Evan walks around the side of the building, his arm up to shield his eyes from the sun. He smiles nervously when he sees me.
“What’s going on?” I ask. “You don’t trust me to let a dog out by myself on a secluded island?”
He shakes his head. He doesn’t even laugh at my stupid attempt of a joke. Evan always laughs at my stupid attempts of a joke. “I just wanted to talk to you alone,?
? he says, reaching out and letting his fingers trail down my arm.
I wiggle my eyebrows. “Sorry Evan, I can’t make out with you while the dog is aligning himself with a magnetic field.”
“This is serious,” he says. “I needed to talk to you alone. I’ve been given a job to do from the elders in Central.”
My blood runs cold. “What kind of job?” For a tiny second, I’m afraid he’s been tasked with finding Nova as well and now he’s going to arrest her and he came to warn me so I wouldn’t be mad at him. He might be my boyfriend but I wouldn’t hesitate to kick his ass to save my sister.
“They’ve tasked me with researching Hero and villain blood. They want me to see if there’s a way to determine if someone is evil before they show signs of it.”
“But you’ve already done that,” I say, shuddering when I think that evil DNA runs through my veins as we speak.
“I didn’t tell them that!” He grabs my elbows in his hands, pulling me closer to him as if he can’t possibly lose me. “If they knew I’d already figured out how to test for villain power then they’d make me test you. You know they would. They’d make me test every single Super kid alive. And I don’t want to be the one who sends children to the depowering machine. Besides, I feel like we could find a way to raise those kids to be good. Like you.”
I nod. He has his power sucked in tight so that I can barely feel his energy. “Well...” I sigh. Spark paws at the water as it washes ashore before sweeping back into the ocean again. “You’ll just have to take a long time with your research.”
“I wish it were that easy.”
My eyebrows draw together. “It is that easy. Just don’t replicate your work. Keep screwing up your researching and tell them you haven’t discovered an answer yet.”
He shakes his head. “I know, but I can’t stop thinking about how many Supers might turn villain before I pretend to discover the evil DNA again. How much more havoc will they cause while I’m sitting here pretending I don’t know how to identify them. What if someone dies? What if it’s you?”
I look him straight in the eyes. “It won’t be me.”
Tension fills the empty space between us. I turn my attention to the dog who I’m starting to think doesn’t even need to relieve himself, but rather just wanted to play in the sand.
“I better get back,” Evan says. “I told Nova I had to pee. She probably thinks I fell in.”
Evan’s living room is empty when I return later with Spark. And I don’t just mean it’s devoid of people, which it is. He’s been busy cleaning up the mess that was left by the Retriever Squad and because of that, most of his stuff is either gone or packed away. I check the balcony and the kitchen and when they’re empty too, I tell Spark to hang out on Evan’s brand new couch. They’re probably down in Evan’s research labs and I don’t want to risk something injuring the dog if I were to take him with me. I slip into the glass elevator and head down the floors one by one, looking for that shock of messy blonde hair or Nova’s fading black hair pulled back in a long silky ponytail.
My chest aches. I can’t stop thinking about the look on Evan’s face when he told me about his job for Central. I used to think I could trust him with anything. But spending a few weeks in lockdown with someone doesn’t make you know everything about them. It’s not like Evan and I are in love. We like each other but we aren’t Romeo and Juliet. He could snap under the pressure of Central and give them the information they want. It could happen at any moment.
Chills trace down my spine at the thought of it. Evan’s blood is as good as it gets. And real Heroes, the ones who aren’t like me with my tainted twin genetics...they can’t do any wrong.
An unexpected laugh makes me look up from the floor of the elevator. I press the stop button and step out onto the fourth floor. They don’t even see me, they’re laughing so hard.
Evan’s holding the remote control on his cloud bag, a modified bean bag chair that’s currently hovering off the floor with my sister sitting on it. She giggles and squeals as he yanks the controls to send her flying across the room in one direction and then sharply back across the room a moment later. The pure elation she feels radiates from her in all directions. I don’t think she’s had this much fun in, well, forever.
“Okay, okay,” she squeals with ragged breath. “I’m ready to get down.”
“What’s that?” Evan says. “You want to be thrown into the wall?” His thumb slams on the control button and the cloud bag heads straight toward the wall behind him at full speed. Nova screams. “No. Evan, No! Please no!”
He’s laughing so hard he almost doesn’t press the stop button in time. When he does, the bag comes to a jolting halt just inches from his own body. Nova’s kinetic energy makes her fly forward, tumbling out of the bag. She throws her arms around Evan’s neck. He lowers her to the ground.
I let out the breath I’d been holding. Power bursts from the chest, angry and jealous and impatient. My sister jumps from the force of my power. She steps away from Evan, clasping her hands behind her back.
“Let’s go,” I say.
“I thought I had to stay.”
I look from her to Evan and back again. “Not anymore. You’re coming with me.”
“I can’t believe how much my life has changed in the last few days.” Nova’s hands slip into the pockets of her tiny zip up jacket as we walk. “I have a family now. And friends. There’s hope now.”