“Only if I come in this time,” he dropped his head. “If you let me in, then we’ll do one more. And then you rest. Deal?”
I swallowed my pride. “Deal.”
ELEVEN
LEO
There wassomething about the way our sixth prisoner spoke that made the horns on Alex’s head spark. I didn’t catch it at first. Nearly every Variant that we’d captured in connection with the organization was the same; no distinguishing features or accents, no way to leverage personal connections. They were blank canvases.
But for Alex, it was simple. I hadn’t even realized what she was doing until it was already done.
“Are you hungry? Thirsty?” she asked, leaning back in her chair. “There’s a Packy around the corner; I could grab you a couple nips.”
Alex laughed as if she’d told a joke, her body completely at ease in front of the man that glared daggers at her. She put on a show for him, even as I saw her withering away from fatigue. I wanted to smash his face into the metal table, but she continued to chat, no real questioning being done, and he finally relented.
“…I could go for a grinder,” he mumbled.
Without warning, she pulled us in. Alex’s ability had always been a mystery to me; it was adaptable, always changing. When we fought mock battles against each other, I could tell whenshe had trapped me, when she’d won. It didn’t matter what the daydream was; all that mattered was that my body was on the ground. But then I noticed how sometimes I’d be in her daydream without even realizing.
She decided, whether you were aware or not, and I never wanted to admit how terrifying that could be. After he’d warned me to stay away from her, we were partnered up for a mock battle. I’d been too focused on controlling my fire, making sure not to burn her again. Before I knew it, I was free flying through the air. She’d pushed me off a fucking plane.
It took entirely too long for me to realize I wasn’t getting closer to the ground as I fell, and that there was a strange detached feeling to my body. Once I woke up and refused to move from the safety of the floor, Joon actually reprimanded her.
An absolute menace.
It was the same now as we sat side by side in a booth, the prisoner across from us. Instead of wearing the plain gray uniform and handcuffs he’d been brought in with, she’d dressed him in jeans and work boots, with a winter jacket and beanie. She’d changed my outfit too, making it nearly identical. Alex let her jet black hair fall down a thick, oversized white sweater in waves, and I peeked beneath the booth to see she’d given herself boots that were way too expensive for her tax bracket.
The details were always so specific. We were in a dive bar, and although it was June, snow fell outside the windows as if we were in the middle of a harsh blizzard. Road salt decorated the ground, tracked in by the boots of make believe patrons.
“Sorry,” the prisoner scrunched his brows. “I, uh…what were we talking about?”
Alex let out a little giggle as she tilted her head, and I eyed the diamond snowflake earrings hanging beneath her black hair.
I wonder how many outfits she’s tried on in these daydreams.
She could live any life she wanted, in here. I wasn’t sure how she did it—I’d never come back to reality. Though, I wasn’t sure what dreams I could create. I only had nightmares.
“You seem out of it today,” she hummed. “Work not going well?”
He blinked and began to pick at his nails under her gaze. “Yeah, I guess you could say that…”
“Listen.” She reached out and put her hand over his. “I know you’re nervous, but you made me a promise. You told me you’d get me in with your head guy. I’m just…so sick of these fucking Heroes, you know? We gotta do something about them.”
I shifted in my seat, and if I weren’t under Alex’s power, I was sure I’d be burning. His eyes raked over her body, and I wanted to burn him to a crisp. But she kept leaning in, kept making sure that his eyes stayed on her instead of me. I was a background character; white noise in the moment they shared.
Why am I even here?
It was the right move at the moment; a show of support, or camaraderie, or whatever the fuck good Heroes believed in. Alex was working too hard. Watching her go in and out of consciousness, her nose bleeding from all the smelling salts we had to used to keep her awake, it drove me crazy. I knew I was the villain in her story, but that wasn’t what I wanted to be.
Words didn’t come easy, my feelings never translated the right way. It was exhausting, and anger was easier to deal with. This attempt to be caring, showing her that I wasn’t such a bad guy after all, was like being forced underwater. I didn’t know how to swim.
What the fuck am I doing?
“Splinter isn’t what you think it is,” he hummed, and I snapped my attention back to the conversation. “Nobody knowswho’s at the top; the captains are the closest we can get. Talk to Lycean; he posts up at the Crowns Club. He’s a captain with them; he’ll set you up with an initiation if he thinks you’re worth anything.”
I leaned forward on my elbows, towering over Alex, who watched me with wide eyes, silently warning me to keep my mouth shut.
“What do we have to do for the initiation?” I asked, my voice strained with rage.
