Page 40 of Renegades

“No matter what any of you have done with your lives since the Day of Triumph,” he said, “you are all enemies of the Council and the Renegades. But right now, the only enemy I care about is Nightmare.”

He turned and faced the train car Nova was lying on. She ducked down against the roof as the Sentinel sauntered in her direction and jumped onto the tracks. He passed by Ingrid without glancing at her or her sizzling bomb.

“When you see Nightmare,” he said, grabbing the remains of the concrete bridge that Aftershock had brought crashing to the ground, “tell her that the next time she goes after the Council, I’ll be there, waiting to destroy her. And I won’t wait for the Council’s permission to do it.”

He heaved the bridge against the side of the platform, clearing the tracks. He did not turn back to see how his message had been received, just continued on, stomping into the black opening of the tunnel. Soon the darkness swallowed him, and the steady ringing of his footsteps faded into silence.

It took a long time for the tension to disperse. Eventually, Honey sent the bees buzzing back toward their solitary alcove. Eventually,Ingrid released the crackling energy and Leroy tucked the acid bomb back into his pocket and Phobia sank back to his normal stature.

Then Ingrid lifted her hands to either side of her head and made a face at the tunnel where the Sentinel had gone.

“To be weak,” Phobia rasped. “To be helpless.”

Ingrid cast him a sideways look. “Excuse me?”

“That is his deepest fear,” said Phobia, idly twirling the scythe blade overhead. “To be, in essence, without power.”

Honey huffed. “How fitting for a self-righteous Renegade.”

“Perhaps,” said Phobia, the hood of his cloak swaying with a slow nod. “And yet, a difficult fear to exploit against one who has been given so very much of it.”

“Are his abilities products of the armor?” Leroy mused, taking out a handkerchief that had been tucked against his chest and dabbing his slick face with it. “It would be beneficial to know if he represents a new evolution in prodigy strengths, or if his powers are the result of experimentation or engineering.”

“And whether or not they can be replicated,” said Ingrid, suspicion making her lip curl.

Phobia did not have an answer.

Releasing a slow breath, Nova rolled onto her back. Long ago, someone had spray-painted graffiti on the ceiling here and she found herself staring up into an ugly demonic face, its tongue lolling out.

They were right. If the Sentinel was a creation of the Council, who was to say there wouldn’t be more coming? That thought led to a host of concerns. If they could give someone superstrength, super-agility, and even the ability to make and control fire… who knew what else they could do?

One Sentinel she could handle. But an entire army of them? It would leave the Anarchists, well… powerless.

She shifted and felt something crunch against her hip. Reaching into her pocket, she wrapped her hand around a piece of crumpled paper.

“We should have killed him,” Ingrid said, and Nova heard the thuds and shuffles as they started to put their supplies back in order upon the shelves. “We should have killed them all.”

“And live the rest of our lives behind bars?” Leroy clicked his tongue. “That would be a shortsighted attempt at vengeance.”

“At least it would avenge my poor darlings,” said Honey.

“Nothing has changed,” said Phobia. “The Council is our enemy. The Renegades will fall easily once they are gone.”

Nova unfolded the paper in her hands. It was the flyer she’d been handed at the parade, advertising the Renegade trials. At the top was scrawled, in bold letters:DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

Jaw twitching, she started to shred the paper to pieces.

Phobia was wrong. Things had changed that day. Thanks to Winston’s attack and her own botched assassination attempt, the Renegades would be on higher alert than ever.

And now they had the Sentinel to contend with.

Where twenty-four hours ago she had felt optimistic about their chances, now it felt as though any hope of someday reclaiming a real life for themselves was evaporating before her eyes. The existence of the Sentinel was proof that they didn’t know enough about their enemies, while the Renegades knew so much aboutthem.Where they lived. The extent of their abilities.

But they didn’t know abouther.

And if that was the only advantage she had, then she was going to use it.

CHAPTER TEN

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