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“Your father wanted to tell you,” Mom said gently. “If you’re going to be angry at anyone, be angry with me. I was the one who asked him to hold off.”
“Hold offwhat?” Nick asked as Seth came to stand slightly behind him. He rested his hand on Nick’s shoulder, a calming presence. The fire in Nick’s head and chest dampened, sparks and smoke rising.
“A note,” Dad said, raising his head and looking Nick directly in the eyes. “It wasn’t signed, but it was addressed to you.”
Nick gaped at him. “You opened my mail? That’s a felony!”
“Other things to focus on, Nicky,” Seth muttered.
“I thought it was hate mail,” Dad said. “We’d already gotten a couple of pieces after Seth revealed himself. Nowhere near as much as Seth and his aunt and uncle have, but some. And it was vile, kid. Awful stuff that you didn’t need to see.”
“We did the same for Seth,” Bob said suddenly as Martha made a small, wounded noise. “We’ve gotten a bunch of that crap, and there was no point in bringing it up. We turned it all over to Chris, but aside from it having been posted in the city, there wasn’t any way to track where it’d come from. People can be cruel, especially when they think they’re anonymous.”
Begrudgingly, Nick knew Bob wasn’t wrong. He’d seen some of the comments left on his fics.
“But it wasn’t like the others,” Mom said. “Aaron showed it to me. It had Owen’s Shadow Star symbol scribbled over it in black. We first thought it was a threat from someone working with Christian and Christina Lewis. That it was meant to be smoke. But it wasn’t. It was—”
“A shadow,” Nick whispered, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.
Mom nodded. “And it had three words underneath.” She breathed in deeply, letting it out slow. “‘See you soon.’”
Seth’s grip on Nick shoulders tightened painfully, but Nick didn’t try to shove him off. It kept the worst of the panic at bay, though not all of it. “You didn’t tell me.”
“We didn’t,” Mom said. “Because if we could have dealt with him ourselves, then there would have been no point.”
Nick scoffed angrily. “No point?No point?” He glared at her and Dad. “We hadeveryright to know. We’ve been out in the city on our own. He could have come after us whenever he wanted to, and we wouldn’t have seen him coming.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Gibby said, and Nick whirled around, tamping down on the hurt that bubbled in his chest. Gibby looked apologetic, but it didn’t stop her from continuing. “We knew he’d escaped, Nick. And you know as well as I do that we’ve been keeping our eyes and ears open for any sign of him. You most of all.”
“And we haven’t found anything,” Jazz said, moving until she stood next to her girlfriend. “Doesn’t mean we didn’t miss something, but it’s not like we weren’t already thinking about it.”
Nick deflated. “Yeah, I know. But they still should have told us.”
“We did,” Dad said. He held up his hands before Nick could retort. “Just now, when we confirmed he’s really here. And no, before you ask, none of the other parents knew. It was just me, your mother, and Chris.”
Nick tried to focus, but his mind was a mess, hundreds—perhaps thousands—of thoughts screaming through his head all at once. He latched on to the first one he could. “So… what. He’s here. We knew that he might come back. But what’s he after? Me? Seth? It’s notourfault he turned out to be a dick who stole my fanfiction wholesale and tried to pass it off as his own.”
“I think he’s after his father,” Mom said, and whatever else Nick wanted to say died in his throat. “I’m sure he’s not happy with all of you, but think, Nick. Really think. If you were Owen, who would you go after first? You and Seth? Jazz andGibby? Or would he want revenge against the one person who made him who he is?”
“Burke,” Nick breathed.
Mom nodded. “You know what Burke did to him. He turned his son into…”
“A guard dog,” Seth said grimly. “He experimented on Owen. Changed him. Made him an Extraordinary.”
“But it won’t stop with Burke,” Nick said. “Evenifthat’s what his plan is, it doesn’t mean he isn’t gunning for the rest of us. Burke may have done what he did to Owen, butwe’rethe ones who defeated him on the bridge.”
“Which is why we’re telling you now that we know for sure,” Mom said. “Your father and I didn’t want to worry anyone without evidence. Isn’t that right, Aaron?”
Dad opened his mouth, but then something crossed his face—a quick flash of what looked almost like confusion—and he nodded slowly instead.
“You still should have told us,” Trey said, speaking for the first time. “Our daughters are just as involved in this. We’ve been here before, remember? With Nick and Seth and Jazz and Gibby? Turned into this whole big thing where we agreed we weren’t going to keep secrets anymore? What the hell happened with that?”
“Trey’s right,” Aysha said. “We should’ve heard about this weeks ago.”
“You’re right,” Mom said quickly. “But that’s not on Aaron. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I asked that he hold off until we could be sure. I’m sorry. But believe me when I say your kids are just as important to us as Nick is. And they are saferwithus than without us. I know you’d do anything to protect them, but sometimes, it takes something a little extra to ensure their safety. I have that. Mateo does, too. Seth. And Nick.”
“We know that,” Miles said. “But if we’re going to do this, if we’re really going to be part of this, then you can’t keep stuff like this from us. Trey’s right. We should have been told as soon as you got that note.”
