Hero's Revenge (Keepers of Justice, Book 2) (9 page)

I stare at her, waiting for her to talk. My heart pounds in my ears. Was she discovered?

Kale’s eyes are huge as he plops down on Lindsay’s bed. “Oh
, man,” he breathes.

“What’s going on?” I ask. Lindsay looks as clueless as me.

“You’d better tell them, Stealth,” Kale says.

She
faces the window again. I walk over to her and rest my hand on her arm. She turns to me, her eyes filled with sadness. She’s still wearing her mask. I place my thumbs on either side of her cheeks and slowly lift it up to her forehead. “What happened?” I ask softly.

She swallows. “I check my phone every
so often. When I checked an hour ago, I saw I had a text from the Nightmares, telling me to come over. I rushed back here, threw on my uniform, told Lindsay and Kale where I was going, and went to them.” She swallows again. Hard this time. “A ShadowBlade was there.”

My
stomach muscles twist.

“He came a day early. To surprise them, I guess.”

I nod, waiting for her to continue. Kale and Lindsay stare at her, their hands intertwined.

“They showed me off,” she says. “The Blade seemed impressed enough.”

Good. That’s good. I’m not sure why Stealth’s forehead is furrowed.

“He told us there’s a test
we need to pass before we can be initiated into the ShadowBlades.”

“What kind of test
?” Lindsay asks.

Stealth lowers her
gaze to the floor before moving it to Lindsay, Kale, and me. “There’s going to be a huge picnic in a park in Manhattan on the Fourth of July. Lots of people.” She hesitates. “The Blades want us to kill as many people as possible. The more we kill, the higher we score, the greater our chance is of joining them.”

The room grows silent.
A chill runs down my body. Something catches in my lungs and it’s difficult to breathe.

The Blades want to kill
hundreds of people. They want the Nightmares to carry it out. They want Stealth to
murder
innocent men, women, and children.

I go over to the wall and ram my fist against it. Haven’t they killed enough? What do they gain by destroying the lives of these
people? They did nothing wrong to them.
Nothing
.

Stealth grabs my hand, stopping my fist from going for round two. She rubs her fingers over my knuckles.
“It’s okay,” she murmurs.

“No,” I say. “
I’m not letting those people die.”

“Then what do we do?” Lindsay asks.

Taking in a deep breath, I stare at the floor. I’ve got no clue. None whatsoever. By the look of the three of them, they have no ideas, either.

I lower myself onto the floor, grab a notebook and poise my pen to write. It’s impossible to save lives without revealing Stealth’s true identity. If only there was a way to…

I sit up sharply. “I’ve got it.”

They look at me
. “Stealth,” I say and begin writing in my notebook. “I need you to pretend to kill people, when in reality you’re saving their lives.”

All three li
ft their eyebrows. I scribble some more before closing my notebook and getting to my feet. I walk to the window, to my dresser, to the door, and back to the window. I’m running the idea through my head, thinking of different possibilities. The others don’t say a word as they watch me.

Finally, after everything clear
s in my mind, I look at them. Kale must have not read me or he doesn’t understand, because his eyebrows are scrunched.

I sit on the floor and push my legs to my chest.
I turn to Stealth, who’s sitting near me. “You’ll be misting all over the place, killing people—or so the Nightmares think. Instead of killing them, you’ll bring them to safety.”

They all start talking at once. Lindsay
’s complaining this won’t save all lives. Kale’s repeating my words, trying to understand them. Stealth isn’t sure the Nightmares won’t catch on.

As they talk, I
gaze at the carpet, resting my chin on my knees. “The League will come quickly. They’ll stop the villains.”

“Do you have any idea how many
people could die by then?” Lindsay says.

“No
ne,” I say. “Because Stealth will make sure no lives are lost. When she sees a villain going after someone, she’ll turn invisible and save them.” I pause. “The Nightmares don’t know Stealth’s second ability. They won’t suspect her. All they’ll see is her zooming around in her mist form, ‘killing people.’ They will be confused when their victims disappear, but they’ll assume the League is saving them. Not Stealth.”

It’s quiet before Kale says
, “But…how are we so sure Stealth will be fast enough?” He looks at her. “It’s going to be crazy out there.”

She nods. “It will
be. But I can do it. I’m fast.”

Lindsay shakes her head. “I still think we should tell Samson and Cindy.”

“We will,” I say. “The Nightmares will tell Stealth the time they plan to attack. When she receives that information, she’ll send a telepathic message to Kale, and one of us will call the League to tip them off. That way by the time the Nightmares reach the location, the League will already be there. They’ll stop them before they can kill anyone.”

“But won’t the Nightmares or Blades suspect Stealth
of being a rat?” Kale asks.

“No because at the end of the day, she would have ‘killed’ many people. That’s what’s important to them.”

They’re quiet. Then Lindsay says, “These people Stealth saves. What happens to them? I mean, the world has to think these people died, so they can’t return home.”

I hadn’t thought about that. Stealth saving lives is important, but what next? If she saves these people
—and no one ‘dies’—the Blades will suspect her. They might kill her.

I look at all three of them. “I’m not…I don’t know. Locking them up
somewhere isn’t an option.”

“No way,” Lindsay says.

I’m clueless. Time’s running out. The Fourth of July is in a few days. We need to think of something. Quick.

The room
gets silent. I stare at the carpet. Nothing enters my head. I’m stuck.

“Samson and Cindy?” Lindsay asks.

Kale and I exchange a glance. He raises an eyebrow.
Remember what my dad told us after Stretch died?

I
do. We tried to talk to Samson about Lightning being a spy and the plot to assassinate him, but he didn’t believe us. He promised he’d listen to us the next time.

This is growing to be something much bigger than the four of us imagin
ed. Human lives are at stake.

“Lindsay’s right
,” I say. “We need to tell Samson and Cindy.”

Kale
says, “I agree. Let me ask my parents if they’re free to talk to us.” He closes his eyes and communicates telepathically with them.

***

The four of us are in Samson’s office. He and Cindy are seated across from us at his desk. Before coming here, Stealth changed out of her villain uniform and mask. We don’t want them to jump to conclusions before we have a chance to explain.

I
look at Kale. He takes in a deep breath and starts from the beginning. Talks about us hunting that night and finding the Black Nightmares. Of the Blade showing up and demanding they find a super villain to join their team. My idea to send Stealth. When he hears this, Samson’s face gets white as though he’s going to pass out. Cindy looks like she’s about to have a heart attack.

“You sent one of our kids to run around with villains?” Cindy scolds.

“Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?” Samson says.

“Yes, we do,” I answer. “But it was the best decision we made.”

“She’s close, Dad,” Kale says. “So close. All she’s gotta do is pass this test that—”

“This ends now.”
His face has gotten paler.

“We can’t,” I say. He and Cindy look at me. “Stealth’s a member of the group. She’s
on the Blades’ radar. If we pull her out, they’ll be suspicious.”

They move their
gazes from me to Stealth. “You agreed to this?” Cindy asks. “Why?”

She bites her lip. She
opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. I say, “Does it matter why? She’s too deep in this and can’t get out. We only came to you because we need your help.”

Samson
shoots to his feet so sharply the furniture begins to move, due to his telekinesis. He’s mad at us.

“The ultimate goal is to take down the Blades,” I
say. “To make this world a safer place for everyone. The Blades are the driving force, the inspiration behind all villains. Some risks need to be taken in order to achieve our goal. Villains will tremble once the Keepers of Justice eliminate the Blades—for real this time. We’ll make sure there are no successors. Every one will
die
.”

Samson clenches his jaw
as he sits down.

“Why didn’t you come to us from the start?” Cindy
asks. “Before putting Stealth’s life at risk, you should have talked it over with us.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Would you have agreed to send her?”

“Absolutely not.”

“And that’s why we didn’t come to you
. You wouldn’t have let us and we wouldn’t have a way to track the Blades.”

Samson rests his hand on my arm. “Avenging Stretch’
s death is eating away at you, but you can’t put other people’s lives at risk. How would you feel if Stealth would have been killed? How would you live with the guilt?”

My heart clenches. I feel her eyes on me, but I avoid them. I don’t know what I’d do if something were to happen to her.

“Stealth,” he continues. “You’re brave to agree to this. But it’s wrong.”

“Dad, you haven’t seen her. She’s badass.” Kale beam
s at her. “
Bad-ass
.”

“Language, Kale.”

“She knows how to handle the villains,” Kale continues. “Do you have any idea how powerful she is?”

Samson
doesn’t say anything. He must know.

“There’s no point in arguing about this,”
Stealth says. “I’m in. We need to move on.”

Samson and Cindy look at one another for a bit, most probably having a telepathic conversation.

Lindsay tugs on Kale’s arm. “You always get into trouble,” she whispers, poking him in the ribs.

He smiles sheepishly. “Yeah, I’m probably giving
them gray hair.”

Samson looks away from Cindy and clasps his hands together. “From now on you involve us in your plans. Is that understood?”

Kale nods. I do, too, reluctantly.

“We need your help,” Kale says. He tells them about the Fourth of July attack
. They inhale sharply. I inform them of our plan to have Stealth “kill people.”

“The only problem is that we don’t know what to do with the
people who supposedly die,” Lindsay finishes for me.

Samson and Cindy are quiet for a bit.
Samson sighs. “You four mean well,” he says, sighs again, then returns to thinking. A few seconds pass before he continues. “Yes, we’ll follow through with your plan. The League will be ready to fight off these villains, before they have a chance to kill innocent people.”

Cindy looks at Stealth. “I’m not okay with the fact that you will be
in danger. But this is the situation we face and there isn’t much we can do.”

“
We’ll have Elite members watching over you,” Samson says.

Stealth shrugs. “I can do it. I’m not scared and I don’t need anyone watching over me. You guys should focus
on attacking the Nightmares and saving lives. Let me do what I need to do.”

Cindy shakes her head. “No.”

“I can do it,” Stealth says. “Trust me.”

“We’ll have Elites members watching over you,” Cindy says in a tone which means the discussion is over.

Stealth slinks down in her chair.

“Kale,” Cindy says. “I’ll help you
fortify your block on Stealth’s mind. She’ll need extra protection when she joins the ShadowBlades.”

“Yep. Thanks, Mom. You, too, Dad.”

Samson’s eyes narrow. “I want you to know that I don’t condone your behavior. But you’ve left us with no other choice.”

Kale lowers his
gaze to his knees. “Sorry.”

“We did the best we could,” I say.

Samson nods, but still looks upset. “Remember, we’ll work as a team. Stealth updates
all
of us. We plan
together
. No more sneaking around.”

Maybe they’re right. Maybe having them in on this is smart. I don’t want Stealth or an
yone else to get hurt.