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We head to the elevator and I press the down button. “I don’t know,” I say. “Home, I guess.”
The doors slide open. Nova crosses her arms and suppresses a shiver that threatens to crack her frail body. “Do you always do things without thinking?”
“Yeah,” I say, pulling her into the elevator with me. “It’s kind of my thing.”
The boy with the freaky power-infused translucent skin speaks in Spanish to his mother in the lobby of the building. My Spanish isn’t that great but I catch the words villain, sister and scared. The two humans turn toward us; the boy stares at Nova with wide, terror-stricken eyes while his mother drops to her knees and lowers her head as if we are royalty. This catches me off-guard and I stand stupidly in the opening of the elevator, blocking the closing door with my fist.
Nova steps out of the elevator first, scaling the room in a few seconds without casting a glance their way. At the door, she turns around and lifts an eyebrow. “You coming?” she asks me. “Jesus, you’re the one who wanted me to leave.”
I suppress a bitchy reply and follow her to the door, although I can’t make myself ignore the two humans in the room. “Thank you,” I tell the boy. His mother looks from me to Nova and back, making the realization that we’re twins by opening her eyes wide and putting a hand over her mouth. She recovers quickly, and talks to Nova. “When should I expect you back, dear? Would you like food to be ready for you?”
“I told you to stop that,” Nova snaps at the woman. “You do not take orders from me, okay? So stop it.” The woman opens her mouth to object, but Nova holds out her arm, silencing her. “Aurora is dead. And I killed your abusive husband. You don’t take orders from anyone anymore. Just thank me and go away.”
The boy grabs his mother’s hand. “Gracias, Miss Nova,” he says.
I’m beyond confused at this situation, but I answer the woman’s question since Nova didn’t. “We aren’t coming back,” I tell her. “Probably not ever. I am Hero Maci Might, and I’m taking Nova to Central, but you can never tell anyone about this.” I give her a piercing Hero’s glare, allowing my power to radiate off of me. She nods, understanding that agreeing with me means taking this secret to the grave.
“Please,” she begs, pushing her son forward. He gives her a frightened look. “Please take Xavi with you to Central. Please get him help.”
The boy reaches for my hand and, stupidly, I start to take it. Nova’s bony fingers shove me so hard I stumble backward and have just enough time to say “What the hell?” before I’m face to face with my sister. Her teeth grind together, exactly the same height as my own, as our eyes stare directly at each other. Her breath freaking reeks. “Do. Not. Touch. Him.” Fire dances in the back of her eyes, a villainous rage that rolls out of her soul, washing over every good part of mine. Even in my most angry rages, I have never felt this wicked.
“What’s wrong with him?” I ask, my voice strong and unaffected by her shocking outburst. It’s a lie, but I hold on to it because I will not show her weakness.
Nova wraps her hand around my wrist and pulls me to the door. “He’s a ha
lf-breed. He’s a waste of life and he will die when he turns sixteen.”
My jaw drops in dismay and I glance at the boy and his mother, who sobs quietly into her sleeve. “Isn’t there something we can do?”
Nova laughs. “His mother knew better than to hook up with a Super. Now she gets to suffer the consequences.”
“That was really rude,” I mutter a few minutes later. Nova’s black Chuck Taylors crunch over all the debris in the alleyway. I still make an effort to avoid stepping on any of it.
“What’s your point?” she asks. “I can be rude. It’s a free country and all that.”
I stop walking and cross my arms. Somewhere close by a rodent scavenges for food in the garbage bags near our feet. “You can’t just tell a little kid they’re going to die.”
She turns toward me and lifts an eyebrow. “So you’re saying you’d rather me lie to him? Aren’t you the Hero here?”
My hands clench into fists at my sides, but I take a deep breath and relax my muscles. Punching her in the face won’t do anything in my task to bring her over to the good side. “You don’t have to lie to him, but you didn’t have to be so mean. I didn’t even know humans could mate with Supers,” I add as an afterthought. “No one has ever mentioned such a thing in Central.”
She shrugs. “I guess it’s a villain thing.”
We turn left onto First Street, which is home to some of the finest establishments in downtown King City, but once you get way out here to the crap part of town, everything declines from designer clothing stores to pawnshops and signs that advertise bail bonds.
Nova rakes fingers through her knotted hair but they get stuck near her skull. She pulls a few times before giving up and scratching her neck. “So what’s your big plan? What exactly are we doing?”
I kick a piece of broken asphalt out of its hole in the road and watch it tumble ahead of us. “I’m a Hero now, so I can get away with things normal Supers can’t. I’m hoping I can just sneak you inside with me. You can hide out in our home until Dad gets back.”
“Where is he?” she asks, trying unsuccessfully to mask her curiosity.
“He’s in the medical ward for a few more days.”
A silence falls over us as we walk. In Nova’s malnourished state, I can’t discern what she’s feeling from her power levels. Only a thin pulse of energy emits from her, as weak as a battery-powered radio. This is hands down, the most awkward experience of my life. She’s a stranger but she’s my sister. But I guess being genetically related to someone doesn’t automatically make you friends.
Lost in my own thoughts, I brush against her arm and jump backward. I have just enough time to shiver from how cold her skin feels when I hear a woman scream.
In unison, Nova and I spin around and run toward the direction of the woman’s cry; back down First Street and toward the apartment complex from where we came. But we’re too late.
