Chapter 5
FIVE
LEO
“Why are you here, Leo?” Alex asked, sitting in white sand.
Palm trees shook as a salty breeze pushed by, and sea-foam spilled from waves to reach up and graze against her bare toes.
She was wearing shorts now, at least. I turned, taking in the scene.
A small island with nothing but a tropical green forest, a sliver of beach, and the shining ocean beyond.
The air smelled of salt, and seagulls cried in the distance.
She’d perfected her craft; it all felt real.
I grunted as I dropped down beside her, a scowl pulling at the corners of my mouth. “You’ve gotten better at this, at least.”
She threw a handful of sand my way; her face pinched in irritation. “Of course I have; I’m not a trainee anymore.”
“Still can’t control your ability, though.”
A hateful laugh slipped through her full lips. “Says the guy who’s still pushing coolant to keep from burning out. I just need better gear. The VIA hasn’t replaced mine since I…” she trailed off and dug her toes beneath wet sand.
Her cheeks puffed out, a pout that always gave her away. She’d done the same thing whenever I antagonized her, or when Joon decided to train with me instead. It was that I’m-pissed-but-I’ll-deal look.
“What did you do this time?” I asked.
“I didn’t do anything. I just… took a break. I’m still taking contracts; I’m just not directly associated with the agency right now. Well, I’m not supposed to be, but my latest extension is… kind of up in the air. So, why are you here?”
“Because a crazy lady pulled me into a daydream,” I hummed.
Alex scoffed before twirling a finger, the scene around us swirled as the colors melded together. When it finally stopped, we sat in an interrogation room. She sat across from me, her arms crossed and chin tilted up in defiance.
“More comfortable for you?”
I rolled my eyes, and a pair of handcuffs appeared on my wrists. They were perfectly cold, biting into my skin.
I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t stop the sarcasm from slipping through. “So this is what you’re into, huh? Can you conjure up a cigarette while you’re at it? I’m not sure how long Reed will take; he’s a bit of an idiot.”
Her nose pinched and those blue eyes widened, glancing down at the mask still around my neck. “Seriously?”
“What can I say?” I jingled the cuffs. “I’m a sucker for punishment.”
“Cute.” Alex deadpanned. “Answer my question, would you? It’s been a bad day.”
I leaned back, and the cuffs disappeared. A white and red box appeared on the table before a cigarette manifested between my fingers. I went to light it, but no flame came from my fingertip. My eyes found hers as I raised a brow.
“You can’t use your power here. You don’t remember?” Alex jutted her chin as the end began to glow.
I took a long pull, and as much as I hated to admit it, she was good.
My brand, my flavor, the same ease to my shoulders as I blew the smoke to the side.
I watched her watching me, and spiders crawled along my spine.
Joon never wanted us to get too close—he was always afraid of what I could do to her.
She couldn’t run away from my fire, like he used to.
“We didn’t play nice back then,” I said. “How did you know what brand I like?”
Alex cocked her head, and I could swear her blue eyes shone with mischief. “I took a wild guess; only assholes smoke those. Enough deflecting, tell me why you’re here.”
I let out a long sigh as I chewed my cheek. “Alex…the VIA sent me to collect you.”
She scowled, and it was difficult to take her seriously. Alex was still frail, but she had grown a bit, at least. There was more muscle in her arms, a little more curve to her body than I’d remembered. I tried not to focus on that detail.
“I’m not fit to be a Hero anymore; they’re wasting their time.”
I held my tongue and took another pull of my cigarette.
The old me would have confirmed her observation, would have agreed and sat in warped pride from the thought that I was right.
Alex was always so breakable; so weak. That’s what I’d thought, anyway.
But she had bested me more times than I cared to count at the academy, and that made me even more irritable around her.
Until my temper went too far, and I actually thought she was going to drown me with an illusion.
Alex got hurt, and it was my fault. I hurt her.
Not a Villain, but the person who was supposed to be a Hero.
After that moment, everything got turned upside down.
I held my breath around her, and tried not to get too close.
I played by Joon’s rules to keep her safe from me.
I glanced down at her hand, and there it was.
Dark red splotches that ran across pale skin; scars that still refused to fade, and likely never would.
Joon’s anger was justified—my ability did real damage.
Being impaled was easier to heal than an injury from my fire.
I’d branded Alex, permanently. My mark, my fears, buried in her skin. Nausea overwhelmed me.
When I refused to respond, Alex laughed, a husky sound that made my skin go tight. It was full of sarcasm and hatred.
“What was it you said back at the academy? ‘Girls like you don’t belong in a fight’. Something like that, right?”
Memory of a fucking elephant.
“I could have phrased that better.” My heart clenched with guilt.
She was jaded, a shell of herself. I couldn’t imagine what the past three years had been like for her; didn’t even want to think about it. And now I was here, ready to drag her back to the VIA. I was always the bad guy in her story, and something inside me hated that.
You’re the bad guy in everyone’s story.
“Really? You don’t say. I did get the upper hand on you, though. Is your pride still hurting from that?” Her smile peeled, a cocky quirk to her brow.
Something flared in her eyes — the spark she had when she wanted to fight. It brought life back into the blue, and I leaned in, grinning. If she wanted me to play the part, then I would. If only to get some sense of the old Alex back.
“Because I wasn’t actively trying to hurt you, dumbass. You’re five-foot-nothing and can’t throw a punch to save your life. Your ability was always best suited for intelligence, not combat. Why are you so fucking stubborn about it?”
Because you’re good, and you fucking know it, and you never backed down from me. Don’t back down now. Make me your punching bag, I can take it.
Alex took the bait.
“And why are you such an asshole? Joon saw what I could do; he believed in me,” she snapped.
The name stung. It made my chest clench and my jaw work as I stared her down.
It took time, but after we became partners, I’d finally realized what Joon wanted to accomplish.
Equality between Heroes, between Variants.
He saw the rot in our system, but he didn’t see the roots, didn’t experience how deep it could go. Nothing was ever guaranteed.
He would have understood, if I just knew how to explain myself. Maybe Alex would have, too.
It was too late to go back. Now, I wanted that fire to light inside of her, wanted to pull her out of whatever the fuck this was.
“I’m not saying you’re weak, Alex. I’m saying your ability is better suited for missions that don’t end in blood being spilled. Am I such a bad guy for believing that?” I’d meant it to come out harsher, to make her snap back at me, but I sounded nearly desperate.
She went quiet, her gaze tracking to the side as the scene shifted again.
It didn’t seem intentional—her eyes went blank, and she chewed her cheek as her mind wandered.
We were back at the Academy; pews set up for the students, the scent of wood shavings in the air.
I sat behind her, a notebook opened to a blank page — the first page.
The devil was always in the details, with her.
I never made it past the first page in my notebook. It was still empty when I graduated.
Beside me, light shimmered, and my stomach dropped.
Joon sat beside me, his arms tense as he leaned forward, a grin on his lips. Focused, eager, alive. This wasn’t a memory, though. Joon was never in classes with us. Alex put him here.
“I guess not,” she whispered, turning in her seat as Joon cocked his head at her with a grin. “If he couldn’t make it, how can I? I’m useless compared to him.”
His lips moved, and though no sound came out, I was sure of what was said. You’re not useless; you just need to find your bite.
“I can’t remember his voice,” she croaked, “not completely, anyway. No matter how hard I try, I can never make him talk.”
“How often do you do this, Alex?” I whispered, eyes still wide on Joon.
He grew somber, and she stayed silent. Is this where she’d disappeared to? Spent three years in a daydream with him? Was this why she was so hollow?
“This isn’t healthy.”
Her blue eyes finally glanced in my direction, rimmed with tears as her cheeks flushed bright pink. “I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how else to see him.”
“You don’t. He’s dead, Alex. We don’t get to see him again.”
She didn’t respond, and I was suffocating.
How would Joon bring her out of this? He sat there watching her with those intense dark eyes before turning to me.
He was begging me to break her out of this, to free her from this fucking prison she’d put herself in.
Even something she created knew this wasn’t right.
I ground my teeth and reached out, snatching her by a small horn, an action I knew would get a reaction. She yelped and raised her hands up, heat rising to her cheeks as she cut me a glare. But I kept tugging, pulling her head toward me as I leaned over the table.
“Hey, sleepy Sloth,” I murmured, forcing her to look at me instead of Joon. “How long are you gonna keep me as your prisoner? I’m not fond of nap time.”
A citrus scent that wafted from her hair and made my mouth water.
Her daydreams had become so detailed; if I weren’t aware of her power, I’d be sure that this was reality.
Soft, silken hair brushed against my knuckles as I continued to hold on to the cool metal of her horn.
She sneered at me before glancing back to Joon, and I tugged her closer, nearly making our noses touch.
“Look at me, not at him. I’m talking to you,” I whispered.
Her brows scrunched together. “What are you doing?”
“Letting you enjoy the view.”
“My least-favorite thing to see. How lovely,” she drawled.
There you are.
She blinked, and the air around us warped. “I think your friend found them, the smelling salts.”
I glanced down at her pink lips, then back up to those crystal blue eyes.
It was strange how they shifted from sleepy to alert, like she was constantly bouncing between a state of exhaustion and hyper-awareness.
I used to find myself watching her to see what form she was in, wondering how she would react.
It was a juvenile curiosity, an interest that I would never admit to.
Joon saw it, though. The part of me that I never wanted to be discovered — that one weak spot in my armor.
“Do you have a motorcycle?” I asked impulsively, ignoring how the scene around us started to blur together.
Her lids got heavy, and my body followed. “What?”
“Did you run from me the other night—” I didn’t get to finish as everything faded to black.