“You read my mind,” said Oscar.
“Uh, you two go ahead,” said Adrian, recalling Oscar’s face when Ruby had grabbed his arm. “There was something I wanted to show Nova and Danna … uh … over there.” He pointed toward a cluster of vendor booths by the lake. “But we’ll meet you at the wrestling match, okay?”
Danna cocked her head at him, suspicious, but no one argued as Adrian headed toward the bottom of the bleachers and melded into the bustling crowd. When he glanced back, Nova and Danna were beside him, but Oscar and Ruby were nowhere to be seen.
“That was just a ploy to give them alone time, right?” said Danna.
“Yeah,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “Too obvious?”
“Subtlety doesn’t seem to be making much progress, so…” Danna shrugged.
“Hey,” said Adrian, snapping his fingers, “how was your medical exam?”
Danna beamed. “Cleared for duty. I’ll file the paperwork for reinstatement on Monday.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” said Adrian. “And you feel good?”
“Great. The scratches didn’t even leave scars.” She cast a sideways glance at Nova, her tone taking on a new edge. “No random fainting spells either, so … I guess I’m good as new.”
Nova seemed to pale, but covered it quickly with a look of concern. “That’s great, Danna.”
“Fainting spells?” said Adrian.
Danna shrugged at him. “Remember when Nova was in the med-wing, after the quarantine fiasco? I went to visit her and … weirdest thing, but I actually fainted. I mean … I never faint.”
“Classic case of overexertion,” said Nova. “You were still recovering from your burns, remember?”
Danna stared at her for what felt like a moment too long, before she smiled. “Right. Classic.” It seemed as if she wanted to say more, but she thought better of it. “Anyway, I saw a booth back there I wanted to check out. See you at the wrestling match, okay?”
She disintegrated into her butterfly swarm. A gasp arose from the people around them, children squealing and pointing as the butterflies spun into the air and whirled away.
“Speaking of subtlety,” Nova muttered as they started down a jogging trail. “I’d been wondering if she could do that in civilian clothing. I wasn’t sure if there was something in the Renegade uniform that allowed her to switch between forms without losing her clothes, or if it was a part of her power.”
“I wonder about those details sometimes too. Like, Simon can make his clothes disappear, and also small objects if he’s holding them—but he can’t touch a car or a building and make the whole thing disappear. It’s interesting to figure out the extent of someone’s abilities. Of course, that’s what we have training sessions for.”
“Could Danna carry an object around with her, do you think? Not just clothing?”
He pondered the question, trying to remember if he’d ever seen Danna disappear with a weapon, but she’d always been more comfortable in hand-to-hand combat. “I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask her when we start Agent N training next week. Wouldn’t make much sense to equip her with a neutralizer gun if she’s just going to lose it the first time she transforms.”
Nova grunted in agreement. “I suppose we’ve all got weaknesses,” she said. “Even the magnificent Monarch.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
IT WAS A LITTLE BIT like being at the Renegade Parade again, with all the costumed kids and the booths full of cheesy memorabilia. The excited children all around her were adorable, even if their faith was misguided. Nova couldn’t help but think of Evie, who would have been only a little younger than Ruby’s brothers. If her family had lived, would she and Evie have been raised to love the Renegades as much as these kids did? Would Evie be among them now, wearing Thunderbird wings or a Dread Warden mask, preparing to run and tumble her way through a series of competitions to prove she could be a superhero … or at least a sidekick?
Or maybe Evie would have turned out to be a prodigy, like Nova and their dad. Like Uncle Ace. She’d shown no sign of powers when she was alive, but she was a baby, and a lot of prodigies didn’t develop abilities until later in life. Nova tried not to dwell on questions that could never be answered, but thinking of it made her heart ache.
“Nova?”
She startled. Adrian was watching her, his brow creased.
“Are you still thinking about that helmet?”
The helmet.
For once—no, she hadn’t been. A ghost of a smile touched her lips. “My sister, actually. I … I think she would have enjoyed something like this.”
Sadness echoed in Adrian’s expression. “I’m sorry. I forget that you had a little sister.”
She didn’t respond, though she knew what she was supposed to say. It’s okay … it was a long time ago …
But she’d never understood why that should make any difference. The loss of Evie still hurt every day.
“I know it’s not the same thing,” said Adrian, “but … I think Max would enjoy something like this too.”
Nova sighed. Adrian was right—Max would have liked the Sidekick Olympics, though the Bandit was far too powerful to be relegated to a mere sidekick role. Having experienced life in the tunnels for so long, she had some idea of how hard it must be for Max to be always inside his quarantine, watching the world pass by outside his prison. He missed out on so much. He missed out on the entire world.
“I wish he could be here,” said Nova. “I wish they both could.”
Their eyes met, mirrors of unfulfilled wishes, and Nova noticed a streak of gray dust on Adrian’s cheek. She frowned and reached up to brush it off. Adrian stilled. “You’re filthy,” she said and, now that she was looking, she spotted cobwebs clinging to his shoulder, and smudges of dirt on his sleeves. “What were you doing today?”
“Eh—nothing worthwhile,” he said. “Just a stroll through some defunct subway tunnels. You know, typical Saturday morning.”
“Subway tunnels?”
“It’s kind of a long story, but … I was given clearance to talk to Winston Pratt after the presentation the other day.”
One of her toes clipped into the trail and Nova stumbled. Adrian reached out to steady her. “You what?”
“I thought maybe I could learn something about the Anarchists. Don’t get excited; he didn’t say anything useful. But he did say that if I could bring him this puppet of his, he would give up some information.”
A puppet of his. Hettie. He had let Nova play with it occasionally when she was little and it had always felt like a great honor.
“So I went looking for the puppet, but of course, everything was gone. All that’s down there now is a bunch of dead bees and some stray trash.”
Nova scowled. She hated to think of the Renegades picking through her home, analyzing and inspecting everything they found.
“Speaking of bees,” said Adrian, his tone lightening, “how’s your uncle’s beekeeping business?”
She laughed at the unexpected absurdity of the question. She’d nearly forgotten about the lie she’d told him in an effort to explain away Honey’s hives in her backyard. “Uh … not great, to be honest. But he’s not the type to give up.”
Adrian grinned. “That must be where you get it from.”
It was obviously a compliment and Nova felt her neck warming. “Oh yeah, stubbornness is definitely a family trait.”
Unbidden, Ace’s words turned through her head, reminding her that this was not a casual weekend outing. She had a mission, and Adrian was a part of it. Earn his trust. Earn his respect. Earn his affection.
It shouldn’t be that hard, she had been telling herself all week. Adrian was handsome, talented, honorable, kind. So why did every nerve in her body rebel at the thought of faking attraction to him? Of flirting with him, merely for the sake of flirting? Of pretending to be interested?
The answer was thrown back in her face, and she fidgeted with her bracelet.
Because maybe it wouldn’t be fake.
And to discover that she actually liked him, against all her better judgment, would cost far too much.
Still, if she was ever going to sneak useful information out of Adrian or use his loyalty to undermine his fathers, she had to get close to him.
She had to …
Her thoughts trailed off as her attention fell on a crop of trees around the north side of the lake. Her feet halted and she glanced around, spotting a small playground not far away. Her breath hitched. “Do you know where we are?”
“That seems like a trick question.”
She grabbed his sleeve and started walking again. “The statue glen is this way.”
“Statue glen?”
“Yeah, you know. You had that drawing of it in your sketchbook, the one you showed me when we were watching the library. The statue of the hooded figure?”
“Oh—right. You said you used to go there when you were a kid?”
“Only once.” Nova couldn’t quite explain the giddiness that was surging through her limbs. Her feet sped up almost of their own accord. They rounded a corner and the paved path turned one way, while a smaller gravel trail led into a strip of dense woodland. “My parents brought me to that playground, but I wandered off and found…” Nova pushed back a low-hanging branch and froze.
She stood at the top of a rough, moss-covered staircase. The steps curved down into a small ravine, surrounded by towering oak trees and dense shrubs. “This,” she whispered.
She descended into the glen. The clearing was not much bigger than the bedroom she shared with Honey at the row house, with a short rock wall set in a circle around the edges. A wrought-iron bench on one side faced a solitary statue.
Nova felt like she’d stepped back in time. Nothing had changed, not since she was a little girl.