The Brightest Night (Origin 3)

“Do you think I don’t know that?” He lifted Daemon’s upper body as he leaned down. “Do you think I don’t know exactly what I caused?”

“But was it worth it?” Daemon asked.

“How can you even ask that?” White light poured into Luc’s veins as he cocked an arm back.

I’d seen enough.

Later, I would probably be a little amazed by how I hadn’t hesitated and hadn’t for one second feared injuring anyone, but in the moment, all I cared about was stopping this. Raising my hand, I summoned the Source and lifted Luc straight off Daemon. He landed standing, several feet away, his chest rising and falling with harsh breaths.

With the weight gone, Daemon popped to his feet. He spat a mouthful of blood and then he charged toward Luc—

“Enough!” I froze the Luxen, holding him in place. Daemon’s head swung toward mine, his lips pulling back in a snarl. “Are you two done yet?”

“Nah, we aren’t.” Luc smiled. “I need to blacken his other eye.”

“I’ll tell you what I don’t need.” Daemon turned his head back to Luc. “I don’t need my girlfriend fighting my battles.”

“Oh, how about you go fu—”

“Shut up,” I snapped. “Both of you, just shut up.”

“I wished you hadn’t stopped them.” Hunter was leaning against the porch railing. “This was just getting good.”

“You shut up, too,” I said, to which the Arum laughed. “You both are acting like freaking little boys.”

“Sounds about right,” Luc said. “Because he hits like a little boy.”

“I’m about to hit you like a little boy,” I warned, and Luc looked at me, brows raised. “Honest to God, I don’t care if you two beat each other half to death, but I don’t want to listen to either of you bitch and moan about it later. You two are friends. I don’t even know how, and frankly, I don’t care enough at the moment to figure that out, but you both are acting pretty shitty.”

“How am I acting shitty?” Daemon demanded. “And seriously, you need to un-freeze me or whatever you’re doing.”

“Are you going to try to hit Luc again?”

Daemon seemed to mull that over. “Probably.”

Luc snorted.

“Then you can stay frozen, buddy,” I told him. “Basically suggesting that I’d be better off dead is pretty shitty.”

A muscle flexed along his jaw as his gaze met mine. A moment passed. “I didn’t mean that.”

“You didn’t?”

“Sure sounded like that,” Luc tossed out there.

“I know it did, but I didn’t mean that,” Daemon insisted. “Sometimes I say asshole-ish things. Just ask Kat. She can confirm that.”

“I can confirm that,” muttered Dawson.

I nodded, accepting his apology only because it wasn’t the priority at the moment. “You should be more concerned about going to your wife and figuring out how to tell her the guy she thought she killed is still alive and is actually here, instead of fighting Luc and running off to kill some dude. Because do you really think she’s not going to find out? Or she’s not going to be super-pissed when she learns you knew and instead of going to her, you went to Blake?”

Daemon snapped his mouth shut.

“She has a point,” Luc remarked.

“And you.” My head whipped in his direction.

“Moi?” Luc placed his hand against his chest.

“Yes, you. I don’t know everything this Blake did, but I know enough. You cannot expect Daemon to go along with anything that doesn’t involve a bloody murder,” I said. “And I don’t even know how I feel about straight up killing someone who isn’t attacking you at the moment.”

“He deserves it,” Daemon grumbled.

“He does,” his brother agreed. “Like, more than you will ever know.”

“And what? I’m supposed to wait until he stabs that knife in my back one last time?” Daemon asked. “For shits and giggles?”

“Why couldn’t you have frozen his mouth?” Luc muttered.

I ignored that. “I’m not suggesting that. I’m just being honest that I’m not like, ‘Yay, murder is cool!’ But I am saying that whatever Blake knows about me and about the Daedalus is not worth causing Daemon or Kat or anyone else more pain.”

“He could tell us what was done to you while you were at the Daedalus,” Luc argued. “He could tell us about the other Trojans.”

“We don’t know exactly what he knows—”

“That’s the point. Blake could be a gold mine.”

“But will that be worth causing your friends even more pain?” I asked, hands shaking at my side. “Because I can tell you that for me, it won’t be worth knowing that I’m that root cause.”

“You’re not the cause.” Shock splashed across Luc’s expression. He all but blinked out of existence, appearing directly in front of me. “You did not cause anyone pain.”

I know. I met his stare. But you did, because of me. You’re not a monster who doesn’t care for others. I know that, because I couldn’t have fallen in love with you twice if you were. His face paled, and it killed me to see that. “I will not be the reason again.”