“Four points?” I blurt out, unable to control myself since my emotions have completely taken control. “It’s barely an injury! She’ll be fine in the morning.” The room is empty now but I gesture to the general area where Snapback held me pinned to the floor. “I almost lost it over there and you deducted nothing for that. But four points for a dumb scratch? Can’t you make it two?”
Hugo Havoc frowns in the sort of way my dad does when he doesn’t want to let me down. “Protecting the humans is our number one duty. You can capture a hundred villains and lose one human life and you would have succeeded in nothing at all. Four point deduction remains.”
If it weren’t for the pain in my chest, I’d swear my heart wasn’t beating. Four point deduction. My fingers tighten around the human’s shoulder as the weight of what just happened sinks in. Sixteen years of training for this moment and I won’t get a perfect score like my brother did two years ago and my dad did a hundred years before that. I’m barely aware of the human wiggling again but I’m sure as hell not letting her go. They haven’t awarded me Hero status yet. Only scores of ninety-five and above get Hero status. Anything less and I’d be stuck as a Retriever for the next decade. No thank you.
I straighten my spine, determined not to lose control in front of them. My four point deduction will have to do.
“Maci Might, daughter of President Might and the late Sophia Might.” Lucy-fer ends her sentence in what feels like the middle of it. Suspense must be her favorite pastime. Just say it, I repeat in my head. Just say the words that I am a Hero now and put me out of my friggin misery.
She clears her throat. Shuffles her papers.
A bead of sweat and/or blood runs down my forehead. Just say it!
“It is with regret that I must inform you—”
Wait.
WHAT?
“The board has made a unanimous decision—”
Why does Hugo Havoc look so sad? What is happening here? Why won’t the human shut up already? I’m barely squeezing her.
Lucy pauses. “—it was a unanimous decision, Maci—”
“I saved her!” My fingers dig into the human’s flesh as I shove her forward, presenting her like a trophy, alive and well. “I saved her life—” the words choke in my throat, as if I can’t say them fast enough. “You can’t do this to me!”
Lucy blinks. “—to deny your request to be granted Hero status.”
Moments. Seconds. Minutes. Time—if you subscribe to a linear way of thinking—passes. I don’t know how long.
Emotions, I’ve always been told, are stronger for Supers. Humans allow emotions to control their actions, letting deep sorrow or happiness fill them wholly and control their life. But Supers are superior to humans in every way. What a human considers a small amount of hatred is enough to turn a Super into a villain.
Keep your emotions in check, Dad always says. Especially for you, Maci. The Supers do not trust you. You cannot let them see you lose control. I can still picture the look in his eyes when he told me those formidable words last night.
Do not lose control.
I promised him I wouldn’t.
But I guess that’s what happens when I rip the wooden stake out of the human’s hand and shove it into her heart.
“Dad, please.” I hold up one hand in surrender, hoping he will stop reading the words on the MODular wall screen in our living room command center. He doesn’t.
“—challenged our authority by demanding a two point decrease in her awarded point deduction—”
“I get it Dad, I get it. God. Please stop.” My words catch in my throat as I fight back tears that threaten to spill over my eyelashes and roll down the flesh of my slowly healing cheek. Dad presses both hands on the wall in front of him as his shoulders slump and he heaves a sigh. At one hundred and sixteen years old, my dad doesn’t even look thirty, with surfer blonde hair and smooth, unwrinkled skin. He sets his attention back to the screen where Hugo Havoc sent my father a copy of my Hero Exam scores, along with a regaling tale of how I behaved during the grading process.
A shadow of bird wings floats across the wall and I follow it outside to find a California condor soaring up and down and around in circles on this beautiful summer day. The south wall of our house is made of glass that bubbles out, overlooking the Grand Canyon. Most Supers live here in King City, the city built into the canyon, so villains would never be able to attack.
It also means news spreads quickly through our city. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone is talking about the results of my exam despite the confidentiality laws. As if the memories of what happened earlier today aren’t already etched into my mind, my dad insists on reading them aloud. “After careful deliberation, the board and I decided that an award of Hero Status was not prudent given the student’s unfounded anger at being awarded a passing grade and then—”
I let out a loud half sigh, half groaning noise to drown out his words, wishing he would just shut up and stop rubbing salt in what is most definitely the worst emotional wound I’ve ever had.
“—slashed through the droid’s heart as if it were a vampire.” He drags his finger across the screen, shutting it off. He turns to me.
I can’t meet his eyes so I stare at the geometric crown shape in the center of his chest. It’s the emblem of our city. His is purple. Out of the ten thousand Supers in the world, only he gets to wear a purple one as president of King City. The job carries many burdens and I’ve seen him stressed out before. But the look he gives me now is the worst one I’ve ever seen.
“You killed a droid?” His eyebrows draw together as he watches me, trying to find some kind of explanation on my face. Worry lines appear in his forehead and around his lips. As I force myself to look at him, I’m met with bloodshot eyes. It’s the look of someone who stayed up all night anxiously awaiting his daughter to make him proud. At this moment, for the first time in his life, he looks thirty-five.