Page 4 of Ashes

“Tanner’s.” I look down at the slightly too-long jeans and white t-shirt he lent me.

“They look nice.” Nova chews her lower lip. “Less… charred.” She smiles briefly, then hesitates before saying, “Nico, if you want to leave…”

She doesn’t know that her housemates—orwhatever the hell they are—have locked me in here with their shielding spells.

“If you want to leave, I completely understand,” she finishes.

I put the ball down. “Why would I want to leave when I’ve only just found you again?”

Nova tilts her head as if she’s wondering whether I’m serious. “Because Iput you in danger, and it wasn’t the first time.” She scans my upper body, searching for burns on my exposed lower arms. There are none; they’re all on my torso. “I caused you pain once before.”

I shake my head and gesture for her to sit down next to me. She perches on the pool table. As she sits down, her thigh brushes mine.

“You didn’t kidnap me. That was, from what I can work out, the work of the Human Extinction League.”

“Yes,” she says, swinging her legs slowly back and forth.

I hold my breath, waiting for her to ask again howthe League kidnapped me. Where they kept me. What they did with me before they dragged me out on stage. I’ve rehearsed my answers, but I’m hoping I don’t have to use them; it’s taking almost all the brainpower I’ve got to make sure I say the right thing, while tryingnotto think about how fucking beautiful this girl is.

Because she is, undeniably, beautiful.

“As long as you want me here, I’m staying,” I tell her firmly. “Although, I have to admit, I’m confused about a lot of things.”

Nova laughs. Her hair falls around her face. “Me too,” she says.

Lowering my voice, I ask, “Why did they want to provoke you? The League? I know they’re into some sketchy stuff, and don’t get me started on their beliefs about humans, but why kidnap a witch? And the Viking? What did he do to deserve it?”

Twitching her nose from side to side, Nova chooses her words carefully. “It’s complicated. But I’m not a witch. Not really.”

“You can make fire with your hands, but you’re not a witch?”

As she looks down at her fingers, a spark flutters from them. “H.E.L thinks I’m part of a prophecy they’re trying to prevent. It says a witch born to humans will stop the underworld rising.” She twists her hands together in her lap. “I guess they’re fans of it going ahead. So, they were trying to figure out if I was the one they were looking for.”

“A witch born to human parents?”

Nova nods.

“So, they used me to manipulate your emotions?”

“They knew seeing you would set off something inside me.” With her eyes, she follows the spark across the room. “They were right.”

I follow it too, trying to tie Nova’s version of events together with what I was told by Ragnor. My head is spinning, like I’m trying to keep too much inside it and none of it makes sense.

My whole life, I’ve believed unquestioningly that there will come a day when supers will take their natural place in the order of things. When humans will become our servants—or be exterminated if they cannot adapt.

My role was set in stone from the moment I was born. My father gave me up, denied my existence, forced me apart from my mother, so I could do the League’s valuable work. So I could infiltrate high society. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The rising of the underworld has been talked of for as long as I can remember. Ten years ago, members of the League started to whisper about a prophecy. Ragnor became obsessed with it. When the seer—Kole—unlocked it, everything shifted. Our entire focus was on finding the girl. The Phoenix.

Now here she is. In front of me. The one we’ve been looking for.

I take in her softness. Her curves. The blush in her cheeks, the deep pink of her lips. Her hair—silver like ashes—and the tattoo on her chest. Can it really be her? Can she really be the one who will end my father’s plans?

Nova rests her head on my shoulder. For a long moment, we sit quietly. Finally, trying to remember I’m here to gather information, I say, “And these guys you’re with? They’re trying to protect you?”

She sits up. Something sparkles in her eyes as she thinks of them. “They are.”

“And the floppy-haired surfer dude? He’s your boyfriend, right?”

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