He only matches her, move for move, meeting her blows, anticipating her mind. It reminds me of his fight with Anderson back at the Sanctuary—how he never struck his father, only defended himself. It was obvious then that he was just trying to enrage his father.
But this—
This is different. It’s clear that he’s not enjoying this. He’s not trying to enrage her, and he’s not trying to defend himself. He’s fighting her forher. To protect her.
To save her, somehow.
And I have no idea if this is going to work.
J clenches her fists and screams. The walls shake, the floor continues to crack open. I stumble, catch myself against a table.
And I’m just standing here like an idiot, racking my brain for a clue, trying to figure out what to do, how to help—
“Holy shit,” Nazeera says. “What the hell is going on?”
Relief floods through me fast and hot. I have to resist the impulse to pull her invisible body into my arms. To tuck her close to my chest and keep her from leaving again.
Instead, I pretend to be cool.
“How’d you get here?” I ask. “How’d you find us?”
“I was hacking the systems, remember? I saw you on the cameras. You guys aren’t exactly being quiet up here.”
“Right. Good point.”
“Hey, I have news, by the way, I foun—” She cuts herself off abruptly, her words fading to nothing. And then, after a beat, she says quietly:
“Who killed my dad?”
My stomach turns to stone.
I take a sharp breath before I say, “Warner did that.”
“Oh.”
“You okay?”
I hear her exhale. “I don’t know.”
J screams again and I look up.
She’s furious.
I can tell, even from here, that she’s frustrated. She can’t use her powers on Warner directly, and he’s too good a fighter to be beat without an edge. She’s resorted to throwing very large, very heavy objects at him. Whatever she can find. Random medical equipment. Pieces of the wall.
This is not good.
“He wouldn’t leave,” I tell Nazeera. “He wanted to stay. He thinks he can help her.”
She sighs. “We should let him try. In the interim, I could use your help.”
I turn, reflexively, to face her, forgetting for a moment that she’s invisible. “Help with what?” I ask.
“I found the other kids,” she says. “That’s why I was gone for so long. Getting that security clearance for you guys was way easier than I thought it’d be. So I stuck around to do some deep-level hacking into the cameras—and I found out where they’re hiding the other supreme kids. But it’s not pretty. And I could use a hand.”
I look up to catch one last glimpse of Warner.
Of J.
