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“You know. Crown jewels … rubies … get it?” Nova’s eyes narrowed skeptically. “Isn’t that a euphemism for…” Oscar waited for her to finish, looking so adorably emphatic that she stopped herself.
We became superheroes because we believed in our ability to change this world for the better, at any cost. Well…” She wriggled her fingers. “Almost any cost.”
Not only because this was where he had kissed her for the first time, a memory that still made her knees weak,
AWWWWWWWW
The kiss was everything she remembered. Warmth tingling through her limbs. Shooting stars glinting behind her eyelids. Somehow being so perfectly content, while still yearning for more.
“Evidence of your crimes against society and the Renegades.” He winced, as though he were in physical pain, when he said, “You’re under arrest … Nightmare.”
He choked back the bile that was suddenly stinging his throat. He hated Nightmare. He loathed her to the core of his being.
She hadn’t realized it until that very moment, but it was all too clear now. She was living her worst nightmare.
Adrian gulped, unable to recall ever seeing Tamaya Rae so livid. And all because a group of Renegades had dared question the Council? Surely they were allowed to do that, right?
Simon shot him a look. “These are lives we’re discussing.” “Villains’ lives,” said Blacklight.
And”—he looked around, meeting everyone’s gazes—“we need to be united in this decision.” “And why’s that, exactly?” said Adrian, feeling venom in his throat. “Do we not want the world to know this is actually a dictatorship?”
Nova gathered herself as one last tear crept down, tracing the path of those before it, and said—with so much conviction that she almost could have believed it herself—“Adrian, I’m innocent.”
His smile was wide and a little crooked. “Means we’re united,” he said. “Villains to the end.”
He didn’t care about any of that. Hope and clarity swelled inside him. Nova was innocent.
In his left hand was a bouquet of flowers—the most vivid sunshine-yellow daisies Nova had ever seen in her life. In his right hand was a tool belt similar to the one Nova had worn over her Renegade uniform.
“We are prodigies who have a different agenda than the Renegades,” said Narcissa as her cheeks reddened. “We are prodigies who desire to be who we are and what we are, to live the lives we want to live, without fear that the Renegades are going to show up at any minute and intimidate us and push us around, or even neutralize us with that new weapon of theirs, for no other reason than we don’t want to be one of them.”
He was trying to head her off at the pass.
“Yes,” she said slowly, “it worked out for me, thankfully. But I have to admit that I’d always wanted to believe the Renegades were, well, above capital punishment. To end someone’s life, giving them no possible chance for restitution, and to do it without even offering a fair trial, it seems—how do I say this?—a little villainous.”
Many of them are still being persecuted for crimes they committed in the Age of Anarchy … I mean, didn’t you do anything during that time that you’re not proud of?”
They are villains.” “I’m not a villain,” Nova said, almost believing it herself. “But that wasn’t going to stop you from executing me.”
“But even more important than that,” he said, his voice full of emotion, “I am no longer a villain.”
I once destroyed a world order in which prodigies were condemned and persecuted by those who feared us, those who could not appreciate our potential. And now…” He faced the Captain. “Now we are condemned and persecuted by our own.”
This is not the day that I become a king.” He raised his hands toward the brightening sky. “Today is the day we become gods.”
Everyone has a nightmare. Welcome to yours.
Oscar lifted his head. “You’re the girl of my dreams.” Ruby’s head swiveled toward him, the nonchalant smile evaporating.
“Everyone has a nightmare,” she said. “I guess I’m yours.”
Everyone has a nightmare.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Maybe I want you to be mine.”
“What would you think if … if a villain happened to fall in love with your son?”
