SuperNova: Heroes of Arcania (13 page)

Two hours after we’d gotten back to my house, Henry finally brought up the accident again.
 

“Are you sure you’re okay? I thought for sure that car hit you.”
 

“I’m
fine
, Henry,” I said for what felt like the hundredth time.
 

“You don’t have to put on a brave face around me,” he tried again. “I won’t judge if you want to go to the ER.”
 

I couldn’t help laughing. “I don’t need an ER, I need to finish this Spanish homework.”
 

We went back to classwork for a few more minutes. Finally, Henry put his pencil down. His voice was quiet, uncertain, and very un-Henry-like. “Nova?”
 

At that, I looked up at his worried face. I put my own pencil down. “Yeah?”
 

He looked down at his notepad for a few seconds, questioned me in a serious tone. “Why did you do it? I mean, I know you’re, like, fearless, but you could’ve really been hurt this time.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “You don’t think I should’ve saved Andy?”

“No! That’s not what I meant. I guess I’m surprised you’d be so selfless.” He winced. “I didn’t mean it that way, either. I just…I kind of freaked when I turned around and saw you fling yourself in front of a car.”

I feigned confusion. “I don’t know what came over me. It isn’t something I want to do again.”
 

“Is this a Starling thing?”
 

“Anyone else would’ve done the same thing.”

He grimaced, shook his head regretfully at me. “I don’t know if I could say that. Most people don’t have that in ‘em. What you did was…admirable.”

A blush coated my cheeks at his statement. I said nothing, instead looked at my notebook, the scribbles and doodles that covered the top and side margins. Henry cleared his throat and gave me a sly grin.
 

“So the real question is, when you shoved Andy out of the way, why didn’t you just tackle him and go down in a full body hug instead?” he asked playfully.
 

My elbow dug into his ribs. “Shut up. That would’ve made more sense, I suppose. I guess I panicked.”

“No way, you saved Andy. You’re a regular SuperNova.”

Every cell in my body froze, my ears ringing with his statement. I’d never told him Starling’s brief nickname for me and I hadn’t heard it since the day she died. The invisible band around my heart constricted painfully and I couldn’t breathe. Henry gave me a quizzical look.

“What’s wrong? It’s funny, cause…” he trailed off at my face and grew concerned. “What is it, Nova? You’re freaking me out.”

I closed my eyes for a long moment, my lips finally parting slightly to take a breath. I finally looked at Henry and could only summon a weak smile.

“That was a Starling nickname,” I said.
 

“I didn’t know.” His eyes shone with sympathy. “I’m sorry, you know I never would’ve said it if I had.”

“No, it’s okay. It was sort of a funny little thing she said on…on the day she died.”
 

We went quiet and I could tell he was waiting for me to speak. When I didn’t, he finally broke the silence.
 

“I miss her, too.” He put his hand on my knee and squeezed it reassuringly. I nodded and he continued. “She would’ve been really proud of you today. She never stopped talking about you being so strong. She would’ve thought today was awesome.”

Before Starling understood the seriousness for secrecy of my condition, she loved to tell Henry her big sister had special powers. He thought it was adorable and often played along with the idea I couldn’t “break” as Starling said. Only when we hit our teens did Henry forget about it and I’d breathed a sigh of relief.

“I just wish I could’ve saved her, ya know?” It escaped before I could stop it, burst from my lips, surprising Henry. “I couldn’t protect her.”

“He would’ve killed you, too—”

“That’s not the point. He shouldn’t have gotten the chance, but I didn’t stop him in time. It may not be my fault she died. He might’ve killed her anyway, but if I’d reacted first, maybe things would be different.”
 

“Yeah, like he could’ve killed you both,” Henry said. His lips tightened into a thin line as he looked down at his lap before coming back to me. “Nova, you really scared me. Maybe today was a fluke, but I don’t know what I’d do if… ”

The air hung heavy with the thought we both had but didn’t say. I understood. He’d be devastated if I got myself killed, like he presumed could’ve happened today. I swallowed hard; I couldn’t tell him my secret, not now.
 

If I told Henry my secret, his reporter instincts would kick in. He’d want to know more, maybe even suspect Fortune’s weird power. Then he’d be electrocuted by Fortune. I could never let that happen.
 

The day after I saved Andy from getting run over was…weird. Henry had sworn up and down that they’d treat me like a rock star, but I knew better. “Unusual” wasn’t a great trait at our school. Then again, maybe it wasn’t great at
any
high school.
 

People stared at me, whispered to one another as I passed them in the hallway. No one talked directly to me, though, and I couldn’t decide if that made it better. Amber, who wanted to hear all about it from the source, came to sit at our lunch table.
 

Henry and Amber bickered the entire lunch time, but I didn't pay any attention. Penelope and Cole also sat with us, but with hardly any room to spare in the conversation, they also remained quiet. To my surprise and disappointment, however, Cole stayed quiet through class, only shooting me a small smile when I sat down next to him. When the bell rang, he politely said goodbye to me and ran off to last period, leaving me totally confused. I didn’t see him or Penelope after school.
 

I needed to talk to Cole. Something had happened and even though I couldn’t prove it, I knew he had something to do with it. It was a long shot, but he might even know something about me, my abilities. That car had hit me, crunched against my legs; in an instant, the car was several feet back, with no momentum behind it. I’d seen the look on Cole’s face when I looked up.
 

No matter the outcome, Cole had somehow saved me from a lot of questions and rumors. When I helped Andy, I didn’t think about the consequences. I exposed myself, saved only by some miracle performed by Cole. I didn’t understand how I knew it, either, but it was the only thing that actually made sense. I wanted to know what he was, or if he knew about me. Maybe he’d even saved me because he liked me.
 

God, I hope he isn’t a vampire.
 

I had to get out and punch someone. After all the tension, I wanted to go out into the city again to give the hero thing another shot. Thanks to Fortune’s reigns of terror, not many people went out after eight or nine o’clock. I’d adjusted my schedule accordingly and tried to be in town around eight each time to catch any stragglers getting caught by criminals. Tonight was one of those nights.

Forty-five minutes after I’d started the usual skulking, I heard shouts. I paused, tracing the echo, and ran towards the sound. When I rounded the corner, a man brandished a weapon of some kind at a young couple.
 

“Hey, slimeball!” I shouted at him. He and his shadow turned, flashing metal in the street lights. The glint of a blade showed a knife. Swallowing hard and ignoring the panic flaring in my chest, I walked even closer to them.
 

The couple cowered behind their attacker. He was short, with bad teeth, long, gnarled hair, and skin marred by acne scars. Ugly was too nice of a term.
 

“Get outta here,” the guy told me. He jabbed his knife in the air as he spoke, snorting at my appearance. I tried to look like a badass beneath my mask, crudely constructed with a black scarf from my closet.
 

“Walk away and you can keep your lunch money.” I’d practiced my tough girl speech on the drive over and kept my voice strong and loud. “Leave them alone. And tell Fortune we aren’t going to put up with his bullying anymore.”
 

I stalked towards him, my feet hardly making a sound against pavement. The terrified couple made disbelieving noises, gaped at me in my black outfit and defensive pose. I could guess their thoughts on a teenage girl saving their lives, kamikaze-style.
 

His laugh echoed on the empty street. “He has more than a few men.”

Footsteps made me turn; my stomach twisted at having let someone sneak up on me. My eyebrows went up in surprise when I saw the second man come into the light. The guy looked like a soccer dad, like someone my father would know. Tall and well-built, though a bit wiry, I could take him in strength.
 

“What do you have to say now?” the first man said.
 

“You should wear a ski mask,” I told him.
 

The other man snorted but Ugly didn’t take it well. He stalked towards me, gesturing to his partner to stay out of it. I grinned as he came forward, adrenaline pumping in my veins. When he pulled his right arm back to hit me, I moved faster, jabbing him in the stomach and kicking at his most manly of areas. With all that power behind the blow, I felt a crunch under my shoe. He dropped like a bag of bricks, howling at the pain.
 

Too smug to laugh, I turned to look at the second attacker. He rolled his eyes and took off in the other direction. He rounded the corner and out of sight, getting away.
 

“Hey!” I shouted. I turned and motioned to the couple under siege. “Run!”

The couple took off without protest, the boyfriend getting out his phone as they ran. I chased after Soccer Dad, feet pounding on the pavement as I pushed myself to run faster. I looked back for only a moment, but when I turned my head forward, the criminal was already at the building across the street. I couldn’t let him escape.
How is he already all the way over there?
I pushed my legs to pump faster.
 

My rational mind told me to call the police; I checked my back pocket and cursed. I’d left my phone in the glove compartment, worried it would ring at an inopportune time. That was okay; the victims would get the cops here. Of course then my worry would be about not getting caught myself.
 

I’ve gotta stop making this up as I go.

I skidded through the entrance of the grungy building he’d run into and stopped, taking in deep, even breaths. Dozens of damaged wooden pallets and beams littered the empty warehouse, the back of a foreclosed furniture store. After ten seconds of complete silence, I went to try another building when a wooden beam fell from the corner, clattering to a stop in front of me. I looked to my right and found Soccer Dad glaring at me from ten feet away.
 

He tried to get around the mess, finally stopped and turned to face me. I ran straight for him and we collided, momentum carrying us. Sliding across the floor in a tangle, he tried to get a grip on me while I slapped at him, refused to let his hands close around my wrists. We both got up fast and faced one another.
 

He lunged, moving quicker than I thought possible, and backhanded me. My head snapped back; on anyone else, he might’ve broken their nose, but I only turned back to him. He came at me again. I side-stepped him, put my hands on his back and shoved as hard as I could. He flew across the empty warehouse, landing in a pile of wooden pallets. He groaned as he pushed debris off himself.
 

I looked around at my exits: one on either side of the very long room filled with tools and other objects that could easily be weapons. I decided to make a run for it (and possibly grab a steel pipe to whack him) and bolted to the far end for the exit. I would have to call the police and inform them one of Fortune’s men was inside. I didn’t want to answer questions about why a teenage girl was duking it out with a full grown, very dangerous man.
 

Twenty feet from the doorway, the unthinkable happened: he got up and ran at me. He didn’t run like a normal person—he blurred, standing face to face with me. There was no way it was possible for him to move like that. My brain whirred to process the information.