He dropped his hands as his eyes met mine again. It was like time stood still just for those couple of seconds. His hand cradled my face and I covered his hands with mine. Waiting. For what, I wasn't sure. His eyes flickered to my lips and he leaned closer. I felt the soft touch of his breath against my lips before he kissed me. It was the softest of touches, but a strange feeling rushed through me and I didn't want it to stop. My knees weakened. His mouth covered mine and I slid my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. It was my first kiss and I was unsure of what to do so I mirrored his actions as his lips moved against mine. Then, unexpectedly, he pulled away from me.

I swear I'd felt the earth move.

We were both breathing hard and he looked as unsettled as I felt. His dark eyes watched me as I touched my fingers to my lips, holding his gaze. Breaking us out of our moment was the sound of his phone starting to ring. He released me as he pulled it out of his pocket and he answered the call.

"Yeah. Are you sure?" he asked and he frowned. "I'll be there in ten."

He ended the call and shoved his phone back into the pocket of his jeans.

"I have to go. I need to check something out," he told me. "Danny was on his way back from searching for you and he passed the clearing. He says there's evidence the Hue have just been there."

I froze, feeling my heart speed up.

"I'll call you when I'm finished and we'll finish this later," he said.

Unable to form words, I nodded my head. Fear held me in a tight grip.

He studied me for a few seconds, his expression unreadable, before he strode out of my bedroom, leaving me alone.

No, no, no! It couldn't be possible.

Any hope that I wasn't changing into a Hue evaporated in that moment. The clearing, that hadn't been the Hue—it had been me. If they thought it was Hue energy, that meant my worse fear was becoming a reality.

I was becoming a Hue.

I put a hand to my chest as my heart hammered so hard it felt like it was going to explode from my chest. I needed to calm down. Breathing in a deep breath, I held it for a few moments before releasing it.

Thoughts of Jared and what had just happened between us got pushed to the back of my mind as I concentrated on the bigger problem. I couldn't think about our kiss when I was worried about what he'd do when he figured out the person responsible for the energy in the clearing was me.

I began to pace the length of my room, trying to figure out what I was going to say or do when Jared turned up on my doorstep with questions. What was I going to do? Would they discover that I was the source of the energy in the clearing? Would they find out I was turning into a Hue, the enemy? And if they did, would they kill me?

I closed my eyes and a memory of Mason flashed through my mind, his black, empty eyes and his cruel smile. If that was what I was becoming, then Jared and the rest of the Archaic would hate me. I honestly doubted that Mason would try and kill me again when I was turning into a Hue like him. I didn't need protection from the Hue; if I was becoming like Mason, they would need protecting from me.

Jared was convinced Mason would be back for me. Would it be to integrate me into my new life as a Hue? So many questions raced through my mind, one after the other. I pressed my palm to my head to ease the growing headache from my panic.

Would there be a way to stop it? The worst-case scenario was that I was going to become exactly like Mason—an unfeeling monster. I didn't want that to happen, but I hadn't figured out how to stop it if it came to that.

I wouldn't be able to keep it from the Archaic forever but I had a reprieve for the moment. And I needed that time to figure out what I was going to do. If I had any hope of keeping Jared in the dark about my secret, I needed to spend less time around him and keep him at arm's length.

I thought about our kiss. My lips still felt the pressure of his lips against mine. I swallowed the emotion that the memory of the kiss pulled from me. Did the kiss mean something? Remembering his features when he'd pulled away from me, I knew it had affected him in some way.

Shaking myself mentally, I reminded myself that once he found out what I was turning into, it wouldn't matter. Sitting on my bed deep in thought, I tried to figure out how to keep him at a distance. After the attack, the guilt had pushed him to watch over me, but I needed to stop his watching; otherwise, he'd discover my secret before I could figure out what to do.

My phone started to ring. I knew who it was before I looked. Hesitating for a moment to gather my nerves, I answered the call.

"Sorry. It took us longer than expected to investigate," Jared told me.

"It's okay."

An uncomfortable silence settled between us and I had no idea what to say to break it.

"We need to talk," he said. His voice was serious.

Had he figured out it was me? Or was this to talk about the kiss? My instincts told me that if he'd discovered the Hue energy belonged to me he would have come directly to my house. I had a feeling this talk would have something to do with the kiss.

"Can I come over?" he asked.

I swallowed my nervousness.

"Sure," I answered, sounding a little breathless.

I couldn't hide. I had to face him.

My mind was already coming up with ways to keep him at bay. It didn't matter how much I'd wanted that kiss, or how much I wanted him. None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was keeping him at a distance, which was going to be difficult if he insisted on driving me to school and back every day.

It wasn't long before there was a knock at my front door and I opened it. My stomach flipped at the sight of him, and the memory of my reaction to his kiss tingled through me.

"You going to invite me in?" he asked, pulling me out of my deep thoughts.

"Yes...come in," I said, feeling my nerves return in full force.

He stepped into my house and I closed the door.

Turning to face him, I got the full impact of his dark green eyes that looked at me as if they could see right through to my soul. Did he know I was hiding something?

I led him into the living room. Anne was going to be home soon and I didn't want her coming home and finding Jared in my room. I didn't want to have to field those questions. I sat down on the couch, my body angled to face him. He sat down beside me.

"Did you find the Hue?"

He shook his head. His dark hair fell across his forehead and he pulled his hand through his hair.

"No."

Relief flooded through me, but it was short lived, as I noticed the way Jared's eyes held mine. Intense and dark.

It was hard to think when he was looking at me like that.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked, not wanting to bring up the kiss in case he wanted to talk about something else.

"I want to talk about what happened before Danny called me," he revealed.

I clasped my hands together so that he couldn't see them shake.

"I won't do it again," I said and he looked at me a little puzzled. "I won't go out after school."

A ghost of a smile tipped his mouth as he shook his head.

"I've learned my lesson," I continued to babble. "Really, I never intended to worr—"

He cut me off by leaning closer and reaching to cup my face. He held me close and I stopped talking midsentence while staring into his beautiful eyes. My conscience told me to pull away and put him at a distance, but I didn't want to. I wanted to be kissed by him one more time, just one more time.