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He pushes his glasses back up his nose, which is shocking because the smile on his face should hold them up there forever. “I did it,” he says, bending a tiny bit at the knees. “I discovered the evil link in villain blood.”

His face freezes in this open-mouthed state of excitement as he waits my response. “Oh, and you’re not dead. You’ll respawn at your last saved checkpoint.”

My head cocks to the side. “How? Do you have a villain locked in a dungeon that I don’t know about?”

He glances at his feet. “When I washed your Hero suit, I noticed a fair bit of blood on the sleeve,” he says, tugging at his eyebrow. “I … uh … took some and analyzed it.”

I frown. Why didn’t I think of that? Hell, had I been clever enough I could have purposely snatched some villain blood for Evan after that time I ran into him in Central. It’d be a lot easier and quicker than waiting on Central to come through with it.

Evan’s impish grin turns serious. “I’m sorry, I should have asked you.”

“No, are you kidding? This is awesome. I’m excited for you.”

I was a hot mess when I arrived at Evan’s that day, both physically and mentally. There had been a lot of bloodshed that day, so it only makes sense that some got on me.

An uneasiness fills my stomach as I glance at my forearm. Nothing but smooth, unscarred skin. Aurora’s men were injured—not me. Because if I had somehow been bleeding too, then—No. I definitely didn’t bleed.

I shake my head and give him what I can only hope is a sincere smile. “You’re pretty smart with this DNA stuff.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” he says with a smile, as he trails off mid-sentence. The look on his face begs me to inquire for more information.

I poke him in the chest. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He closes the gap between us with a step, his hands brushing along my arms. His head leans toward me and his hair falls forward, touching my shoulders.

Hormonal alarms go off in my head. He’s going to kiss me. Oh, my god, he’s going to kiss me. His lips part and I suck in a breath. “If you think this stuff is cool,” he says, lowering his voice, “you haven’t seen my greatest invention.”

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tiny bit disappointed that kissing me is the last thing on Evan’s mind. I mean, it’s the last thing on my mind. Of course. We’re in lockdown, and my Hero status is on the line, and my friend is dead. So, obviously it’s not the first thing on my mind. However, unlike Evan apparently—the mere inkling of a thought that kissing might possibly be an option, maybe, just kind of, sort of, at some point during this lockdown—is on my mind.

Aren’t boys supposed to be the ones who only think about one thing?

Evan twists a combination lock on a small safe shoved behind a bookshelf on the third floor. I tap my foot as I wait for him to dial to the correct numbers. “Looks like your prized best invention ever is receiving the royal treatment as far as storage solutions go.”

“Actually, it is.” Evan swings open the door. “Smartass.” He holds out a silver thermos with both hands as if it’s the blue diamond from the Titanic movie. “I had to keep it inconspicuous so Felix wouldn’t take it to Central and claim he invented it.”

“Why would he do that?” I ask, before realizing that he’s our prime suspect in the mystery of how Aurora broke into Central.

“You know that super-secret material on the breastplate of your Hero suit? I made that. Felix worked here for decades before I arrived and he was used to being the only inventor. So when I designed a breastplate capable of making our Heroes invincible, he accused me of stealing his idea and he ran off to Central with it.”

“Did you tell them it was really your invention?”

He shakes his head. “Why bother? Central shut it down immediately, saying we didn’t need something like that for Heroes. Which is bullshit if you ask me.”

I guess I wasn’t too far off the mark when I was twelve and told Evan to make useful things for Heroes. He’d more than proved he could do that. It doesn’t make sense for Central to shut down these good ideas just for the sake of keeping things the way they’ve always been. Evil isn’t stagnant. Heroes should do whatever it takes to not only keep up with them but to stay one step ahead.

“I’m going to talk to my dad about this.” I place my hands on my hips to demonstrate how serious I am about this but it only gets a quizzical eyebrow lift from Evan. “What you’re inventing could change the world. They need to embrace your ideas. So, yeah, stop looking at me like I’m insane. I’m serious. You kick ass and you need to be acknowledged for it.”

His smile is genuine. I know this because his left cheek dimples when he smiles for real. The other smile, the, I’m too cool to actually laugh so I’m going to make this coy smirk, smile doesn’t show his dimple. The fact that he only has one dimple and not two just makes him even more adorable.

And here I am thinking about adorableness when I should be focusing on the silver liquid that Evan pulls out of the thermos with a syringe and oh my god he’s going to inject it into himself!

“Evan!” My mouth falls open as he squints and stabs the needle into the inside of his elbow. “What the hell are you doing?”

He drains the inch of liquid into his arm while gesturing for me to chill out with his other hand. “I don’t have a cool name for this yet, but trust me, every Hero will want some. Also, it has to be injected. It’s gross, I know.”

Instincts make me take a step backward as I wait wi

th bated breath for the liquid to do something to him. But he doesn’t morph into a gigantic green monster. He doesn’t do anything. Well, he does do one thing. He gives me that, I’m too cool to actually laugh at you so I’m going to make this coy smirk, look.