SuperNova: Heroes of Arcania (22 page)

“Maybe not you.” Penelope broke her gaze, head turning to look somewhere off to the side. “But I don’t see it being a problem for me.”
 

“Don’t even joke like that,” I said between gritted teeth. “You know Dad would…”
 

Pen huffed and I trailed off before I said too much. I glanced at Nova, trying to come up with some excuse for my stupid sister. The thought died off when I saw the concern on Nova’s face. She hadn’t heard a word we’d said.
 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” She jumped when my fingers skimmed her upper arm.
 

“Fourth and Church, that’s my dad’s building,” she said with a meaningful look. “As in, the court building where all the records are kept.”
 

“There are other businesses—” I tried.
 

She cut me off, sounding as though she’d never felt more sure in her life. “He’s there, Cole.”
 

“What are we waiting for?” Penelope asked.
 

Before either of us could question her, she took off. I wanted to shout at her, make her see reason.
We are not prepared for this!
Nova and I chased after her, easily catching up. By the time we reached the court building, Pen and I were clutching our sides. Nova paced, obviously itching to race ahead and barge into Fortune’s plans.
 

“This is a bad idea,” I panted.
 

Penelope cleared her throat and straightened. “Now what?”
 

“We go in and take him down,” Nova said as though it were obvious.
 

I raised an eyebrow, cocking my head to the entrance. “You really think we can just waltz in and stop them? What if they have guns?”
 

Pen looked around in confusion. “Uh, what about the other guys we’ve been taking down all week?”
 

“Not the same thing,” I said, looking to Nova for reason. “This is more than a couple of teenagers with candy bars in their pockets!”
 

Nova grimaced, giving me an apologetic look. “I might not get the chance again; I have to know if he’s here.”
 

I opened my mouth to argue, but Penelope interrupted. “I’m with Nova, let’s just go in and see what we’re up against.”
 

“You’re both being irrational,” I muttered. I cleared my throat and spoke up. “This isn’t some mugger; this is Fortune, and if aren’t careful, he’ll kill us tonight.”
 

My words appeared to sobered Nova up, the anticipation suddenly not so exciting. “Especially if he has a Seer.”
 

I nodded. “Exactly. We’re a great team, but we might be walking into something here.”
 

“And if we’re not? What if we miss our only chance to get him?” Penelope asked.
 

That argument won Nova over. She grimaced, shooting me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Cole, I’m with Pen on this one. I can’t risk losing Fortune tonight out of fear.”
 

“It’s not fear,” I tried, stopping at the looks on their faces. I looked from my sister to Nova a few times and sighed. “I’m outnumbered here, aren’t I?”
 

Without another word, the three of us turned and raced up the front stairs of the courthouse building. The front doors were locked, but Penelope simply used her mind to twist the locks open. We entered quietly, keeping the lights off. We’d developed a silent system of hand motions, easy enough to pick up and stick together. Nothing greeted us on the first floor and I moved us up to floor two.
 

We snuck up the stairs, our movements quiet and quick. A rustling on my far left had me pause, my fist in the air for Nova and Pen to stop. We crept forward, the three of us staying low behind a fake tree to have a look. The sound, however, was too far down the hall. We’d have to get closer for an actual view.
 

Leading the way, Nova led us around the corner to find a door ajar. Quietly nudging it with the tip of her shoe, it thankfully remained quiet as it swung open. I glanced at the room name and number, barely registering it with all the adrenaline pumping. The huge room had a large, open aisle, with massive, long filing drawers forming rows on either side. We had to slip through a few rows before we found the culprit.
 

Their back to us, a person rooted around in a large file drawer. The figure turned and I recognized the Runner from the other week.
 

“Soccer Dad?” Nova said without thinking.
 

The man whirled around (a blink-and-you’d-miss-it move) and upon seeing her, sighed. “And you.”
 

“What are you doing here?” she asked. Penelope and I shifted behind her, keeping an eye out around and behind us.
 

“None of your—Soccer Dad? Is that really what you call me?” he asked, upper lip curling back in annoyance.
 

She snorted. “Good to know your vanity is a soft spot. Where’s Fortune?”
 

“We’ve been over this, you don’t want to get involved.”
 

“Too late for that,” Nova said, raising her voice. “I’m taking Fortune down, one way or another.”
 

“He’s not here.”
 

“Fine.” Disappointment made her deflate. “What about his Seer?”
 

The guy’s face wrinkled in confusion. “What Seer?”
 

“You know, the guy who sees the future and tells Fortune how it’s gonna go down? That Seer?”
 

He scoffed. “You really think Fortune would ever work with a Seer?”
 

I blinked, his genuine surprise throwing me off. Nova and I exchanged a glance. “I don’t understand.”
 

The Runner glanced over his shoulder as though to be sure we weren’t overheard. “Fortune doesn’t need to bother with a Seer.”
 

“Because he thinks he’s the world’s best villain,” I said slowly, putting two and two together. So it wasn’t that Fortune’s Seer hadn’t anticipated Nova’s showing that fateful day at the bank. It was that Fortune hadn’t accounted for her family walking in at that very moment. They’d been a fluke. It meant Fortune planned his heists down to the last detail.
 

The Runner saw me understanding the clues and nodded. “Use that to your advantage.”
 

“Excuse me?” I asked, sure I hadn’t heard him right.
Did he just insinuate he wants us to win?
 

Outside, the night sky lit up with lightning. It cracked once more and I realized that it was a strange blue shade. My eyebrows shot up. “What the…?”
 

“He’s here.” Nova swallowed hard. Her statement was flat and scared.
 

“How’s that?” I asked. Penelope and I shared a confused glance. The Runner’s mouth snapped shut as he shot a nervous look at the door.
 

“I told you to run, kid,” the Runner said. He scowled at Nova and she took offense.
 

“Did you really think I scare that easy?”
 

“Let’s find out,” someone said. The voice seemed to come from all around us, like he was everywhere and nowhere. It gave me the creeps.
 

The voice made Nova’s entire body stiffen. Her blue eyes shone with fear, a tremor running through her. I barely heard the whisper from her lips. “Fortune.”
 

Nova, Penelope and I had hardly turned around before bright cracks of lightning filled the room. I struck my arms out on either side to cover Penelope and Nova as we shielded our eyes. Fortune’s laugh sounded somewhere in the shadows, the room continuing to light up with his gift. His shadow bounced off the walls between flashes, the head thrown back in a deep cackle. If this were a movie, I might have found it cheesy, but in real life? It scared the hell out of me.
 

“What is happening?” Penelope shrieked and cursed between cracks of light.
 

I glanced back to see unhappiness on the Runner’s face. He gave me a look as though to say
I told you so
. Narrowing my eyes, I turned back and steeled myself for Fortune’s wrath. I contemplated freezing him. I might be able to spare us a few seconds at least. Penelope had other ideas.
 

“Haul it at my signal!” Her arms shot out and her gift threw one of the giant filing cabinets back and into the two men. “There it is!”
 

Fortune and Soccer Dad crashed to the ground and I wasted no time in urging the girls to run. We sprinted, making a break for the door. Nova’s footsteps slowed at the front of the room, however, as she glanced back to look for Fortune. He wore an all-black suit with a ski mask. He climbed to his feet, eyes crinkled in anger beneath the crooked mask.
 

“Let’s play a game,” he said to us, his snarl making my heart cold with worry.
 

Blue lightning formed on his fingertips as he searched for us. Right when his dead eyes looked up at Nova, I yanked at her arm. I dragged her out of the room, the door swinging shut just as a volt of electricity smacked into the upper half’s window.
 

“We gotta go, Nova,
now
,” I said in her ear, hand still tight on her upper arm.
 

It was the fear in her eyes that spurred me into action. Seeing him again had done something to her. She was nearly paralyzed with horror. My feet moved without thinking again, dragging her out and behind me. I glanced back, waiting for Fortune to barrel outside and zap us to crispy ashes in the street. We got away without problem, not stopping until we were in the car and on the road.
 

No one spoke on the ride home, though Penelope’s anger was palpable. She fumed in the backseat, arms crossed over her chest as she glared out the window. I winced when she ripped her hair band out, sure she’d pulled a chunk of hair from her skull. I had a pretty good feeling about why she was truly pissed off.
 

Nova lied about Fortune’s gift.
She’d purposely insinuated that he was a Seer. I could see it in her face, in the way she refused to look at me. She was guilty and knew she was about to get an earful. I didn’t want to argue, though; I wanted to know why she’d lied to me, about something that was so obviously important. We’d barely parked and stepped out of my car in our driveway before Pen started yelling.
 

“You didn’t tell us!” Penelope snapped. She whirled around, long hair swinging with the motion. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us?”
 

I wasted no time in ushering us indoors. We’d wake the neighbors if we kept that up in the front yard. We stumbled into our living room, the three of us in a standoff behind locked doors. Penelope seethed, snapping at me. I tried to stay positive.
 

“Maybe she didn’t know,” I tried, despite knowing the truth deep down. When she didn’t say anything, my confidence faltered. “You knew his gift?”
 

“I don’t know what he is—” she tried, but Penelope butted in.
 

“He’s a Volter!”
 

“A what?” she asked, dumbfounded.
 

“A Volter,” Penelope enunciated. Anger made her normally pale cheeks red. “His gift is electricity.
Big
electricity, like, he’s got power through practically any nearby source. We should’ve been toast in there. He can zap anyone, anytime he wants.”
 

My stomach turned as I thought of the case files Dad brought home. It had photos of the burns in Starling’s yellow shirt. Nova must have been thinking of the same thing, because she sneered. “Yeah, I’m well aware.”
 

“And you lied to us about it!” Penelope shouted. Her hands were by her sides, but they shook with anger.
 

She better keep it in check and not throw Nova through a wall. No hiding that from Dad.
 

Despite all of Penelope’s rage, I was more disappointed than mad. Nova and I had shared a lot together in the last few weeks. Even if she hadn’t told us about Fortune’s gift in the beginning, she’d had dozens of chances to come clean.
Doesn’t she trust me?
I had to know before letting my temper get the better of me. I stared at her, my lips pursed in thought.
 

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” I asked, hurt clear in my question.
 

Not “us” — “me.”
I’d slipped and now she knew I was taking this personally. Nova’s mouth opened and closed, having no idea what to say.
 

“I’m sorry.” She swallowed hard and I didn’t miss the waver in her voice. “When Fortune…killed Starling, he said if I ever told anyone the truth, he’d kill the rest of my family. He’s not the kind of guy who bluffs. I couldn’t risk it for my family, or for you. I’d rather have speculated on a Seer and faced him alone than put you in that kind of danger.”
 

My face softened and even Penelope’s hard look fell off. Her thin arms crossed over her chest and she averted her eyes, still scowling. She didn’t want to let her off that easy.
 

“I’m sorry,” Nova said again, silently pleading with me to forgive her. She took an involuntary step forward. “I didn’t mean to put you in danger. I really did think he had a Seer and that if you knew the truth about
him
, it would make things worse…”
 

“Nova,” I said, coming a few steps closer. I reached out for her hand without thinking. “I already told you, we know the risks, but that means you have to tell us everything. Is there anything else?”
 

“No,” she said immediately, shaking her head. I glanced down at her hand in mine, felt her warm skin. “That’s everything. He killed Starling using that hellish blue lightning. My dad is the only other person who knows that, though.”
 

I squeezed her hand and she looked back up at me. Her hands trembled and I knew she felt terrible. I couldn’t stay mad at her, not when she needed us the most. “It’s okay, Nova.”