Page 66 of No Capes
“I owe you an explanation, and I don’t think what I can give you right now is good enough.” She stops, and if I didn’t know her better, I would say she’s tearing up. Wait. Something on her face is moving, from her eyelashes down to her lip… onto her bare foot. Arielle iscrying.
“Arielle,” I start, but am not sure how to comfort her.
“I thought I had to, and all this time, I didn’t.” Arielle sinks to the floorboards. Her dress fluffs in the dust.
Is my sister losing her mind?I can’t look away.
“Your powers, Madeline. I thought if I could monitor you at practice, I could keep you from discovering them. Iespeciallydidn’t want Phil to realize that you have them, but it looks like both were inevitable.”
“What?” I need clarification. “You didn’t want me to know that I have powers?”
Arielle blinks, as if what she meant was obvious. “Phil would have killed you.”
I gape back. “Your husband would have killed me?”
“Last week at practice when you spoke to me about Phil covering up the accident, you knew.”
“Arielle!” I would have screamed if we weren’t hiding. “Phil is evil—killed our mom evil—and you’ve known this whole time? That is way worse than beingcoldor whatever. Way worse.”
“No.” Her voice is stilted and commanding. “I guessed, but I didn’tknowuntil the autopsy record went public. After Mom’s death was solidified as a murder, I realized Phil had something to do with it.”
And I thoughtAriellehad something to do with it. “What were you and Mom arguing about that night, then? If you’re soinnocent.” I’m laying it on her, but her complete 180 also isn’t fair.
Arielle’s eyes glisten from the tears and… something else. “Phil…” she gathers herself. “Phil is a Super.”
Aces, Arielle.
Yet, I believe her. Phil’s personality seemed inconsistent from the start, with his people-pleasing abilities suspicious. Then there was our mom’s warning:be careful of people who don’t seem to have enemies.
“He can make people like him,” Arielle explains. “Like drawing people toward him, making them more agreeable to whatever he says. I believe the technical terms are ‘enhanced likability’ ‘or extra charisma.’ The night she died, Mom warned me that he wasn’t who he said he was, but I didn’t believe her.”
That’s what my dad meant about Arielle needing to come to us. Did he have the same information? Is that why he didn’t trust Phil either?
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask.
“I couldn’t find proof. I didn’t know how he fudged the Super test results to become mayor, and I thought I’d only have one chance at speaking out against him. It was the same with Mom, Mads. She knew about his powers and was building a reveal against him, but he killed her before she could get enough evidence. When it became obvious that I covered up your powers… well, I wanted to run before he had a shot at me.
“When Mom died,” Arielle continues, “she told me to watch Phil’s reflection in a mirror and I would see what she meant, but only do it without him knowing. I thought that was overkill, but when I married Phil and we moved in together, I realized how much he hates mirrors. The house has maybe two of them.”
“Mansion,” I correct her. “The makeup mirror… you always check your lipstick when Phil goes on a rant.”
My sister nods. “Apparently, his powers stop working if his reflection is in a mirror. I’m not sure why, but Mom was right. If we catch his reflection in a glass mirror, he can’t get that likeability boost when he’s talking or near other people. I try to use my makeup compact so he can’t use his powers on a big group.”
“You’ve been working against him?” I clarify. “This whole time?”
“When I realized his powers, I couldn’t break up with him. I had to play the part and figure out what was going on. I had to go through with the wedding. But I had to be sneaky, I couldn’t hang up a mirror at Phil’s events or do much on a large scale. Doing those might temporarily turn people off him, but Phil’s already mayor, and he can bring people right back into his orbit.”
That’s why she uses her lipstick mirror when she hears him talk. It serves the dual purpose of playing the dutiful and beautiful mayor’s wife while sabotaging him. Arielle will always be a cold ice princess, but she had been looking out for me. Shewasplaying a part.
You played it well,I want to say, but aBOOMcomes from the other side of the wall.
Arielle dives away from it.
“POLICE. FREEZE,” a man shouts. AnotherBOOM.
“Oh no,” Arielle whispers, “This is bad.”
Didn’t they already check this house?I press my nose against the two hundred-year-old wall, searching for some kind of hidden crack or a lookout, but there’s nothing near me that can help. What’s the point of having a secret hideout in your house if there isn’t a lookout?
