by Simon Archer
“Yeah, get the fuck out of here,” Brad said with a chuckle. The win had made him chipper, and he whistled as he tossed the pieces back into the box. “Thanks for the win, loser. You’re too easy.”
“No problem, asshole.”
A few minutes later, I was down in the girl’s dorm. I peeked my head into Kristen’s room and found her scribbling in her notebook. She didn’t even look up. She knew I was there, we always knew. Instead of acknowledging me, she kept right on writing.
“I’m sorry—”
“Whatever,” Kristen cut me off. “I don’t care anymore.”
Except that she did. I grimaced and twisted my hands in front of me like a nervous child. She did that to me sometimes. She always knew exactly where to stick the knife.
“I just want to keep you safe,” I argued.
She didn’t justify that with a response. The cold shoulder hurt more than anything. She was fond of doing that to other people, but never to me... until now.
“Kristen, please—”
“Go to bed.”
“But I—”
“Go.”
Frustrated again, I nearly burst into the room to give her a what-for. Then I realized I’d never actually yelled at my sister before, and I had no intention of starting the trend.
With a frown, I confessed, “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I’m sorry.”
That made her finally look up at me, and there was a small note of pity between her brows. But then her eyes narrowed to slits a moment later.
“Whatever,” she dismissed again. “Don’t care. It’s over. Go to bed.”
That really, really stung. I cleared my throat to resist the emotions that bubbled over inside of me. Instead of barging into her room, I quietly closed the door and walked away.
Chapter 9
As evening settled over Valcav, Andie dragged me out of the dinner line with an aggressive tug on my hand. “Forget about that, it’s ice cream time!”
Still holding my hand tightly, she marched into the kitchen’s swinging doors without so much as a knock.
“Maria! Maria, are you here?” she shouted.
“Andie, what’s going on?” I asked as a short, portly chef who approached us.
“In a hurry?” the chef asked with a chuckle as she passed us both chocolate ice cream cones. They had been dipped in syrup and covered in rainbow sprinkles.
“Awesome! You’re the best!” Andie squealed with joy as she took hers with an excited bounce.
I just barely managed a “Thanks!” before being dragged off toward the entrance of Valcav. I’d thought she was in a hurry, but the second we were alone in the hall, her shoulders sank, and she sighed with relief.
“Finally,” she huffed. She looked me up and down, and then her smile turned sweet. “I’ve been thinking about this date for hours. It’s been hell getting you alone for two minutes.”
I chuckled as the two of us walked out the doors of the academy to greet the evening sunset. Andie’s sigh at the sight was quiet, and she licked the chocolate off her cone for a moment as she took in the scenery. All the energy that she’d displayed getting out here had faded, and now she seemed somewhat serene.
“Been thinking about it all day, too.” I took a lick of my own cone and then bit the shell with a thoughtful crunch. “Where do you want to go?”
“Don’t know.” Andie’s smile was content. She pointed toward the endless cedar wood that hugged the perimeter of Valcav. “You know, we never made it this far out when I was little. I had a good view from the apartment, and I used to sit for hours and imagine all sorts of creatures in the forest.”
“You grew up here?” I asked with a quirked eyebrow and looked around.
The city of Alexandria was one of the final bastions in the decades-long war against my father and his massive army. Refugees from all over the world took harbor in her care, and it was through them that the city thrived in recent decades, nearly tripling in size. She was a beautiful high-tech metropolis, and home to the world’s greatest heroes for as long as anyone could remember.
Other cities and nations in other parts of the world still managed to fight Lord Inferno’s advances, but Alexandria had been a prime target for years and had managed to repel him the most. His notorious island headquarters rested in Alexandria’s Lucent Bay, and it was her beach that saw the most action in the years since. It was where Amazoness and Triton had first touched ground after rescuing me all those years ago. It had been a cold, quiet night with the city sparkling like a diamond on the horizon... I’ll never forget the lapping of the waves, and the warm feeling of Gemma’s hand on my shoulder as she guided me towards a new home.
Valcav Academy rested at the very edge of her borders, opposite the bay. It skirted a massive forest that stretched out over rolling mountains into a wilderness oddly unmarked by the bustling metropolis that clung to it.
“Yeah, I lived here.” Andie tugged on my hand again and led me down the road deeper into town. On the way, we ate more of our cones, quietly taking in the sites. This side of the city was much quieter than most, but there were plenty of businesses that took advantage of the local college crowd. It was night time now, after a long day of classes, and most of the businesses were firmly shut. We passed through the absent streets until the brighter lights of Main Street became more apparent.
“Whereabouts?” I asked as I looked at her, and couldn’t help but notice how pretty she really was. She had a perfect body that was curvy and limber with long blonde hair that I itched to run my fingers through.
It was clear she took good care of her appearance, and I wondered, not for the first time, how she’d come to notice me above any other. To say that I was lucky would be an understatement. She was the perfect woman, with a smile that could warm the Arctic.
She did so then, her cheeks rosy from the nightly chill. The sun had set, and now the moon was creeping up over the buildings.
“In the Stacks,” she said, missing the hungry look I’d given her in favor of her ice cream cone.
I winced because it was a district known for being a notorious breeding ground for the worst crime in the entire city. Originally meant as cheap housing for refugees, cheap labor and cheaper quality apartments quickly degraded their living situation, and years of neglect had taken its toll there.
“Sorry,” I said when she caught my wincing.
“Eh, it’s fine.” She shrugged and gestured with her cone. “Originally, we came from Aisha. You know, the home of the Crystal Mountains? Anyway, our family was loaded there. Apparently, we were some sort of ancient royalty.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to apologize again, but Andie shook her head. “No, no, this isn’t a pity party.” She laughed. “I don’t remember that life, Nick. My parents did, and it drove them insane, but I actually kinda liked the Stacks. Had some good friends there. Learned to fight there too.”
I looked her up and down with a new eye. A perfect jaw, beautiful plump lips, and creamy pale skin. I could see the royalty, now that she’d mentioned it.
“If you don’t mind me asking... how did...?” I hesitated, unsure if I actually wanted to know.
“How did my family lose its fortune?” She laughed at my expression. It was probably obvious that I was worried my father had something to do with it like he seemed to involve himself in everything else these days. Andie tossed a careless hand and shook her head again. “Much as I adore you, Nick, not everything is about your daddy issues. Point of fact, it’s my own this time.”
I lifted a brow in curiosity, and she went on, “So, uh. My mom, she was a member of Congress back in Aisha. She laundered millions in taxpayer money.”
“I thought your family was royalty?” I asked curiously.
“Ancient royalty, I said,” Andie corrected. “Thrones are empty these days, Nick.”
“So she was a crime lord, then? Like, what, the Mafia?”
Andie gestured vaguely with a rock of her hand and nodded a little.
“Of a sort, I guess. She was a powered, sort of a super genius and scary good at finances. The reason she got caught was another villain. There was some infighting over the money, I think.”
Known to happen, sometimes. There was no honor among thieves, after all.
“Mom was found guilty when I was really little and sent to prison,” she explained as we strolled down the street. “Our family fortune was used to pay off all the debt she owed. Well. Most of the debt. Anyway, things got really dangerous after that, and Dad changed our names to protect us. We went to Alexandria to hide among the refugees. Mom joined us later on, after serving her sentence, of course.”
“So Baker isn’t even your real last name?” I blinked at her.
Andie shrugged and glanced up at the moonlit sky. Stars had spilled themselves across the heavens, and she focused on the various constellations as she thought about how to answer my question.
“I’m a Baker in every way that matters,” she said after a moment. Then she smiled at me again. “That other name doesn’t matter to me anymore. My mom can keep it. My dad too, for that matter.”
I thought about my own father. He was likely plotting some sort of madness in his evil tower that very moment. It was hard to be proud of the Gateon name these days, but Eric’s insistence that it was a legacy worth keeping still pulsed deep within me.
“I think I understand,” I said quietly as I glanced down at the sidewalk.
“Of course you would.” Andie bumped shoulders with me. “You’re Nick Gateon.”
“Lord Inferno’s son,” I finished the thought. It was an automatic response, a way of punishing myself for years of mistakes that weren’t even my own.
Andie tsked and stopped dead in her tracks. She spun on her heel, looked me dead-on, and jabbed a finger into my chest. “I know it’s a habit for you at this point, but you’ve got to stop doing that, Nick.”
I stepped backward, suddenly insecure. “Doing what?”
“Listening to Matt, for one thing.” She sighed and gestured in the vague direction of Valcav. “I didn’t ask Lord Inferno’s son out on a date tonight, I asked Nick Gateon. Why? Because I think Nick Gateon is a sexy guy with a hell of a lot of heart.”
“Wait, you think I’m sexy?”
She playfully punched me in the shoulder and grinned. “I’ve been saying it the whole time, you dork, but don’t change the subject. You’re a Gateon because you choose to be. Just like I’m a Baker. You’ve got to learn to accept that.”
I blinked at her, and she must have taken that for confusion because she sighed and put a hand on her hip.
“‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’” she quoted. “It’s not the name that defines who you are. It’s what you do with it.”
I knew she was right when she said it, but I couldn’t help an instinctive urge to deny the whole thing entirely. “Everyone hears Gateon and thinks—”
“To hell with what they think,” she interrupted as she rolled her eyes. She gestured with the hand that still held her now-melting ice cream cone, then took mine in her empty one a second later. That deep brown gaze was bottomless and infinite. An ocean of amber ink that I could drown in forever. “You let them put too much pressure on you, Nick. It worries the hell out of me.”
I blinked again and forced myself to look away from her intense gaze. I stared up at the starlit sky instead and cleared my throat. “I, uh... I don’t mean to worry you,” I stammered, blushing a little. “I’ll try harder.”
Andie gently snatched my chin, and we locked eyes again. “No, silly, you’ll think about yourself once in a while. This is what I’m talking about. You keep this up, you’re gonna try to carry the whole world on your back. It might work for ten minutes, but after that, you’ll just crush yourself. I don’t want to see you fall.”
She softened the words with a quick peck to my cheek, then released my chin to hug me with great big warm arms. She was careful not to smash the cone into me, and I did the same in kind. It was all I could do to hug her back and process the emotions swirling around in my head.
I wasn’t sure of anything, at that moment. I was in love, I was overwhelmed, and I had a beautiful woman who believed in me so much that she was willing to argue the point every time I struggled to agree with her. It wasn’t that I lacked self-worth, it’s just that I’d spent so long living underneath a shadow shaped like the world’s most terrifying man. It was odd to have it removed so easily by Andie’s bright, burning light.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I rested my head on her shoulder for a moment. “I’m just not used to someone being so blunt about these things. I’ve had people believe in me before, but they generally do it very quietly. You, Eric, and Kara are... well, loud about it. I’m not used it to yet.”
She kept right on holding me until I was ready to let go again. When I did, she took my hand in hers, and we continued our quiet aimless walk in the night. On the way, I finally finished the cone and ate the rest of it with a quiet sigh. I wasn’t used to being vulnerable around anyone, and it was odd that Andie kept managing to pull it out of me.
“My parents kept our struggles quiet for years,” she explained as she glanced sidelong at me. Her own cone was nearly gone now. “Never talked about anything until it bubbled over into fights that nearly killed both of them. They loved each other enough to stay together after Aisha, but they never said it even once, not where I could hear. Me, I don’t want to live like that. I like someone, I tell them. It’s important. Something that small can save a life, you know.”
I snorted to cover the butterflies beating against my ribcage. Andie’s grip was firm around my own hand. A strong measure of support, unwavering, ever determined to be there as long as I needed it. Where the hell had Andie come from? Heaven sent, like an angel straight into my lap. A beautiful, stretchy angel who spoke like a motivational speaker and loved brighter and hotter than anyone I’d ever met before.
“No one talks like that,” I told her. “Only you.”
She smiled back at me, and the world was suddenly a bit brighter. “Yeah, well, maybe they should. I meant what I said, Nick. I really like you.”
“I like you too,” I told her easily. This time, I held her gaze with confidence. “I like you a lot.”
We passed by a media store. A set of monitors were playing news footage, and I caught sight of my dad wearing a suit and tie as he stood behind a podium. He normally wore a ridiculous black and red number full of spikes and flame motifs. To address the public in a suit and tie probably meant that he was trying to tame down the monster image. Since when did he care about PR?
The scrolling headline on the newsreel read, ‘LORD INFERNO TO RELEASE SPEECH AND ADDRESS THE EMPIRE’S CONCERNS.’ I grimaced and looked away. Andie caught my expression and then yanked me from the monitors a little quicker once she noticed the source of my concern.
Unfortunately, a small girl of about ten recognized my face. I’d made the news after being accepted to Valcav because of whose record it was that I broke upon entry.
“Mommy, look!” She pointed at me. “It’s the bad man!”
“That’s not the bad man, sweetie. That’s his son.” The little girl’s mother looked right at me and gave me a soft smile. “He’s trying to be a hero, and we should give him the benefit of the doubt.” Then she marched her daughter over to me. “Say hi, Katie.”
“Hi,” the little girl squeaked and then held out her hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too,” I said as I shook her hand and smiled at her before I shot her mother a questioning look.
“Inferno saved my mom before, well...” the girl’s mother shrugged. “I’d always hoped he’d turn back to being good.” She met my eyes then. “I’m hoping you will be the next best thing. Or, better still, bring your father back to the good side.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said with a nod. “That you can count on.”
“Oh, I believe you.” She smiled at me. “Something abo
ut you.” She glanced at her daughter then. “Well, we’d better get going. I promised her some ice cream.”
“Yippie!” the girl cried, and as she began to tug her mother away, I couldn’t help but smile. “Ice cream.”
“You know,” I said as they turned to go. “I really appreciate it.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” the mother said as she ushered her mother into a doorway a few meters away.
“That was awesome,” I said as I turned to Andie. “I—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Andie dove in for a brutal kiss that quite literally sucked the wind right out of me. I made a noise of confusion, then growled as I pulled the wind back into my own lungs. My fingers ran through her hair as she continued to kiss me without any sign of breaking. Our tongues danced, and I felt the surge of endorphins race through me so clearly that I half wondered if I’d managed to power up twice in one day.
When Andie finally pulled back, we were both panting, and I wanted to tear her clothes off right then and there. Her eyes were dark, glistening pools. Hungry. Desperate. She wanted me bad, but she wanted to take her time, too. She wanted this to be different.
As much as I hated to admit it, I wanted this to be different too.
“See, you just need to believe in yourself, and people will come around,” Andie whispered, her voice thick with both lust and emotion. Her big brown eyes glistened under the light of the moon, and I was compelled towards it. She jabbed a finger at me, demanding my focus. “You understand?”
“Andie—”
She gestured back out the alley, towards where the monitors had been. Where that little girl had been. “Don’t let the haters hurt you, Nick. It’s bullshit, and you know that.”
I wanted to reassure her that I did. I wanted to tell her that the words from that little girl hadn’t affected me. I wanted to say that I was fine. I wanted to be confident and brave and strong and all the many, many other things I told myself that I was when I woke up each morning and got ready for class. I knew going into Valcav that I’d win the trials, and I’d learned from fighting Matt what anger could do to a person. I told him I knew exactly where I stood with my father and had believed that at the time.