Super•Villainous

XLIV

Nightshade, in his dark regalia and lower face mask, looked as frightful as I'd ever seen him, swarmed by shadows that seemed to writhe around us like black flames. He didn't spare me a glance, instead eyeing the assembled heroes through a narrowed gaze. His front pressing against my back, he reached his free hand around my waist, moving it slowly up, up.

Up.

Fingers grazed my throat, and my mind immediately flashed back to that evening in the forest where those same fingers circled my neck and attempted to crush the life therein. Maybe I made a mistake asking for his help. Maybe I should have turned him in. Maybe—

There was a soft snap and a thin cord of rope came away in his hands, easily slipping from his apparently uncaring grasp to clatter on the floor, before he smashed my tracker into bits beneath the sole of his thick leather boots.

He had known, then, that the tracker, gifted weeks ago by Ren, existed all that time, even after I largely forgot about it, accepting its presence where it draped to a rest around my heart as an extension of myself.

His voice held cold amusement that couldn't have sounded more different than his gentle tone upstairs. "Was that little necklace meant to stop me? How... quaint."

"Get him!" someone shouted. "Before he gets away!"

Fire, water, lightning, wind, spheres of condensed metal the size of beads that sprayed like bullets, a noxious yellow-green gas, paper planes that exploded upon impact. Unimaginable powers sparked to life from every corner of the room and hurled themselves our way. Casual ocean spray sprinkled my nose, heat warmed my cheeks to an uncomfortable extent, only growing hotter, and it seemed like every hair on my body stood on end to foretell the arrival of electricity searing through my bloodstream.

Before I had the chance to squeeze my eyes shut in anticipation of the pain to come, shadows swelled to swallow us whole, engulfing me in the ever-more familiar feeling of being utterly cut off from the world. It was less the presence of darkness than the lack of everything else. No sound. No light from which to distinguish objects, not even a smell, beyond a slight hint of pine.

Then we emerged, not in the woods, as I'd expected, but across the auditorium, in time to watch the water quench the fire into burning steam that obstructed all vision like a dense fog. The wind sent the paper flying off course into Supers who only barely managed to dodge the unexpected friendly fire, and also diluted whatever horror awaited in that vicious gas by spreading it wide. The metal balls drew in the electricity and dropped to the ground with a slight popping noise, reduced to nothing more than a slipping hazard.

"Why are you not getting us out of here?" My words came out low and staggered, for fear of both being overheard and biting my tongue from the way he rapidly transported us throughout the room when the Supers grew wise to our new location.

"Why would I," Shade whispered back, an indecipherable emotion lacing his tone, akin to hunger, "when they are doing a better job destroying each other than I've ever managed by myself."

What did I expect? He was a villain, albeit a terribly confusing and often contradictory one whose aims I repeatedly failed to pin down. Of course it benefited him to wreak chaos amongst the Guild that opposed him at every turn.

And he was right. They were destroying each other trying to get to him. Something told me they'd destroy me, too, if I got in the way. They'd make a display of indecision and then, later on, grief. They'd hold a memorial in honor of the lives lost to villainy with my picture displayed prominently, but I was a sacrifice they were willing to make.

I found myself holding tighter to Shade. Don't let me go.

"Wait," came another voice that immediately brought an end to the disorganized conflict. The Constable himself eased through the crowd in a crisp suit, the normal kind, as opposed to his retired Super costume, and his Elder robes. He squinted, running his eyes up and down Shade's form. "Is that really you in there?"