Page 50 of Archenemies

Nova’s eyes widened.

Adrian didn’t wait for her to answer. “Nightmare’s throwing stars. Heat-tracking, I think… or maybe motion-detecting? I don’t know, but they have caused us a world of trouble. Vicious little weapons.” He lifted one from the box, turning it over to inspect it from both sides. “I always wondered how they worked. We should probably take these up to research and development.”

“I’ll do it,” she said quickly. “That’s part of my job here, youknow. Sorting through things… figuring out what could be useful… making sure it gets to the right people. I’ll run it over to them after my shift today.”

Adrian put the throwing star back into the box and slid it up onto a table.

Nova exhaled. “At least we don’t have to worry about her anymore, right? The other Anarchists are scary enough, but I sure am glad Nightmare’s been taken care of.”

“I suppose…,” Adrian said.

Nova frowned at him. “What do you mean, you suppose?”

He shrugged. “We haven’t really proven that she’s dead.”

Goose bumps raced down her arms. “What?”

Adrian started pawing through a trunk, mostly filled with cheap magic tricks and plastic party favors. “They never found a body, or… any evidence at all that she was killed.”

“Because she wasobliterated,” said Nova, more forceful than she’d intended to be. “The Detonator’s bomb destroyed her. No wonder there was nothing left!”

“Maybe. I mean, it definitely caused a lot of damage, but… shouldn’t there have been something? Body parts? Blood?”

Nova gawked at him. All this time, all these weeks, she’d felt sure about thisonething, at least. This one thing that had actually gone right. She had faked her own death. The Renegades believed that Nightmare was gone. They had called off the investigation. It was one less thing for her to worry about, and she’d embraced it heartily.

And Adrian didn’t believe it?

“But… but no one could have survived that explosion.”

“You did.”

She froze.

“You were in the fun house when the bomb hit.”

“I… I was on the opposite side of the fun house,” she whispered. “And I was protected by a giant metal cylinder.”

Adrian’s lips tilted upward again, but she could tell he was humoring her. “I know. You’re probably right. She’s probably dead. I just… wonder about it, sometimes.”

“Well, don’t.”

He chuckled, but quickly became serious again. Sliding the cardboard box beneath the table, he stood. “You know, we never talked about what happened that day.”

Nova’s pulse jumped, and just like that, she was back in the neglected corner of Cosmopolis Park, and Adrian was telling her how worried he’d been when he thought she was dead, and he was stepping closer, and her breaths were coming quicker—

“Doyou want to talk about it?” His eyes were on her, unsure.

Heat climbed her neck and blossomed across her cheeks. Did she want to talk about it?

No, not really.

She wanted to pretend like it hadn’t happened. She wanted to start over.

She wanted him to try to kiss her again, because this time, she wouldn’t run away.

“I… I’m sorry,” she said, wetting her lips. “I think I just… I just got scared.”

It was true. It wasstilltrue. She was scared. Scared that she felt this way for Adrian Everhart, a Renegade. Scared that she couldn’t quite escape it, no matter how many times she reminded herself that he was the enemy.

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