Opposition (Lux, #5)(50)

I closed my eyes, floored by the ramifications of this.

“There is no activity,” the man announced. “Not even a blip.”

Daemon stiffened beside me, and I pressed my hand against his chest. There had to be a lot of innocent people who had perished.

And this was only the beginning. I knew it. They would do this to more cities, all around the world, and more innocent people would die and the world would become . . . holy crap, life as we knew it would become a freaking dystopian novel like I’d thought before, but for real.

Pulling away, I turned and faced General Eaton. “You can’t keep doing this.”

His deep gray eyes met mine, and I knew he had to be thinking, Who in the hell is this chick to think she can even say anything? and maybe I didn’t have a right. Hell, in the grand scheme of things I was a nobody, just a freak of nature, but I couldn’t stand here and not say something as they literally destroyed the world one city at a time.

“You’re obliterating millions of people’s way of life, and that’s not even taking into consideration the people who were killed when those bombs were dropped,” I said, voice shaking. “You can’t keep doing this.”

“This wasn’t a decision that came lightly. Trust me when I say there were and will be many hours where sleep will be lost,” he replied. “But there is no other way.”

Daemon folded his arms across his chest. “What you’re doing is basically committing genocide.”

No one responded, because what could they say to that? It was genocide, because those bombs were going to wipe most of the Luxen off the planet.

Archer scrubbed a hand along his jaw. “The thing is, guys, what other option do they have? You know as well as I do that if the invading Luxen aren’t stopped, and if the Origins who are working with them aren’t rounded up, it will take just weeks before they have complete control of the whole planet.”

“Maybe not even that long,” Nancy commented as she dropped into an empty chair. Her expression was as impassive as ever, but I wondered if she feared that wherever the Origins were holed up was near one of the cities where bombs would be dropped. “If the Origins are in on this—”

“They are,” I said, thinking of Sadi and the Elder Daemon had mentioned. “Some of them are.”

Her cool, dark gaze landed on me. “Then there truly is no other option. The Origins were created as the perfect species, with cognitive abilities beyond anything ordinary humans are capable of. The Origin—”

“We get it,” snapped Daemon. His eyes glimmered like cut emeralds. “Maybe if you hadn’t messed with Mother Nature and create Origins—”

“Hey,” muttered Archer. “One standing right here.”

Daemon ignored him. “Maybe if you hadn’t done this, the Luxen wouldn’t have come.”

“You don’t know that,” she said, shoulders bunching. “They could’ve—”

“What I do know is that they are working with the Luxen,” he said, cutting her off. “And it doesn’t take a giant leap of logic to think that they had something to do with the Luxen coming here. That shit is on your hands—on Daedalus.”

“Which is awfully ironic, don’t you think?” Archer said, and when Daemon shot him a blank look, I thought for a second he might roll his eyes. “Daedalus was the father of Icarus in Greek mythology. He built the wings Icarus used to fly, and the dumb kid got too close to the sun. The wings melted and he plummeted back down to Earth, drowning in the sea. Kind of like his invention was his own downfall. Same with Prometheus.”

Daemon stared at Archer for a long moment and then turned back to Nancy. “Anyway, no matter how you guys spin it, this mess is on your hands.”

“And we are trying to fix it,” General Eaton responded. “Unless you all have something we haven’t thought of, there is no other option.”

“I don’t know.” I pressed my fingers to my temples. “We really could use the Avengers right about now.”

“Screw that. We need Loki,” Daemon retorted.

General Eaton arched a brow. “Well, unfortunately, the Marvel universe isn’t real, so . . .”

I started to laugh, because I was seconds from doing the crazy laugh and never stopping, but then Daemon blinked as if something had smacked him upside the head.

“Wait,” he said, thrusting a hand through his unruly hair. “We need the equivalent of Loki.”

“I’m not really following that train of thought,” I said.

He shook his head. “There is something we can use, that I know we can use.”

General Eaton inclined his head as Archer’s gaze turned razor sharp. His lips thinned, and I knew he was peeking in on Daemon’s thoughts. Whatever he was seeing, he didn’t look like he was a big fan of it.

When Archer spoke in an awed whisper, he confirmed my suspicion. “That’s crazy insane, like completely senseless, but it might work.”

Daemon sent him a killer look. “Gee, why don’t you go ahead and tell them what I’m thinking.”

“Oh, no.” Archer waved his hand dismissively. “I don’t want to steal your thunder.”

“I think you already did, so—”

“Come on,” I jumped in, impatient. “Tell the rest of us who don’t have nifty mind-reading abilities.”