Opal

“Good.” His hands were on my hips, tugging me forward. “That’s what I like to hear.”

Placing my hands on his chest, I tilted my head back. This was totally an exercise in time management. Our lips brushed and warmth cascaded through me. It was a really fun exercise. I rose onto the tips of my toes and slid my hands up the hard plane of his chest, marveled at the way it rose unsteadily.

Daemon whispered something and then the soft kiss, which wasn’t much more than a butterfly touch, strengthened me and unraveled him. His arms swept around me, and I could feel his heart pounding in tandem with mine.

“Hey!” Dawson yelled from the front door. “I think Dee caught the microwave on fire. Again. And I tried popping some popcorn with my hands and it kind of went wrong. Like really, really wrong.”

Daemon pressed his forehead against mine and growled. “Dammit.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Time management, right?”

“Time management,” he muttered.

Surprisingly, pretty much everyone was on board with the onyx thing. I was convinced we had an invasion of the body snatchers or something, because even Matthew was nodding like exposing yourself to the hellishly painful onyx was a good thing.

I had a feeling that would change the first time he came in contact with it.

“This is so insane,” Dee said, and I had to agree. “This is tantamount to self-mutilation.”

Ah, she kind of had a point.

Dawson’s head dropped back, and he sighed. “That’s a little extreme.”

“I remember what you looked like when they brought you back down the mountain.” She twisted her hair around her hand. “And Katy lost her voice for a while from screaming. Who signs up for that?”

“Crazy people.” Daemon sighed. “Dee, I don’t want you doing this.”

Her expression was clearly a no duh one. “No offense, Dawson, I love you and want you to see Beth and to hold her, because I wish

” Her voice cracked, but her spine straightened. “But I don’t want to do this.”

Dawson shot forward, placing a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. I don’t expect you to do this.”

“I want to help.” Her voice was wobbly. “But I can’t

”

“It’s fine.” Dawson smiled and there was a moment between the siblings, as if he were saying more with just that gesture alone. Whatever it was, it worked, because Dee relaxed. “Not all of us need to do this.”

“Then who’s in?” Blake’s eyes touched on all of us. “If we are going to do this, we need to start, like, yesterday, because I don’t know how long it’ll take to build a tolerance.”

Antsy, Dawson stood. “It can’t take that long.”

Blake let out a surprised laugh. “I’ve been with Daedalus for years, so there’s no telling at what point I built a tolerance

or if I really even have one.”

“We’ve got to test that out, then.” I grinned.

He frowned. “Wow. Kind of excited about that?”

I nodded.

Dee twisted around, eyeing Blake. “Can I test it out, too?”

“I’m pretty sure everyone will get a round.” Daemon’s sinister twist of the lips was actually kind of frightening. “Anyway, back to the basics. Who’s in?”

Matthew raised his hand. “I want to be in on this. No offense, Andrew, but I prefer to take your place this time.”

Andrew nodded his head. “No problem. I can wait with Dee and Ash.”

Ash, who hadn’t said more than two words, just nodded. I realized that half of the room was staring at me. “Oh,” I said. “Yeah, I’m in.” Beside me, Daemon gave me a look that said, You are so out of your mind . I folded my arms. “Don’t start with me. I’m in. Nothing you can say will change that.”

The next look translated into, This is going to turn into a conversation-argument-in private . Blake watched with approval-a ringing endorsement I didn’t want or need. Frankly, it made my skin crawl, since it reminded me of when I had killed the Arum he’d practically thrown at me.

God, I wanted to hit him again.

Plans were made to meet after school and, weather permitting, we’d head out to the lake to basically start causing ourselves an obscene amount of pain. Whee.

Since there were some hours left before bedtime, I said my goodbyes and left to get some studying in and hopefully a dang review.

Daemon walked me over and I knew it wasn’t a gentlemanly act, but I let him in and offered him his favorite: milk.

He downed the drink in five seconds flat. “Can we talk about this?”

I hopped up on the counter and opened my bag, pulling out my history book. “Nope.”

“Kat.”

“Hmm?” I flipped open to the chapter we’d been reading in class.

He stalked over, placing his hands on either side of my crossed legs. “I can’t watch you get hurt over and over again.”

I dug out a Highlighter.

“Seeing what happened last night and when Will had you handcuffed in that stuff? And I’m supposed to just stand there-Are you listening to me?”

Halfway through the sentence I’d highlighted, I stopped. “I’m listening.”

“Then look at me.”

I lifted my lashes. “I’m looking at you.”

Daemon scowled.

Sighing, I put the cap back on the Highlighter. “Okay. I don’t want to see you in pain.”

“Kat-”

“No. Don’t interrupt. I don’t want to see you in pain and just thinking about you going through what that feels like makes me want to hurl.”

“I can handle it.”

Our eyes locked. “I know you can, but that doesn’t change how horrible it’s going to be to see you go through that, but I’m not asking you not to do it.”

He pushed off and pivoted around, thrusting his fingers through his hair. Tension and frustration settled over the kitchen like a well-worn blanket.

Setting my stuff aside, I hopped down. “I don’t want to argue with you, Daemon, but you can’t say it’s okay for me to watch you go through this and not you.”

I made my way over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. He stiffened. “I know this is coming from a good place, but just because it’s getting ugly, I can’t back out. And you know you’re not going to. It’s only fair.”

“I hate your logic.” He placed his hands on mine, though, and I pressed against his back, smiling. “And I’m really going to hate this.”

Squeezing him like my favorite teddy bear, I knew how hard this was for him to give on. This was monumental, actually. He twisted in my arms, lowered his head, and I thought, Wow, this is how adults do things . They may not agree on stuff all the time, they may argue, but in the end, they work it out and they love.

Like my mom and dad.

A lump formed in my throat. Crying so wouldn’t be the right thing to do, but it was hard to keep those tears back.

“The only good thing is that I’m going to hold Buff down and make him kiss onyx over and over again,” he said.

I choked out a laugh. “You’re sadistic.”

“And you need to study, right? It’s school time management-not Daemon time management, which blows, because we’re alone and it requires more effort for them to interrupt us over here.”

Disappointed, I pulled free. “Yeah, I need to study.”

He pouted and it was incredibly sexy on him. Wrong. “All right, I’m leaving.”

I followed him to the door. “I’ll text when I’m done and you can come over and tuck me in.”

“’Kay,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “I’ll be waiting.”

And knowing that had me all warm and fuzzy. Wiggling my fingers at him, I closed the door and went back to the kitchen, grabbed my stuff and a glass of OJ. Happy that an all-out brouhaha was avoided with Daemon, I went upstairs and bumped open my door.

I came to a complete stop.

A girl sat on my bed, hands folded primly in her lap. It took me a moment to recognize her, because her hair hung in limp strands around her pale face and her almond-shaped eyes weren’t hidden behind purple or pink glasses.