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"I lied," she cut in, opening her eyes again andmy wide-eyed stare "I lied because I didn’t want you to know the truth about him And yes, it was a necessary lie, one I hoped you would never have to learn was a lie, but with Luc here, I’d rather you hear it from me than him"

"Whatwhat does Dad have to do with him?"

Mom rubbed her hands down her face "Jason wasn’t very kind to the Luxen he worked with He couldoften be very cruel to the a lot by saying very little "He and Luc had a past It’s not a good one"

What Luc had said tothere I thought er than that? What if he meant I shouldn’t be around him, because of whatever my dad had done to him or his family?

But if that was the case, then why had he kissed e of the chair "Mom, what did Dad do?"

"He made sure that Luc lost someone very dear to him," Mom answered, and I jerked at the unexpected response "And that is soive Because of that, Luc can be very dangerous"

My heart started thundering again "Because he’s obviously not a registered Luxen?"

"Because I used to fear that Luc would seek retribution for what Jason had done to him"

My eyes widened "Retribution? Holy crap Dad is--He’s dead What did he do to Luc--"

"Jason was responsible for a lot of things and he made a lot of enemies and hemade a lot of bad choices," she said quietly, almost as if she were afraid she’d be overheard If Dad had eneuns under couch cushions? "None of that matters I just didn’t want you to learn from someone else that the ood person"

My head felt like it was going to i after us?"

Her gaze held mine "I said I used to fear that The truth is, if he’d wanted to hurt you or "

"It’s not meant to be," she replied "It’s just the truth If he wanted to use me to carry out some sort of vendetta, it would’ve already happened" She rose, fiddling with the sash on her robe "Luc would never hurt you"

I opened ot all tied up That didn’t make sense Luc didn’t know s that involved Luc losing someone, I doubted he wanted to be ic to assu "Are you sure we’re safe?"

Mom smoothed a hand over her forehead "Oh, honey, we are," she was quick to reassure ood to be prepared"

I wasn’t sure if I believed her "Are there otherprepared stashed around the house?"

Another smile formed as she placed her hand on my knee "I wouldn’t mess with the pillows too much in theseat upstairs"

"Mom" I drew in a deep breath "Are there any ot to worry about?"

"We are safe, but just like anyone, we have to be careful There are bad people out there, Luxen and human, you don’t want to draw attention from The same kind of rules that applied before the invasion, you know?"

I nodded slowly "Stranger danger kind of stuff?"

"Yes" She e of the ottoman so she was directly in front of ?"

A lot of stuff "I never should’ve gone to that club"