The Brightest Night (Origin #3) - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,194

Cekiah and everyone else that taking on more than a dozen children was the right thing to do. I could only hope that Luc had been right about Cekiah and Zouhour being more than willing to take the children in.

Spinning around, I raced back to the library and skidded into the main room. Everyone was still there. No tables had been flipped, but I hadn’t been gone all that long. Viv was there, sitting in one of the empty chairs. I must’ve just missed passing her. I knew this was a terrible moment for me to tell them about Nate and the kids, but I really didn’t have a choice.

“This is becoming—” Kat stopped mid-sentence as Daemon looked over his shoulder at me.

It’s Nate. He’s back. They’re ready.

Luc’s gaze shot to me, and with one quick nod, he stood. “The situation with Blake is important, and I’m sure all of you wish to continue arguing the same points over and over again, but Evie has something that’s also important to share.”

Figuring my thoughts were super-loud at the moment, I wasn’t at all surprised when Archer’s eyes narrowed and he leaned over to whisper in Dee’s ear.

“Please tell me it’s not yet another person whose right to live or die we’ll need to discuss?” Quinn said wearily.

Well …

I was going to skip over that part at the moment.

“Remember when I said I saw lights in the city? I wasn’t seeing the sunlight reflecting weird or anything like that,” I said, noticing that Eaton no longer looked half-asleep as Daemon tilted his head. “There are people in the city. Kids.”

That got everyone’s attention. Human and alien eyes fixed on me.

“What?” Cekiah had twisted around in her seat.

“Shortly after I saw the lights, I came home to find a kid in the house. I knew he wasn’t a part of this community, because he wasn’t at the school. He was scavenging for food. His name is Nate, and I saw him again a few times, and talked to him once more. Then he came because one of the other kids was hurt. I went with him into the city—”

“You did what?” Daemon demanded.

“Trust me, she’s already received the lecture I know you’re about to deliver,” Luc remarked.

I gave him a wince of a smile. “I know it wasn’t the brightest idea, but I did it. I needed to see how many kids there were and try to get him to trust me. You see, he didn’t want me to tell anyone, and he was worried that if I did, the kids would scatter into the city. There are over a dozen children in that city. All human. Nate might be the oldest, and he can’t be older than thirteen.”

Someone sucked in sharp breath, and there were gasps. I was hoping that was a good sign.

“How is that even possible? Where are their parents?” Jamie, who hadn’t been exactly keen on me hanging around, had a hand pressed to her chest.

“Some were homeless or in group homes or something similar before the invasion, and just forgotten in the chaos,” I said. “But one of the kids told me there used to be more children—there used to be parents, families, but many of them didn’t survive the first year.”

“Oh my God,” whispered Jamie. “That is … I don’t even have words.”

“I have so many questions right now,” Zouhour said. “How did you two even get past our patrols? We have guards constantly patrolling the outer edges of the city.”

“The kids know this whole area. They know exactly where the guards are going to be at any given time—their schedule.”

“Well, add changing up the guard routine to my mental to-do list,” muttered Eaton. “I can’t believe we haven’t seen any of them when we’ve done our sweeps. We’ve scoured every inch of that city in the last four years.”

“Like I said, they know how to hide and not be found,” I told him.

“What do you mean they’ve been living there?” Jamie asked. “There’s nothing in the city. No food. No real useful supplies other than just what they can take here and there.”

“That’s where some of the food has been disappearing.” Viv cleared her throat with a slight grimace.

I scanned the group for expressions of censure, but all I saw was shock and dismay. “I wanted to say something as soon as I discovered them, but I knew if anyone came looking for them, no one would see them again.”

“How do they look?” Viv asked.

“Underfed. I