NOVA KNEW THAT HER DROP from the bottom platform of the theater’s fire escape to the alleyway was terribly lacking in grace, but she was beyond caring. Her legs ached, her arms ached, and besides, no one was around to see her. The rooftop had carried the stench of smoke, but it was a hundred times stronger down here, thick and inescapable. She pressed her nose into her elbow and stayed as close to the theater wall as she could to avoid the heat emanating from the library as she picked her way past the debris.
The crowd had grown, though most people had moved away from the burning building. Someone cried out in hopeful surprise when they spotted Nova emerging from the smoke, but it was immediately followed by a groan of disappointment. She dropped her arm, scowling, at the same moment a kid squealed. A second later, a body crashed into her, small arms tying around her waist. She gasped and peered down at the kid’s head. The child she had found on the top floor. The one she had rescued—with Ruby’s and Oscar’s help. She had never seen him reach the bottom of Ruby’s rope and she was surprised at the relief that washed over her at seeing him now.
“Thank you,” he said, his words muffled against her rib cage. So simple. So complete.
With a weary smile, she patted him on the head.
In that moment, she could begin to see why any sane person might want to become a Renegade.
“Oscar, no!”
Nova lifted her gaze and saw Ruby and Oscar. They stood out from the crowd, daring to stand closer to the library than anyone else. And, perhaps also because their faces were not alight with awe and curiosity, but anguish.
Extricating herself from the boy, Nova made her way toward them. Ruby had tears shining in her eyes, though she wasn’t yet crying. Actually, as Nova got closer, she realized they were both holding back tears, though Oscar was working hard to disguise them with a determined scowl. He was trying to pull away from Ruby, but she was clinging to his sleeve, refusing to let go.
“I survived one fire,” he said. “I’ll survive this one too!”
“You don’t know that!”
“I’m not letting him die in there!”
“He might already be—”
“Don’t say that!”
Ruby stepped back, her face pinched.
Nova stepped closer. “Adrian?”
Ruby’s face scrunched up in agony. “Still no sign of him.” The words were followed by a sob, but she clapped a hand over her mouth, the struggle to hold in her emotions apparent in the shaking of her shoulders. “Did he say anything to you?”
“He said…” Nova struggled to remember. It felt like ages ago since she’d offered to take Ingrid from him. “He was going to look for the lost kid.” Her gaze slid back to the child, who had returned to the other children across the street.
“I’m going back in,” said Oscar, tearing his arm from Ruby. His limp had become more pronounced as he started to make his way toward the library. Despite the flames and smoke ravishing the shattered windows, the front facade of the building was relatively unscathed compared with the rest of the structure. The exterior brownstone was standing strong, but Nova knew that inside it would be little more than a shell by this point. A smoldering, blackened shell.
“Oscar!”
Ruby’s scream was punctuated by a loud crack within the library, followed by a boom and a spurt of new flames and sparks billowing up out of the open ceiling. Another part of the second-story floor had just caved in.
Nova shuddered and took a few steps closer, watching the building burn.
Surely, he would have gotten out before it was too late. Surely …
But not if he still believed there was a child needing to be rescued. Somehow, though she knew so little about Adrian, she knew this for sure. He would not have left so long as he believed someone needed his help.
She wrapped a hand around the bracelet on her wrist. The sickening thought came to her, unbidden. Ingrid had achieved her goal. She had killed Adrian Everhart.
Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden would be devastated.
Nova felt only hollow disbelief—none of the accomplishment, none of the joy she might otherwise have expected. He might have been her enemy, but … she did not think he deserved to die.
The sudden blow of an air horn screamed through the street. Nova tensed and looked around, unsure where the noise had come from.
It sounded again. A crude, distressed honking, over and over.
Brow knitting, Nova took a step closer to the library. Her heart had started to pound. With disbelief, but also … with hope?
She exchanged looks with Ruby and Oscar, then she took off running, sprinting around to the back of the library. This wall had mostly collapsed when Ingrid launched the bomb into the rare books room and great chunks of brownstone had blown halfway across the street, leaving behind a mountain of rubble where the wall had stood. Inside, the flames were dying down, but the collapsed floors were still smoldering and the air was alive with blackened book pages drifting into ashes.
The horn continued to blow, sounding from somewhere within the smoking ruins.
Oscar stamped past Nova and reached for a piece of splintered wood on top of the nearest pile of debris. With a grunt, he heaved it off the pile, then reached in for a destroyed bookcase. Nova could see he meant to clear a path to wherever that noise was coming from. But not seconds later, Oscar roared and stumbled back, staring at his burned hands. He let out a stream of curses and started using his cane like a crowbar to lift pieces of debris instead.
Ruby joined him a second later, flinging her bloodstone hook and dragging away chunks of stone and wood and plaster.
Nova gulped, her hand landing on the satchel on her belt. Her gloves were heat proof. Nightmare’s gloves …
She shut her eyes and told herself that if anyone became suspicious she would be able to find a perfectly reasonable explanation for why she had gloves so similar to those Nightmare had been seen wearing.
She tried not to think of how the Anarchists would scream at her for doing something so stupid, something that risked giving her away, all to save one measly Renegade—
Exhaling, she opened the pouch and reached inside.
An enraged roar echoed in every direction. Nova looked up to see a massive, inexplicable tidal wave of water rolling toward them—towering over them, its crest foaming white. Yelping, Nova grabbed Ruby and Oscar by the backs of their shirts and hauled them away from the library. They all fell back onto a patch of ivy and watched, speechless, as the wall of water fell and gushed over the library. The fire hissed and a great cloud of steam rolled up over them. The water gushed outward, flooding the land around the library and soaking Nova’s backside. No longer clean and clear, the water was muddled with ash and debris.
She spotted Tsunami, standing delicately in the center of the road, her palms open toward the sky and her face serene. The image she struck was so in contrast with the chaos of the past hour that Nova found she could only stare at her in wonder. Then Tsunami dropped her hands and turned her head just slightly. She gave a subtle, encouraging nod, and Nova noticed the other Council member who had arrived.
Captain Chromium barreled forward, and Nova had barely grasped these new arrivals before the Captain was tearing through the wreckage as if the fallen library were nothing more than a child’s set of building blocks, tossing whole floor beams aside, crushing his fist into half-standing walls of stone. Steam continued to rise up from the ruins, and though the fire was extinguished, Nova knew all those materials must still be blistering hot. But what did he care? He was Captain Chromium.
Ruby climbed to her feet first, and Nova and Oscar followed, watching speechlessly as the superhero tore a path through the destruction. At some point, the blast of the horn started up again, and he changed his course, making his way through toppled, burned bookshelves and crumbled stone columns. From the corner of her eye, Nova saw Ruby slip her hand into Oscar’s. Nova squeezed her own hands into fists.
Halfway into the wreckage, near to where the children’s books had once been, the Captain grabbed a massive bookshelf and heaved it off into the rest of the remains. And there, underneath, was …
Nova stared, incredulous.
Ruby let out a strangled, confused noise.
Oscar started to laugh.
In the middle of the burned, smoldering building, Captain Chromium had found an igloo.
Or, the remains of an igloo. Much of it had melted away, and some chunks of ice had cracked and fallen in front of the igloo’s arched entrance.
Seconds later, a figure emerged, crawling through the small opening.
Adrian was drenched. In one hand he held the horn, like something that would be strapped to a motorbike. In the other hand, he carried Nova’s pen.
Before he could speak, the Captain pulled him into an embrace. Adrian grimaced slightly, but didn’t pull away.
When the Captain had let go, they picked their way back to the others. Adrian spared a grateful smile for Tsunami, who smiled back, then disappeared around the front of the library, presumably to see if anyone else needed assistance.
“An igloo, Sketch?” said Oscar, shaking his head.
Adrian shrugged. He looked positively exhausted, but there was still a lightness in his eyes, a faint smile on his lips. The marked joy of one who had defied death. “Sometimes inspiration just strikes, man.”
Finally allowing a sob to escape, Ruby ran forward and wrapped her arms around Adrian, giving him one tight squeeze, before pulling back and punching him in the shoulder. He flinched, more than Nova thought was warranted, given that it hadn’t been that hard of a hit.
“Where were you?” Ruby cried.
Adrian blinked at her, then glanced back at the quickly melting igloo.
“I mean—why didn’t you get out?”
“I was looking for that missing kid,” he said, wrapping one arm around Ruby and giving her a friendly embrace. After he let go, she stepped back and crossed her arms, a sour scowl still drawn into her face, clear that she wouldn’t forgive him that easily for the distress he’d caused. “I was in the stacks and the smoke got so thick I couldn’t see anything. I got really disoriented and felt like I was just walking in circles. Once I realized I was trapped, I made the igloo to protect myself. Then the ceiling collapsed. The igloo protected me, but … at some point I passed out. Smoke inhalation, I think.” He inhaled deeply, gratefully. “When I came to and realized I was still inside that igloo, I made the horn to call for help.”
He turned to Nova and held out the pen she had given him, what felt like ages ago. “Thanks for this.”
She took it numbly, holding his gaze and feeling like she should say something, but she couldn’t think of any words that would convey what she was feeling. She wasn’t even sure what those feelings were.
But she couldn’t deny that she was glad Adrian Everhart was alive. She was glad that his smile was just as warm and relaxed now, after an extremely trying day, as it had been at the parade. She was glad …
Well. Maybe she was just glad.
Adrian looked like he wanted to say something to her, but couldn’t quite find the words. He was staring at her, a question in his eyes, but he seemed to think better of it as he swallowed and looked away.
“We need to get you to headquarters,” said the Captain. Nova started. Momentarily caught up in Adrian’s dark brown eyes, she’d almost forgotten the Councilman was there. “The med staff will want to see you.”
Adrian shook his head. “I’m fine. I feel fine.”
“This isn’t open for debate. That goes for the rest of you too.” The Captain fixed each of them in turn with his icy blue stare, which could not have been more different from the celebrity smile he usually wore. “Go back to headquarters. Get checked out, then get some rest. We’ll speak more about this tomorrow.” He looked at Adrian again, and Nova could tell he was trying to use some sort of stern, fatherly expression, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He was clearly too overwhelmed with relief that Adrian was okay, and something about that look made her feel like a screw was being turned in her stomach.
She’d once had a father to look at her like that too.
The Captain turned to go.
“Dad, wait.”
He paused.
“The Detonator was here,” said Adrian. “She’s the one who set off the explosions. Cronin was still selling on the black market, just like we suspected.”
“The Detonator? Ingrid Thompson?”
Adrian nodded.
The Captain pressed his lips. “And what about Gene Cronin? Where is he?”
“He’s…” Adrian hesitated. He glanced once at Nova, then the others. He cleared his throat. “I think he might have gotten away.”
“No,” said Nova. “He’s dead. Ingr—the Detonator killed him, up on the roof of that theater.” She pointed. “Then she ran. I tried to stop her, but … she got away.”
“We saw her too,” added Oscar. “When she got down to the alley, Ruby and I tried to chase her, but she threw some of those bombs and we couldn’t follow fast enough.”
“What about the mirror walker?” said Ruby. “Does anyone know what happened to her?”
“She escaped through a mirror, after … after the Detonator killed Cronin,” said Nova. “She could be anywhere.”
The Captain sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. “This proves your theory, Adrian. It seems the Anarchists haven’t been quite as dormant as we thought. I don’t think we can pretend any longer that they aren’t still plotting to bring about a second Age of Anarchy. They will have to be dealt with.”
Nova tensed. “When? What will you do?”
The Captain looked at her. “I’m not sure yet. But they’ll be preparing for us to make a move after today. We’ll have to act fast.”
She gulped. What did that mean? They would retaliate in days? Hours?
The Captain frowned then, as if a thought had just occurred to him. He turned back to Adrian. “Did you find out anything about Nightmare?”
Adrian’s mouth tightened. “Nothing.”
The Captain nodded, and Nova did not think he seemed particularly surprised. “Go back to HQ. We’ll discuss this more tomorrow.”
“The Sentinel was here too,” Nova said.
Captain Chromium drew up taller. “The Sentinel?”
She nodded, watching the Captain closely as she said, “I shot him.”
Everyone stilled, eyes swiveling toward her in surprise.
“Multiple times,” added Nova.
“Did he attack you?” asked the Captain, his expression darkening.
Nova blinked, finding it impossible to admit that, actually, he had saved her.
So why had she done it? She could hardly remember. She’d been livid at the time. Angry at Ingrid and her betrayal, angry that everything was falling apart around her, angry that Adrian might be dead and her first mission had gone so awry and that it all might have been worth it if she could have just learned who or what the Sentinel was, but he wasn’t telling her anything.
Angry that he was pretending to be her ally, when she knew to her core that he was her enemy.
But she couldn’t explain any of that to Captain Chromium.
“At first, I thought he was sent by you, the Council,” she said. “But he said he wasn’t. He said he’s acting on his own objectives and, honestly, I couldn’t tell if he was an enemy or not. When he refused to reveal his identity, I shot him. It hardly seemed to slow him down and he still got away, but … I thought maybe you should know. I thought…” She cleared her throat. “I thought maybe if he is working for the Council, you should tell us, so we can know how we’re supposed to treat him, as an ally or not.”
Her speech was followed by a long silence. From the corner of her eye, she could see Ruby and Oscar exchanging stunned looks, but she kept her gaze resolutely on the Captain. Waiting for any reaction that would give away the truth.
He rocked back on his heels, eyebrows shooting upward, and let out an astonished, “You don’t pull your punches, do you?”
Her jaw twitched. “Is he a Renegade or not?”
Captain Chromium sighed. “Not,” he said. “At least, as far as I know. Whoever he is, he isn’t acting on our orders.” He cocked his head, and Nova had the impression that he was watching her far more closely than he had been before now. “And while I appreciate your efforts to defend our reputation, this might be a good time to point out that, as part of the Renegade code, we generally frown on shooting people who haven’t committed a crime.”
He nodded at each of them in turn. “Tomorrow,” he said again, then turned and went to join Tsunami.
Nova clenched her fists, watching him go. She still didn’t know if he was telling the truth, and her own ignorance infuriated her.
“You really shot the Sentinel?”
She glanced at Oscar. “I did,” she said. “He deserved it. I’m pretty sure.”
Adrian coughed.
“But he’s, like, twice as tall as you,” said Oscar. “And probably weighs three times as much.”
“He’s not that tall,” said Nova.
Oscar shrugged. “Just saying.” He shook some chunks of white dust from his hair. “You know, I’m not sure you picked the right alias. Insomnia is too passive. I vote we change it to Velociraptor.”
Ruby laughed. “Relatively small, but surprisingly ferocious?”
“Exactly. All in favor?”
“I like Insomnia,” said Nova, pretending to be annoyed.
Only when it became too difficult did she realize she was smiling.