“I know what you want, and I don’t blame you.” She cautiously stepped into my room. “No one wants to see you get hurt…or worse.”

“Worse is what Kat is going through right this moment. She’s your friend. Or was. And you’re okay with waiting? Knowing what they could be doing to her?”

She flinched, and her eyes shone like emeralds in the low light. “That’s not fair,” she whispered.

Maybe not, and any other time I would’ve felt like an ass for the low blow, but I couldn’t muster the empathy.

“We can’t lose you,” she said after a few moments of awkward-as-hell silence. “You have to understand that we did what we did because we love you.”

“But I love her,” I said without hesitation.

Her eyes widened, probably since it was the first time she’d heard me say it out loud—well, about anyone other than my family. I wished I had said it more often, especially to Kat. Funny how that kind of shit always turns out in the end. While you’re deep in something, you never say or do what you need to. It’s always after the fact, when it’s too late, that you realize what you should’ve said or done.

It couldn’t be too late. The fact that I was still alive was testament to that.

Tears filled my sister’s eyes as she said in a quiet voice, “She loves you, too.”

The burn in my chest expanded and crawled up my throat.

“You know, I always knew she liked you before she admitted it to me or herself.”

I smiled slightly. “Yeah, same here.”

Dee twisted the length of her hair in her hands. “I knew she’d be…she’d be perfect for you. She’d never put up with your crap.” Dee sighed. “I know Kat and I had our problems over…Adam, but I love Kat, too.”

I couldn’t do this—sit here and talk about her like we were at some kind of wake or memorial. This shit was too much.

She took a little breath, a sure sign she was about to unload. “I wish I hadn’t been so hard on her. I mean, she totally needed to know that she should’ve trusted me and all of that, but if I could’ve let go of it sooner, then…well, you know what I mean. It would’ve been better for everyone. I hate the idea that I might never—” She cut herself off quickly, but I knew what she was getting at. She might never see Kat again. “Anyway, I had asked her before prom if she was scared about going back to Mount Weather.”

My chest seized like someone had grabbed me in a bear hug. “What did she say?”

Dee let go of her hair. “She said she was, but, Daemon, she was so brave. She even laughed, and I told her…” She stared at her hands, her expression pinched. “I told her to be careful and to keep you and Dawson safe. And you know, she said she would, and she did, in a way.”

Christ.

I rubbed my palm over my chest where it felt like a fist-sized hole had opened up.

“But before I had asked her that, she had been trying to talk to me about Adam and everything, and I had cut her off with that question. She kept trying to make amends, and I kept pushing her back. She probably hated me—”

“That’s not the case.” I looked Dee dead-on. “She didn’t hate you. Kat understood. She knew you needed time, and she…” I stood, suddenly needing to get out of this room and this house and onto the road.

“We haven’t run out of time,” she said quietly, almost like she was begging…and damn if that didn’t hurt. “We haven’t.”

Anger flashed through me, and it took everything for me not to lash out. Because keeping me in that damn cabin had been nothing but a waste of time. Taking several deep breaths, I asked a question I wasn’t sure I wanted an answer to. “Have you seen her mom?”

Her lower lip trembled. “I have.”

I caught my sister’s stare and held it. “Tell me.”

Her expression said that was the last thing she wanted to do. “The police were at her house all day after…we got back. I talked to them, and then to her mom. The police think you two ran away. Or at least that’s what they told her mom, but I think one of them is an implant. He was way too adamant about it.”

“Of course,” I muttered.

“Her mom doesn’t believe it, though. She knows Katy. And Dawson has been keeping a low profile with Beth and all. It would seem suspicious to anyone with two brain cells.” She plopped back down, arms falling in her lap. “It was really hard. Her mom was so upset. I could tell she thinks the worst, especially after Will and Carissa ‘disappearing,’” Dee said, using air quotes. “She’s really bad off.”

Guilt exploded like buckshot, leaving dozens of holes in me. Kat’s mom shouldn’t be going through this—worrying about her daughter, missing her, and fearing the worst.

“Daemon? Don’t leave us. We’ll find a way to get her, but please don’t leave us. Please.”

I stared at her in silence. I couldn’t make a promise I had no intention of keeping and she already knew that. “I have to go. You know that. I have to get her back.”

Her lower lip trembled. “But what if you don’t get her back? What if you are put in there with her?”

“Then at least I’m with her. I’m there for her.” I walked up to my sister and clasped her cheeks. Tears rolled down, pooling along my fingers. I hated to see her cry, but I hated what was happening to Kat more. “Don’t worry, Dee. This is me we’re talking about. You know damn well I can get myself out of any situation. And you know I will get her out of there.”

And nothing in this world would stop me.

Chapter 3

Katy

I was amazed that with all the reeling my brain was doing, I’d be able to do something normal like change into fresh clothes—a pair of black jogging pants and a gray cotton shirt. The clothing fit on a disturbing level, even the undergarments.

Like they knew I’d be coming.

Like they had snooped around in my undie drawer and got my size.

I wanted to hurl.

Instead of dwelling on that, which would most definitely lead to me flipping out and getting a face full of onyx and icy water again, I focused on my cell. Oh, excuse me. My quarters, as Dr. Roth reminded me.

It was about the size of a hotel room, a good three hundred square feet or so. Tile covered the floors, cold under my bare feet. I had no idea where my shoes were. There was a double bed tucked up against the wall, a tiny end table beside it, a dresser, and a TV mounted on the wall at the foot of the bed. In the ceiling were the fearsome black dots of pain, but there were no water hoses in the room.

And there was a door across from the bed.

Padding to it, I placed the tips of my fingers on the door and cautiously pushed it open, half expecting a net made of onyx to drop on me.

It didn’t.

Inside was a small bathroom with another door at the end. That one was locked.

I wheeled around and went back into the bedroom.

The trip to my cell hadn’t been scenic. We’d walked straight out of the room I’d woken up in and into an elevator that had opened straight across from where I was now. I hadn’t really even gotten a chance to look down the hallway to see how many rooms there were like the one I was in now.

I bet there were a lot.

Having no idea what time it was, if it were night or day, I shuffled over to the bed and pulled down the brown blanket. I sat and pressed my back against the wall, tucking my legs against my chest. I tugged the blanket to my chin and sat facing the door.

I was tired—weary to my very core. My eyes were heavy, and my body ached from the effort to sit up, but the idea of falling asleep scared the ever-loving crap out of me. What if someone came into the room while I slept? That was a very real concern. The door locked from the outside, meaning I was completely at their whim.

To keep myself from dozing off, I focused on the one thousand questions circling in my head. Dr. Roth had made that cloak-and-dagger statement about the Luxen being behind the war that had started God knew how long ago. Even if they had been, did it matter now? I didn’t think it did. Not when this generation of Luxen was so far removed from what their ancestors might’ve plotted. I honestly didn’t even understand why he had brought it up. To show how little I knew? Or was there something more? And what about Bethany? Was she really dangerous?

I shook my head. Even if the Luxen started a war hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago, that didn’t mean they were evil. And if Bethany was dangerous, it probably had something to do with what they had done to her. I wasn’t going to let them pull me into their lies, but I had to admit, what they had said unnerved me.

My brain mulled over more questions. How long were they planning to keep me here? What about school? My mom? I thought of Carissa. Had she been brought to a place like this? I still had no idea how she’d ended up mutated, or why. Luc, the ridiculously intelligent and even a bit scary teen hybrid, had helped us get into Mount Weather and had warned that I may never know what happened to Carissa. I wasn’t sure I could live with that. Never knowing why she ended up in my bedroom and self-destructed wasn’t right. And if I ended up like her, or like the countless other hybrids the government kidnapped, what would happen to my mom?

With no answers to any of those questions, I finally let my mind go where it wanted, where I’d been desperately trying to prevent it from going.

Daemon.

My eyes fell shut as I exhaled. I didn’t even have to try to see him. His face pieced together perfectly.

His broad cheekbones, lips that were full and almost always expressive, and those eyes—those beautiful green eyes that were like two polished emeralds, abnormally bright. I knew my memory really didn’t do him justice. He had this masculine beauty I’d never seen before in real life, had only read about in the books I loved.

Man, I missed books already.

In his true form, Daemon was extraordinary. All of the Luxen were breathtakingly beautiful; being made of pure light, they were mesmerizing to look upon, like seeing a star up close.

Daemon Black could be as prickly as a hedgehog having a really bad day, but underneath all that spindly armor, he was sweet, protective, and incredibly selfless. He’d dedicated most of his life to keeping his family and his kind safe, continually facing danger with little thought to his own safety. I was in constant awe of him. Though it hadn’t always been like that.

A tear dripped down my cheek unbidden.

Resting my chin against my knees, I swiped at the wetness. I prayed that he was okay—as okay as he could be. That Matthew, Dawson, and Andrew were keeping a tight leash on him. That they wouldn’t let him do what I knew he wanted to: the same thing I’d do if the situation were flipped.

Although I wanted him—needed him—to hold me, this was the last place I wanted him to be. The very last place.

Heart aching, I tried thinking about the good things—better things—but the memories weren’t enough. There was a strong chance I might never see him again.

The tears slipped out of my tightly squeezed eyes.

Crying solved nothing, but it was hard to hold it in when exhaustion dogged me. I kept my eyes closed, slowly counting until the knot of messy, raw emotions climbed back down my throat.