Infinity Reaper (Infinity Cycle 2)

I grab my phone, its light harsh on my eyes until I lower the brightness. My Instagram feed is mostly pictures of people posting the Cloaked Phantom with captions about changes they want to make moving forward as if they ever honored their New Year’s resolutions. These pictures are pissing me off all over again.

Someone knocks on the door and I shout, “What?!”

I’m not in the mood for some check-in from Emil or Wesley.

“Can I come in?” Prudencia asks from the other side of the door.

“Yeah,” I say reluctantly. Here comes the I’m-sorry-you-took-so-long-to-get-this-right talk.

She tries to let herself in, but the door is still locked. A second later, she telekinetically unlocks it from the outside. Prudencia walks straight through the darkness, the constellation’s light filtering through the window, and she crawls on top of me in bed and kisses me. I’ve wanted this for years, wanted it like having powers of my own, and her lips feel better on mine than every cheek kiss she’s given me as a friend. This isn’t some quick kiss either, it has life to it. Her hands touch me all over and I give in and explore her too.

Everything about this kiss feels like she’s telling me that she’ll be sad to see me go.

When she starts taking off my shirt and telekinetically closes the door, it tells me something else.

Twenty-Two

Halo Knight

MARIBELLE

Hunting is finally paying off thanks to the Cloaked Phantom.

Working alchemy circuits such as pharmacies and hospitals hasn’t given me any intel except that some alchemists would rather burn by my phoenix fire than betray Luna’s honor. But thankfully there’s nothing like a ceremonial constellation that gets ordinary people itching for abilities of their own, because stars forbid celestials to have something that only belongs to us. Tonight is divided into two groups: those who will partner with alchemists to become specters and those who don’t want to open themselves up to persecution for having real powers, so they seek out imaginary ones.

I tracked down a youngish Brew dealer tonight in Alphabet City and I slam her against a black van in a parking lot. She seems to understand fear as my fire-orb illuminates her face. The same for her would-be client as he drives away. I couldn’t be happier about ruining his night and her payday.

The dealer releases her hold on the Brew. The vial shatters against the ground and gold liquid flows under my boot. “Please don’t hurt me,” she says.

The dark yellow fire-orb spins around my palm like a burning planet.

“Where is Luna?”

“Who?”

“My sources have already told me that Luna Marnette is heading up this operation,” I say. The dealer is sweating as I inch the fire closer to her face. “Tell me where to find her unless you want to spend the night as a pile of ashes.”

She’s crying as she looks away from me. “I’m not lying! I don’t even know who this Luna person is, okay? I got laid off and needed a job and my cousin knows someone who knows someone. I’ve only been doing this for a week, I swear!”

“Then who’s your boss?”

“I don’t know. I get a call from an unknown number telling me what time to pick up my vials at the Light Sky Tower. That’s it!”

The Light Sky Tower. For all the work Luna was doing with studying the stars to plot her next move, residing in the tallest building in the city makes a lot of sense.

My parents dreamed of working with architects to build apartments and schools for celestials that were higher than most, but the reception wasn’t well received because the powerless feared that would only result in more celestials who could be strengthened under the stars and become so strong that we could never be overpowered. This is how deep gleamphobia runs in some of these people—we can’t even live high up without being viewed as threats.

I close my fist and the fire-orb extinguishes.

The dealer is shaking as I release her.

“Get out of here,” I say.

This is the most compassion I can offer her in Atlas’s honor. Back when we didn’t know Ness was posing as an acolyte named Hope to try and trick us into taking him back to Nova with us, Atlas was the one who tried comforting Hope after we were fed some sob story. I was ready to walk away. Sometimes I question why he wanted someone like me. Especially since he started dating me when my heart was the most vengeful it had ever been up until now.

I run full speed and my dark yellow wings of fire burst to life and carry me out the parking lot and across Alphabet City, where celestials and others have taken to the streets to party under the constellation. The Light Sky Tower is in downtown Manhattan too, and I can already make out the shiny prism of a building emerging from the cluster of others. It’s risky going at this alone, but it would be riskier to give Luna and June and the others a chance to relocate if they haven’t already. If there’s a chance to avenge Atlas and save Eva and Carolina, I have to strike now.

I reach the Tower and am aiming straight for the penthouse. If they’re not up there, I will work my way down, even if it takes all night to get through what I remember to be over one hundred floors. I fly around so the security guards patrolling the terrace on the south side of the building don’t see me. They may not be able to mark me immediately as the daughter of terrorists they believe me to be, but it doesn’t take binoculars to spot someone with dark yellow wings making her way to the roof. I’m still new at flying, so this is taking a lot out of me, but I push through for Mama and Papa and Atlas. The flame