“I did.”
“So, let’s get started. Now.” Excitement filled me, and yeah, considering what I was getting excited over, it was a little weird, but trying to get this thing in me under control was better than sitting around, doing nothing but stressing over it while everyone else also worried about whether or not I’d go all Thanos on them.
It was doing something.
Eaton had basically insinuated that a war was brewing, and it didn’t matter if I wanted to be a part of it or not. I was already knee deep in the whole thing, and if I was something they thought they could use to take over the world, then why couldn’t I be used to fight back? To help those here, who weren’t just trying to scrape by but also building a resistance?
I wasn’t Evelyn Dasher anymore.
Shock rippled through me as I stood on an unknown street, in a neighborhood that shouldn’t exist.
I wasn’t the same girl who’d walked into Foretoken with Heidi, who would rather run than face an uncomfortable truth. I wasn’t even the same version of Evie who’d faced down an Origin, or even the girl who had been slowly coming to terms with who she was and who she was falling in love with.
Ever since I’d met Luc, I had been in a constant state of evolution, and it hadn’t ended when I realized I was very capable of snuffing out life to protect someone I loved, nor had it ceased when I watched the life and light seep out of the only mother I knew.
I was now someone who didn’t tuck tail and run even if I initially wanted to, who wanted to fight back instead of push back.
Luc’s features tightened for a brief moment before smoothing out. “What we need to do right now is get some food in you before you start eating people.” He dropped a kiss to the tip of my nose. “Those who live here wouldn’t appreciate that, either.”
I arched a brow at that, but when he tugged on my hand, I started walking, because he had a point. I did need to eat. We made it to the intersection before I said, “Luc?”
“Yes?”
“You’re going to help me, right?” I asked as we crossed the street.
Luc had rather amusingly guided us to the crosswalk. “I will even if I don’t want to.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to?”
Luc stopped, facing me. “Because I have a feeling to get what’s in you to show up and play, I’m going to have to do what I know will kill a part of me.”
Trepidation tiptoed its way down my spine. “What would that be?”
His eyes were like brilliant shards of broken purple sapphires. “I’ll have to make you see me as a threat.”3Luc’s words sank like a stone in my stomach, quieting me as we walked toward the house. What he’d said made sense. Luc was one of the most dangerous and powerful beings to walk Earth. Whatever was inside me had sensed that and gone after him, but while Luc was a threat to everyone else, he wasn’t to me. Never me. I had no idea how he’d make me view him as such.
And I had no idea how he could deal with doing that.
“Maybe we should have someone else work with me,” I suggested after a few moments. “Like Grayson?” The surliest Luxen known to man would be beside himself with glee at the opportunity. “He’d be thrilled to scare me or tick me off. He’d think of it as a reward.”
“Do you really think I’d allow anyone else to do what’s going to need to be done?” he asked.
My lips pursed.
“I’m fully aware of the fact I have a vicious protective streak when it comes to you.” Luc squeezed my hand. “The moment he goes at you, I’d have to kill him.”
Sliding him a long look, I tightened my grip on his hand. “Or you could, maybe, understand that he wouldn’t really be trying to hurt me and therefore not kill him?”
“I’d try and fail, Peaches. The same would go for Zoe or anyone else who meant you harm, even if I knew they truly didn’t want to hurt you.” He shrugged like what he’d said was no big deal. “Like I said, it’s a flaw of mine. At least I’m aware of that.”
“Yeah.” I drew the word out. “At least you’re aware.”
One side of his lips kicked. “Awareness saves lives.”
Having no idea what to say to that, I tried to come up with some other way. Grayson only seemed to have barely begun to tolerate me after learning I was Nadia, and by tolerate, I meant he was only about 20 percent less of a jerk to me. But I didn’t want to see him die.
I also didn’t want Luc to do something that would hurt him.