“Strike two,” the redhaired man says. “And I wouldn’t even have to know anything else about her to know that Checkmate could kick your ass too. I’m Adeon, by the way. That jackass is Jaspar, and the quiet one at the end of the couch is Eko.”
“Kaye,” I return in greeting.
“Apologies for Jaspar’s behavior.” Fulton’s attention never strays from Jaspar as she speaks. That mercurial gaze is locked to the floor, but they flick up at me when Fulton mentions his name. “I assure you he’s harmless.”
“I can apologize for myself,” he says. “It wasn’t my intention to make you uncomfortable. I was merely getting a read. It won’t happen again.”
Jasper takes the furthest chair from us, settling in front of a desk in the corner while the rest of us circle around the table. Zane drops heavily onto the couch, pulling me down with him so that we are pressed from hip to knee on the seat. Maybe it’s in my head, but I feel his eyes watching me behind the white expanse of his mask. Appraising me. My heartbeat picks up as I work to keep my breathing steady and remember the man I kissed last nightisthe enemy sitting beside me now. That after years of fighting and stalking in shadows I am somehow safe in his presence.
“You seem nervous, Checkmate.” He brushes the hair off my shoulder, his arm lingering around the back of my chair as he leans into my space. His cheek grazes mine. His voice drops, the gravel in it becoming more pronounced as he speaks. “Is there something I can help you with?”
Goose bumps flow down my neck and onto my arms. I swallow, hoping my voice doesn’t stick when I say, “I’m fine.”
The lip of his mask just barely ghosts over the hyper-sensitized skin around my throat and it’s much too similar, too soon, after reliving the memory.I will shatter you.I flinch, gasping at the tug on my scalp, his fingers having wound into my hair.
“There’s more than one way to shatter.” His forehead presses against mine. “I like seeing you in my masks.”
Fulton clears her throat and the spell breaks.
“I suppose it was too much to hope that Charade would fill you in.” She crosses her arms, shifting her position so that she can lean against the column of the fireplace. Definitely going to get a lecture.
“We’re Supers like you,” Eko says. “Adeon can sense emotions, and he has a certain level of influence over them. That’s why he’s our negotiator—he can keep things nice and calm, even though he’s not doing a great job of that tonight.”
“I asked him not to interfere,” Fulton defends. “The more you get to know him, the more you’ll understand that he doesn’t actually like being able to control people, unlike certain others in this room.”
Zane drums his fingers on the couch’s torn arm. “I’m not sure what you’re implying.”
“I’m notimplyinganything. I straight out said it.”
The tickle starts somewhere in the base of my spine and blooms upward in a tangle of pure lightness. Before I know it, I’m full-mouth, deep-belly, clutching-at-my-sideslaughing.
“I’m sorry,” I gasp, glancing at Zane. His expression promises retribution, but that only serves to set me off again. My cheeks are warm, the muscles within them aching with effort, but it’s a good kind of pain. One I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel again. “It’s so refreshing to hear someone else go at it with him. Keep going.”
Adeon takes up the thread, his baby blue eyes sparkling in the dancing light of the hearth. “Fulton’s our leader. She’s a weapons expert, but she’s also a firebrand in the most literal sense. Eko’s a human lie detector. He and his brother, Agus, were also MMA junior champions, so if you want a lesson in hand-to-hand combat, go to them.”
“What about you?” I give my full attention to Jaspar, who has been sitting quietly in the corner, observing.
“I can make people hallucinate whatever I want them to see,” he answers. “I also receive visions about people sometimes. I can’t control it, but proximity helps.”
“And he’s pretty. Don’t forget about that,” Adeon adds.
“Attractiveness is not my superpower. It’s my gift.”
Fulton rolls her eyes and pushes off the wall, at last taking a seat in the chair directly across from me. “As for the rest of the team, Vita has something akin to an Eidetic memory. She stores every morsel of information she hears or reads and can recall itat any time. Anything from a line of computer code to the orders of people around her at Starbucks. She’s got it all.
“Agus is a fighter, that’s definitely true. And he works hard to keep up those skills every day. But his real power is teleportation.”
“We’re all very jealous of his commute to work.” Adeon’s smile is tentative and infectious.
“And Milo is our healer,” Fulton concludes. “We call our operation Angelis.”
“I’ve asked them to help us with C and the Rose problem. To helpme. Again,” he explains.
“Again?” Charade never acted as part of a team.
“You know I took certain measures to make sure the other Supers captured by the CCP escaped that night.” He doesn’t need to specify the night in question. The chill of that cell still lingers in my bones. I still wake up in the night sweating, the faces of those left behind seared behind my eyelids, the scent of refuse fresh in my lungs. “Meet those measures.”
The smoke bombs. The glass shattering. At the time I thought Charade capable of the worst, that he lied to me so I would be complacent and not put up as much of a resistance.
