Page 90 of Archenemies

Adrian climbed to his feet and aimed his glowing arm toward the group below. “Like I said, I’ll be finishing the job for you. Consider Hawthorn my prisoner now.”

Aftershock snarled and made to slam his foot down again, when Frostbite held up a hand, halting him. “Hold on. I think he should see this.”

Stingray snickered, though the sound was tired. He hadn’t fully recovered from the concussive beam yet. “Yeah, he should know what Agent N can do… because he’ll be next.”

But Frostbite shook her head. She was peering up at Adrian, her expression calculating. “No… I’ve changed my mind. We’re not going to neutralize Hawthorn. That would be a waste of resources, given that wefoundher this way.”

Adrian frowned. “What are you—”

“Aftershock, bring him down. Gargoyle… kill her.”

“What?” Adrian barked. He swiveled his arm toward Gargoyle, then heard the rumble of earth below. The stack shook beneath him and he fired, but the bolt of energy went wide, striking a crate behind them.

Adrian yelped and grabbed the edge of the container to keep from sliding off as it lurched to one side.

The metronome could barely be heard over the grating of clay and dirt, the splintering of buried rock.

He spotted Gargoyle and his eyes widened. In horror. In disbelief.

“No!” he yelled, as Gargoyle wrapped both hands around Hawthorn’s head. She started to scream. “You can’t—”

In one merciless motion, Gargoyle crushed her skull between his palms, silencing her.

The air left Adrian. White spots shimmered at the edges of his vision.

“Don’t be sad, Sentinel,” Frostbite yelled up toward him. “No one is going to miss her… just like no one will miss you.”

The earthquake reached a crescendo. The precarious stack under his feet began to topple.

Adrian forced himself to get up, urged on by adrenaline and rage. He ran. Down the full length of the container, leaping from it seconds before it collapsed under his feet. He landed hard on the roof of Hawthorn’s laboratory and kept running, racing from stackto stack. The whole world was trembling now. The shipyard was a shamble of falling containers, groaning metal, shuddering earth. Every time Adrian landed on a new stack, it immediately began to sway and buck beneath his feet.

He kept going, pounding his legs as hard and fast as he could force them to go, and as the last stack of crates began to fall, he sprang upward, stretching.

He barely caught the hook of one of the enormous cranes. His momentum swung him forward, over the docks of the port. Letting go, he rolled in the air and crashed down inside a fenced graveyard for rusted tractors. He ducked behind a large forklift and hunkered low, gulping for breath, his heart racing.

He could no longer hear the ticking of the metronome.

He could no longer hear Frostbite or her allies.

He didn’t move for a long time, waiting to see whether Aftershock would continue his pursuit. His skin was hot and sticky from sweat. Every muscle was shaking.

And every time he shut his eyes, he saw Gargoyle’s stone hands wrapped around Hawthorn’s head, and heard Frostbite’s ominous words.

Just like no one will miss you.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

THEVITALITYCHARM.

Nova had not been able to stop thinking about it since she had seen Adrian inside the quarantine, at least when she wasn’t ranting about her failure to obtain the helmet. Max’s ability to absorb other superpowers had not affected Adrian, and it was all because of a pendant on a necklace.

But it wasn’t in the vault—she had checked the rental paperwork several times over the last few days and Adrian had yet to return the medallion.

She needed it. Not to protect from Max, but to protect herself against Agent N. Specifically—Agent N in gas form. Leroy was on the verge of a breakthrough, she knew, and with the mist-missiles she’d since taken from the vault, she now knew exactly how to convert the weapons into a delivery system for the toxic vapor. Any prodigy who entered a five-foot radius of the device within the first three and a half minutes of its release (the time it would take for the vapor molecules to disperse to the point of ineffectiveness, according to Leroy’s calculations) would be neutralized. Their powerssapped away as surely as if the sludgy green concoction had been plunged straight into their hearts.

Finally, the Anarchists had a weapon they could use against the Renegades. Multiple Renegades at once, even.

But Nova did not want to risk her own ability, and no one else would want to take the chance either. In order to protect herself in the fight she knew was coming, a fight she expected sooner than later, she needed that medallion.

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