BRIGHTON
“I have an idea.”
I’m getting some air in the courtyard with Prudencia. She’s been watching this family of white phoenixes for the past few minutes even though they’re just being birds. I don’t expect much from pigeons, but phoenixes should always be doing something cooler than trailing each other.
“Is this about retrocycling again?” she asks.
“Sort of. For whatever reason I can’t access that power, but if Ma is alive, then we need to figure that out sooner. Let’s drive back into the city so I can pick up something of hers from home. Then Wyatt can track her.”
“Good point. Let’s do it.”
“Thank the stars, I was nervous you’d find some reason to say no.”
“I was considering waiting to make the trip with Emil, but I know you would just hijack someone’s phoenix and go yourself.”
“You know me well.”
We return inside the castle, waking up Emil to tell him our plan. He’s so drained that I’m not sure he fully registers that we even spoke to him before he falls back to sleep. We leave the grounds, crossing the bridge back to the car. Prudencia is beautiful as she concentrates on the road and gets us out of the woods. On the road she blasts some music, tapping the wheel as she sings along. I pull out my phone to film her.
“Don’t post that anywhere!”
“Why not? You’ll get so many new followers.”
“That’s exactly why. I’m still trying to lie low.”
“But wouldn’t being the Infinity Queen to my Infinity King be fun?”
“I prefer being the Infinity Independent Woman.”
“That doesn’t have a ring to it.”
“You would say that, Infinity Boy.”
“I prefer Infinity Man.”
“You would say that too,” she says, smiling.
For how powerless I’ve been feeling, Prudencia has been lighting me up the entire drive back into the city. I’m sure she’s being extra flirty and fun to distract me from everything that’s been going wrong and I really appreciate it. Partners shouldn’t only be there to witness your troubles. They should also help you get your mind off of them. I’ve got to make sure I’m doing the same for her moving forward.
There’s something big that’s been on my mind since the Cloaked Phantom, when everything changed between us. But I can’t wait around for some special constellations to give me permission to be bold.
“Can I ask you something?”
“That’s always been such a strange question. Are people really answering no and carrying about their day?”
“So your answer is yes.”
“Correct.”
“Do you love me?”
Prudencia is quiet until we stop at a red traffic light. “Maybe I should’ve asked what your question was about before answering. I wasn’t prepared for that one.”
“Sorry. It occurred to me that I said it to you and then we had sex, but didn’t get to talk about any of that because of my powers.”
“Saved by the powers.”
“You don’t have to answer. Never mind.”
Prudencia keeps driving and we’re getting closer to home. “I obviously love you, Brighton, and I’m clearly attracted to you. But I need some time to figure out if I’m in love with you. I’m an eighteen-year-old orphan who’s been on the run with my best friends for weeks and my head has been a little foggy.”
“Do you regret coming into my room that night?”
“Not at all. Don’t make me regret it.”
That’s a great start and it won’t end after everything we’ve been through.
Pulling up around the corner of my block makes me feel like the Brighton who used to live here is some past life of mine. It’s easy to remember the Spell Walkers fighting Stanton on this street the day Emil got his powers, but those childhood memories of playing around with the neighborhood kids feel so distant. I always knew I was going to grow out of those friendships and do better things, but to me that meant moving to Los Angeles and starting film school. Not becoming a local hero who’s too busy to respond to DMs from friends I used to play tag with.
“I don’t have my key,” I say as we start going up the stairs of my building.
“I really try not to use my you-know-what for personal reasons, but I’ll let it slide today.”
“You should let it slide every day.”
“Before I had to use my you-know-what to stop Orton from torching you and Emil, I went almost two years not using it,” Prudencia says as we reach the fourth floor and stop in front of my door. “But now Infinity Independent Woman has to strengthen up.”
She makes sure the coast is clear before telekinetically unlocking the door. I take down the eviction notice on my way inside.
The apartment is still messy. I was last here with Maribelle the night of the Crowned Dreamer. She posted about Atlas’s death on Instagram and then I pitched her my idea to steal the Reaper’s Blood; she was immediately on board.
“You know Maribelle was the last girl in my room? Pretty epic, right?”
Prudencia fakes the biggest gasp and clutches my wrist. “Aw, how was she? Was she amazing? I’m so happy for you!”
“No, don’t be happy, be jealous.”
“Did she make you feel like an Infinity Man?”
“You know I’ve always been excited to bring you home as more than a friend and you’re being a bully,” I say, turning away from her. Then I spin back against my control to find myself face-to-face with her and her glowing eyes. “That was hot.”
She’s about to kiss me when my bedroom door opens.
I’m expecting—hoping—it’ll be Ma because who else would possibly be in here. A stranger walks out of my room. He’s pale with shaggy brown hair, a torn white shirt, and eyes that look tired as if he was sleeping in my bed. This better not be some looter or superfan.
“Who are you?”
He answers with burning eyes and throws a white fire-orb at us.
We duck, and the fire-orb sails over our heads and explodes against the wall. I dash-tackle the specter into my bedroom.
“Why are you here?”
He head-butts me off of him and gets back to his feet. I dash again, this time shooting straight through him as if he isn’t there and crashing into my desk. He phased . . . one of the ghost powers that I don’t have. Then I realize the last specter I fought with white fire was Orton. He’s casting another fire-orb when my TV flies straight into him.
“He has knock-off Reaper’s Blood,” I say, remembering how Luna said she only experimented with the mixing of essences on some but saved the ultimate pure blood version for herself
I’m about to attack when the stranger vanishes from under the TV. I keep looking around, expecting him to pop up from behind me. This is my first real fight since getting my powers and I’m more than ready to make an example of this specter so the rest of the world will learn what happens when you cross me.
“Maybe he left,” Prudencia says, looking out the window.
We go into the living room.
“I’m guessing Luna sent him in case we came home.”
“He’s probably on his way back to Luna.”
I hear clicking coming from the kitchen. I gesture for Prudencia to be quiet as we creep up to find the specter standing over the oven with a fire-orb. My eyes widen as I grab Prudencia and dash through the living room right as there’s a thunderous explosion and storm of fire blasting out of the kitchen. Dark smoke fills the apartment immediately as the fire alarm goes off. Another explosion rockets from the apartment beneath us, and another, and another—the specter is taking us down with this entire building.
“Are you okay?” Prudencia asks.
I’m in shock as I turn to find the fire spreading toward us as if this home isn’t sacred to my family. Even if we had the money to start over after Dad died we never wanted to leave because this is where he and Ma raised us. But now all our furniture and pictures are being swallowed up by flames.
I should’ve been faster to kill that specter.
“Brighton!” Prudencia shakes me. “We have to go.” She grabs my hand, leading me toward the fire escape.
“Wait. My neighbors . . . I’ve got to make sure they all get out.”
She looks torn, but nods. “Where do we start?”
“You open every door and I’ll run into every apartment. But you get out of here as soon as you’re done.”
The sprinklers have been activated already and the wet floor is shaking beneath us. It might cave in if we’re not fast enough. Prudencia telekinetically slams open every apartment’s front door before moving to the next level, working her way down. Residents are already filling the halls and I’m trying hard not to slip as I dash in, shouting for everyone to evacuate. My lungs are sucking in this bad air, but I have to keep moving. So many lives are at stake. By the time I’ve reached the second floor, Prudencia is losing time as she helps an elderly woman down the stairs. I bang on the few doors that haven’t been opened yet, relieved when the residents come out.
“You’ve been on the news,” one man says.
“You need to leave,” I say, dashing to the ground level to find every apartment cleared right as Prudencia vacates with the woman.
I breathe in fresh air, holding Prudencia’s hand as we cross the street to join the rest of my neighbors. We’re all watching flames eat up our building—our home. I stare at the huge hole in the wall where my kitchen used to be, and tear up.
“It’s all gone,” I say weakly.
“We saved a lot of people,” Prudencia says. “That’s what matters most.”
“Yeah, but . . . we didn’t get to grab anything of Ma’s.”
I feel powerless to save her all over again.