Page 124 of Supernova

He tore his arm away and started to run again. Having been so close to the mist-missile and the cloud of Agent N, they probably thought he’d been neutralized, too.

They were wrong.

Nova hadn’t moved. She watched him charging for her, her face pale, a fear like he’d never seen before brimming in her eyes.

“Let her go!” he yelled, as another flame burst forth from his palm. Adrian prepared to lurch forward, to attack, to tear Ace Anarchy and his cohorts apart, if they’d done anything to hurt her—

He didn’t see the net until it was too late. Until his foot had crossed some invisible mark and, as one, the knot of ropes engulfed him. He stumbled and rolled a few times, entangling himself more.

Choking for air, he tried to rebound to his feet, but one leg was caught. He felt like a wild animal, ensnared in a hunter’s trap, and Danna’s words came back to him, further igniting his anger.

Igniting.

Recalling the first time he’d been caught in ropes like these, he snarled and clenched his left fist around the nearest rope. He summoned his flame, letting it burn as hot as it could.

The fire was an inferno, nearly engulfing Adrian’s entire body,by the time he realized that it wasn’t working. The ropes grew sticky, but they did not burn.

“Fire-resistant coating,” said Cyanide, drawing Adrian’s attention back to the villains. “We do try to learn from past mistakes.”

With sweat dripping down the back of his neck, Adrian maneuvered his right arm so he had a clear shot through the net. His skin lit up. He targeted Ace Anarchy, standing not far from Nova, and fired.

A series of pews flew up onto their sides, forming a wall between Adrian and the villains. The pews crashed back down to the floor, their splintered wooden seats leaving just enough space between them that there remained a narrow aisle down the nave’s center.

“Great marvels,” said Queen Bee. Stepping forward, she linked her elbow with Nova’s. Adrian tensed, panic surging through every nerve. “If you want her so much, here—you can have her.”

With a saccharine smile, Queen Bee shoved Nova forward. She stumbled down the few steps onto the long, narrow path that distinguished the choir from the nave. She caught herself and hesitated.

“Nova,” said Adrian, his voice thick with despair, his arms straining against the ropes. “Are you okay?”

She stared at him, swallowing hard.

She said nothing as she started down the aisle. She appeared tormented and unsure. He hadneverseen Nova, confident, brave Nova, look like that before.

But as she came closer, he noticed something else, too.

She was not tied up, like he would assume a Renegade prisoner would be.

She was not wearing her Renegade uniform, or even her usual civilian clothes, but rather a black jacket and a utility belt that seemed eerily familiar.

Adrian’s stomach gave a lurch. He would have backed away, buthe was stuck, peering at her through the ropes that were as constricting as his own rib cage.

“She’s done well, hasn’t she?” said Ace Anarchy, speaking for the first time. His voice carried a lilt of amusement, but Adrian barely heard him over the truth and disbelief that had gone to war inside his head. “Your plan was a clever one, sneaking in through the catacombs. It might even have worked, if you hadn’t already told my niece that you knew about the escape tunnel. Now that you’re here, we’ll have to make sure that entrance is blocked off, so no one else thinks to follow in your footsteps.” He gestured to a couple of the villains. “Bind the others and secure them in the treasury for now. Take the Everhart boy to the east chapel and await further instructions.”

Ace Anarchy’s orders barely registered.

Nova was nearly to Adrian now. The fear he’d seen before was fading away, being replaced by her signature determination. Her jaw tense, her shoulders set.

Had he only imagined the torment before? The regret? The doubt?

“Nova,” he breathed, nearly coughing on the word as his own jumble of emotions stuck in his throat. “Who are you?”

She crouched so they were eye to eye. They were as close now as when they’d danced at the gala. As close as when he’d put noise-canceling headphones on her ears so she could finally sleep. As close as when they’d kissed in the subway tunnels, just outside the hidden passage to the catacombs.

The last shreds of denial shriveled up inside him. The truth won. Suddenly, he knew.

When Danna had first accused Nova of being his worst enemy, the villain he had been hunting for months, he had been angry. Mortified. At times, even disgusted.

Now, all that was left was a deep, devastating sense of loss.

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