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Next weekend, I would convince my mom I needed to do an overhaul on the flowerbed

At the beginning of June, I would graduate

So out the paperwork for University of Colorado and I would drop that bomb on my mom

In July, I would spend every day with Dae a Jersey Shore tan

By the end of sus would be normal between Dee and me

And cos wouldn’t ever be uy I loved--was an alien And there may become a point where, like Dawson and Blake, Daeoing to be a tomorrow, a next week, ardening right now"

I whipped around at the sound of Blake’s voice He leaned against ht

This was the first time since our confrontation that Blake had come around me while I was alone, and the alien part ofinside round "What do you want, Blake?"

He laughed softly as his gaze fell to the ground "We’re leaving soon, right? I’m just a little early"

And I was just a little bit of a book nerd Yeah, right

Brushing the dirt off et here?"

"Parked at the end of the road at the eestured with his chin "The last time I parked here, I’m pretty sure someone melted the paint on the hood of my truck"

Sounded like Dee and her microwave hands I crossed my arms "Dee and Andrew are next door," I felt the need to point out

"I know" He pulled a hand out, ran it through his spikey hair "You looked really good at prom"

Unease unfurled in my belly "Yeah, I saw you Did you come alone?"

He nodded "I was there only for a fewKind of disappointing"

I said nothing

Blake dropped his hand "You worried about tonight?"

"Who wouldn’t be?"

"Sri "No one that I know of has infiltrated one of their facilities before or even gotten as far as we did last time No Luxen or hybrid, and we can’t be the first to attempt it I bet there’re a dozen Dawsons and Beths, Blakes and Chrises"

Muscles tightened in my neck and shoulders "If this is supposed to be a pep talk, you cohed

"I don’t est, you know The best out of their hybrids and out of the Luxen"

Funny or ht, that what Daedalus wanted so badly was the only ones who could go up against the the waruess"

Another pained s on"

…

We were all dressed like a ragtag group of reject ninjas My skin sweated under the long-sleeved black thermal The idea was that the less skin exposed, the less the onyx impacted us

Didn’t really pan out that way last tiht

The opal was burning a hole in inia was a quiet affair This tiy beside him Once, luckily not when cars surrounded us, he slipped into his true forered inparanoid, but they settled like souron us to pull off the near iain

And then I thought of Luc’s warning: never trust those who have anything to gain or lose But that meant we couldn’t trust either hiain or lose

Dae hand

Thinking these things right then wasn’t the best route to travel I was getting myself all worked up and spazzy

I smiled at Daemon and decided to focus on our afternoon We didn’t really do anything Just cuddled together, both of us wide awake, and soht or early thishad been a different story

Daemon was a creative fellow

My cheeks were stained red the rest of the trip

The two SUVs arrived at the little farm at the bottom of the pitch-black access road with five ot his confiro

Instead of liy Ash, Andrew, and Dee ree of the overgrown field

I hoped I didn’t get infested with ticks

With one last look at the Luxen in the vehicle, it was tih my blood and bones and ripple over ht of the ht Like last ti anyone needed wasback down the hill

Things were quiet and tense e reached the edge of the woods, waited to see that only one guard manned the fence

It was Daemon who took hi in the first code

Icarus