Page 156 of Villainous Rise

“Sounds fucking terrifying,” I said, because it did if coming from the perspective of a normal human.

“It was.” She nodded. “But in a good way, you know? Like how people ride roller coasters to feel that controlled fear.”

I wanted to move closer but didn’t, though every instinct screamed to do it. To touch her. To make sure she was real and not just another shape in the fog that might disappear.

“I kept thinking we were going to crash into something,” she continued. “A building. A bridge. I’d brace for impact every second, certain we were about to slam into solid concrete.”

Her voice grew softer, almost lost to the nothingness surrounding us.

“Havoc told me it wasn’t an issue. Said his reflexes and senses were fast enough that he could navigate through anything.” She shook her head. “He explained the physics of it once. How he could detect changes in air pressure or something. Process information faster than normal humans.”

I knew exactly what she meant. I could do the same thing. Another Trueborn ability I kept hidden.

“It was still terrifying for me though.” She turned slightly, her profile visible now. “I never got used to it. That feeling of hurtling through nothing, completely blind, trusting someone else to keep you from splattering against the side of a skyscraper.”

The parallel wasn’t lost on me. Annie, hurtling blind through this relationship. Me, a potentially destructive force. Her, terrified but still here.

I’d never been good with metaphors. I dealt in facts, in concrete reality. But even I could see what she was really talking about.

“Was it fun?” I asked, watching the fog swirl around us. “Flying through the fog?”

Annie didn’t answer immediately. Her silence stretched long enough that I wondered if she’d heard me at all. Then her lips curved into a small smile.

“It was,” she said softly. “Terrifying, but exhilarating.”

A shiver ran through her body, goosebumps rising on her bare arms.

I shrugged out of my tux jacket and held it out to her. “Here.”

She shook her head. “I’m fine.”

“You’re cold,” I countered flatly.

“I said I’m fine.”

I sighed, stepping closer and draping the jacket over her shoulders anyway. She stiffened but didn’t push it off, which I counted as a win.

My mind raced, weighing risks against potential rewards as a dangerous idea formed. An idea with catastrophic potential if it backfired. But I was Cipher. Calculated risks were my fucking specialty so fuck it.

“What would you do,” I began carefully, “if I told you I didn’t tell the League doctors everything the serum gave me?”

Annie turned to face me fully now, her eyes narrowing slightly. “What do you mean?”

I took a deep breath. “The serum. It gave me more than what’s in my official file.” The lie tasted bitter, but it was safer than the truth. “I can fly. Not just with my suit. Actually fly.”

Her expression didn’t change like I expected it to.

“I could take you,” I continued, gesturing toward the fog. “Flying. Through that. If you wanted.”

Annie studied me for a long moment, then she did something that stopped my heart. She smiled. A small, sad smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“I’d like that,” she said quietly. “But you don’t have to lie to me.”

“What?”

“I know what you are, Cipher. I know you’re Trueborn.”

The world narrowed to a pinpoint. Every muscle in my body locked into place. My lungs forgot how to function. My brain, my fucking genius brain, stuttered to a halt.