The Brightest Night (Origin 3)

She nodded. “It’s only been in the last four years that I’ve learned anything about how Luxen and human DNA could be blended or that these serums had the potential to cure certain cancers. To think of all the lives that could’ve been saved.” Sadness pinched her features. “But these serums and cures didn’t come without a price.”

“No,” Luc agreed quietly. “No, they did not.”

“So.” She drew the word out. “With all that being said, I may be of no help whatsoever beyond confirming that you’re alive and breathing.” She paused. “Which you are.”

Unable to help it, I laughed. “At least you’re honest.”

“The only good doctor is an honest one,” she said. “It may help to know exactly what you felt before you passed out. Luc filled me in on what Grayson told him, but I want to hear it from you.”

Fiddling with the edge of the blanket, I told her exactly what I remembered, even the weird light I’d seen around Grayson.

Luc jumped on that tidbit immediately. “What do you mean you saw a weird light around him?”

“I saw what looked like a rainbow of lights around him. It was brief, and I know that sounds bizarre, because when I think of Grayson, I don’t think of rainbows.”

Dr. Hemenway leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “Me, either. I think of dark storm clouds and frigid winters.”

I smiled again, really liking this woman.

Luc, however, was not amused. “Was that the first time you’d seen anything like that?”

“Yes, but I saw something around you when I woke up.” I peeked at him, and his expression was impressively blank. “It was probably my eyes just adjusting to the light.”

“What did you see?” he asked.

“Like an aura of white and purple light?” I pulled the edges of the blanket tight. “I know it wasn’t the Source, but it was very brief, so it might’ve been my eyes.”

“I don’t think it’s your eyes,” Dr. Hemenway interjected, looking at Luc. “Grayson also mentioned that you might have been able to feel him before he showed up? The same with Dawson when he came outside, right before became dizzy?”

“Yeah.” I resisted the urge to reach around and rub my neck.

“Did you feel anything when I neared the house?” she asked, and when I shook my head, she scrunched her forehead. “And had you felt this before?”

“Well, the last couple of days, I’d been feeling weird stuff. Sort of like the sensation of cobwebs on my neck, or I’d feel like a nerve twinge between my shoulder blades,” I said, also telling them how I’d felt like I’d been able to pick out those with alien DNA among the humans at the market and at school. “But I don’t think I felt anything before that.”

Luc unfolded his arms. “Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

“Well, a lot of stuff has been going on, and I didn’t know if I was feeling something or just imagining it. It wasn’t constant, so I had no idea if I really was feeling them or not. I was planning to mention it.” And that was the truth. “It just didn’t seem all that important.”

“Any new thing you feel or experience is important.” Luc did not look happy. “It could be a sign.”

“Of what?”

“Of you evolving,” Dr. Hemenway answered.

My gaze shot to her. “Evolving?”

She nodded. “We have had a few humans go through the mutation process while living here, so I’ve been able to witness the process. It’s quite fascinating.”

“I’ll have to take your word on that,” I murmured, suddenly remembering the dream I’d had of Mom and me. As the details started to come back to me, I wasn’t all that sure it had been a dream, and a good portion of me wished that was all it had been. I sank into the pillows propped against the headboard. If that was a memory resurfacing, some of it could’ve been false, but if any of it had been real? The Daedalus orchestrating Luc and me meeting? What really happened to my father?

“Each of them started to experience things before the mutation took hold. Able to move things without touching them, usually accidentally. They were able to start to feel the presence of the Luxen who’d mutated them, among other occurrences,” she explained, drawing my attention back to her. I had to think about that possible memory later. “Luc mentioned that earlier that day, you’d begun training with the Source? It was the first time you used it. Purposely, that is?”

I nodded.

“You were mutated several years ago, so we know this isn’t like what a hybrid goes through during the beginning of a mutation.”

“Right,” Luc agreed.

“Ever since you fell into this superlong nap, I’ve been thinking everything over, and I have a theory.” She tapped her finger off her knee. “It’s batty, and I could be way off. Everyone understand that?”