"He said something about me not being able to live without the energy. The Hue know how to alter the change, and he said that it can be altered up until it completes. When the change completes, I'll become a synthetic Hue," I explained. "I asked him how they knew so much about it and he said it was because they were curious and they'd been experimenting."

"What did he mean when he said alter the change?" he asked.

"I don't know." I knew it was important but I'd been in an emotionless state and at the time the details hadn't been so important to me. If I had been my normal self I would have been desperate to know the answers.

"So, there is a way to alter it, but not a way to stop it," Neve said more to herself than to us.

"If we can't keep you hidden, we need to make sure we're prepared for a confrontation," Jared said as he stood up and pushed his chair back.

"Confrontation?" I asked.

"He's going to come for you, but I'm not going to let him get you," he replied. The hard look in his eyes made me shiver.

"I don't want you to get hurt," I said as I grabbed his arm to halt him. I didn't want any of them to get hurt trying to protect me, and it would be like fighting a losing battle anyway. Even if they managed to protect me from Mason, I was running out of time and soon I would turn permanently into a Hue.

He gave me a cocky smile and gave me a brief kiss on my mouth.

"We're trained fighters. You don't need to worry," he assured me. I let go of his arm and he disappeared out of the kitchen. I looked to Neve for confirmation.

"He's right. We know what we're doing. We've all been trained to protect ourselves."

It still didn't make me feel any better. It was at times like this that I wished I were a normal teenager with normal teenage problems again. This was all so worrying.

"Anne," I said in a panic. Neve grabbed my arm.

"Don't worry," she soothed. "She left for her business trip to the city for the week. Everything has been arranged. She left you a note at home and it said she would call you later."

I sighed with relief. It was hard trying to handle all this stuff, but trying to keep it from my grandmother was becoming more and more difficult.

I had too much on my mind. After all I'd been through today, I could feel a sense of panic rising within me. I've escaped from Mason and I'm safe now, and Anne is away, I thought. I kept trying to think of calming thoughts, but nothing stemmed the unbridled rise of panic inside and I could feel my lungs start to restrict.

Trying to stop my panic from smothering me from the inside, I took a deep breath and held it before releasing it. After a few more breaths, the panic began to subside.

Neve could see what was happening.

"Are you okay?" she asked, touching a hand to my arm. I gave her a weak smile before nodding.

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling so weak. They all seemed to be calm in these stressful situations and I was struggling not to have a full-blown panic attack.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," she assured me. "You've been handling all of this really well."

"Thanks."

She patted my arm and gave me a reassuring smile, and then left the kitchen.

It didn't feel like I was handling this whole situation very well. I let out an unsteady breath, trying to keep my fear at bay: the fear that, no matter what Jared and the Archaic did, I was still going to become like Mason.

I put my hands up to my face.

"Hey," a soft voice said and I peered through the gap in my hands to stare at Jared's vibrant green eyes.

"Hi," I whispered back.

"You okay?" he asked softly as he leaned closer across the kitchen counter, bringing his face closer to mine.

"I think so," I said. "It's so much to try to cope with."

I let out a deep breath feeling the warmth of my breath against my fingers.

"I know, Ava, but we will get through this. I will find a way to save you," he promised me fiercely as he gently pulled my hands away from my face. "I was so scared when I went to meet you outside your classroom and you never came out."

He paused for a few moments. I saw the fear he'd felt in his eyes.

"I was frantic. We searched the school, but we couldn't find you. So I raced home to see if I could get a signal from the tracker on your phone. I prayed that you still had your phone on you...I can't think of what would have happened if you hadn't had it." He leaned his forehead to mine as his hands held mine. I understood. I'd felt those same desperate thoughts. The thought of never seeing him again was too much to handle.

"I just remembered something else," I whispered to him. I don't know why I hadn't remembered it earlier.

"What do you remember?" Jared prompted as he pulled away.

"Mason said the altering was more painful than the initial charge of energy that initiates the change," I whispered.

So even if they did find out how to alter the change, it would still be much more painful. I couldn't comprehend that there could be pain worse than that.

"Did he say why the altering was more painful?" he questioned gently.

I tried to remember back to my conversation with Mason.

"He said something about it being replaced. I'm not sure what needed to be replaced, but he did say I couldn't survive without the energy. He also said it wasn't complicated."

Jared looked thoughtful for a while. It was like a riddle that needed to be solved. Maybe that was why Mason hadn't explained it further—so that if I escaped, I wouldn't be able to tell the Archaic how to alter the change and potentially save myself. I wasn't sure what the alternative was, but I was sure it was better than being a Hue.

"I'll need to talk to the others and find out if they have any ideas," he said. "At least we have more to go on now than we did before."

I tried to stifle a yawn.

"You need to rest," he insisted as he helped me up from the kitchen chair. I was feeling very tired all of a sudden, and my knees started to buckle.

"I'm always feeling so tired," I mumbled.

"I think it's part of the changes going on inside your body," he said. Maybe he was right.

He picked me up effortlessly and carried me upstairs to a bedroom. I didn't know whose bedroom it was and at this point I didn't really care; as long as I had a bed, I was happy.

Jared laid me gently on the bed. It was only then that I realized I was covered in dirt from hiding in the forest.

"But I'm filthy," I protested as I tried to climb off the bed.

"It doesn't matter. The linen can be washed. Besides, you won't be able to stay awake long enough to have a shower and we need to get you a change of clothes," he insisted as he pushed me back down onto the bed. "Don't worry. You need to sleep," he insisted.

He removed my sneakers and pulled a comforter over me. He pulled the dark blue curtains closed to darken the room.

"I need to go and talk to the others while you sleep." I nodded my head as I burrowed deeper into the comfortable pillow. It felt like heaven.

"I'm going to send Neve in to watch you, okay?" he whispered gently as my eyes closed. I felt him tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear. I felt him kiss my forehead.

"I won't be long," he whispered.

"Mmm..." was my only response as I felt myself drift off to sleep. The events from the past few hours had drained me to the point of exhaustion.