Page 56 of Renegades

Nova feigned left. He took the bait and swung, while she turnedand dived into a roll beneath his other arm. She sprang back to her feet and was turning back to face him when a battering ram crashed into the side of her skull.

She was momentarily weightless.

Her body struck the solid dirt with a reverberation that jolted her entire skeleton. Stars flecked before her eyes. Groaning, Nova blinked up at the paper banner fluttering overhead and listened to the cheers of the crowd and the thuds of Gargoyle’s footsteps ambling toward her.

“Okay,” she muttered, once her head stopped ringing like a bronze bell. “Won’t make that mistake again.”

A shadow eclipsed the blazing lights of the arena. She smiled sweetly up at Gargoyle and lifted a hand. “Help a lady up?”

Snarling, Gargoyle bent and gathered the front of her shirt in his stone fist, hauling her off the ground.

“Every superhero wishes they could fly, right?” he said, lips peeling back to reveal a series of chipped teeth. “Well, darling, you’re about to have the pleasure.” He pulled his arm back, preparing to hurl her body out of the ring.

Before he had the chance, Nova swung her feet up, wrapping her ankles tightly around his bicep and locking her legs in place. When Gargoyle tried to throw her off, she clung tight. He growled and started to shake his arm, like attempting to knock off a stubborn spider.

The audience exploded in laughter.

He reached his other hand over to pry her legs away, and Nova swung forward, driving the tip of the ice blade into his palm.

The ice shattered, leaving a hilt with a short, broken shard.

He smirked. “Did you really think—”

Nova released her ankles, dropped to the ground, and sliced theuneven edge of the blade deep across his leg—a patch of skin that hadn’t yet been transformed into stone.

Gargoyle bellowed and kicked out on instinct, clobbering Nova in the chest. She landed on her back, just inside the edge of the ring.

Rubbing her chest with her free hand, she rolled onto her side and climbed back to her feet. She took stock of her options as Gargoyle, huffing with renewed anger, and maybe embarrassment, prepared to charge again.

She licked her lips. Flexed her fingers once around the knife handle, then tucked it into her waistband, ignoring how the ice burned against her skin.

She braced herself—again.

The Gargoyle stampeded.

Nova stampeded back. Racing headlong, straight for her opponent.

A moment before they collided, Nova sprang upward. She landed with both feet on Gargoyle’s shoulders and used the momentum to launch herself at one of the pillars that stood just within the circle. Her arms and legs locked around the pole and she started to shimmy upward.

Below, she heard Gargoyle’s taunting, thick voice, saying something about the little girl running away, but she didn’t much care what he thought she was doing.

Reaching the top of the pillar, she took the frozen knife handle from against her back and swung it at the strings that held the long paper banner over the field. The edge was still sharp, and the strings snapped with one clean cut. Her end of the banner fluttered to the ground.

Something splintered beneath her. The column shuddered. Nova glanced down as Gargoyle aimed a second punch at the column, driving a deep crack along the wooden beam.

The column started to creak and tip toward the center of the ring.

Nova dived off, rolling as she hit the ground. She snatched up the end of the banner and bounded back to her feet. Spinning to face her opponent, she lifted the blade and threw it end over end. It spun through the air in a perfect arc, right for Gargoyle’s chest.

He blocked it with his forearm. What was left of the knife shattered into a hundred tiny shards of ice.

His laugh boomed through the arena, mimicked by the thousands of strangers in the stands.

“What’s your plan now?” Gargoyle said. “Strangle me with a strip of butcher paper?”

Nova scowled. She wanted him enraged, not amused. She needed him to charge at her—with feeling, this time. Instead, Gargoyle turned back to the crowd and started riling them up some more, barking jokes about the wittle girl who lost her wittle knife.

Nova glanced around, searching for something else she could use.

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