Supernova, page 41
Instead, she felt the touch of a pen on the skin behind her ear. Adrian shifted slightly and she felt him draw something on the back of her neck. After a moment, she felt something cold and damp and soothing pressed over the puncture wound.
She sighed, practically in ecstasy at such comfort.
“The Vitality Charm is protecting you,” said Adrian. “Otherwise you’d probably be dead from having this much venom in your system.”
“It feels like I’m dying,” she said, the words slurred together into something almost coherent.
“I’m sorry it doesn’t do more to help the pain, but trust me, it would be worse without it.” Adrian unzipped her jacket and eased it off her shoulders, peeling each sleeve carefully away from her arms. She whimpered each time the material brushed against the swollen welts.
Setting the jacket aside, he shifted her body so she could stay cradled against him while he worked on her arms. Nova watched, speechless, as he used her own pen—the one she had long ago installed a secret blow-dart compartment into—to draw a fat teardrop around each swollen wound, before tenderly rubbing it in with his thumb. The sketch became a cool salve under his touch. Then he drew a series of neat bandages, covering each sting.
“This is an ointment against the venom,” Adrian said, finishing up with the first arm and starting a new teardrop on the other. “Honey and antihistamines. And this”—he drew another bandage—“is an icy-cold compress, to bring down the swelling and take away some of the pain.”
Her lashes dipped. They still felt damp and heavy from the tears, but she wasn’t crying anymore. Though her body ached and burned, the pain on her neck and arms had already dulled significantly.
“Okay,” he said, finishing her arms. He cocked his head and she could feel him watching her, but she kept her attention on the compresses that now dotted her limbs. “Where else?”
She grimaced and bent forward, peeling up the bottom of her shirt so he could see the welts along her back. He worked his way through them, steady and meticulous, and when it was time to do her legs, Adrian looked away while she wriggled out of her pants, hissing and flinching the whole time. He handed her the jacket to cover herself as much as she could while he treated those wounds, though she felt the modesty was for his benefit as much as her own. She didn’t much care what he saw, so long as he made this agony go away.
Distantly, she recognized the thunderous cacophony of a raging battle. Though they sounded miles away, she knew it was much closer than that. It didn’t sound as if the Renegades had yet breached the makeshift barrier over the cathedral, and she imagined the villains standing at the western towers, waiting to see if Ace’s structure would hold. Ready to defend their newly earned territory, with their lives if necessary.
That had been the plan. In the event that the Renegades did make it through Ace’s wall, the villains would hold the cathedral at all costs. Ace had been insistent that they not lose their sanctuary. The Renegades were weak, anyway. Nearly half of their numbers were neutralized. Holding the cathedral should be easy.
Nova found herself hoping that the Renegades never made it inside. She couldn’t stomach the thought of another battle that nobody would win.
By the time Adrian was finished, the pain had become a distant, dull thrum throughout her body.
Again, Adrian allowed her privacy while she stood and pulled her pants back on, busying himself with finally addressing his own wounds. Nova swiped the backs of her hands across her cheeks.
“Thank you,” she murmured, and felt tears welling up again. Tears of gratitude, but also tears of guilt. A part of her wanted to lie down on this dirty, ancient floor and do nothing but sob until this whole miserable ordeal was over. It was all she could do to stay standing. “You didn’t have to … after everything…” She buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t know what’s right or wrong or—”
“Nova, stop. Listen to me.” Adrian took her wrists and pulled her hands away from her face. “I can only begin to imagine what your life has been like, but none of that matters right now. What matters is that you are good and strong and brave and willing to fight for the people you care for. Right?”
She gaped at him, not at all sure his description of her was accurate. Who was she? Who had she become?
“Oscar and Danna are down there somewhere. And my dad…” His voice wavered. It seemed like an eternity had passed since Captain Chromium had started scaling the cathedral walls in an effort to get to Adrian.
He was battling Ace, perhaps at this very moment.
But he was invincible. Ace couldn’t hurt him.
Right?
“Help me,” said Adrian. “Ace Anarchy wants us all dead. Please, help me stop him.”
“He’s my uncle,” she whispered.
“He’s an Anarchist.”
“I’m an Anarchist.”
“No. You’re a Renegade.”
She grimaced. “Adrian—”
“You are, Nova. If you don’t believe it, you’re just going to have to trust me.”
She hesitated. His words reminded her of what Ace had said, what felt like eons ago. You cannot trust them, Nova. You are not one of them, much as you might wish otherwise.
But she did trust Adrian. She always had. Even if he was a Renegade. Even if he hadn’t told her about the Sentinel. She trusted him.
She just wasn’t sure how it was possible that he could still trust her.
“Adrian, I need you to know that I really am sorry. For everything. It wasn’t all a lie. My feelings for you—”
Adrian cupped her face in his hands. “I know. And when this is all over, we are going to have a serious talk about keeping secrets from each other.”
She laughed, though it was a nervous sound. “How can you still trust me? After everything?”
“We’ve got nothing else to lie about, right? You’re Nightmare. I’m the Sentinel. Ace Anarchy is your uncle. You and I might be archenemies. And yet…” He shrugged, a little hapless. “Somehow, I still want to kiss you.”
Her skin tingled. “You do?”
“As much as ever.”
And then, he did.
The kiss was more tender than the passionate kisses they’d shared before, full of hunger and urgency. This was more patient. More knowing.
Utterly devoid of secrets.
He started to pull away, but Nova stopped him, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling his lips down to hers again. She melted against him. A kiss full of far more words than they had the time to say.
She couldn’t keep the overwhelming emotion from her voice when they separated, the disbelief and hope that coursed through her. “I was sure you would hate me when you found out the truth.”
Adrian grimaced. “I tried to, at first. But it’s like you said. Everyone has a nightmare.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Maybe I want you to be mine.”
Her heart swelled, but she still couldn’t help a teasing smile as she leaned back. “You’ve been holding on to that one for a while, haven’t you?”
“Just a few hours.” He beamed. “But I sure am glad I got a chance to use it.”
Nova was tempted to kiss him again when footsteps thundered beneath them. The noise pounded up the wooden staircase. The trapdoor crashed open and Leroy emerged, panting. “What in the name of—” He froze. His attention skipped from Adrian to Nova to Honey and the blood-soaked boards. The right side of his face twisted with rage as he hurled himself up onto the floor of the belfry. “Get away from her!” he shouted, reaching for one of the vials attached to a bandolier across his chest.
“Leroy—” Nova started, stepping toward him. “Wait!”
Adrian lifted a placating hand.
Leroy uncorked the vial and hurled it over Nova’s shoulder.
Nova spun around in time to see a shimmering wall spread out from Adrian’s palm, just like the one that had protected him and his father at the arena. Leroy’s vial smashed into the invisible bricks, painting them with a splotch of yellow liquid that hissed and sizzled.
Nova cringed at the rank odor of tormicene acid, one of Leroy’s favorite concoctions. It was known for the instant boils that formed on human flesh, that would begin to decay and rot within an hour.
“Leroy, please listen. Please stop—”
“He’s manipulating you, Nova,” he said. “Brainwashing you to think they’re the good guys. Trust me. All he cares about now is saving his own skin.” He shoved Nova away—away from him, away from Adrian.
The wall shimmered, the golden mortar dispersing into the air, and Adrian took a hesitant step forward. “I’m not manipulating anyone. I care for Nova, and I think you do, too. If we could just—”
“Talk?” suggested Leroy with a high-pitched laugh. “Like you talked to Honey, who loved Nova like she was her own daughter?”
Nova shook her head. “Honey tried to kill—”
She didn’t finish. In a blink, Leroy had thrown a second vial—not at Adrian this time, but at the floor near his feet, where a puddle of oil had spilled from the broken lantern.
The moment the two chemicals mixed, they exploded with the force of a stick of dynamite. The ancient wooden floor crumbled like tissue paper. Adrian shouted and fell through.
Nova screamed and tried to lunge for him, but Leroy stopped her, both arms wrapping around her waist to hold her back. She stared, gasping, as Honey’s body slipped into the void, as timbers and stonework caved in around them and clouds of dust filled the air, invading her lungs.
“He’s our enemy, Nova. You need to understand. I hope you will someday.”
A heavy thump sounded below, a series of crashes—then a figure emerged from the void. Adrian, practically flying. He landed hard on one knee, just outside the chasm. The floorboards creaked and groaned from his weight.
“No, Leroy,” said Nova, her voice raw with emotion. “I hope you’ll understand someday.”
She brushed her fingers against his leathery hand.
“Nov—”
She didn’t see whether his face held anger or betrayal. She let him crumple to the floor, his arms slipping from her waist, and then dove for Adrian.
“Wait!” Adrian yelled, too late, the word muffled by the noise of splintering wood and groaning framework. He caught Nova in his arms. This corner of the floor, compromised from the hissing chemicals, began to cave. “Hold on!”
Then they were falling. The blast had pierced the top level of wooden stairs, leaving a mess of sharp edges and teetering beams beneath them. Wood chips and stone dust rained around Nova’s head as she wrapped her arms around Adrian’s neck, bracing for the fall to end. She spotted Honey’s body on the next wooden platform.
She looked up, to where she could hear bells jostling overhead, and saw Leroy’s body slipping over the edge.
Unconscious Leroy, falling.
“No!”
Adrian hit the wooden platform with an impact that clattered through her bones. He used the momentum to spring upward again. It felt like flying. Their heads crashed through falling debris. The air whistled past her ears. The narrow windows of the tower blurred in her vision.
With one arm locked around Nova, Adrian used the other to catch Leroy around his middle. Clearing the destroyed floor, they tumbled together to the edge of the belfry, where one small section of floorboards had yet to give in to their weakened joists. Nova landed on her side with a jarring crunch. Leroy’s body smacked the stone wall beneath one of the outer bells.
“The floor’s not going to hold,” Adrian shouted, as the telltale groan of wood and nails echoed beneath them.
Ignoring her throbbing rib cage, Nova hoisted herself to her feet and reached for the open sill. With the mortar and stonework, it was easy for her to find fingerholds, and in seconds she had climbed up onto the crossbar that supported the enormous bronze bell. It swung beneath her weight, the bell ringing like an alarm.
Squinting through smoke and debris, she saw that Adrian had Leroy draped over one shoulder while he used the chromium pike that had been lodged into an overhead beam to haul himself onto the enormous timber frame in the center of the tower.
“Don’t hurt him, please,” Nova said, gripping the walls to keep her balance.
Leroy started to slip. Adrian barely caught him, grunting from the effort. He managed to secure Leroy on the crossbeam before leveraging himself up the rest of the way. Slumping in exhaustion, he looked at Nova.
Clouds of dust spun in the air around them. Wood continued to groan and creak in the floors below.
“You okay?” Adrian asked.
She laughed and pushed her bangs back from her brow. “No,” she said. “Leroy’s been like a second father to me.” She hesitated, before adding, “Him and Ace both.”
Adrian stared at her. “I don’t want to sound mean, but I think we need to get you new role models.”
She scowled. “Your dads aren’t perfect, either.”
“I know they aren’t, but come on.” He gestured at Leroy’s slumped body.
Nova adjusted her balance so she didn’t feel quite so precarious, her ankles locked around the sides of the bell. “I know it may not seem like it right now, but he’s actually a good guy…” She trailed off, wondering how she’d never once, in all the time she’d felt herself falling for Adrian, considered what it would be like if he ever met Leroy or the rest of her “family.” It had never been worth considering, because she’d known it would never happen.
“Well then,” said Adrian with a dry chuckle, “I hope we’ll have a chance to get to know each other.”
She focused on him again, grateful that he hadn’t outright dismissed the idea. “Thank you for not letting him fall.”
“We’re not safe yet.” Adrian peered down into the jagged hole beneath them. “I’ll have to transform. I’m stronger with the Sentinel’s armor. I’ll be able to get him down to safety, but I don’t know if I can take you both at once.”
“I can get down,” Nova said, testing that the pouch with her gloves was secure at her hip. “Just let me catch my breath first.”
At least her body was no longer throbbing from the wasp stings, she realized, pressing a hand over her shirt where the Vitality Charm was tucked away.
Things could be worse.
“Nova?” said Adrian. His expression was worried. “What is Ace planning? What is all this for?”
“He wants to destroy the Renegades, especially the Council, so we can take control of the city. He sees the Renegades as tyrants who are oppressing prodigies everywhere and … and he keeps saying that we’re going to be gods.”
Adrian made a sound of derision. “And he calls my dad arrogant.”
A sudden crash shook the tower. Nova yelped, sure that the aftermath of the explosion was about to bring the bell tower toppling around them. Then she glanced across the expanse of the cathedral’s roof and her heart launched into her throat.
Captain Chromium was on top of the southern turret, gripping the tall pinnacle with one hand while spinning his enormous chain overhead with the other. Ace levitated above the roof’s peak, using his powers to peel off stone gargoyles from the architecture and lob them at his enemy. The Captain was attempting to strike Ace with the chain while blocking the constant assault.
Nova shuddered. Not from seeing the two in a battle, but because Ace was cackling as he tore into the clay tiles that lined the roof.
“My masterpiece, so recently rebuilt, and so easily destroyed once again!” said Ace, sounding more gleeful than distraught. “All that matters now is that you Renegades are buried in its rubble. It will be a fitting end, after what you did to me ten years ago!”
“Nova,” said Adrian, “we have to stop him. You know that, right?”
Her mouth ran dry.
It was impossible. Them? Stop Ace Anarchy?
And yet, she knew he was right.
No more heroes.
No more villains.
Inhaling a shaky breath, she met his gaze and nodded. “I know.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
A STARTLED CRY drew Adrian’s attention across the cathedral spires. His dad was falling, tumbling down the steep incline of the cathedral’s roof. He caught himself on a flying buttress and dangled for a moment, before swinging himself back up. With a grunt, he tore an openmouthed gargoyle from the structure and heaved it at Ace’s head. It was easily deflected. Ace didn’t even flinch. But in the same moment, the Captain lashed out with the chain, striking Ace in the chest. The villain was blown backward, his back crashing against the inside of his makeshift dome.
“Ace can’t control your dad’s weapons, can he?” asked Nova.
Adrian shook his head. “He never could. They aren’t made of normal metal.”
“Yeah, I know. Your family is kind of scary.”
Adrian gawked at her. “My family?”
She dared to let a hint of a smile show through. Adrian hesitated, and then started to laugh. A long, tired, gasping laugh. “I’m going to turn into the Sentinel now,” he said, reaching for his sternum. “You sure you can get down okay?”
Nova smirked. “Don’t you know who you’re talking to?”
She started to dig through a pouch on her belt, when the noise of splintering wood and screeching metal shook the tower. The two gigantic bells in the center of the belfry were being pulled from their timber framework.
Adrian tugged on the zipper at his sternum, and within seconds, the armor had engulfed him. He scooped up Cyanide’s unconscious body, hefting it over his shoulder again, as a series of steel bolts pried free and dropped into the depths of the disemboweled tower.
He leaped from the beam, barely managing to grab hold of the bell adjacent to Nova’s. It shifted from his weight, the clapper banging against its sides. He held tight to the crossbar, his other hand securing Cyanide’s dead weight, and looked back in time to see the center bells angling upward, pulling unnaturally against their restraints. The wood gave out with a thundering crack, and the bells soared straight for the side wall. Adrian tightened his hold as the bells burst through the stone exterior of the belfry with a ringing cacophony. Stones and mortar exploded outward, raining down on the rooftop, as the bells hurtled through the open air, heading for the Captain.
