Supernova (Renegades, #3)

by Marissa Meyer

“I suppose I should be grateful,” Phobia rasped. “It’s a rare gift indeed to meet one’s maker.” Adrian shrank back, colliding with the wall. Another game, he told himself. Phobia was toying with him. “It’s impossible,” he said. “You would have died years ago. Faded away to nothing, like all the rest!” “Is that so?” Phobia’s hood had reached the vaulted ceiling, so that the blackness enguled the room. Nothing but shadow in every direction. It felt like death itself closing in on them, sucking the warmth from the air, suffocating them, slowly, agonizingly.… “I suppose I should be dead,” said Phobia, “but you were so clever in your fearful youth, to imbue me with an endless source of strength. A bottomless well of power. Your … own … fears.” Adrian shuddered. “What are you talking about?” “I used to worry that they would fade as you got older, but I needn’t have bothered. Fears might change, but they never go away. You once feared losing your mother above all else, but once that nightmare came to pass … there was another lurking to take its place. Fear that you would lose your new family. Fear that the Renegades would collapse. Fear that Ace Anarchy would win. Fear that you would always be in your fathers’ shadows. Fear that you would lose more loved ones. Fear that you would be weak and helpless when it mattered the most.” He cackled, almost delightedly. “There is no end to your fears, Master Everhart, and there is no end to the life they give me.”