Opal

Blake and I may’ve kissed once, but we didn’t have a long-standing relationship. God, they’d probably had—

I checked myself right there.

Dawson stood, made his way around the coffee table, and sat beside me. “Ethan pissed him off. He wanted to know that Daemon’s relationship with you wouldn’t interfere with his loyalties to his kind.” Dawson leaned forward, rubbing his palms over his bent knees. “And, well, you can imagine Daemon’s response.”

I wasn’t so sure that I could. “What did he say?”

Dawson laughed, eyes squinting like Daemon’s did. “Let’s just say Daemon explained that who he was with didn’t affect his loyalties, but he used different words.”

I grinned a little. “Bad words?”

“Very bad words,” he said, glancing at me. “They didn’t expect this from him. No one did. Me? Yeah, well, they never expected much from me. Mainly because I didn’t care what they thought-not that Daemon does, but

”

“I know. He’s always been the one to take care of everything, right? Not the one to cause problems like this.”

He nodded. “They don’t know what you are, but I doubt Ethan’s going to let this drop.”

“They’ll outcast him?” When he nodded, I shook my head. If a Luxen was outcasted, he wasn’t allowed in or near Luxen communities, which meant he couldn’t be near the protective cluster of beta quartz. He’d be virtually on his own against the Arum. “What is Ethan? I get he’s an Elder, but so what?”

Dawson’s brows pinched. “Elders are like the mayors and presidents of our communities. Ethan is our president.”

My brows rose. “Sounds important.”

“All those who live in the colony will listen to him. Those who don’t risk the same social fallout.” He leaned back, closing his eyes. “Even those who mingle with humans, like the ones who work outside the colony and whatever, are afraid of ticking off the Elders. None of us can just leave without the DOD’s permission, but damn, if they wanted us out, they’d find a way to do so.”

“Did they do that to you because of Beth?”

His face tensed. “They would’ve, but there hadn’t been enough time. Not enough time for anything.”

Pain sliced my chest and I placed my hand on his arm. “We’re going to get Beth back.”

A small smile appeared. “I know. This Sunday

Everything comes down to this Sunday.”

My stomach did a topsy-turvy thing, and my pulse picked up. “What was it like in there?”

His eyes opened into thin slits. Several moments passed before he answered. “At first, it wasn’t too bad. They let Beth and me see each other. They told us they were keeping us for our safety. You know, the whole ‘if people find out what I did to Beth, it would get bad and we needed to be protected’ bit. Daedalus was on our side. It really seemed that way for a while. I

I almost believed we’d walk out of it together.”

It was the first time I heard him say Daedalus . The word sounded strange on his lips.

“Believing in that led to nothing but misery and eventually madness when the hope faded.” His lips tipped up at the corners. “Daedalus wanted me to recreate what I had with Beth. They wanted me to create more like her. To help better mankind and all that BS, and when it didn’t work, things

things changed.”

I shifted. “How did they change?”

The line of his jaw tightened. “At first, they wouldn’t let me see Beth-my punishment for failing when it seemed all too easy to them. They didn’t get I didn’t know how I healed and changed her. They’d bring these dying humans to me and I tried, Katy, I really tried. They just died no matter what I did.”

Nausea welled up inside me, and I wished I knew what to say, but it seemed like this was one of those moments when saying nothing meant everything.

“Then they started bringing in healthy humans and doing things to them-hurting them-and I healed them. Some

some of them got better. At least they did for a little while, and it was like whatever wounds were inflicted on them came back with a vengeance. Others

others destabilized.”

“Destabilized?”

Dawson’s hands opened and closed on his thighs. “They’d develop some of our abilities, but something

something went wrong. This one girl-she wasn’t much older than us and she was nice, very nice. They gave her some kind of pill and she was dying. I healed her. I really wanted to heal her, because she was so scared.” Emerald eyes met mine. “And we thought it worked. She got sick like Beth was when they first brought us in. And then she could move just as fast as us. About a day after the sickness faded, she ran into a wall.”

I frowned. “How is that so bad?”

His gaze slipped away. “We can move faster than bullets, Katy. She crashed into the wall. It was like hitting it at supersonic speed.”

“Oh my God

”

“And it was like she couldn’t stop herself. Sometimes I wonder if she did it on purpose. There were many, many more after her. Humans who died with my hands on them. Humans who died after I healed them. Humans who lived with no mutations but were never seen again.” He looked down. “There’s so much blood on my hands.”

“No.” I shook my head vigorously. “None of that was your fault.”

“It wasn’t?” Anger deepened his voice. “I have this ability to heal, but I couldn’t get it right.”

“But you had to want to heal them-like on a cellular level. You were being forced to do it.”

“It doesn’t change that so many people died.” He sat forward again, antsy. “There was a period of time that I believed I deserved what they were doing to me, but never

never to Beth. She didn’t deserve that.”

“You didn’t either, Dawson.”

He stared at me a moment, then looked away. “They withheld Beth, then food, then water, and when that still didn’t work, they got creative.” He let out a long breath. “I guess they did the same to Beth, but I really didn’t know. All I saw was what they did in front of me.”

My stomach sank to the couch cushion. I had a really bad feeling about this.

“They’d hurt her just so I could heal her, and they could study the process.” Dawson’s jaw worked. “Each time I felt the worst kind of fear. What if it didn’t work? What if I failed Beth? I’d

” He moved his neck, as if working out a kink.

He’d never be the same. Tears climbed up my throat again. I wanted to cry for him, for Beth, but most of all, for the people they once were but never would be again.

Armentrout, Jennifer L.

Opal ( A Lux Novel)

Chapter 19

After that, Dawson shut down. He talked about anything-weather, football, the Smurfs-but nothing about Daedalus or what they did to him and Beth. Part of me was grateful. I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle knowing, as selfish as that sounded.

But the bad part was that once we stopped talking about serious stuff, my brain ran right back to where Daemon was and what he was doing. When it neared midnight and he still hadn’t come home, I couldn’t sit there any longer.

I couldn’t sit anywhere.

Saying good night, I made the quick and chilly trek across the lawn. The first thing I did was check my cell. There was a text waiting and my heart stuttered.

Srry abt tnght. Tlk tmrw.

It had come in about an hour ago. Meaning he was still with Ash-er, Andrew, Dee, and Ash.

I glanced at the clock, like that would somehow change the time. My heart was pounding in my chest, as though I’d run from next door. Looking down at my cell, I fought the urge to throw it against the wall. I knew I was being ridiculous. Daemon was friends with them, including Ash. He could hang out with them without me. And with the fallout between Dee and me, he hadn’t been spending a lot of time with her.

Ridiculous or not, my feelings were hurt. And I hated that-hated that something as stupid as this would upset me.