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Thankfully, Cap looked too dazed to even question it. Nick almost felt bad, but then he remembered Cap had tried to enact a plan without telling them, leading them to believe he’d switched sides and joined Burke.
Nick and Dad fell silent, waiting for Cap’s reaction, both fidgeting in their seats.
Cap closed his eyes, hands resting on his stomach as he leaned back in the chair. Nick opened his mouth, but Dad shook his head in warning. Nick sighed instead, picking at the edge of the table.
Finally, Cap opened his eyes, though they looked distant. He surprised the hell out of Nick when he said, “Thank you for telling me. I—” He laughed quietly, glancing at Dad. “You’ve got your work cut out for you.”
Dad sighed. “You have no idea.”
Cap sat forward in his chair, thumping his knuckles on the table. “All right. Now that that’s out of the way, what’s the most pressing issue we need to focus on first?”
Nick blinked. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”
Cap smiled at him. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll have a million questions as soon as I can think straight, but that can wait. I know you, Nick, and this is—well, if anyone can do it, it’d be you. That being said, it seems to me we’ve got bigger things to worry about at the moment. Where do we begin?”
Good question. Simon Burke was after them. He had Smoke and Ice. Nick had powers that he couldn’t properly use, and he had no idea what he was going to call himselfifhe figured out howto use them. Owen Burke was hidden away in some psychiatric hospital, probably seething and plotting revenge, not unlike his father. Nick’s mom was dead, and while she could have told him how to do what she could, nothing was going to change the fact that she was gone. TK didn’t want to help him and was hopefully in hiding, along with Miss Conduct. There was a bounty on Pyro Storm’s head, causing the city to go mad with greed. Rebecca Firestone was hell-bent on stoking the flames of discontent.
It was too big. All of it.
So Nick started with the one thing bothering him the most. “I don’t know how to dance, and prom is coming up. Jazz is supposed to help me, but I think I’m beyond saving because Seth made me dance with him in the cafeteria and I stepped all over him. I don’t want to look like a dick when we’re at prom. I mean, I’m wearing a dead magician’s suit because of lead face paint. Wait, that sentence was confusing.Ididn’t have lead face paint. He did, which killed him and now his suit is mine, but I still don’t know how to dance, and I can’t embarrass Seth by moving like a three-legged hippo in front of everyone again.”
Dad sighed. Cap stared.
Nick shrugged. “What? I’m sixteen; I have a lot going on. Just because we’re all probably going to end up fighting for our lives in some epic showdown at the end of all this Burke stuff doesn’t mean I can’t also worry about wanting to impress my hot boyfriend. My god, have you seen him in an ascot? The things I want to do to him should probably not be described here, since I’m a virgin and will stay that way for a long, long time.”
Dad looked toward the ceiling. “I don’t even know what to do with any of that.”
“I do,” Cap said. He stood, unbuttoning his uniform, then pulling off his coat and hanging it on the back of the chair. He nodded toward the battered radio sitting on the counter next to the small television. Without waiting for an answer, he went to it, switching it on and fiddling with the dial until he found a station playing old music, the voice sweet, the horns wailing in the background. Cap turned and held his hand out for Nick.
Nick stared at it. “What are you doing?”
Cap rolled his eyes. “Showing you how to dance. Trust me when I say I’ve got a move or two. Mary says I’ve got hips that won’t quit, and while I—would you stop gagging? Seriously, Nick. Focus. While I may not be the best, I still know what I’m doing. I can show your skinny white ass what to do.”
“Yes,” Nick breathed. “Yes to all of this, oh my god,yes.” He jumped up from the table, rounding Dad’s chair and taking Cap’s hand in his. Nick looked over at Dad, who watched them with a quiet smile.
Things would be all right, Nick thought. One way or another, they’d be okay.
