Opposition (Lux, #5)(93)

“You had no idea how beautiful you were. I don’t even think you do now, but it’s what’s inside of you.” Carefully, he reached out and placed his hand between my breasts. “That’s the most beautiful thing in the world. What’s in you.”

Tears rose, and I let out a shaky breath. Those words . . . well, they did something in me. I wasn’t a murderer. I wasn’t crazy. I was tired and I was a million other things, and to Daemon, I was also beautiful on the outside and inside.

“Thank you.”

He made a sound in the back of his throat as he moved toward me and circled his arms around my shoulders. “You never need to thank me for the truth.”

I clutched at his shirt. “At least I didn’t laugh at you this time.”

“There’s always that.” There was a smile in his voice. “Oh, Kitten . . .”

From where we were, it looked like thick, dark clouds passing, snuffing out tiny stars, except the mass wasn’t clouds and the lights flickering out weren’t stars. Daemon rested his chin atop my head as he smoothed his hand up my back, and I felt the familiar warmth of his touch. “It’s over.”

Finally, I relaxed against him and closed my eyes. It was over.



{ Daemon }

I wasn’t sure I closed my eyes at all during the night. Maybe I had slept a bit, but I couldn’t confirm that. Watching Kat was the last thing and the first thing I remembered.

She was curled against me, her cheek resting on my now-numb arm. We were in my house and before she’d crashed last night, she had changed into one of my shirts that had been left untouched in my closet. It was way too big for her, sliding down her shoulder, exposing a tantalizing amount of skin.

I was pretty fascinated by that skin. With my not-dead arm, I trailed my fingers across her shoulder, following her collarbone. I’d been doing that for half the night. Every so often, she’d manage to snuggle closer, tossing a leg over mine or pressing her body against mine.

I worried about her.

Really freaking worried about her.

Even after discovering what had happened to her mother, she’d held it together yesterday, taken out Ethan, and witnessed the Arum swarming in. Yeah, she’d freaked and bolted. But hell, she had it controlled when the Arum had blown through the colony later, having suffered only minor losses before they headed toward Northern Virginia to finish it.

When word came late in the evening that the invading Luxen had turned into one giant buffet for the Arum, she’d smiled as those around us celebrated the victory, the end of this madness. But there hadn’t been a lot of time to comfort her or to really talk about it. All I’d been able to do was hold her while she fell asleep. Didn’t seem like enough.

There really wasn’t ever enough.

My chest was heavy with the loss, with the pain I knew she’d suffer for a long time to come from a death that was so needless and cruel. Her family had been stripped away from her. Her father lost to cancer and her mother to one of my own kind.

Still, like some kind of miracle, her last words to me before she’d fallen asleep had been I love you. The fact that she still could feel something like that blew me away.

I would’ve done anything to save her from this pain, but like so many other things I wanted to go back and erase, this was one of them we would have to learn to accept, that we would have to face together.

Kat stirred against me, stretching out in a way that reminded me so much of the nickname I’d given her. A smile pulled at the corners of my lips as her lashes fluttered open.

Sleep clouded her pretty eyes as they met mine. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.”

Her hand flattened out against my bare chest as her gaze swept across my face. “Have you been up long?”

“I’m not even sure I slept.”

“So you’ve been watching me sleep?”

One side of my lips kicked up. “Maybe.”

“Well, look who’s being the creeper this time around.”

“Call me what you want, I don’t care.” I moved my thumb along her lower lip. “I spent hours staring at the best damn scenery.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Flattery will get you everything.”

“I already have everything.”

“That was sweet of you.” She patted my chest like I was a good boy, and I ignored the parts of me that got all happy about that. Her gaze drifted away and circled the room before coming back to me. “It’s really over, isn’t it?”

I curled my arm around her, overlooking the rush of pins and needles. “I think so. I mean, for the most part. Things are going to be different. Life will be different, but it’s over.”

Kat’s lashes lowered as she bit down on her lower lip in a way that got those parts of me paying close attention. “What are we going to do now?” she whispered.

“Whatever we want to do.”

She rolled onto her back but didn’t get very far. “That sounds really nice.”

The sudden clanging of pots from the kitchen down below brought a winsome smile to her face. “I’m assuming Dee and Archer are up?”

“Yeah. I think I heard them moving around not too long ago. They’re probably making good use of the fact that whoever was staying here kept the kitchen stocked.” My brows knitted. “Archer supposedly slept in Dawson’s room last night, but I heard a bedroom—”