“But why would she come after me? Blake says they don’t know the mutation held. So it wasn’t like they’d send her after me.” Kat paused. “And, well, that’s if Blake’s telling the truth.”
“I’m sure he is about the mutation,” Luc responded. “If he wasn’t, you wouldn’t be sitting here. See, I’m not sure even Daedalus knows everything that this stone is capable of and how it affects us. I’m still learning.”
“And what have you learned?” I asked.
“For starters, before I got my grubby paws on one of these, I couldn’t pick out another hybrid if one did a jig in front of me. I knew the moment you and Blake arrived in Martinsburg, Katy. It was weird, like a breath washing over my entire body. Your friend probably sensed you. That’s the least terrible probability.”
I blew out a long breath, concerned with what he was saying. Carissa’s going after Kat could’ve been a pure accident. Then I thought of something else. “Do you know if it can enhance the Arum’s abilities?”
Luc’s gaze sharpened. “I imagine it could if they’re bloated on a Luxen’s powers.”
Kat started to sit back, but then jerked forward. “Do you think the opal can, like, counteract the onyx?”
“It’s possible, but I don’t know.” Luc’s lips twisted in a wry grin. “Haven’t played with any onyx recently.”
“Where can we get some of the opal?”
Luc laughed. “Unless you have about thirty thousand dollars lying around and someone who mines opals or want to ask Daedalus for some, you’re out of luck. And I’m not giving you mine.”
Kat’s shoulders slumped. Damn. Having at least one piece of opal would come in handy.
“Anyway, it’s about time for you guys to hit the road.” He tipped his head back, closing his eyes. “I’m assuming I won’t hear from you two again until you’re ready to go to Mount Weather?”
“Is there anything else you can tell me?” I asked as Kat and I stood.
“Sure, I have something else.” Luc lowered his head and looked up at us. “You really shouldn’t trust a soul in this game. Not when everyone has something to gain or lose.”
Chapter 19
Petersburg changed in small, infinite ways over the following weeks. It wasn’t just the steady rise of temperatures, heralding that winter was now a not-too-distant memory. Or the restlessness that always surrounded the thaw-out accompanying the warmer months.
The small, mostly unknown town in a state that a god-awful number of people still referred to as “western” Virginia was yet again the center of another missing persons case.
Candlelight vigils were held for Carissa on a weekly basis, and her parents appeared on the nightly news, pleading for any information regarding the disappearance of their daughter. A somberness settled over the school, and I knew there was more than just sadness driving the whispers whenever I saw groups of students huddled together, watching Dawson or one of us. Suspicion was buried very deeply, because out of the people to disappear, Dawson had been the only one to ever return.
And Dawson’s return had signaled the disappearance of others.
Carissa’s disappearance triggered a morbid curiosity in the broader world. News crews showed up, wanting to talk to anyone who knew Carissa or had a theory on why so many teens—Bethany, Carissa, Simon, and even Adam to name a few—disappeared in this sleepy little town.
Bet the DOD and Daedalus just loved that.
And then, around three weeks after Carissa disappeared, Dr. William Michaels became news. His sister reported him missing, and from what Kat could gather, he’d also stopped contacting her mother. Investigators had informed Ms. Swartz that there had been no conference—no shit—and no one else had heard from Will since he’d left Petersburg.
More whispers.
Some suspected that Will had something to do with Carissa and Simon. They all disappeared one after the other, and no one could fathom how a well-known, respected doctor could just vanish. Some believed that Will had to have something to do with their disappearances, maybe even others.
Part of me wondered if the DOD was behind the sudden slanting of the news. Made sense. We knew that Will had betrayed them, and he now made the perfect scapegoat.
But the inevitable happened.
As the grass started to turn green and the wind whipping through the budding trees warmed, people…people moved on. It wasn’t that they forgot Carissa or Simon or anyone else. It was just what happened. Life happened. By mid-April, it stopped becoming nightly news, and then weekly. Whispers at school were still there, but less frequent.
Kat had asked me one evening, after working with the onyx, if that was what would happen to her if we didn’t come back from Mount Weather. She wanted to know if I thought people would just forget and get over it.
Hearing her ask that kind of question was like having my heart shoved into a blender. No one should ever wonder if they would be forgotten one day. I came up with some kind of pseudo-intellectual response that sounded legit, but her question had kept me up most of that night.
Would Kat be forgotten one day?