“I don’t think it was a mistake.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know what else is—”
“Oh, great,” someone behind me says. Someone whose voice I definitely recognize. And hate.
Followed by a voice I do not hate. “Damien?!”
Me and Riley both turn to look.
Kat’s standing there with a surprised smile on her face. Next to her is Tristan, her fieldwork partner, looking way less happy to see us. Tristan’s the idiot who first started calling her ‘Katie,’ and he’s also the douche who wouldn’t stop flirting with her at the beginning of the school year, even though he knew she was with me, which pretty much made me want to kill him. I kind of almost did at Homecoming—the one at Vilmore, not the one where I blew up the gym—or at least I came really close to punching him in the face, which should still count for something. I mean, he’s moved on, now that he knows Kat really isn’t interested, but neither one of us is exactly thrilled to see each other.
“Kat?!” I can’t believe it’s her. She moves toward me, and I put my arms around her and hug her really tight. It’s been weeks since the last time we saw each other in person. She kind of melts into me, wrapping her arms around me, too, and buries her face in my neck.
Tristan clears his throat. Then again, a little louder, when we don’t move.
Kat takes a step back. “I didn’t think I was going to see you until this weekend.”
Her hair seems a little longer than when I last saw her. I mean, maybe she just shapeshifted it to look that way. Because there’s no way I haven’t seen my own girlfriend in so long that her hair is noticeably longer. Just a little bit. Just enough so that I can’t tell if it’s real or I’m imagining it. Because it’s only been a few weeks.
Or maybe more like a month.
The thought hits me hard and makes my chest ache. And then I’m just standing there, staring at her, thinking about how much I’ve missed her.
Tristan clears his throat again, like we didn’t hear him the first couple times.
“We’re here for our fieldwork assignment,” I tell Kat. “I was just about to go distract that lady while Perkins here turned invisible and looked for evidence.”
Riley makes a garbled sound in his throat. “You said we were going home! You said—”
“I mean, we probably won’t find anything, because the police have already been here. But we should at least try, and maybe I’ll be able to sweet talk some info out of her.” I glance over at the museum lady again. She still has a sour look on her face, or maybe that’s just her natural expression.
“The one who threatened to call security on us, you mean?” Riley sounds pretty skeptical.
“Oh, that lady?” Kat says. “We talked to her earlier. She was really nice.”
Tristan nods.
“Of course, we told her we were from Heroesworth.” Kat grins and holds up her thumb, which she’s shapeshifted to have an H.
I gape at her. “Kat.”
“What?”
Riley scowls. “You stole our assignment.”
“No, I—” She stops herself, considering that for a second. Then she gasps. “You’re investigating the missing painting?”
“Yep.” Not that Kat knew that, but still. I shake my head at her. “She wouldn’t talk to us because someone else from Heroesworth had already been here.”
Kat’s face falls. “Oh, my God, Damien. I didn’t know. I just thought it would be—”
Tristan busts up laughing.
Kat glares at him. “It’s not funny.”
The museum lady whips her head in our direction, like she can’t stand the sound of laughter. We all move farther into the hall, so she’ll think we’re leaving. All of us except Tristan, since he’s too busy laughing. Kat has to grab his sleeve to make him move.
“I just thought,” Kat says, keeping her voice low, even though I don’t think anyone who matters can hear us, “that she’d be more cooperative if she thought we were from Heroesworth. I couldn’t tell her we were from Vilmore.”
Riley wrinkles his forehead. “You’re investigating a theft?” He glances over at me, like I have the answer. “But I thought—”
“You thought villains only stole stuff?” Tristan says, not laughing anymore.
Riley shrugs. “I didn’t think you solved crimes. That’s all.”
“Right.” Tristan looks him over and scoffs. Then he mutters, “Letterist,” under his breath.
I take a step forward, getting between him and Riley. “What was that?”
“You heard me.”
“Hey.” Kat gives both of us a warning look. “We’re trying to figure out who stole the painting so we can steal it for someone else.”
“You’re posing as Heroesworth students. So you can steal something.” Riley says that like it leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Like he’s disappointed in her.
“See?” Tristan snaps. “Letterist.”
“Well, we are, though,” Kat says.
“And if you call him that again,” I tell Tristan, “I’ll assume it’s because you want me to fry you.”
“Nobody’s frying anybody.” Kat holds up her hands. “Especially not in the middle of a museum.”
Tristan snorts. “Yeah, you break it, you bought it.”
Kat grits her teeth and looks like she wants to strangle him, but otherwise ignores him. “I took notes during our interview. You can see what she said.”
“Thanks, Kat.”
“What?!” Tristan’s face turns red with anger, or maybe it’s because his power involves being a human flamethrower.
“It’s our fault they couldn’t interview her,” Kat says. “It’s only fair that we share what we found out.”
“We’re not sharing notes with them, Katie. Your traitor boyfriend and his stupid hero partner can figure it out on their own.”
“Excuse me?” I say to him.
“I’m just calling it like I see it. First you’re a hero, sucking up to the whole city with that cheesy video about your dad, then you’re a villain, working for the Truth. You acted like that was real, like you actually cared. Now you’re… what? A hero again?” He makes a disgusted face.
Electricity prickles the back of my neck and runs along my skin. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, I do, ‘cause if you were really a villain, if you were really on our side, you’d go to Vilmore, not Heroesworth. And you wouldn’t be defending your letterist friend, like you’re not even one of us.”
“He’s not—” I turn to look at Riley, but he’s not there. He’s not in the hallway. And even though I know it doesn’t mean anything—it doesn’t necessarily mean something bad’s happened—a wave of cold fear suddenly clenches my stomach. “Perkins?”
“Oh, I guess he’s a coward, too. He couldn’t even own up to what he—”
“Shut up.” Lightning surges in my hands, and panic makes my heart beat too fast.
“I’m sure he’s fine.” Kat starts to put a hand on my arm, not noticing the electricity, but I step out of reach so she doesn’t get zapped. “He probably just went to the bathroom or something.”
“He wouldn’t just disappear.”
“Damien? He can turn invisible. So, yeah, he would.”
“Dude,” Tristan says, staring at me like I just told them I escaped from an asylum or something. “Chill the hell out.”
Electricity crackles. My thoughts race. What if that lady did call security? What if she didn’t just call security, but the League? She might have done that. She probably thought we were villains, just pretending to be heroes. She could have called them, and they could have come here with rayguns, and… I don’t know what they could have done without us noticing, and I know I’m freaking out for probably no reason right now, but none of that makes me feel any better.
“You have Riley’s number, right, Kat?” I can’t use my phone. Not without frying it.
“Yeah.” She gets hers out and starts dialing.<
br />
Tristan’s still got that look on his face, like he can’t figure out if I’m crazy or if he’s completely missing something.
There’s a few seconds of tense silence. I listen for a phone ringing. I don’t hear anything.
Then Riley’s voice, right beside me, says, “What’s going on?”
I startle and almost lose control of my lightning. Just a few months ago, I probably would’ve accidentally blown up part of the wall, which, with my luck, would have had some priceless artifact on the other side. “What the hell, Perkins?!”
We all stare at him.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I thought you were— Where were you?”
He jerks his thumb toward the painting exhibit. “You guys were busy arguing, so I went to check out the scene of the crime again. In invisible mode, I mean. I figured it couldn’t hurt.”
“And you couldn’t have answered your phone?!”
“I turned it off. What? We’re in a museum. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“Right. Yeah.” My voice isn’t as steady as I’d like it to be.
Riley squints at me. Then understanding dawns on him. “I’m okay, X.”
I nod. I don’t look at anybody.
It was stupid to have freaked out like that.
“Well, this has been fun,” Tristan says, checking his phone, “but we have to go. Our train’s leaving in ten minutes.”
“Crap.” Kat bites her lip, looking torn between wanting to stay longer and knowing she has to leave.
I put my arms around her. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”
“Yeah. And I’ll send you a picture of my notes.”
Tristan makes an annoyed sound, but we ignore him.
Kat kisses me, and I kiss her back. I don’t want to let go of her.
“Nine minutes, Katie,” Tristan whines. “And we still have to get to the station—we don’t have time for this.”
I hug her again before she can leave.
Saying good-bye to her is always so much easier on the phone. Not that it’s easy, exactly, but it doesn’t hurt like this does.
“Two more days,” she whispers, and then she rushes off after Tristan, who’s already hurrying down the hall.
“So, you want to know what I found?” Riley asks, once they’re gone.
“I don’t really want to see any of the exhibits, if that’s what you mean.”
“No, at the crime scene.”
“I thought the police already went over it?”
“They did. And I didn’t see anything when we were there the first time, either. But when I went back in invisible mode, there was something written on the wall.”
“Like, in invisible ink?”
He rolls his eyes at me. “I don’t know how they did it, but whoever stole that painting left a secret message.”
I didn’t know that was even possible. “What did it say?”
“It said, This is Frank’s business—stay out of it.”
“Who the hell is Frank?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what that guy at the train station said, too. He asked if Frank sent me.”
I remember that. “What kind of a villain name is Frank?”
“Maybe he’s not a villain, just a criminal.”
“It’s still weird. And it doesn’t give us much to go on.”
“No, not really,” Riley says. “But I guess it’s a start.”
Chapter 14
“YOU’RE REALLY WEARING A tux?” Riley asks, raising his eyebrows when me and Kat get to the restaurant Saturday evening.
“I told you I was.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Geez, Perkins. I wear swim trunks, you have a problem with it. I wear a tux—which you’re also wearing, I might add—and you have a problem with it. I just can’t win.”
The table is one of those round booths, so that if someone in the middle has to go to the bathroom, everyone on one side has to get out first. I slide in next to him, and Kat sits next to me. Sarah’s on Riley’s other side, opposite Kat.
Kat nods at Sarah. “I like your dress.”
It’s a deep purple evening gown that only comes up over one shoulder. Sarah shrugs and scowls down at the table, not saying anything.
“Um, okaaay,” Kat mutters.
Kat’s dress is a shimmery pink. She told me earlier when she came to pick me up that all it needed was one of those cone hats and she could be a fairytale princess. I told her that was a great idea for Halloween. Then she said she’d do it, but only if I wore a similarly themed costume, and I said I didn’t think pink was really my color. Then she punched my arm and said I just got myself demoted to her court jester and that I would definitely have to wear tights.
“You look great, Kat,” I tell her, partly to fill the silence, but also because it’s true.
“Thanks.”
“Yeah,” Riley says.
Sarah sort of sucks in her breath and looks at him like he just said something way worse and totally inappropriate.
I squint at them. “Did something happen?”
“Like you don’t know,” Sarah says.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about your mission on Thursday. Riley told me everything.”
He sighs. “Come on, Sarah. It wasn’t like—”
He shuts up as a waiter comes over to our table, refilling water glasses and asking if he can take our orders. Me and Kat glance through the menu real quick while Riley and Sarah both order lasagna. Kat gets chicken Parmesan, and I order spaghetti.
“Marvelous choices,” the waiter says before hurrying off, taking our menus with him.
We all sit in silence.
“It wasn’t like that, Sarah,” Riley finally says.
I exchange a confused look with Kat.
“You lied to me,” Sarah tells him. “Both of you. That really hurts.”
I unroll my napkin, dumping my silverware out on the table, even though our food won’t be here for a while. “Uh, you want to tell me what you’re talking about?”
“You two told me you weren’t doing fieldwork right now. That’s what you said.”
“And we’re not. Except for our mission for school, but you already knew that.” I don’t see how she gets lying out of that.
“You wouldn’t work with me, but now you’re working with Kat?”
Kat shakes her head. “They’re not working with me. We don’t even go to the same school.”
“See, Sarah?” Riley says. “We’re not working with her.”
“But you have the same assignment, and she gave you guys a copy of her notes.”
And I told Kat about the cryptic message Riley saw on the wall, but now really doesn’t seem like a good time to bring that up.
“So?” Kat scowls at her.
“So, that’s working together. That’s…” Sarah spreads out her hands. “It’s not fair. I’ve been waiting eight months to get to work with them, and they tell me they can’t, but then working with you is no problem?”
One side of Kat’s face twitches. “Are you kidding me right now?”
“You guys said you didn’t want to do fieldwork, and I was stupid enough to believe you, when really you just didn’t want to do fieldwork with me.” Sarah sounds pretty upset. Like she actually might start crying or something.
“Sarah…” Riley tries to take her hand, but she pulls away from him. “We didn’t lie to you. And we didn’t not want to work with you. Right, X?”
“Right. It’s not you, Sarah. It’s…” It’s a lot of things. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you. And it’s not like we planned to run into Kat. I mean,” I add, off the murderous look that Kat gives me, “we didn’t have a problem with running into Kat. We were really happy about it. I know I was. And she’s just sharing her notes with us. It’s not a big deal.”
“I can’t believe this,” Kat says. “Don’t give in to her.”
“What
? I’m not—”
“And so what if you guys were working with me? I’m not saying they were, Sarah—don’t worry, you’re still getting your way—but so freaking what if they were? You’ve had to wait eight months to work with them? I was supposed to be partners with Damien.” She jerks a thumb to her chest. “Me. His girlfriend. We were supposed to be villains together. But then you came along—”
“He got an X,” Sarah says. “It wasn’t my fault.”
Kat grits her teeth. “You’re his sidekick. You got to work with him plenty before, and you know you will again. And yeah, your boyfriend will join you guys, too. Even though you’re the one who pushed them into going on a mission again before they were ready, put them in danger, and then blamed Damien for it. What happened at that train station was on you.”
“You weren’t— You weren’t there.”
“Neither were you. Not when it mattered. But despite all the danger you’ve put them in, they’re both going to go back to working with you. We all know they are, because that’s just how this works. You get what you want, and I don’t.”
“Kat.” I put a hand on her arm.
“Don’t defend her, Damien. She has nothing to complain about. And she doesn’t get to whine about you guys running into me on one measly assignment. I was the one who was supposed to get to work with you. I know it’s never going to happen. I’ve had over a year to get used to that, but…” She shakes her head, then looks at Sarah. “Maybe you can’t work with them right now, but at least you’re all on the same path. You and your boyfriend don’t live in different cities, headed in completely different directions. You don’t have to worry about what that means for you in the future. You get to see your boyfriend all the time. And, as if that’s not enough, you get to see mine, too. So don’t tell me what’s fair or not. Because you have everything. You have everything, and I just— I just don’t.”
I follow Kat out to her car. She gets behind the steering wheel, and I get in the passenger side.
She puts her face in her hands and sucks in a deep breath. “Well, I guess I was wrong about being able to get through dinner. But, for the record, she started it.”
The Phobia of Renegade X Page 9