“First, your eggs are awful.” I took a bite and agreed as I forced myself to swallow them. How on God’s green Earth could I screw up something as simple as scrambled eggs? “Second, I have a story coming out in the magazine. Not just any story, but it’ll get billing on the front page.”
“You let me yammer on all night when you had this?”
He pulled out his phone, swiping back and forth until he set it down in front of me. “It’s the funniest thing. My managing editor called me, and we got to talking. I mentioned the story I wanted to do on Blaze.”
“Please give the idiot a better name. Heroes deserve something classy.”
“Funny you should say that. I got talking to William, and after bouncing some ideas around, I found my angle for the story. It just so happened he mentioned the three powerhouses duking it out downtown and suggested I see if I could find anything there.”
I didn’t like where this was going. If he had been downtown, he might have glimpsed me beating Dozer until he fell.
“William thought my entire article about Blaze’s origin was a good jumping-off point. But he really pushed me todig deeper. What do you know, my article is going in the next issue of Revelations.”
He included the last bit as if it was a simple fact. But it wasn’t a simple article, not by a long shot. This moment meant he had taken a massive stride toward a lifelong dream.
“You say that like it’s no big deal.”
“I mean…” he tore through another piece of bacon. “I guess it is.”
“Isn’t your dream being a reporter?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Let’s do this again.” I set my fork down, pushing the plate away. “Aiden, what’s this good news you have?”
His face turned red as he swallowed the last of his bacon. There was something adorable about the way he struggled to build himself up. If he wasn’t going to do it, I’d have to be his hype man, a role I’d gladly step into. I wanted to see him shine.
“Oh my God.” He laughed, trying to dial up the drama. “The most amazing thing happened.”
“What’s that?” I leaned in, resting my elbows on the table, hands holding my head up as I leaned forward.
“My article is being published!”
He threw his hands in the air. If that wasn’t enough, he pushed his chair back. Standing, he started a victory dance. Or, I think he was dancing. Whatever was unfolding infront of me would make any man blush from embarrassment.
“Woohoo!” Okay, watching a big man move was like Christmas morning and I wasn’t on the naughty list. At least not yet.
I snaked my hand in his jeans, pulling him close. I pressed my face into his belly, kissing his torso as I squeezed him in a tight hug. Aiden’s cuteness continued to impress.
“Now tell me about the article.”
“Remember how I suspected Blaze was the only hero to keep his abilities?”
“Can you please give him a better name?”
“Of course not, cause that dude is going to crash and burn. He had us fooled, or at least me.”
Wait, what? This suddenly took an unfortunate turn. I eyed his phone, picking it up and read the first line.
“Blaze, a supposed hero who survived the depowering, tried to win our hearts before revealing himself to be a villain in a hero’s cape.”
I scanned through the rest of the article. It recounted the first day I went out toprotectthe city, before Hellcat set me straight. I wanted to argue that it was filled with inaccuracies and speculation, but Aiden had stumbled onto every error I made on my way to becoming a hero. It was hard to refute the facts, but his story was one-sided. And then, hegoes into detail about the death of Dozer, including the coroner’s report.
“A villain of villains does not make a hero.” The last line drove the knife through my heart.
“If it wasn’t for William,” —I wanted to punch his managing editor— “I’d have been writing some misguided puff piece. When he gave me the tip-off about Blaze fighting Dozer, that sealed the deal.”
I fought to keep my eyebrow from rising at the statement. I would need to talk to Sebastian and find out what kind of disaster William was creating. But I couldn’t resist playing devil’s advocate.
