Jennifer Armentrout: Opposition

My lower lip trembled as I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled myself in with shaky hands. Archer passed me a quick glance, and I forced myself to stop thinking about Daemon, about anything I didn’t want to share with Archer, which was pretty much everything right now.

So I thought about belly dancing foxes wearing grass skirts.

Archer snorted. “You’re weird.”

“And you’re rude.” I leaned forward, peering out the window as we traveled down the driveway, straining to see among the trees, but there was nothing.

“I told you before. It’s hard to not do it sometimes.” He stopped at the end of the gravel road, checking both ways before he pulled out. “Trust me. There are times when I wish I couldn’t see into people’s heads.”

“I imagine being stuck with me the last two days has been one of them.”

“Honestly? You haven’t been bad.” He glanced at me when I raised my brows. “You’ve been holding it together.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that at first, because since the other Luxen had arrived, I felt like I was seconds from shattering apart. And I wasn’t sure what exactly was keeping me together. A year ago, I would’ve freaked out and that corner would’ve been my best friend, but I wasn’t the same girl who had knocked on Daemon’s door.

I would probably never be that girl again.

I’d been through a lot, especially when I’d been in the hands of Daedalus. Things I’d experienced that I couldn’t dwell on, but the time with Daemon, and those months with Daedalus, had made me stronger. Or at least I liked to think they had.

“I have to keep it together,” I said finally, folding my arms around me as I stared at the rapidly passing pines. The needled branches all blurred together. “Because I know Daemon didn’t lose it when I . . . when I was gone. So I can’t, either.”

“But—”

“Do you worry about Dee?” I cut him off, turning my attention fully on him.

A muscle thrummed along his jaw, but he didn’t respond, and as we made the quiet trip into the largest city in Idaho, I couldn’t help but think this wasn’t what I really needed to be doing. That instead, I needed to do what Daemon had done for me.

He had come for me when I’d been taken.

“That was different,” Archer said, cutting into my thoughts as he turned toward the closest supermarket. “He knew what he was getting into. You don’t.”

“Did he?” I asked as he found a parking space close to the entrance. “He might have had an idea, but I don’t think he really knew, and he still did it. He was brave.”

Archer cast me a long look as he pulled out the keys. “And you are brave, but you are not stupid. At least I’m hoping you continue to prove you’re not stupid.” He opened the door. “Stay close to me.”

I made a face at him but climbed out. The parking lot was pretty packed, and I wondered if everyone was stocking up for the coming apocalypse. On the news, there’d been rioting in a lot of the major cities after the “meteorites” fell. Local police and military had locked it down, but there was a TV show called Doomsday Preppers for a reason. For the most part, Coeur d’Alene appeared virtually untouched by what was happening, even though so many Luxen had landed in the nearby forests.

There were a lot of people in the store, their carts stacked high with canned goods and bottled water. I tried to keep my gaze down as I pulled out the list and Archer grabbed a basket, though I couldn’t help but notice no one was grabbing toilet paper.

That would be the first thing I grabbed if I thought it was the end of the world.

I stuck close to Archer’s side as we headed to the pharmacy section and started scanning the endless rows of brown bottles with yellow caps.

Sighing, I glanced down at the list. “Couldn’t this crap be in alphabetical order?”

“That would be too easy.” His arm blocked my vision as he picked up a bottle. “Iron on the list, right?”

“Yep.” My fingers hovered over folic acid and I picked it up, having no idea what the hell that even was or what it did.

Archer knelt down. “And the answer is yes to your earlier question.”

“Huh?”

He looked up through his lashes. “You asked if I was worried about Dee. I am.”

My fingers tightened over the bottle as my breath caught. “You like her, don’t you?”

“Yes.” He turned his attention to the oversize bottles of prenatal vitamins. “In spite of the fact that her brother is Daemon.”

As I stared down at him, my lips twitched into the first smile since the Luxen had—

The boom, like a sonic clap of thunder, came out of nowhere, shaking the rack of pills and startling me into taking a step back.

Archer stood fluidly, his shrewd gaze swinging around the crowded market. People stopped in the middle of the aisles, some hands tightening on their carts, others letting go, the wheels creaking as the carts slowly rolled away.

“What was that?” a woman asked a man who stood next to her. She turned, picking up a little girl who had to be no more than three. Holding the child close to her breast, she spun around, her face pale. “What was that—?”

The clap of sound roared through the store again. Someone screamed. Bottles fell from the racks. Footsteps pounded across the linoleum floor. My heart jumped as I twisted toward the front of the store. Something flashed in the parking lot, like lightning striking the ground.

“Dammit,” Archer growled.

The tiny hairs on my arms rose as I walked toward the end of the aisle, forgetting all pretenses of keeping my head down.

A heartbeat of silence passed, and thunder blasted again and again, rattling the bones in my body as streaks of light lit up the parking lot, one after another after another. The glass window in front cracked, and the screams . . . the screams got louder, snapping with terror as the windows shattered, flinging glass at the checkout lanes.

The streaks of blinding light formed shapes in the parking lot, stretching and taking on legs and arms. Their tall, lithe bodies tinged in red, like Daemon’s, but deeper, more crimson.

“Oh God,” I whispered, the bottle of pills slipping from my fingers, smacking off the floor.

They were everywhere, dozens of them. Luxen.

{ Katy }

Everyone, including me, seemed to be frozen for a moment, as if time had been stopped, but I knew that hadn’t happened.

The forms in the parking lot turned, their necks stretching and tilting to the side, their steps fluid and snakelike. Their movements were unnatural and nothing like the Luxen who had been on Earth for years.

A red truck squealed its tires as it spun out of a parking space, spilling smoke and the smell of burned rubber into the air. It whirled around, as if the driver planned to plow through the Luxen.

“Oh no,” I whispered, my heart thumping heavily.

Archer grabbed my hand. “We need to get out of here.”

But I was rooted to where I stood, and I finally understood why people rubbernecked car accidents. I knew what was coming, and I knew it was something I didn’t want to see, but I couldn’t look away.

One of the forms stepped forward, the edges of its body pulsing red as it raised a glowing arm.

The truck jerked forward; the shadow of a man behind the wheel and a much smaller body beside it would be forever etched into my memory.

Tiny sparks of electricity flew from the Luxen’s hand as a brilliant light tinged in red curled down its arm. A second later, a bolt of light radiated from it, snapping into the air, smelling like burned ozone. The light—a blast straight from the Source of what had to be the purest kind—smacked into the truck.