“Get the mockery out of your system now,” Owens said, “because you’re going to want to hold it in when you get down there. Otherwise it might get you killed.”

  “Oh, no,” I said, high and mocking, “I could die? In prison?” I went back to my usual tone. “Pretty sure that’s what I just got sentenced to.”

  “Yeah, well … try not to do it when I’m on duty,” Owens said, heading for the door as I stood there in the shadowed holding chamber. “My boss will kill me.”

  “But not literally!” I called after her as she closed the door and the lock clicked loudly.

  I looked around as much as my eyes could. The room was layered with a kind of cream colored lining that couldn’t disguise the gel-packs beneath that layered the walls. A nifty space-age invention, they bled off metahuman power when struck or even zapped with energy. Not that I had any of that, even assuming I could get free of the gurney.

  “Alone at last,” I muttered to myself.

  “Not quite,” came a sassy voice, as someone melted out of the shadows. Her dark skin was like midnight under the glow of a single bulb, turning a more chocolate shade as she coalesced into a person, complete with tightly bound, jet black hair that curlicued out of her impromptu ponytail. Her eyes were grim, brown, and not amused.

  “Kristina …?” I asked, trying to remember if I’d gotten her name right. We’d met just the day before, when she’d saved me from execution at the hands of Cartel soldiers. I stared at her as she unfolded out of the shadows. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I’m here for you, girl,” Kristina said, no joy in her voice. “And I got to tell you, L’il Ms. Thang … I am not happy that I had to shadowcrawl through a government prison like this just to come find your ass.”

  10.

  “I’m not that dedicated to your happiness,” I said to Kristina, as she looked at me under shadowed eyebrows. She was standing partially in the darkness, because the holding room I inhabited was poorly lit, overall, and she’d probably just stepped right out of the shadow, since that was her power. “Besides, when last we met you were off to spend some of that money Cassidy paid you—what changed your course?”

  “Oh, baby got a shopping trip in,” Kristina said, sticking with the shadows, a still predator staring out at me. “Just not as much as I’d have liked before I got called back to make more bank with this little job.”

  I tried to nod, found myself restrained by … well, the restraints. “You’re here for Cassidy.” Again.

  “She’s not happy,” Kristina said.

  “I am not responsible for Cassidy’s emotional state,” I said. “Get her on an SSRI.”

  “She says you broke your deal with her,” Kristina said. Her eyes were moving, like she was expecting the cell door to open at any moment. “Says you’re supposed to be heading to Revelen to deal some pain. Says it’s going to be hard to do that from inside steel walls.”

  “Is that why she sent you?” I asked. “To bust me out?”

  “I could,” Kristina said, slightly shrugging her shoulder. “But I’m going to have to get paid extra to creep your ass out of here.”

  “Well, I’m not leaving,” I said, settling my head back against the gurney. “So unless you’re paid to drag my ass outta here … you might as well head back and collect your standard, no bonus pay for this job.”

  That took a few moments to settle. Kristina just peered at me, stony gaze trying to smoke something out of me.

  It failed.

  “Why’d you give yourself up?” Kristina finally asked.

  “That Cassidy’s question or yours?”

  “Mine, but she’ll want to know.”

  “Just sick of running,” I said, taking a long breath. “It’s been two years. Figured I’d face the music.”

  Kristina’s darkly lipsticked lips pressed together. “And how’s the music sound?”

  “Like that guy on American Idol who sang ‘She Bangs’ as though his balls were in a blender. I’ve already been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison,” I said. “So you might wanna tell Cassidy not to wait up. I’ll have to catch her in the next life for this Revelen thing. Unless something major changes.”

  “Mmm. She ain’t gonna like that.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not thrilled about it myself, but shit happens.” I looked right at Kristina. “You get me out, I go to Revelen … then what? How does her glorious plan unfold from there?”

  “If the previous pattern holds, you probably kill a whole mess of people,” Kristina said.

  “And then?”

  “What am I, your life coach? I don’t care what happens next.” She gave me an utterly dismissive look. “I barely care what happens to you right now.”

  “Exactly. After that, I’m either back on the run or else back in here.” I looked up at the ceiling, the lone, shining yellow light, casting its inadequate illumination down on me. “What the hell is the point of the fight?”

  “Like I said—to kill a whole mess of people.”

  “See, I’ve done that, over and over. Look where it’s gotten me.” I tried to nod to indicate my full-body binding, but I couldn’t even manage that. “I’m about to get my own cell in prison. With a roommate, presumably. Among a whole bunch of people who probably don’t wish the best for me.”

  Kristina’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not convincing me why I shouldn’t break you out, here. This sounds like it could be a death sentence.”

  I sighed. “Maybe it is.”

  “But … you’re just … done fighting?”

  “I’m Sienna Nealon, I’m never done fighting,” I said. “But I am sick of being hounded. Chased. Forever on the run. I want to stand and fight my overwhelming odds for a while.”

  “Mmmhmm. Tell me this … did they take your powers with their devil drugs?” She shuddered.

  “They did indeed,” I said.

  “Then I’m curious how you’re going to be fighting much of anything,” she said. “But hey—you ain’t my problem. I’m gonna get paid whether you come out of here with me or not—maybe a little less, but dragging your ass through the shadows—not easy. This’ll be a nice, relaxing little sneak up through this place … and quiet, cuz you won’t be talking … and then maybe I’ll go get a Maserati to soothe my nerves after all this bullcrap.”

  “Why … the hell did you just tell me all that?” I asked.

  “Oh, I was just thinking out loud,” Kristina said. “Maybe I was feeling sorry for you, I don’t know. You ain’t gonna do much shopping in here, that’s for sure. What are your options—‘Hmmm, should I take this orange jumpsuit or this orange jumpsuit?’” She changed her voice. “‘Definitely the one on the left, it really brings out your eyes.’ See, that was your girlfriend talking. Because if you got no powers while you’re in here, you’re going to get a girlfriend. It’s happening.”

  “Not really my jam, but thanks for the prophecy.”

  “All right, well,” Kristina said, slapping her hands against her thighs. “This has been … sad. I’m gonna ask you one last time—you sure you want to stay here? Strapped to a cart? Bound hand and head and foot? For the rest of your life?”

  “If I get out … I’ll uphold my bargain with Cassidy,” I said. “And it could still happen.”

  Kristina snorted. “How’s that going to happen? How’re you going to get out of here without me?”

  “Fate has a way of making certain things inescapable,” I said, thinking of what Harry had told me about the way time moved. “If I’m meant to go to Revelen … I’ll end up in Revelen somehow.”

  “Well, I’ll be praying for you,” Kristina said, pasting a fake smile on her face. “Ta ta for … ever, I think.” And she disappeared into the shadows as though she’d never even been there.

  The door buzzed a moment later, and two guards popped in. Up front was a burly guy with a surly face. Burlysurly, that’s what I was going to call him. “Who were you talking to?” he asked, looking around.

  “Myself,” I said. “Wait, is that illegal now? Because I’m pretty sure I’ve already been convicted for every other crime in the book, so it seems logical I’d be needing some different charges to really broaden out the next list of charges they compile.”

  Burlysurly scowled, looking around, pacing behind me, since I was the only physical obstacle in the room. I tracked him with my eyes as he looked behind my gurney, and came back around, his immense jaw like a freighter sailing through the night. “You a smartass, Nealon?”

  I blinked, considering my reply. “Uhm … yeah. Did they not tell you that?”

  Burlysurly raised his baton, and I saw his name patch in the sole light. It read BURKE. “You smarting off to me?”

  “Is that a flogging offense?” I asked, and he raised it higher, tensing to bring it down. Looked like he was going to drive the air out of me. Or worse.

  “Hey, Burke, why don’t you hit the break room while I iron this out,” came the voice of his compatriot.

  A very … familiar voice.

  Burke stopped, his baton raised high, ready to bring it down on me. “Why should I?”

  “Because if you don’t go now, you might miss the last danish,” the other guard said. There was almost a smile in the way he said it.

  Burke’s eyes were slow and sluggish, but there was calculation there. “You and I might have to do something about that smart mouth of yours, Nealon.”

  “Mom, is that you?” I asked. “Shit, you’ve gained weight. And got ugly.”

  “Danish,” the other guard said again. “Marshall had his eye on it when I got off break a minute ago.”

  Burlysurly Burke tore his ugly, angry eyes off me. “You’re just lucky I like danish more than I like adjusting little bitches like you. But we’ll hash this out later.” He went over to the other guard, stuck a finger in his face and said, “Whatever you do, make sure you leave her in good enough condition for me to ‘correct’ her later. And have the lesson sink in.” And Burke went out the door, slamming it behind him, leaving me alone with the other guard.

  “You can’t lay off for one freaking minute, can you?” asked the other guard, sighing as he stepped into the light with me. “Not one minute.”

  “Sorry, Harry,” I said, as Harry Graves looked up at me, short dark hair perfectly sculpted, eyes flashing with irritation, clad in the uniform of one of the Cube’s prison guards, “I guess you could say it’s … fate.”

  11.

  Sophie

  Texas

  Four Years Ago

  “I’ve flown over the plains of Texas before,” Sienna said, staring out the window, “and I knew they were flat. Super flat. Me before puberty flat, in fact. But being here … driving across them …” She shook her head. “I had no idea they were concave chest flat.”

  Sophie stared out the windshield, keeping her thoughts to herself. Six hours into their trip toward El Paso, and this had been the high point of the conversation.

  “There’s just … nothing out here,” Sienna said. “I’ve seen more topographical variety in the Dakotas. Okay, actually, no, I haven’t, but … man. What the hell is this, even? Is this—?”

  “I liked it better when you stayed silent for the first couple hours,” Sophie said.

  “I was actually practicing talking in my head that whole time,” Sienna said. “It was weird, but I got used to it fast.”

  “What happened? Run out of things to say to your … souls?” Sophie wasn’t quite white-knuckling the wheel, but she did yearn for the quiet.

  “They get kinda tiresome after a while,” Sienna said. “Gavrikov gets all weepy about his sister and all the travails she must surely be going through out in Cali as she builds a career as … I forget what she’s doing. Acting? Reality TV? I mean, I guess that’s acting, too. She’s doing something in TV. Bastian just wants to discuss the finer points of killing you in case of an emergency in which you turn on me—”

  Sophie looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “Does he rate that a likely possibility?”

  “He says it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Sienna said. “A point on which we agree—”

  “So, how would you kill me?” Sophie asked.

  “Head into the steering wheel at about a hundred miles an hour oughta do it,” Sienna said.

  “That would deploy the airbag.”

  “Not unless there was a front impact first,” Sienna said. “I’m sure it would deploy after your face and head turned into mush, but that’s really more of a problem for whoever cleans the back seat.”

  Sophie let a smile slip. “You just casually explained how you’d murder me.” She turned her head to look right at Sienna, her own eyes hidden behind sunglasses. “Is that a normal conversational topic for you?”

  “What’s normal about this trip?” Sienna asked. “You lured me out here with a bullshit story about metas lighting up the desert plains.” She looked right at Sophie. “What? You didn’t think I realized it was a bullshit story? That your whole goal was getting me out here, alone, with you? This ain’t my first rodeo, cowgirl—or whatever they say in Texas. I’ve been deceived by the best. You’re amateur hour compared to the people who’ve tried to twist me in the past.”

  “I was never as much a deceiver as Erich Winter,” Sophie said. “But on the plus side … you won’t need to watch your back around me. If I meant to put a sword in you, it’d go in your front.”

  “We use guns these days,” Sienna said, casually letting her coat fall open to reveal hers on her hip. “But it’s interesting that you know Winter. It tells me a little something about you. And your age.”

  “You know nothing about me—or my age,” Sophie said, keeping her eyes on the road.

  “If I guess and get close, will you give me the jar with all the gumballs in it?”

  Sophie smiled again, lightly. “No.”

  “Because you don’t have any gumballs? Disappointing.”

  “You shouldn’t take candy from strangers anyway,” Sophie said. “And I didn’t lie to you about metahumans in the desert.”

  “You just didn’t tell me the full truth,” Sienna said. “So … mind telling me now?”

  “Not quite yet,” Sophie said. “But soon.”

  Sienna looked resentfully at her out of the corner of Sophie’s peripheral vision. It was not an unfamiliar look, that acid glare. “I could just fly off, you know.”

  “I know,” Sophie said.

  “But you’re not going to tell me what it is.”

  “I’ll show you. Soon.”

  Sienna sighed. “The bullshit I put up with to resolve mysteries, I swear …”

  Sophie just smiled and kept driving. “It won’t be long.”

  12.

  Sienna

  “There’s a big difference between choice and fate, my dear,” Harry Graves said, slipping up to me in the light of my small holding cell. “Fate is the direction you’re pushed by events; choice is when you’re a wiseass who can’t hold her tongue, even when she’s talking to a big tub of violent human diarrhea.”

  “I have noticed I tend to smart off even more in the presence of those types,” I said, looking into Harry’s eyes. “What are you doing here, Harry? It can’t have been easy to sneak in here, even for you.”

  “Everything’s easy for me,” he said, but there was a tension in his posture that put the lie to his words. “And you know why I’m here.”

  “Two offers to bust out in the last five minutes,” I sighed. “Why will no one respect the sanctity of my decision to give up and surrender?”

  “Probably because you’re Sienna Nealon, we’re really not used to that sort of thing from you.”

  “That’s a legit critique. Well said.” I looked at the wall beyond him, the plastic bubbling containing the gel that nullified the damage meta strength could do. “But you already know what I’ll say.”

  His eyes were cloudy for a second, he almost seemed to stare past me. “I did. I do.”

  “So why come here?” I asked.

  He leaned forward and unstrapped my Hannibal face mask and kissed me long on the lips.

  When he broke, I said, “Sorry. They didn’t really provide a toothbrush. Or breakfast.”

  “It’s fine,” he said, and he smiled, lightly. “I knew the risks before I did it, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I wanted to be able to do that … without a time limit.”

  “Well, sorry I’m completely strapped and locked down, because there are definitely some other things I wouldn’t mind doing without a time limit that ends with your soul being ripped from your body for touching me too long.” I sighed. “I mean … we could really enjoy ourselves for the first time if—”

  “I always enjoyed myself with you,” Harry said, but his eyes looked sad. “Don’t get me wrong, the hoops we had to go through … part of me wondered why you wouldn’t just take suppressant in order to …” He bowed his head.

  “My guard, Harry … it’s always up,” I said. “I wouldn’t have chosen to take this now. In fact, I’d really, really like to be untouchable at the moment, especially since I’m about to get wheeled into the dragon’s den downstairs.”

  “I know, but still …” He shook his head. “If we had longer before your handler came back? We could properly enjoy ourselves.”

  “Ew, Harry,” I said, mocking. “I’m a prisoner and you’re a guard. The power differential there is icky.”

  “Even without your powers,” Harry said, suppressing a snort, “I don’t think I’m ever in danger of being in charge when you’re around.”

  “Wise man.”

  “If I were that wise,” Harry said, “I’d have been able to figure out a way to talk you out of going down this road.”

  I paused before answering, thinking through the implications of what he’d just said. “I’m still on course, then?”

  “You are,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “I just wanted to see you before—”

 

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