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DAISY LAZARUS
Inside the Towerwas as much of a war zone as outside. Daisy picked through the destruction of the lobby and then hurtled herself down the stairwell. This was all happening so fast. She burst into the basement and forced herself to quiet her mind.
Just as she had when she’d become the Falcon, she pushed out anything that made her human. Her new found love for her family. For Axel. She couldn’t afford distractions. The time for ruthlessness was here. An ominous sense of doom clung to the air when she entered the laboratory the Sinners had been guarding.
Live wires hung from the ceiling where panels and lights had been scorched during what was probably a powered replicate battle. Lab equipment, that had already been damaged, was now destroyed. Tables were overturned. A wet substance was on the floor. She couldn’t tell what it was.
The only light came from the ghostly hole in the wall that led to the sewer. Flickering light. Like candles.
Daisy still had her katana in her hand but decided in the small space she’d be better off with a knife. She swapped the weapons.
Parker’s voice shouted at her through the hood’s microphone.
“Despair, don’t be stupid.” He breathed and grunted hard as though he still battled. “Come back and help us sort this shit out and then we do this together.”
“This was how it was always going to be,” she whispered back as she surveyed the dark room, noting her eyesight had improved in the darkness—must be from Parker’s blood. “Falcons hunt best when they’re alone.”
No hostiles here. Just the flickering light beyond and through the hole in the wall.
“You’re not that person anymore,”Parker shot back. “Wait.”
She wanted to say that she’d learned her lesson about going off alone. That she’d learned she was a valued part of this incredible family. That mistakes were meant to be made together. But she knew. She knew with absolute certainty that this fight was hers, and hers alone. It always had been. From the moment she’d been left behind, she’d been groomed to fight alone.
It might have been Julius who did the grooming, but it was her family that taught her how to trust her instincts.
If what Mercy said was true, that Julius was about to rip open a gate to another dimension, then none of what happened on the street mattered. And Daisy was the only one powered up with enough juice to stop it. Her reuniting with her family, gaining their love and gifts, had led her to this moment.
Parker barked more orders, and her siblings joined him in berating her—trying to get her to wait, to do this as a team.
But she pulled the hood off so their voices dulled. They didn’t understand the teamwork part was over.
* * *
Daisy creptthrough the destroyed lab, using Parker’s sharp eyesight to navigate without alerting whoever was in the sewer. Smells assaulted her keen nose, and she couldn’t distinguish what was what. Sulfur? Dirt. Water. Mold. Sweat. Some kind of fruity perfume that might have been shampoo. She wanted to sneeze, to get it all out, but forced herself to breathe slowly and calmly.
She had no idea how long these borrowed abilities would last. Her molecular biology might burn through the donated blood in hours, or… she could be stuck like this forever and end up with more complications. All she knew was that she had to be quick—get this over and done with.
With a dagger in her fist, her eyes on the flickering light, and her ears straining toward the low-pitched voice coming through the hole, she didn’t notice the person hiding behind a fallen stainless steel table. A hand wrapped around Daisy’s ankle. Her dagger was down and at the throat of the intruder before she registered who it was.
A Sinner. Black long hair, rainbow tips, stark brown eyes. Latino heritage.
“I’m Raven,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Daisy crouched to get low. Raven winced and checked a wound at her ribs.
“Are you hurt?” Daisy asked.
“I’ll live,” she gritted out. “But we couldn’t keep him away. He’s in there now setting up the ritual.”
“I don’t care about that,” Daisy said, straightening. But Raven tugged her back down.
“You should, because he’s going to get it open.”
“Then why aren’t you letting me get to him now?”
“It’s too late.”
Like it was scripted, a hissing sound, a flare of light, and a cackle of a madman burst from the sewer and echoed off the walls. Two seconds later, another tremor rocked their feet. Daisy’s eyes widened. Sulfur and burned candle wax bloomed.
