Page 34 of Supernova

Well, there was still plenty of evidence against her. Even this explosion seemed to prove her guilt. Nightmare must have knownthat her identity was compromised, and so she or one of her allies had rigged this explosion to keep the Renegades from commandeering any more of their belongings.

It made sense.

But Adrian couldn’t quite tear his thoughts away from that moment when Nova had raced down the steps and shoved him out the door. The panic in her expression had been palpable. Her terror as she had dragged him away from the house was undeniable.

She could have been thinking about saving her own life, but… Adrian didn’t think that was the case. She had been trying to save him, too.

He couldn’t make himself believe it was all an act.

What if Nova—no,Nightmare—did care for him? Truly cared for him?

It wouldn’t matter.

Because she was a villain and an Anarchist. She was his enemy. She had lied to him about everything.

He choked back the bile that was suddenly stinging his throat.

He hated Nightmare. He loathed her to the core of his being.

He repeated these thoughts again and again, hoping that the unsettled twinge in his gut would go away if he just kept reminding himself of the truth.

I hate her. I hate her. Ihateher.

“Sketch?”

His head jerked up. Tsunami was standing in the blackened frame of the row house’s front door, her white gloves smudged with silvery ash.

“We’ve deemed it safe for forensics and the cleanup crew to begin inspecting the home. You’re welcome to take a look around, too. But… as I’m sure you’ve noticed, there isn’t much to see.”

Exhaling, he nodded at Ruby and Oscar. Tsunami disappeared back into the house, but Adrian hadn’t taken two steps when he felt a hand on his arm.

“You don’t have to go in there, you know,” said Ruby.

His jaw twitched. “You heard Tsunami. It’s safe.” There was a definite undercurrent of resentment to his voice, but he didn’t care. Hewasresentful. And angry. And hurt.

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Ruby tilted her head, sympathy written across her face. “You can leave this to the cleanup crew. It doesn’t have to be you.”

“Actually, it does have to be me,” he rebuked. “I knew her better than anyone. I should have figured out the truth.”

“She fooled all of us, Adrian, not just you. She was my friend. She came out to watch my brothers compete in that silly Sidekick Olympics. She danced with Oscar at the gala. She—”

“She kissed me,” he interrupted. “She made me think that I…” He trailed off, just short of confessing the brutal words that had been clinging to him since the moment he’d found out the truth.I could be in love with her.

It wasn’t true, though. It wasn’t real. It had never been real.

Ruby tensed. “Adrian…”

“Besides,” he went on, “she didn’t fool all of us. Danna figured her out weeks ago.”

“Which was still a long time after she joined our team. Remember how Danna brought Nova a care package when she was in the medical wing? And didn’t she have dinner at your house, with your dads? Honestly, if she could trick the Council, then—”

“I should have known.” Adrian tore his arm away from her. “It’s so obvious, isn’t it?” He squeezed his eyes shut as memories flooded through him. The library. The carnival. His own basement.He shivered, and for the first time when he thought of that night, it wasn’t a good shiver. “I should have realized it sooner, and everyone is going to know that.” It hurt too much to see Ruby’s pity, so he turned to Oscar instead. Sadly, Oscar’s expression wasn’t much better. “It doesn’t matter now. We finally know who Nightmare is. She’s captured, and so is Ace Anarchy. Good against evil. Renegades win again.” He gestured toward the house. “Now let’s go see what else we can learn about our enemies.”

The moment Adrian stepped through the threshold of the row house, though, he knew they wouldn’t be learning much. The house was nothing more than a shell of stone walls, and even their surfaces appeared wilted, like they’d gotten too close to the sun. Tsunami and the others were down in the basement, standing on blackened dirt and ash between the high stone foundation walls, but he could see from their dismay that they were just going through the procedures now. No one really expected this investigation to turn up anything useful.

Adrian took a few steps inside, walking carefully along the narrow foundation wall. He was surprised to see a hallway and powder room to his left with the shreds of scorched wallpaper still visible on the plaster and a towel bar dangling from one screw, until he realized that he was seeing the abandoned neighboring home. The wall that had once separated them was gone.

He took another few steps, though he wasn’t sure why he bothered. At some point he became aware that Ruby and Oscar hadn’t followed him. They were still standing on the threshold, peering into the hollow space that had once been Nova’s home. There was nothing here.

---