Opposition

“His name is Archer. I don’t know his last name or if he even has one.” My skin crawled.

“And how did you come into contact with him?” Rolland asked. When he leaned back, Sadi shifted from the seat next to him to the one beside me.

Every muscle in my body locked up as her hand replaced his. “Don’t lie, Katy.” She leaned in, her mouth near my ear. “We know more than you think.”

“Because you’ve been here this whole time?” I asked.

She laughed softly. “Well, aren’t you the astute one?” Her sharp nails seemed to dig through the thin material of my pants. “Come on, don’t be shy.”

I drew in a short breath. “I met him in Daedalus.”

“And what would that be?” Rolland asked.

As much as I wanted to shift away from Sadi, I remained where I was sitting. “They are a group within the government that has worked at assimilating the Luxen. They watch over them, keep tabs on them—”

“Control them?”

“To some extent.” I sucked in a breath as Sadi extended an arm behind me and leaned in, getting all up in my personal space. “They’ve done experiments.” As I told them about Daedalus, I fought back the urge to sink my nails into her face.

Rolland listened as the limo rolled along. “Thank you for being so forthcoming, Katy. I would’ve been so disappointed if you’d lied.”

“And we would’ve known.” Sadi’s hand was somewhere around my navel. “You see, we know about their little weapons and the onyx. Those things may still affect us, but we know they are there. We will be prepared for them.”

Confused, I flicked my gaze from her to Rolland. He spread his arms out over the back of his seat, getting all kinds of comfy. “We’ve had help here. I’m pretty sure you’ve realized that by now.”

Pressure seized my chest as I got a real bad feeling about everything. “Someone like her?”

Her throaty laugh raised the hairs on my arms. “Yes, someone like me. Like your Archer. Oh. And who else haven’t you told us about?”

Air leaked out of my lungs.

Rolland tsked softly. “Are you keeping something or someone from us, Katy?”

“She is.” Sadi drew a finger up my arm. Tiny bumps chased the disturbing caress. “His name is Luc, I think.”

Oh God.

“But that’s not all.” Sadi looked over at Rolland.

He grinned. “Of course it isn’t.”

Sadi’s finger trailed over my jaw. “There’s Beth . . . and the baby.”

“Oh dear,” Rolland murmured.

I stared at him, my brain refusing to compute the twist.

He tapped his fingers on the back of the seat. “Did you all really think we’d come here without an invite? That humans, with all their intelligence and advancements, wouldn’t be the source of their own destruction in the end?”

“After all, naming a serum after Prometheus?” Sadi’s breath danced against my cheek. “I mean, isn’t that like self-fulfillment?”

Because in Greek mythology, Prometheus had created man out of clay and, disobeying the gods, gave mankind fire, therefore starting civilization. He had been punished for his own ingenuity.

Just like Daedalus, Sadi’s voice whispered among my turbulent thoughts.

Horror swamped me as I slowly turned my head toward her. Her eyes, the brilliant blue, they weren’t real. Contacts. Just like Archer had hidden his eyes from us, making them appear human. Sadi had gone in the opposite direction, donning lenses that made her look Luxen.

But she wasn’t.

She was an Origin.

And not only had she been able to pick up my thoughts the entire time, she would’ve heard Dawson’s and Daemon’s, in and out of their true forms.

“Yes,” she whispered, her lips brushing the curve of my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine. “You are all so screwed.”

The inside of the limo was suddenly too small. “Why?” I gasped out the only thing I could think.

“Why tell you?” Rolland raised his arms idly. “Or why ask you questions? You see, we couldn’t figure it out. The two brothers were smart. Even when they were in their human forms, they didn’t think anything.”

“They are extraordinarily beautiful, and while most aren’t blessed with good looks and intelligence,” Sadi said, laughing when my jaw clamped down, “I doubted their heads were that empty.”

“There were things that Sadi could pick up every once in a while—brief flashes of thoughts that raised our suspicions when it came to how honest they were being with us,” Rolland went on. “But we couldn’t figure it out—what made those two so resistant to our cause when their sister fell into line so quickly. But then you came along.”

Sadi tapped a nail off the tip of my nose. “How lucky for us.”

“You are the answer. Because you were mutated, an unbreakable bond was formed between you and Daemon.”

“And we knew that Dawson was hiding something from us,” Sadi added. “Or someone. That would be Beth.”

“So now we know that there will be other Luxen out there, some like Daemon and Dawson, who may be bonded to humans in a way that will be problematic to our cause. It’s not like the four of you are unique. There has to be more, and that is what today is all about.”

Crap. Crap. Crap.

Sadi giggled.