Opal

Did he get any sort of education while he was gone? Not that it mattered. The Luxen developed mentally a lot faster than humans. Missing over a year of school probably meant nothing to him.

“See?” Lesa twisted around as soon as I sat behind her.

“See what?”

“Dawson,” she whispered. “That’s not the Dawson I remember. He was always talking and laughing. Never reading a bio textbook.”

I shrugged. “He’s probably been through some crazy stuff.” Not a lie. “And it’s probably uncomfortable for him to be back here with everyone staring at him.” Also not a lie.

“I don’t know.” She tugged on her backpack as she glanced over at Dawson’s table. “He’s moodier than Daemon used to be.”

“Daemon was moody?” I said a bit dryly.

“Well, just not that friendly, I guess. He kind of stuck to himself before.” She shrugged. “Oh! By the way, what the hell is up with Dee hanging out with the Bitch Squad?”

Bitch Squad was a code name Lesa had given Ash and Andrew when I first started at PHS. Once upon a time, I bet Daemon was a part of that group.

“Ah,” I said, suddenly wanting to read my bio textbook. Whenever I thought of Dee, I wanted to cry. Our friendship had taken a sharp detour to Breakupsville. “I don’t know. She’s been

different since Adam.”

“No. Shit.” Lesa shook her head. “Her grieving process is scary. I tried to talk to her yesterday at her locker, and she looked at me, said nothing, and then walked away.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, it actually hurt my feelings.”

“Pretty much what I’ve-”

The door to the classroom opened as the bell rang and the first thing I noticed was the vintage Nintendo shirt worn over a gray thermal. I loved all those old-school screen T-shirts. Then the messy bronze hair and hazel eyes.

My heart stopped; a buzzing started in my ears and picked up to a roar. The air was sucked right out of the room. I’d expected Will to come back, but not

him .

“Oh. Look who’s here,” Lesa said, smoothing her hands over her notebook. “Blake.”

Armentrout, Je

Opal ( A Lux Novel)

Chapter 9

I had to be dreaming because this could not be real. No way. Absolutely not. It wasn’t Blake strolling into the classroom like it was any other day. Nor did Matthew drop his stack of notes. I glanced at Dawson before realizing he wouldn’t know any better. He’d never seen Blake.

“You okay, Katy? Looking a little wigged out,” Lesa said.

My eyes darted to hers wildly. “I

”

A second later, Blake was taking his seat-his seat beside me. The rest of the class blurred out. I was struck stupid by his reappearance.

He placed his book on the table and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. Casting me a sidelong glance, he winked.

What the holy hell

?

Giving up on waiting for me to finish what I was saying, Lesa turned around, shaking her head. “I have weird friends,” she muttered.

Blake said nothing as Matthew gathered up his scattered papers. My heart was now racing so fast I was sure I was going to stroke out any second.

People were staring, but I couldn’t pull my eyes off Blake. Finally, I found my voice. “What

are you doing?”

He looked at me, a thousand secrets among the green flecks in his gaze. “Going to class.”

“You

” There were no words. And then the shock wore off, replaced with a spike of anger so powerful and so hot I felt static rush over my skin.

“Your eyes,” Blake whispered, a grin teasing his lips, “are starting to glow.”

Closing my eyes, I struggled to control my swirling emotions. When I was about 40 percent sure I wasn’t going to jump on him like a monkey and snap his neck, I reopened my eyes. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“But I am.”

This wasn’t the time for evasive comments. I glanced toward the front of the classroom and saw Matthew writing on the chalkboard, his face pale. He was talking, but I didn’t hear anything.

I tucked my hair back behind one ear and kept my hand there. Anything to keep me from hitting Blake, because it was a real possibility that I would. “We gave you a chance.” I kept my voice low. “We won’t do it again.”

“But I think you will.” He leaned over the small space, coming too close and causing my muscles to lock up. “Once you hear what I have to offer.”

A crazed laugh bubbled up my throat as I kept my eyes fixed on Matthew. “You are so, so dead.”

Lesa glanced over her shoulder questioningly. I forced a smile.

“Speaking of dead,” he murmured once Lesa had turned back around. “I see the long lost twin has returned.” He picked up his pen and started writing. “I bet Daemon is so thrilled. Ah, which reminds me, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who mutated you.”

My hand closest to him curled. A faint white light danced over my knuckles, flicking like the core of a flame. The knowledge of who mutated me was dangerous. Besides the ramifications Daemon would face if it got out in the Luxen community, the DOD could use it against us. Just like they had with Dawson and Bethany.

“Careful,” he said. “I can see you still need to work on your anger.”

I shot him a dark, promising look. “Why are you here? For real?”

He put his finger over his lips. “Shush. I need to learn about

” He glanced at the board, eyes narrowing in concentration. “Different types of organisms. Yawn.”

It took every ounce of my self-control to sit through that class. Even Matthew looked like he was having trouble, forgetting where he was going with his lecture every couple of minutes. I caught Dawson’s stare once and wished I could communicate to him

Wait. Couldn’t I communicate to Daemon? We’d done it before, but he’d always been in his Luxen form when it happened. Taking a shallow breath, I lowered my gaze to the blurred lines on my notebook and concentrated as hard as I could.

Daemon?

The space between my ears buzzed like a TV on mute. No discernible sound but a high-frequency hum. Daemon? I waited, but there was no response.

Frustrated, I blew out a breath. I needed to find a way to let him know that Blake was back, like, really back and in school. I figured Dawson could get word to him, but there was no telling how Dawson would act if I got up to use the restroom and told him that the douchebag beside me was Blake.

I glanced at said douchebag. No doubt about it, Blake was good-looking. He rocked the whole messy hair and golden skin surfer-boy look. But beneath that easy grin lurked a killer.

The moment the bell rang, I gathered my stuff and headed toward the door, shooting Matthew a look. Somehow he seemed to know, because he waylaid Dawson and-I hoped-would keep Dawson from throwing Blake through a window in front of everyone once Matthew shared who Blake was. Lunch period was next, but I dug my cell out of my messenger bag.

I made it about three steps before Blake stalked up behind me in the hall and cupped my elbow. “We need to talk,” he said.

I tried to pull my arm free. “And you need to let go of me.”

“Or what? Are you going to do something about it?” His head angled toward me and I caught the familiar scent of his aftershave. “No. Because you know what the risk of exposure is.”

I gritted my teeth. “What do you want?”

“Only to talk.” He steered me into an empty classroom. Once inside, I tore my arm free as he locked the door. “Look-”

Acting on instinct, I dropped my bag on the floor and let the Source soar through me. Whitish-red light spread over my arms, crackling in the air. A ball of white light the size of a softball built above my palm.

Blake rolled his eyes. “Katy, I just want to talk. You don’t need-”

I released the energy. The light shot across the room in a bolt. Blake darted out of the way and the light smacked into the chalkboard. The intensity melted the middle of the green slate and the smell of burning ozone filled the air.