Page 5 of Renegades

Nothing at all as he lifted the gun.

The metal pressed against her forehead, where her mother’s blood had cooled.

Nova reached up and grabbed his wrist, unleashing her power with more force than she ever had.

The man’s jaw slackened. His eyes dulled and rolled up into his head. He fell backward, landing with a resounding thud on her bedroom floor, crushing her dollhouse beneath his weight. The whole building seemed to shake from his fall.

Seconds later, deep, peaceful breathing filled the apartment.

Nova’s lungs contracted again. Air moved through her throat, shuddering. In. And out.

She forced herself to stand and rub the tears and snot from her face.

She picked up the gun, though it felt awkward and heavy in her hand, and slipped her finger over the trigger.

She took a step closer, one hand gripping the doorframe as she left the sanctuary of the closet. She wasn’t sure where she should aim. His head. His chest. His stomach.

She settled on his heart. Got so close to him she could feel his shirt brushing against her bare toes.

Bang. Her mother was dead.

Bang. Her father.

Bang. Evie…

The Renegades had not come.

They weren’t going to come.

“Pull the trigger,” she whispered into the empty room. “Pull the trigger, Nova.”

But she didn’t.

“Pull the trigger.”

She couldn’t.

Minutes, maybe hours later, her uncle found her. She was still standing over the stranger’s sleeping form, ordering herself to pull the trigger. Hearing those gunshots over and over every time she dared to close her eyes.

“Nova?” A plastic bag dropped to the floor, taking a plastic medicine bottle with it. Nova startled and turned the gun on him.

Uncle Alec didn’t even flinch as he crouched before her. He was dressed as he always was—the black-and-gold uniform, his dark eyes barely visible through the copper-toned helmet that disguised most of his face. “Nova.… Your parents.… Your sister.…” He looked down and reached for the gun. Nova didn’t resist as he took it from her. His attention turned to the man. “I’d always thought you might be one of us, but your father wouldn’t tell me what it was you could do.…”

He met Nova’s eyes again. Pity and, perhaps, admiration.

With that look, Nova fell apart, throwing herself into his arms. “Uncle Alec,” she wailed, sobbing into his chest. “He shot them… he… he killed…”

He picked her up, cradling her against his chest. “I know,” he murmured into her hair. “I know, sweet, dangerous child. But you’re safe now. I’ll protect you.”

She barely heard him over the noise in her head. The tumult pressing against the inside of her skull.Bang-bang-bang.

“But you can’t call me Alec anymore, not out there. All right, my little nightmare?” He smoothed her hair. The handle of the gun bumped against her ear. “To the rest of the world, I’m Ace. You understand? Uncle Ace.”

But she wasn’t listening. And maybe he knew that.

In the midst of her cries, he squeezed her tight, aimed the gun at the sleeping man, and fired.

CHAPTER ONE

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