Page 143 of Supernova

Unconscious Leroy, falling.

“No!”

Adrian hit the wooden platform with an impact that clattered through her bones. He used the momentum to spring upward again. It felt like flying. Their heads crashed through falling debris. The air whistled past her ears. The narrow windows of the tower blurred in her vision.

With one arm locked around Nova, Adrian used the other to catch Leroy around his middle. Clearing the destroyed floor, they tumbled together to the edge of the belfry, where one small section of floorboards had yet to give in to their weakened joists. Nova landed on her side with a jarring crunch. Leroy’s body smacked the stone wall beneath one of the outer bells.

“The floor’s not going to hold,” Adrian shouted, as the telltale groan of wood and nails echoed beneath them.

Ignoring her throbbing rib cage, Nova hoisted herself to her feet and reached for the open sill. With the mortar and stonework, it was easy for her to find fingerholds, and in seconds she had climbed up onto the crossbar that supported the enormous bronze bell. It swung beneath her weight, the bell ringing like an alarm.

Squinting through smoke and debris, she saw that Adrian had Leroy draped over one shoulder while he used the chromium pike that had been lodged into an overhead beam to haul himself onto the enormous timber frame in the center of the tower.

“Don’t hurt him, please,” Nova said, gripping the walls to keep her balance.

Leroy started to slip. Adrian barely caught him, grunting from the effort. He managed to secure Leroy on the crossbeam before leveraging himself up the rest of the way. Slumping in exhaustion, he looked at Nova.

Clouds of dust spun in the air around them. Wood continued to groan and creak in the floors below.

“You okay?” Adrian asked.

She laughed and pushed her bangs back from her brow. “No,” she said. “Leroy’s been like a second father to me.” She hesitated, before adding, “Him and Ace both.”

Adrian stared at her. “I don’t want to sound mean, but I think we need to get you new role models.”

She scowled. “Your dads aren’t perfect, either.”

“I know they aren’t, but come on.” He gestured at Leroy’s slumped body.

Nova adjusted her balance so she didn’t feel quite so precarious, her ankles locked around the sides of the bell. “I know it may not seem like it right now, but he’s actually a good guy…” She trailed off, wondering how she’d never once, in all the time she’d felt herself falling for Adrian, considered what it would be like if he ever met Leroy or the rest of her “family.” It had never been worth considering, because she’d known it would never happen.

“Well then,” said Adrian with a dry chuckle, “I hope we’ll have a chance to get to know each other.”

She focused on him again, grateful that he hadn’t outright dismissed the idea. “Thank you for not letting him fall.”

“We’re not safe yet.” Adrian peered down into the jagged hole beneath them. “I’ll have to transform. I’m stronger with the Sentinel’s armor. I’ll be able to get him down to safety, but I don’t know if I can take you both at once.”

“I can get down,” Nova said, testing that the pouch with her gloves was secure at her hip. “Just let me catch my breath first.”

At least her body was no longer throbbing from the wasp stings, she realized, pressing a hand over her shirt where the Vitality Charm was tucked away.

Things could be worse.

“Nova?” said Adrian. His expression was worried. “What is Ace planning? What is all this for?”

“He wants to destroy the Renegades, especially the Council, so we can take control of the city. He sees the Renegades as tyrants who are oppressing prodigies everywhere and… and he keeps saying that we’re going to be gods.”

Adrian made a sound of derision. “And he calls my dad arrogant.”

A sudden crash shook the tower. Nova yelped, sure that the aftermath of the explosion was about to bring the bell tower toppling around them. Then she glanced across the expanse of the cathedral’s roof and her heart launched into her throat.

Captain Chromium was on top of the southern turret, gripping the tall pinnacle with one hand while spinning his enormous chainoverhead with the other. Ace levitated above the roof’s peak, using his powers to peel off stone gargoyles from the architecture and lob them at his enemy. The Captain was attempting to strike Ace with the chain while blocking the constant assault.

Nova shuddered. Not from seeing the two in a battle, but because Ace was cackling as he tore into the clay tiles that lined the roof.

“My masterpiece, so recently rebuilt, and so easily destroyed once again!” said Ace, sounding more gleeful than distraught. “All that matters now is that you Renegades are buried in its rubble. It will be a fitting end, after what you did to me ten years ago!”

“Nova,” said Adrian, “we have to stop him. You know that, right?”

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