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My intuition wasn’t wrong. But I wasn’t right. My sister does need to be found but not saved. The boy’s teeth chatter in fear as his entire body continues to shudder with fear. I lower myself to his eye level. “You are not in any harm. But you must take me to the girl who killed your father. That wasn’t me. That was my twin sister.”
He nods slowly and turns around, pressing the up button on the elevator door. When we step inside, he presses the button for the top floor. I lean my back against the wall and concentrate on breathing slowly enough to keep my power level down so no other Supers can detect my presence, and also to prevent the elevator from suffering the same fate as that fluorescent light bulb.
We come to a rickety stop that has me preparing to grab the boy and hold him should the cables snap, sending us on a fourteen-story free fall. But the doors swing open despite my preparing for the worst, revealing a carpeted foyer that branches off into two apartment doors. Despite being away from the filthy street, the garbage smell is somehow intensified on this floor. The boy takes my hand and another zap of power flows from his tiny fingers into mine. Something isn’t right about this kid.
He walks me to the door on the right, apartment 14B. “She’s in there,”
he whispers, before dropping my hand and bolting across the dingy floor, seeking refuge in apartment 14A. I bite my bottom lip and stare at the wooden door in front of me, trying not to let my mind go wild with thoughts of what could be beyond this tiny barrier between my twin and me.
I might be a brand new Hero but I’ve faced death before. I wrap my bandaged depowered hand around the brass doorknob and twist it to the right. The apartment is dark inside, the only illumination coming from a single lamp in the corner of the room. It’s missing a lampshade so the bulb blasts white light in all directions.
The smallest flicker of power emanates from that part of the room. It is there that I see my twin sister, slumped on the floor, leaning against the wall. Her face is hidden behind a mess of tangled white blonde hair. If my chest wasn’t tingling with the essence of her power, I’d assume she was dead. This isn’t what I expected.
I step inside the apartment and close the door behind me. “Nova?” I ask as I walk toward her, hand hovering over my retriever hooks. She doesn’t say anything, but her chest rises and falls in slow breaths. “Nova, it’s me. It’s Maci.” I kneel beside her and place my hand on her shoulder.
Nothing happens for a long time.
And then a blast of power blows me across the room. My shoulder slams into a coat rack, sending it crashing to the floor. I spin around and come face to face with my sister. She stands, feet crookedly spaced apart, hands in light fists at her sides. Her chest heaves with ragged breaths and her hair is so snarled, I can barely see the glare she gives me from across the room.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice seethes with anger. “Did they send you to kill me?”
That last part was whispered in desperation. I tilt my head slightly to the side. “No one knows I’m here,” I say. “But someone is coming to kill you.”
She rolls her head to the side and stares at the wall. “Let them.”
I don’t know why I say this, but I do. “I won’t let them kill you.”
She lets out a short breath in what could be derived as a sarcastic snort. “I deserve to die.”
“No, you don’t—” I interject, taking a step forward. I have no idea how I’m going to convince her to come with me. This isn’t an official Hero mission so I can’t call retrievers to help.
Nova lowers her gaze to the floor. “I deserve to die. I’m a murderer. A monster.”
“That wasn’t your fault. It was Aurora’s. She’s the villain, not you.”
She shakes her head. “The Heroes will kill me anyway.” Her voice turns to ice as she meets my gaze. “And you know what?”
She grabs a butter knife off an end table against the wall and plunges it directly into her chest. I hold back a scream and watch in horror as the knife slices between her ribs and then slowly slides back out as if a ghost were pulling on the handle. It drops to the floor, covered in silvery power and blood. The wound in her chest seals closed and supernaturally heals. Nova looks at the knife in disgust. “I can’t even kill myself.”
I guess she doesn’t know that chopping off her own head zombie-style would get the job done, but now is definitely not to the time to tell her that. I reach out my hand to her. “You don’t have to die and you don’t have to live like this. Come with me.”
She scowls at my outstretched hand. “Why are you doing this?”
I stand strong. “Because you saved my life. Now I’m saving yours.”
Her power level weakens, lowering until it’s a mere pulse in tune with her heartbeat. She’s letting her guard down and that means I’m winning. “Why would you save me? You don’t even know me.”
I cross my arms. “Why did you save me?”
“I know you. I spent my whole life knowing you existed. That’s why I saved you.”
“Okay, well I’ve spent five days knowing you exist and I’m going to save you with or without your permission. You are my sister and I will not let you die.” I take her by the arm and pull her across the dingy apartment.
“Whatever. They’ll kill me the moment you bring me to Central.” Her eyes seem to sparkle for a moment. “At least it’ll be over soon.”
I ignore that and tug her along with me. She doesn’t put up a fight. When we get to the door, I stop and take a sweater off the toppled-over coat rack and pull it over her head. It may smell like mothballs but at least it covers her blood soaked T-shirt. She pulls her arms through the sleeves and glances down at herself with a look of insecurity painted on her face. I brush her hair out of her eyes, trying unsuccessfully to make it look reasonably decent. She looks at me expectantly and I lift an eyebrow in hesitation. Now would be a really good time for one of Evan’s hair ties.
“Where are we going?” she asks. Dark circles surround her eyes, making her pale skin uncommonly white. It’s as if I’m looking into a haunted mirror and seeing my own ghostly reflection staring back at me.
