My lips thinned.
“You think the Daedalus is going to give you that break? Call a truce while you recoup? Better yet, summon the Source now, Evie.”
I pulled my hands from my hips.
He lifted his brows. “Or have you already tried and couldn’t?”
I was seriously going to hit him.
“You already tried.”
I had.
While I was in the bathroom, I’d tried to summon it, and only a weak, flickering ball of energy had appeared before quickly sputtering out.
I crossed my arms. “Why are you even asking that? You already know everything.”
“So then you do realize you can’t even work with the Source until you replenish it. Too bad there’s no power here. We could marathon Buzzfeed Unsolved.”
“You don’t need to be such a smart-ass,” I snapped. “Of course I’ve thought of that. I thought of all of that.”
“And you still are fighting me on this? Seriously?”
“Besides the fact I’m not sure if I am going to hurt you or not, he also said I could lose control and drain you dry,” I reminded him, which was something Hunter mentioned while we were on our way out the freaking door. “I don’t like the idea of taking something like that from you. It’s yours, and you need it. It feels wrong.”
Luc stared at me, and then he leaned forward, dropping his feet to the floor. “What do you think I did when I took the Source from you the night you lost control? Did that feel wrong to you?”
I jerked.
“Because it’s sort of the same thing, Evie.”
“But you had to—”
“And now you have to.” His voice softened. “I doubt you will lose control, but if you do, I’ll stop it.”
Taking short, quick breaths, I looked away. “I’m not trying to be difficult.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Do you get why this is…” I didn’t even know how to describe it.
“Too much?” he suggested, and my head turned back to him. “Yeah, I get it. If our positions were changed, I’d be fighting you tooth and nail on this, and you know what? You’d be doing the same thing I am right now.”
I pressed my lips together, hating when he was right, but it was even more than that. Just yesterday, Luc had used the Source to try to save Spencer and then to heal me. He’d been exhausted, and if Grayson hadn’t done what he did, would there be dark shadows under his eyes, the taut line of tension around his mouth?
“I would’ve been fine without Grayson,” he said quietly, startling me. “I didn’t learn that by reading your thoughts. I knew. He doesn’t know I do. It stays that way.”
“You were exhausted, Luc. That was yesterday—”
“And today I’m a hundred and twenty percent charged. It’s not like I won’t make more of it,” Luc said. “I just don’t need to sleep for days to do that. I’ll only need an hour or so tops to recover, and it’s not like something you’d have to do all the time. If Hunter is right, it’s only after you use extreme amounts of the Source.” He scooted to the edge of the couch. “Do you know how many times when you were sick I wished there were more I could do? That I could somehow be your miracle cure? I couldn’t then, but I can now. I’m not saying that to you as some form of emotional blackmail. It’s just the truth. Let me give you want you need.”
Unfolding my arms, I closed my eyes as I let out a ragged breath.
“I have no problems being your personal 5-hour Energy.”
I shook my head as I opened my eyes. “This is not funny.”
“There is humor in everything.” His gaze caught mine. “If we forget that, we lose everything.”
Something about the words rattled me. They were an echo in my mind and in my soul. Without a doubt, I knew I had heard him say them before, many times. I had no idea why that pushed me to make up my mind.
I was moving before I realized what I was doing, coming around the coffee table and sitting beside him. My heart was thundering as if I’d raced a mile to get there instead of walking a few feet.
His gaze never left mine, and he didn’t speak as he angled his body toward me. I told myself I was going to do this, that I needed to. Because somewhere between his comment and when I sat beside him, I realized that if I didn’t, I would be weak.
Therefore, Luc would be weak. Far weaker than he would be if I fed, because he’d spend days distracted and worried, and anything could happen in just an hour.
He waited until I was ready, and that took a small eternity, but when I made up my mind, it happened.
The hollowness in my chest pulsed, and the Source sparked. It was weak like before, but there, and it was as if it knew what I was about to do. I placed a trembling hand on Luc’s arm.