Opposition

My fingers curled inward. “You really believe that? They will come back?”

Amethyst eyes flicked from the TV to mine. “It’s all I can believe at this point. It’s all any of us can believe right now.”

That wasn’t really reassuring.

“Sorry,” he replied, letting it be known he’d picked up on my thoughts yet again. He nodded at the TV before I could get ticked off. “Something’s going on. Why would that many Luxen come to Earth and then just go silent?”

That was also the question of the year.

“I think it’s kind of obvious,” said a voice from the hall. I turned as Luc entered the living room. Tall and slender, he had his brown-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. Luc was younger than us, around fourteen or fifteen, but he was like a little teen mafia leader and, at times, scarier than Archer. “And you know exactly what I’m talking about,” he added, eyeing the older Origin.

As Archer and Luc locked eyes in a battle of the stare-down, something they’d been doing a lot of during the last two days, I sat on the arm of a chair by the window. “Care to explain out loud?”

Luc had a certain boyish quality to his beautiful face, like he hadn’t quite lost the roundness of childhood yet, but there was a wisdom in his purple eyes that went beyond a handful of years.

He leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms. “They’re planning. Strategizing. Waiting.”

That didn’t sound good, but I wasn’t surprised. An ache formed between my temples. Archer said nothing as he went back to staring at the TV.

“Why else would they come here?” Luc continued as he tilted his head, gazing at the curtained window near me. “I’m sure it’s not to shake hands and kiss babies’ cheeks. They’re here for a reason, and it’s not good.”

“Daedalus always believed they would invade.” Archer sat back, clasping his hands over his knees. “The whole Origin initiative was in response to that concern. After all, the Luxen don’t have a history of playing nice with other intelligent life-forms. But why now?”

Wincing, I rubbed my temples. I hadn’t believed Dr. Roth when he’d told me how the Luxen were actually the cause of the war between them and the Arum—a war that had destroyed both of their planets. And I’d thought Sergeant Dasher and Nancy Husher, the head bitch in charge of Daedalus, were crazy freaks.

I’d been wrong.

So had Daemon.

Luc arched a brow as he coughed out a laugh. “Oh, I don’t know, might have to do with the very public spectacle we put on in Vegas. We know there were implants here, Luxen who aren’t that fond of humans. How they communicated with the Luxen not on this planet is beyond me, but is that really important now? This was the perfect moment to make an entrance.”

My eyes narrowed. “You said it was a brilliant idea.”

“I think lots of things are brilliant ideas. Like nuclear weapons, zero-calorie soft drinks, and blue jean vests,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean we should nuke people, or that diet drinks taste good, or that you should run out to the local Walmart and buy a jean vest. You people shouldn’t always listen to me.”

My eyes rolled so hard they almost fell out of the back of my head. “Well, what else were we supposed to do? If Daemon and the others hadn’t exposed themselves, we would’ve been captured.”

Neither of the guys replied, but the unspoken words hung between us. If we’d been captured, it would’ve sucked donkey butt and then some, but Paris, Ash, and Andrew would probably still be alive. So would the innocent humans who had lost their lives when everything went to crap.

But there was nothing we could do about that now. Time could be frozen for short periods, but no one could go back and change things. What was done was done, and Daemon had made that decision to protect all of us. I’d be damned if anyone threw him under the spaceship.

“You look exhausted,” commented Archer, and it took a moment for me to realize he was talking to me.

Luc turned those unnerving eyes on me. “Actually, you look like crap.”

Gee. Thanks.

Archer ignored him. “I think you should try to sleep. Just for a little while. If anything happens, we will get you.”

“No.” I shook my head just in case my verbal cue wasn’t enough. “I’m fine.” The truth was I was far from being fine. I was probably one step away from going to that dark corner in the room and rocking back and forth, but I couldn’t break down, and I couldn’t sleep. Not when Daemon was out there somewhere, and not when the whole world was on the verge of . . . hell, turning into a dystopia, like one of those novels I used to read.

Sigh. Books. I missed them.

Archer frowned, and it turned his handsome face a little scary, but before he could lay into me, Luc pushed off of the doorway and spoke. “I think she needs to go talk to Beth, actually.”

Surprised, I glanced at the stairwell in the hall outside the room. The last I checked, the girl had been sleeping. That was all Beth seemed to do. I was almost envious of her ability to sleep all of this away.

“Why?” I asked. “Is she awake?”

Luc ambled into the living room. “I think you two need some girl-talk time.”

My shoulders slumped as I sighed. “Luc, I really don’t think this is the time for girl bonding.”

“It isn’t?” He dropped onto the couch beside Archer and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. “What else are you doing besides staring out the window and trying to sneak past us so you can go off into the woods, look for Daemon, and probably get eaten by a mountain lion?”