His eyes glazed over, and Alex’s horns sparked again. “Isn’t it obvious? All you gotta do is kill a Hero.”
“The Crowns Clubis a popular nightclub for Variants in Connecticut,” Alex dropped a stack of papers onto Dahlia’s desk. “It’s a perfect location to scout for new recruits. The state doesn’t have as many Heroes, and their Villains usually work in white collar crime. As long as they behaved, Splinter would fly under the radar, while maintaining access to nearby cities.”
She hadn’t let herself rest, like she promised. After the last interrogation, she demanded that we go straight to the VIA, and had spent nearly an hour researching and printing information for Dahlia. There was still a bit of dried blood beneath her nose. The bags under her eyes were even darker now. I had to stop her from running straight into the doorway when Dahlia called for us. We’d been up for twenty hours straight, and counting.
Fucking workaholic.
I didn’t sign up for this shit.
“This organization has more reach than we thought it did.Splinter,” Dahlia pursed her lips, and her face contorted withdisgust. “This isn’t just a Nightmyre problem; we have no idea how far this goes.”
“If they have to kill a Hero to make it in, we should start searching through everyone in the VIA that’s been killed in action in the past three years,” Reed chirped as he scanned through the documents on the desk.
The collar of my shirt was too tight; it rubbed against my neck and was convincing me that I was suffocating. Dahlia’s office smelled like ink and copy paper, and today the scent made me want to crawl out of my skin. Pressure built in my chest, and I was waiting for the explosion. I knew the organization—Splinter—was bad.
They’d done everything from dealing drugs on the streets that made Variants go crazy, to robbing banks, to murder. But the only connection we’d had before was those fucking jackets with the S made of bones. Joon and I had tried warning the VIA when they first appeared in Nightmyre—Villains that wore the same logo, but seemed to act randomly, and always shut down during interrogations. We knew it was only the start.
They didn’t fucking listen until it was too late.
And now Alex is wrapped up in it, all because I couldn’t mind my own damn business. Great job, Leo. Joon’s definitely proud right now.
“No,” Alex sighed. “Syndicates of this level don’t start with initiations like that. They would have started smaller—look into anything where Villains specifically targeted Heroes or the VIA in the past ten years. Random attacks, arson, small bombings, threats. Don’t limit it to Nightmyre; check through the entire country, and then overseas.”
My head was spinning now. Flashes of the collapse pushed into my mind as I stared down at my boots. We thought we’d found their hideout; it took four teams of Heroes and ten days of tracking and observation to find a cluster of them in anabandoned building by the harbor. Screams rang in my ears, Joon’s voice shouting for help.
“There’s been an influx of missing Heroes in the past few years,” Dahlia sighed. “We’ve suspected it for some time, but I think it’s safe to say that Splinter is at the head of all this. This isn’t just an attack on the VIA.”
“It’s a crusade against Heroes,” Alex murmured. “The VIA was formed to help combat the upraise in Variant crime. The data is growing every day; more Variants being born and abilities getting stronger. There’s always been radicals; it was only a matter of time before they got smarter with how they do things. Stay below the VIA’s radar, and they could expand across the globe without anyone realizing.”
“Until they’re ready to act.” Dahlia nodded along.
Their voices were swallowed by the sound of pillars crashing to the ground. The scent of ash in the air, the roar of flames, the way my throat was shredded. I didn’t realize how much I screamed until the footage came out on the news. It was pitiful.
The funeral was even worse.
It was too bright; sunny, not a cloud in the sky as an empty box was lowered into the ground. Words of honor were spewed, but I couldn’t hear them from the treeline I’d watched from. I didn’t deserve to be there—but I stayed, and couldn’t make myself leave until Alex finally got up from the ground. She was alone then, too. I didn’t go up to her, didn’t make a sound, didn’t even let her see me. I couldn’t stomach it.
I’m a coward.
I didn’t realize I was on fire until I was suffocating.
“What the hell?” Alex’s voice broke through, forcing me back into reality.
My hands clawed at my throat as the couch beneath me charred, smoke radiating off of it. Reed had a hand outstretched,panic on his face. Dahlia only watched with cold indifference—she was used to it, by now.
But the flames wouldn’t go out; they kept bursting forward as soon as Reed tried to swallow them. My chest went tight and my stomach dropped; were my lungs turning to ash too, now? The burnout was coming — the one everyone expected. I always thought it would be in a blaze of glory, fighting off Villains like I was raised to do, sacrificing myself for a cause I didn’t have a stake in. This, though?
It…was right.
Succumbing to my own mind, to all the things I’d pushed down.
It’s what I deserve.
“Damnit,” Reed snarled. “Get ahold of yourself.”
I wheezed and gasped, dropping to my knees as orange and yellow licked around my hands and face. The air around me shimmered, fighting to snuff out my oxygen. Then Alex was there, kneeling in front of me as she held her arms up, as if that would protect her. That fucking scar was right there, taunting me, warning me to stay away. She should have gotten rid of it—why didn’t she have someone heal it for her?
“Get away,” I ground out. “Don’t get close.”
