The next sound sends a chill down my spine. “Are we on the air?” It’s a simple question but it makes my chest collapse as if the weight of the world just fell on me. “Ah, yes. We are on the air. Hello, citizens of King City.” I’d know her voice anywhere. But I raise my eyes to the MOD screen anyway.
Aurora’s face smiles in the center of the screen. “I wish I could say it saddens me to appear before you like this,” she says in a way that could only be described as making love to the camera. “But I have to admit, I love a good show. You were given twenty-four hours to surrender, Maci Might.” She tilts her head and gives a tisk-tisk look to the camera. “And you disobeyed!” A wave of laughter fills the air. She dabs at her eyes with a silk scarf and regains composure after another giggle. Her face turns to stone. “So now you will pay.”
She takes a step back and the camera moves with her as she turns around and walks down a dark hallway. I don’t recognize any of it. Her heels click on the marble floors as she continues to talk, sounding sickeningly pleased with herse
lf. “My apprentice has been murdered. Don’t you agree that we should bring his murderer to justice? It is, after all, the fair thing to do.”
“Why would she do this?” Water splashes on my toes and I realize too late that I’ve smashed my glass between my fingers. Dark red blood drips from my palm until the wound stitches itself back together. “What does she want with me?”
Evan tugs at his eyebrow while biting the thumbnail on his other hand. His eyes never leave the MOD screen. Aurora’s heels click across the floor as she steps closer to the camera. “Citizens of King City, you have three—no … two hours to turn in Maci Might, or your president will die.”
With these words I abandon staring at Evan and turn to the screen. My dad slumps against a concrete wall, retriever hooks stabbed into his wrists, neck, and ankles, dried blood caked on his forehead and around his neck. Bile rises in my throat as I notice a magnetic stake sticking out of his stomach. Aurora touches his face. He flops his head to the side to avoid her touch.
Her voice is ice. “Any last words?”
The camera zooms in on Dad’s face. From where I’m standing, his bloodshot eyes appear to be looking right into mine. With a pained gasp of air, Dad says, “Do not turn yourself in, Maci.” The sound of his voice makes me shiver. Aurora whacks him, hard against the cheek, but Dad doesn’t flinch. He stares straight into the camera. “Stay wherever you are. Stay safe.”
“You want to die?” Aurora seethes, her lips very close to his ear. “Tell her to show herself or I will murder every member of Central.”
I reach into the air, wishing I could touch him, wishing I could be there to yank that stake out of him. “Remember what I told you,” he says cryptically, clenching his jaw for the next blow Aurora delivers to his face. “Do not come here. I know you aren’t a murderer. We do not negotiate with villains.” He blinks back tears before the screen goes black. I want to scream.
First me, then Crimson, then Dad. So much for Heroes never crying. Remember what I told you, he had said. The last time I spoke with Dad was in the medical ward when he warned me to go straight home and I begged him for the opportunity to help. I relive those last few moments with my Dad, the tired look in his eyes and the way he smelled like coffee. Coffee and justice, I used to say. He wanted me to go home and stay there and I had asked for a signal instead. That’s me—never giving up on the idea that I can help. I take another look at the screen as my heart seizes in my chest. He wasn’t blinking back tears just now.
He was blinking. Three times.
“I’m going.” I slap Evan’s hand out of my way. Turning on my heel, I look directly at the bridge of his nose. I may be strong enough to do this, but I’m not strong enough to lie into his eyes. “I do not want to hear a word you have to say. I’m going and you won’t stop me.”
He must know what’s best for him because he steps out of the way as I blow past him toward the other side of the room. “The KAPOW is down and we’re two thousand miles away from Central,” he mutters. “How are you going to get there?”
I grab my Hero suit. “I’ll run.”
He closes the space between us, stepping between me and the elevator. “I know I can’t stop you,” he says, sliding one hand behind my neck and the other around my waist. Warmth floods my body as he pulls me to him while that stupid one-dimple smile driving me crazy. I lean into his kiss. Goosebumps trail down my arm as he slides his hand down my body, kissing me with an intensity I’ve only ever imagined.
Evan presses me to the wall next to the elevator door. My arms wrap around his shoulders even though I’m still holding on to my Hero suit. I grip the fabric in my hand as my other hand flows through Evan’s hair, pulling him closer to me.
Our mouths part long enough for us to catch our breath. When I kiss him again, I run my tongue across his smiling lips. I wish we could stay like this forever. Evan leans to the side and the elevator door slides open. We must have bumped into it by mistake.
Evan reaches up and takes my hands, pulling them gently away from his shoulders.
“What are you—?” I ask, just as my Hero suit rips from my hands.
“You’ll thank me later,” Evan says as he ducks into the elevator with my suit clutched behind his back. The door snaps shut before I can dive in after him, leaving me glaring at him as his body lowers out of sight.
I jab at the elevator button until it finally rises back up to the top floor and lets me in. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to burn my suit or anything in an attempt to stop me from leaving, but I wish the elevator wasn’t so damned slow so I could find out for sure.
Evan’s on the third floor. The moment the glass elevator door opens, I sprint out and almost slam into him as he backs against a table. He holds out my Hero suit by the shoulders, wielding it like peace offering. “It’s like Pepper knew what I was going to do. He had your suit all ready for it.”
“Ready for what?” I snap, yanking my suit out of his hands.
Evan flicks the center of my suit with his middle finger. A metallic ding hums through the black fabric. “I can’t stop you from going. But I can make you better prepared.” He rubs his hands together. “I just wish I had some juice formulated for your DNA, and then I wouldn’t have to worry as much.”
“The breastplate,” I say, pressing my palm against the new addition to my suit. “Pepper told me about this.”
Evan nods. “You’ve got the real deal here. This breastplate is a poly-titanium blend imported from Romania. It was purified three thousand times. Pepper knew about them but he wasn’t allowed to use them. I can’t believe he equipped your suit for it. We got lucky, because no one wants to see my sewing skills.”
“What does it do?” I ask, peeking through the neck hole in the suit. The inside is fitted with a seamless pocket that looks as if it sealed around the breastplate the moment Evan had inserted it.
Evan’s fingers touch my sternum. Tingles of power pulse from his fingertips into my chest, filling me with warmth from my toes to my face. “Your chest is the most important part of your body,” he says. “It’s the nerve center of your power. Nothing will get through this breastplate. With this near your heart, there is no magnet strong enough to kill you.”