Page 66 of Supernova

“What’s wrong with romance novels?” said Danna.

Ruby huffed. “Nothing! It’s just—”

“It’s just that villains read only manuals on death and destruction?” said Danna, lifting an eyebrow.

Adrian crossed his arms. “So you admit it might be her?”

Danna gawked at him. “I’m not admitting anything! I just don’t think someone’s reading preferences automatically rule them out as an enemy.”

“She does have villain connections…,” mused Oscar. “Including connections to the Anarchists, if her grandpa was selling to them for years. And I guess she does have reason to hate Nova, if she really thinks Nova could have stopped the Detonator that day.”

“None of this matters,” said Danna, “because she’snotNightmare. She’s a copycat!”

“How do you know?” asked Adrian.

Danna looked at him, frustrated at first, but maybe a little pityingly, too. Adrian bristled.

“What is Nightmare’s superpower?” she asked.

Adrian scowled.

It was Oscar who responded, “Putting people to sleep.”

Danna spread her arms, as if this were evidence enough. “Putting people to sleep.Notwalking through mirrors.”

“Yeah…,” started Ruby, mindlessly tapping her finger against the point of her bloodstone. “But Adrian has multiple superpowers. So does Max. It’s not entirely unheard of.”

“You guys, I followed Nova,” said Danna. “Isawher.”

“What exactly did you see?” said Adrian. “You’ve never told us the details.”

She groaned. “There aren’t a lot of details to give. I suspected Nova, so I started following her. At some point, she led me to the cathedral, and that’s how I knew to take you guys there, but I don’t actually remember, because the lepidoptera that was following her is dead.”

Once she had finished, a silence descended on them, and Adrian knew he wasn’t the only one thinking it. He could see the doubt creeping onto Danna’s face, even. Uncertainty. Maybe a twinge of horror.

“It wasn’t a trick,” she insisted. “She couldn’t have—”

“Fooled you,” said Oscar. “Fooledus.”

“Is it possible,” said Adrian, slowly, because he didn’t want Danna to think he was accusing her of anything, “that while you were following Nova, your… lepidoptera… got another lead, and followed the real Nightmare to the cathedral?”

“But…” Danna shook her head. “No. This is absurd. She’s a copycat. An impostor.”

“But why?” said Adrian. “Why would Narcissa Cronin pretend to be Nightmare? She wasn’t on our radar at all before this, and now it’s like she wants us to start hunting for her again?”

Danna cut a sharp glare at him, but he couldn’t help it. With every tick of the big clock on the back of the store’s wall, his perceptions of Nightmare and Nova and Narcissa Cronin were changing. Melding together, then separating again.

“I don’t know,” said Danna, “but do we really think she had a change of heart and decided she would put herself on the line just to prevent the death of a Renegade? A Renegade she hates!”

Oscar shrugged. “I wouldn’t want the death of an innocent person on my hands, even if I did hate them.”

“You’re not a villain!” said Danna.

Adrian hardly heard her, though. Oscar’s words struck Adrian harder than he’d probably intended. Or, one word in particular. One word Adrian’s own mind had been dancing around, refusing to stop and contemplate all it would mean.

Nova was—

No. Nova was not innocent. She couldn’t be. Not after everything. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the thought before it could take hold. There was too much evidence stacked against her, but now, somehow, the evidence that had seemed so damning hours before struck him as… what was the word Nightmare had used?Circumstantial.

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