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Sparks flew froedon her boneless neck

I clamped my hand over my mouth as I took a step toward her I needed to help her, but I didn’t kno

"Carissa, I--"

The air around her ih my room The computer chair overturned; the bed lifted up on one side, suspended; and the wave kept co flew from my closet Papers swirled and fell like sheets of snow

When the wave reached hed nothingpapers I hit the wall beside the little stand next to ed

I couldn’t move or breathe

And Carissa… Oh my God, Carissa…

Her skin and bones sunk in as if someone had hooked up a vacuum to the back of her and kicked it on Inch by inch she shrank until a burst of light with the power of a solar storm lit the room--lit the entire house and probably the entire street, blinding ht receded, so did the shock wave I slipped to the floor, a heap a in air I couldn’t get enough oxygen, because the room was empty

I stared at the area where Carissa had once stood There was nothing but a darkened spot on the floor, like what Baruck had left behind when he was killed

There was nothing, absolutely nothing of the girl--of

Chapter 25

I felt the warle on the back of my neck numbly, and then Dae open

"I can’t leave you alone for two seconds, Kitten"

I sprung fro and threw myself in his arms All of it came out in an incoherent babble of words and run-on sentences Several times he slowed eneral gist of ent down

He took ersoverwar cheeks

"I don’t understand what happened," I said, tracking his movements "She was normal last week Daemon, you saw her How did we not know this?"

His jaw tightened "I think the better question is, why did she come after you?"

The knot that had been init hard to breathe "I don’t know"

I didn’t know anything any every conversation with Carissa, from the first time I met her up until she was out of school with the "flu" Where were the clues, the red herring? I couldn’t find one that stood out

Daemon frowned "She could’ve known a Luxen--known the truth and knew not to tell anyone I mean, no one inside of the colony knows that you’re aware of the truth"

"But there’s no other Luxen around our age," I said

His gaze flicked up "None outside the colony, but there are a feho are only a couple years older or younger than us in the colony"

It was possible that Carissa had always known and we didn’t I’d never told her or Lesa, so it took no leap of the iination to think that Carissa knew but never told anyone But why did she try and kill me?

Entirely possible that I wasn’t the only person around here who knehat lived a? Had she been hurt and a Luxen tried to heal her? "You don’t think…" I couldn’t finish the question It was too sickening, but Dae with it

"That Daedalus took her and forced a Luxen to heal her like with Dawson?" Anger darkened the green hue "I seriously pray that’s not the case If so, it’s just…"

"Revolting," I said hoarsely My hands shook so I shoved them between my knees "She wasn’t there Not even a flicker of her personality She was like a zo crazed Is that what instability does?"

Dae warmth ebbed off When it did, so did the barrier that had kept the truth of everything fro me

"God, she…she died Does thatits way up htened "If it were one of the Luxen here, then I’ll hear about it, but we don’t know if the mutation held Blake has said that sometimes the mutation is unstable and that sounded pretty da only happens if it’s a stable mutation, I believe"

"We need to talk to Blake," I said, and a shudder rolled through me I blinked, but my vision blurred even more I took a breath and choked "Oh…oh, God, Daeht"

Another shudder racked , I was crying--those big, breath-stealing sobs Vaguely, I realized that Daemon had pulled me over to him and cradledthe tears came, but every part of me ached in a way that couldn’t by repaired by Daemon Carissa holly innocent in all of this, or at least I believed her to be, andworse I didn’t kno deep Carissa was involved, and hoould I ever find out?

The tears…they flowed, practically soaking Dae, he held hter and he whispered in that lyrical voice of his in a language I could never understand but felt drawn to nonetheless The unknoords soothed o someone, a parent maybe, had held him and whispered the same words to his? Even with all the bark and bite he carried, he was a natural at this