The Light of Redemption

by Natalie Damschroder

  Backing away, he gave a bitter laugh. “Because he was right. I was going to leave town.”

  “What?” I reeled, and because I was Harmony, with no emotional walls, he saw it. His hand came up toward me, but he curled his fingers in and dropped it back to his side, looking away from me once again.

  “After you left the hospital, I started thinking about everything that had happened since I came to Pilton. I should have left the second I knew Eclipse was here.” His jaw tightened again.

  “Why?” I stepped forward. He stepped back, but I wasn’t having it. “Because you think you’re toxic? You think you’re cursed?” I poked him in the chest, and it didn’t matter that he had no superpowers right now, that muscle was hard. “Or maybe you think this wouldn’t have happened to you if you’d left? Because . . . you’re right.” That took all the fight out of me. “You wouldn’t have gotten hurt if you hadn’t joined up with me.”

  Conn caught my hand and held it against his chest. “I don’t blame you for this, Harmony. The only person to blame is that guy in the barn.”

  “The Chaser.” I turned away, barely avoiding stepping in the bowl of water. I picked it up and set it on the crates. “It has to be. That’s CASE’s secret weapon. Did you read the DC reports? They had a telekinetic at that building collapse. There’s no way everything they’ve done would have been possible without using powered people. I mean, look at their name. Citizens Against Superhero Existence. Not ‘people with powers.’ He’s got to be using Olive. She’s a big asset because she belongs here and is highly motivated and easily manipulated. And they have a chemist or something, too, unless he’s telekinetic and capable of mixing these magical compounds.”

  I was babbling, and the attempt to distract myself wasn’t working. I wanted to focus on the situation, on the physical well-being of Conn, and myself, and my townspeople. But it wasn’t burying the rising pain, the knowledge that Conn would have left me without a word. It shouldn’t have mattered. I’d known him such a short time, and what was between us had barely started to grow. It should be as easy for me to release as it appeared to be for him.

  But it wasn’t. The pain dug deep, feeding on insecurities that a therapist would scoff at, things that had no deep roots but the most basic of human needs. I had friends. I was well-liked by most of the people I interacted with. My parents were great. But all my romantic relationships had been superficial, either unrequited like my crush on Simon or fast-fading before any real connection was made. It was hard to keep from falling into the “what’s wrong with me?” trap, and becoming Eclipse had only made it worse.

  I’d put on the mask because I wanted to do something more, wanted to use my ability to make my piece of the world better. I’d expected it to fulfill me, and it had, but it also increased my loneliness, instead of the other way around. I was hiding a major part of myself from the people around me, even those I was closest to, until a year ago when I let Angie in on it. I hadn’t dated anyone in five years . . . and now I understood why I’d chosen anonymity when that wasn’t the norm for superheroes. The reasons I’d been picking at over the past weeks were just excuses. Eclipse was a mask, a disguise, in more ways than one. The loneliness had become a banner, the sacrifice I made to be Eclipse, covering the fear that I was just unlovable.

  You are so stupid. That was a knee-jerk reaction by my logical brain. Yes, I understood that it made no sense to believe myself unlovable just because I hadn’t found someone to love me yet. But emotion was never based on logic.

  Conn didn’t move or speak while all of that was racing through my brain. He didn’t react to my statements about The Chaser. It was as if he saw into me and knew what I was feeling, knew I was deflecting, but didn’t know what to say. And what could he say? He wanted to leave town. Leave me. He couldn’t make that better.

  I had to suck it up. My pathetic heart was irrelevant here. We had someone trying to infiltrate my town for unknown but obviously nefarious purposes, and I doubted they’d stop at me and Conn. They’d target anyone they felt was in their way.

  “You can leave if you need to.” I closed my eyes, steeling myself, and when I faced him again, I was sure my expression was blank. Until I saw that he wasn’t even looking at me, but gazing unseeing at that frosted window again. Lost in his own thoughts the way I’d been lost in mine. He had no idea what was going through my head, and I felt foolish for thinking he did.

  Oddly, that took away the sting. He couldn’t pity me when he wasn’t even paying attention to me.

  He turned and seemed to come out of himself, pulling his spine straighter and squaring his shoulders, though he kept his injured arm close to his side. “I’m not leaving. I didn’t even make it out of the hospital before I changed my mind. Yes, fear that I’d brought this on your town made me want to go—”

  “Are you sure?” I took a step. “Are you sure it wasn’t just too much? You’ve had a lot of loss, Conn, a lot of tragedy. You can’t be blamed for wanting to avoid more.”

  His beautiful eyes, more green than anything else in the uneven light, bore into mine, and a vibration began at my core. “I do. Of course I do. But people have already been hurt, and I can’t turn my back on that. On you.”

  The last two words were said in a low rumble that turned the vibration into full-on Magic Fingers.

  “So I’m not leaving. This is my town now too, and I’ll help you protect it. If you want me to.”

  “Of course I do.” I took another step, drawn by his unwavering gaze, but a spark of annoyance cut through the connection. Why couldn’t he ever meet me halfway?

  And then he did, suddenly pressed against my body, his good arm around the small of my back, tightening me against his chest while his other hand stroked my cheek, a faint, cherishing brush of knuckles. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Harmony Wilde.” And then he dipped his head the last few inches and closed his mouth over mine.

  Heat surged from our lips through every part of me, until my fingers and toes tingled. A glow behind my eyelids told me that wasn’t just desire, and I struggled to pull back the light even as I got lost in the taste of him, his solid, strong body, his possessive hold and hungry tongue.

  I couldn’t do it. I burned, and control became impossible. I had to release the light, forcing it to dissipate before it damaged anything or was seen by anyone else. And then we just kissed for endless moments until a shout of laughter from the diner shattered the spell.

  Conn broke the kiss, gently, but didn’t move away. His mouth still brushed mine when he asked, “Now what?”

  I gave him one last clinging, tender kiss. He let me go, with what I thought was just the right amount of reluctance. I picked up the bowl and trash and brought them to the tiny staff bathroom next to the office.

  “Now, we pow-pow.” I dumped the water and rinsed the bowl. Conn followed me, reaching for a wad of paper towels.

  “With who?”

  “Simon and Julie. And Angie, if she can get away.” But judging from the level of noise out there, that wasn’t going to happen for a while.

  After he’d mopped up the water on the floor while I wrote a quick note for Angie and taped it to her office door, we went out the back and made our way to my car. Once we’d gotten in, I paused before starting the ignition. But then I chickened out on what I really wanted to know and said, “How did they get your blood? I know how they got mine. Kyle and Wig shot me. But you?”

  “On the job, probably. It’s physical labor, hauling stone, using tools. I bleed. I probably left a rag behind somewhere.” He tilted his head. “That’s not what you were going to say.”

  The need was too strong, so I blurted it out. “Why did you come to Angie? When you were hurt. Why not go to the hospital?” Why not come to me? was what I really wanted to ask, but I couldn’t do it without sounding whiny.

  He concentrated o
n putting on his seatbelt. “You said it earlier. I felt like I’d brought this on the town.” He shook his head. “No, that’s not the full truth. I didn’t want to go someplace public because they’ve been using the townspeople to bait us, and it’s only a matter of time before some of them really do get hurt. I knew Angie would help me. But you’re really asking why I didn’t come to you, aren’t you?”

  I gripped the steering wheel and swallowed.

  “I didn’t call you back or text you or ask for your help because I felt I’d brought all this on you. And I was freaked out by the way my powers were taken, demoralized by being beaten in a one-on-one fight, and I didn’t want you to see me that way. I knew if you trusted Angie to take care of you, I could trust her, too.”

  Now I smiled and reached to stroke my hand down his stubbly cheek. “That was quite a confession. I think our relationship just jumped to a new level.”

  “Shut up.” He laughed and captured my hand to kiss my palm, then leaned to kiss me. “Drive. Where are we going?”

  “Evan’s safe house.” I started the car and then handed him my burner phone. “Can you call Simon and ask him and Julie to meet us there? He knows where it is, he picked me up earlier.”

  He grumbled something about too many people knowing making it less safe, so I didn’t mention that Sark knew, too. After he made the call, we went through everything that had happened again, focusing on details.

  “You think Olive will give up any information while she’s in custody?” He got out of the car and followed me to the trunk, where I had a bag stashed with a change of clothes.

  “I doubt it.” I leaned into the back seat and flipped a blanket off my Eclipse things so I could shove them into the duffel. When I’d backed out of the car and locked it, I said, “But I’ll call Sark when we get inside and find out.”

  Conn braced his hands on his hips and looked around the yard, taking in the carports and the horse stall, the garden and shed, all lit by little white twinkle lights that evoked thoughts of fairies. There were a couple of lights on in the house, but the binder of information had said they were set on timers and had instructions for turning them off if necessary. I didn’t know how long Evan had rented the house, but it had to be more than just today.

  “Evan’s got good taste,” Conn approved. “And it’s out in the middle of nowhere. No one will track us here, not without following us.”

  “I made sure no one did.” It wasn’t hard, with the nearly deserted roads this late at night.

  Conn gave me a sideways glance as we headed for the front porch. “I wasn’t implying you didn’t.”

  “But you checked.”

  He grinned. “Backup.”

  I rolled my eyes and let us in, showing him around and retreating to the kitchen to call Sark while Conn took a quick shower. Sark wasn’t at the station, but Smith got on the line instead.

  “Hey, Harmony,” he said immediately, even though I’d told reception I was Eclipse. So Sark had told him, as I expected, and if anyone was listening, they knew now, too. What could I say but oh, well? No matter how much I kept telling myself it was inevitable and I had to be okay with it, I’d harbored a tiny bit of hope that I was wrong. That it could stay contained to those who already knew, and not spread anymore. It was time to let go of that.

  “Hey, Smith. You guys get anything out of Olive? Who she’s working for, what their plan is, anything like that?”

  “Nope. She contends it was an old school rivalry and she got a little carried away. Tried to play dumb about the explosive on the jacket. Took it to forensics, and they tell me there isn’t any way to connect her to the jewelry store because there won’t be residue on the cloth, but they’re gonna check it anyway. And the circumstantial evidence is still solid. We’ll meet with the DA in the morning.”

  “Okay, thanks. I appreciate the update.”

  “No problem. I don’t know if you remember, but a coupla years ago, Eclipse stopped my nephew from getting in a car after getting lit up on his twenty-first. Mighta saved his life. None of his friends did that. So, you know. Owe ya.”

  I fiddled with the edge of the placemat. “Oh, well, you know. Just trying to help.”

  “Usta think you were trying to do our jobs, and resented it. But you’ve done a lotta good in this town, the last few years. Without stepping on us. Just thought you should know it’s appreciated.”

  “Thanks, Smith. Hope you have a quiet night.”

  “Heh. You and me both, kid. Night.”

  I disconnected and thought about his nephew. Stealing keys was something I’d done a lot of, but I did remember his nephew in particular, because we’d both been involved in a few charity events at the same time. My perspective was usually that I was potentially saving someone else’s life, but his was just as valuable.

  Oddly, Smith’s appreciation went further toward soothing my anxiety over being known than anyone else’s did. He was older, gruffer, tougher than a lot of the cops on the force. Not exactly old-school, but definitely on the side of letting law enforcement do their jobs, and you stayed out of it. He’d never publicly complained about Eclipse that I’d heard, but apparently he’d been won over.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, I—” I choked as I looked up to see Conn standing in the living room, in jeans and nothing else, running a towel over his hair with both hands. Holy, hell, was he ripped. Just . . . perfectly toned, every muscle. Nothing overdeveloped or so cut it looked fake. My mouth went completely dry, and I couldn’t talk anymore. So I just nodded.

  One side of his mouth quirked up. He hung the towel over a rack next to the fireplace that was clearly meant to dry wet things, even though I hadn’t started a fire. It wasn’t necessary on this warm night that had just heated a few more degrees, but suddenly I wanted to see flamelight dancing on his skin. His hair fell around his face, and even the lopsidedness didn’t detract from the intensity of his appeal.

  Tires sounded on gravel outside, catching Conn’s attention. He walked out of view and I sighed. A few moments later, he opened the door, and I heard Simon and Julie. Time to catch up on everything we knew, but the idea of talking it all out exhausted me. Or added to my exhaustion, anyway. This had been the longest day of my life.

  Once they were inside, Julie lugging her tech bag and Simon his laptop and collection of pads, we all collapsed in the living room. Conn—who’d sadly found a T-shirt—took the glider rocker, sighing as he put his feet up, and Simon and Julie sat close to each other on the couch. I dropped into a plaid-cushioned wooden chair and said, “Let’s get each other up to speed.”

  Simon eyed me and then Conn with skepticism. “You first. Yours looks like it was more . . . physical.”

  So we told them about the encounters we’d had. Julie gasped and exclaimed at all the right spots, while Simon’s hand twitched—probably because he couldn’t take notes for the paper—and he sank more heavily into the sofa with each piece of the story. Halfway through, Julie had her case unzipped on the coffee table and was wrapping a rubber strip around Conn’s good arm to take some blood.

  “Well, as you can imagine,” she said, “I didn’t get far with Conn’s chunk of wall, since it wasn’t externally reactionary and I had no freaking idea how it would work on him.” She held up the vial of blood in a triumphant wave before setting it down, sticking folded gauze on Conn’s elbow, and bending his arm to hold it in place. “I played around with neutralizing your compound, Harmony, and I think I found something, but I was mad because what good does it do when we don’t know where it could be? Like the back of Olive’s jacket.” She plunked down in the other chair and started removing equipment from the case. “Now I can put it all together!”

  Conn tossed the gauze at a small brass trash can next to the hearth. “Are you implying you might be able to reverse what they did to me?”
>
  She already had her eye over a microscope. “Not implying anything. That’s what I’m going to do. Put the pieces together and come up with a solution.” She waved her hand in circles over her head. “Talk amongst yourselves.”

  I turned to Simon. “Did you learn anything more about Hameldon and Wiggins and their plans?”

  He nodded, but didn’t look happy about it. “Preliminary info. Pottieger’s Field. Airstrip.”

  His shorthand was uncharacteristic, showing he was just as tired as we were. “That’s what they want to build there?”

  “That’s what it looks like. Allen Wiggins is enrolled at Ohio State in Marion. The party line is going to be that he needs fast access to be able to get home to Boston, where his mother is being treated for some illness. But that’s just to cover the real purpose.”

  Conn cursed. “Smuggling.”

  “That’s best guess.”

  “Smuggling what? Drugs?”

  Simon shrugged. “Maybe. Could be anything. If they can get the strip, they’ll have a private location to bring in anything they want. Emeraud would be their distribution hub. Columbus is central to a huge percentage of the country, and that’s where H&W is headquartered. They’re not under active investigation by any government authority, so this could be a new thing for them. Whatever they have a line on, it won’t be good for Pilton.”

  I didn’t want to ask how he’d gathered this much information after hours. I knew he had connections, but it seemed they were vaster than I would ever have imagined. “So they want me out of the way because they think I’ll stop them.”

  Simon shifted as if an itch had sprung up between his shoulder blades. “I, uh, don’t think that’s, uh, actually true.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean? The explosion clearly targeted me.”