgot we do this every single year.
My acting skills are improving with old age. Their dad ruffled each of their hair. Then Parker spotted the gifts, lying abandoned on the bedroom floor, and her smile faltered at the reminder of their mom s absence. Part of her had thought this was the year everything would be different. That this year when their dad opened the door to surprise them, their mom would be right behind him, holding the gifts herself. But the only thing behind the gifts and her dad and Ellie-who was still rolling with laughter on the floor-was an empty hallway.
Happy twelfth birthday, girls, their dad said, getting misty-eyed as he rose to his feet and offered a hand to each of them. If only your mom could see you today! She would be so proud. If only they could see Mom today, Parker thought. She would have traded it for all the gifts in the world.
CHAPTER TWO
A minute later, Ellie, her sister, and their dad were settled atop Ellie s llama-print bedspread