“I heardan interesting rumour about you, Av.”
Yup. My trip to the hospital this morning was already in the gossip mill. Not just in my villain circles, but all throughout the city. I’d tried to get a drink in my bar upstairs and all anyone could talk about was me.
But the person in front of me now was someone that actually mattered. If The Blacksmith blacklisted you, that was it for your villain career. You lost access to every resource and protection. Not that I thought she would. She had a soft spot for me. I’d considered her my sister since we were ten.
“There are lots of rumours about me.” I shrugged as I leaned my left hip on the counter and crossed my arms. “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific.”
“Word on the street is you’ve gone soft.” The Blacksmith’s perfectly sculpted black eyebrow rose as she rested her tattooedforearms on the counter. “A little girl claims you spent six hours of your morning with her. Is this true?”
“It is.”
“Matt—”
“Wipe that disapproving look off your face, Eva.”
I was one of few that could get away with using her given name, and she was the only one who could get away with using mine. We’d been friends nearly thirty years—long before everything got crazy and everyone in the affected area ofthe incidenteither got superpowers or died. Lucky for both of us we were in the former group.
“I know what the rumour means, but I think it’s good timing. We only have?—”
The shop door swung open revealing a middle aged man. His brown hair flew in multiple directions—in a stereotypical mad scientist fashion—his beady black eyes were locked on the stack of papers in his arms. The Weaver.
“Miss Blacksmith, I require your— Oh, Mr. Avalanche, I didn’t know you’d be here! Sorry, I can come back.”
The Weaver was polite enough, just weird. Even for a villain he did some fucked up shit—made worse by the fact that he didn’t even have superpowers. He was just a guy that was obsessed with veins. More specifically, removing veins.
“No, stay. We were just finishing up here.” I looked back at Eva to see if she would challenge that. She didn’t.
“If you’ll just give me one moment, I’ll be right with you, Mr. Weaver.” She gave the man a warm smile before turning back to me and lowering her voice. “This better have been a one-time thing. I would hate to see our hard work get ruined because of some silly notion of fun. Do we understand each other?”
“Perfectly.”
The plan was supposed to come first but I couldn’t just override my curiosity. If the volunteer tracked me down again,there was no way I’d turn her away, especially because of how much fun I had.
I turned to the door, but The Weaver’s voice stopped me.
“Mr. Avalanche, I heard a rumour about you today. Is it true?”
“Yes.”
He smiled. “You look like you had fun. Was it fun?”
“Yes.” I felt my own smile grow. “The most fun I’ve had in years. Why do you ask?”
“Do you know if anyone else might have been asked for? Maybe someone like me?”
I leaned back on the counter. “I only know what the volunteer told me. Which was the name of one little girl, her hospital, and her room number. Why? Did you want to be asked for?”
“Maybe.”
3
THE VOLUNTEER
Scarlett was absolutely elated.She’d talk the ear off of anyone who stopped by her room, telling them all about Avalanche and how much fun they had. My favourite was all the pictures. At least fifty, ranging from him making ice sculptures to the two of them making ridiculous faces.
When the excitement wore off after the first day, Scarlett asked me to stop by the next morning.
“I’m sorry, Miss Violet. I was so excited yesterday, I forgot to give you this.” She gestured to the ice dragon on her bedside table, giant smile on her face. “I told him that you loved dragons, so he asked me to give it to you.”
