“I willtear downthis city and send that bastard straight to?—”
The wall beside us exploded, debris flying at us as Joon pulled me close. My head whipped as he dodged the worst of it, his speed making my stomach churn and my head go light.
“Give. Her. Back,” a violent tone ripped through the smoke.
Joon hung his head, keeping an arm around my waist as he pulled the hood back over his white hair. “Faster than I anticipated. Bummer; I was really enjoying this little reunion.”
Leo’s flames danced around him, and there was murder on his face. Hatred seared between them. It made my throat clench, made tears brim in my eyes. This wasn’t them, wasn’tus.Everything was wrong, so wrong and twisted and warped.
Just like Glitch.
Joon sighed. “You’re such a crybaby, you know that?”
“Don’t fucking talk to her,” Leo sneered. “Let her go, Joon.Now.”
I went rigid. “You know?”
His eyes softened, that red glow simmering. “Dahlia figured out his chip; it’s Joon’s. It has to be him, but?—”
“—It’s not, I know. Everything is very, very fucked up right now,” I rushed, my mind spinning, forming a plan to stop the battle that could destroy them both. “Is Reed around?”
His brows pinched, eyes flashing between Joon and me. “… Yes.”
“Are you ignoring me now?” Joon interjected. “You’re so mean to me, Alex.”
I nodded once, definitely ignoring him as I held Leo’s stare. “Good. Tell him to use lightning.”
Joon cursed, and Leo’s eyes widened with realization right before blue lit up the room. Glitch was difficult to draw in withhis bandages covering his face, but Joon? He was easy. I knew every last detail, I remembered his voice, and now that I knew his scars. I pulled him in—this time; he wasn’t going to be a figment of my imagination. He was real, and I was going to bring himback.
THIRTY
LEO
I cradledAlex in my arms, unwilling to let anyone else touch her as she slept.
We were three miles below ground, in the highest security prison that the VIA had to offer. A reinforced, two-way mirror separated us from Reed and Glitch—Joon.I didn’t believe it at first, but the moment I’d seen him and Alex together, it was clear. He hadn’t died; I hadn’t killed him.
But this? It was so much worse.
“We still have to keep them close while she’s under,” Dahlia sighed beside me, her head cocked with monitors set up in front of us. “Her output has grown, but the data onhischip? Hopper is working at ninety-two percent right now. The fact that she was even able to bring him in is a miracle. I’ve never seen anything like it before; as far as we know, the highest percentage ever recorded was eighty-four. Even you hover at seventy-six, when you’re approaching a burnout. This is record-breaking?—”
“—it’s a fucking disaster,” I spat. “This isn’t Hopper; this is a glitch. They turned him into a monster, Dahlia. Don’t get wrapped up in the statistics.”
She went silent, and I watched as lightning bounced off the glass in front of us. Reed sat in front of Joon’s sleeping body, a shield of electricity barricading him. Joon always hated lightning abilities, how they kept him paralyzed. If he couldn’t move, he was dead in the water. Useless.
Luckily for us, Reed had an assortment of shields in his arsenal. Between him and Alex, they were the best hope for Joon right now. There was a look on his face; serious, intense, all his playfulness gone. Occasionally, Joon—Glitch—would burst forward, purple eyes flaring as he screamed. Alex would startle, her eyes flashing open, before Reed tightened his binds. After a jolt or two, Joon would collapse again, and Alex would sink back into her sleep.
It was torment.
She’d been under for six hours, with no end in sight. Holding her was all I could do — controlling my heat, keeping her warm. Alex could do this, I knew she could. But Joon? It hurt to look at him, to see the damage I’d caused. Villain organizations didn’t exactly draw in healing types—his recovery must have been excruciating, at the least. The VIA could have fixed him; if he was alive when the building went down, they could have put him back together, just like they did with me.
If they’d just let me back in, if they had just fucking trusted me to save him. If I had made sure that the orders were correct, none of this would have happened.
“You said he was dead.” My tone was sharp. “You said his chip was destroyed. You said Ikilledhim.”
Dahlia didn’t move, her eyes locked ahead. “… It went dark, yes, but there was something strange about it. You know the VIA, Leo. We only tell you what you need to know.”
“You didn’t think I needed to know this?!” I whipped my head around, but my body didn’t burst into flames.
