They waited.

Adrian wondered what the physical indications would be. Would his muscles begin to shrink? Would the chromium chain and spear melt away, as Ruby’s bloodstone had?

Captain Chromium yanked the spear from the ground, gripping it in his fist while the seconds ticked by.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty.

The air came rushing back into Adrian’s lungs and he found himself laughing as the truth sank in, for all of them.

It hadn’t worked.

His invincibility had held.

“How disappointing,” said Ace. “But there is more than one way to destroy a hero.” He gestured toward the bell tower. “Nightmare, you were once forced to watch as your loved ones were murdered in front of you, due to the negligence of this man who calls himself a hero. Today, you will have your revenge! Today, Captain Chromium will know what pain you felt, as he, too, witnesses the death of the person most precious to him. I sentence Adrian Everhart to death! Nightmare, you may have the honors.”

“NO!” Hugh screamed.

Even as Adrian lifted his head, refusing to cower from his fate, Captain Chromium pulled back his arm and heaved the spear with all his extraordinary might at the bell tower.

He sent it straight at Nova.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

NOVA STUMBLED BACK from the window, at the same moment Adrian shoved his shoulder against her side, knocking her to the floor. The javelin flew over Adrian’s head, missing him by inches, and lodged itself into one of the wooden beams supporting the bells. A cloud of dust exploded across the belfry.

Dizzy with the rush of adrenaline, Nova pushed herself onto her elbows and gaped at Adrian.

He stared back at her, seemingly as surprised as she was.

Honey Harper laughed. “What was that? Did you just save her life? Oh, darling, if you weren’t so disgustingly noble, I’d be half in love with you myself.”

Adrian didn’t look away from Nova. “She saved my life once,” he said. “A few times, actually.”

Nova swallowed. Outside, she heard the Captain, still screaming. The sound was rife with anger and fear and the promise that he would annihilate anyone who laid a finger on his son.

Catching her breath, Nova forced herself to turn away from Adrian and all the emotions scrawled across his face. The intensity, the openness.

She saved my life once …

She had not dropped the gun, though her hand was trembling as she climbed back to her feet and returned to the window. The Captain was sprinting toward the entrance of the cathedral. The villains stood motionless on the western towers, watching him come. Nova couldn’t tell if they were nervous that this supposedly invincible superhero was ready to demolish the church in search of Adrian, but they did still have strength in numbers, and the advantage of the higher ground, and familiarity with the cathedral, and … Ace.

They still had Ace.

But Ace wasn’t paying any attention to his archenemy, Nova realized with a start. He was watching her. His mouth moved, but in the burgeoning noise, she could no longer hear him. He frowned and beckoned to Megaphone at his side.

A moment later, Megaphone’s voice boomed through the enclosed space. “You did want to see an execution, didn’t you? Then so be it!”

Ace nodded at Nova.

Shivering, she lifted the gun. Adrian didn’t move as she angled it against his temple again.

Her heart ricocheted inside her chest.

Captain Chromium released another war cry. Dragging the chain behind him as he ran, it seemed like he intended to tear the church apart stone by stone. Anything to stop Nova. Anything to keep Adrian safe.

He was halted as a series of wooden timbers dislodged from the arched dome and crashed in front of him.

He roared, and with a single punch, the first beam splintered. The Captain grabbed another and heaved it aside, then planted his palm on the third beam and launched himself over it like a hurdle. But for every obstacle he crossed, another was ready to take its place. Rubber tires. Iron gates. Cinder blocks.

Ace was toying with him. He wasn’t worried that his longtime rival was using all his strength to get to the church, to get to Adrian.

Ace cast Nova another questioning look, this one tinged with suspicion.

She adjusted the gun in her hand. Put the barrel against Adrian’s skin. He was facing forward, his focus locked on the struggle below. His glasses had slipped slightly down his nose. Nova watched the dip of his lashes as he blinked. The steady rise and fall of his shoulders.

Pull the trigger, Nova.

The gun became heavy. The handle felt slick in her palm.

Adrian’s lips parted. His gaze shifted in her direction. He was still shirtless, his wounds still bleeding through the gauze, and she knew he must be in pain. And yet, he was so still. So steady.

Just waiting.

Pull the trigger.

“His father made the choice for you, little Nightmare.”

She startled. Ace had taken to the air. He was levitating over the nave’s steep roof.

“And now,” he continued, “we must keep our word. We do not make idle threats.”

She tried to nod, but wasn’t sure she succeeded. This time, she didn’t look down at Adrian. That would make it easier. To not see him. To not feel his breaths moving through her. To not remember the steady drum of his heartbeat as she’d once rested her head on his chest.

Her lips moved this time, saying the words to herself. Just pull the trigger.

That was all she had to do and Ace would be proud and Captain Chromium would be devastated and the Anarchists would win. Her family would finally win.

Her own breaths came in strangled hiccups. She was that frightened little girl all over again, staring at the unconscious body of the man who had murdered her family. She was petrified, unable to squeeze her finger, to take that one small action that would avenge her family’s deaths.

Her father. Her mother. Evie. All that she had loved, stolen from her, so brutally, so carelessly.

Her arm started to shake.

This was supposed to be her revenge, and yet … it wasn’t the revenge she’d longed for. This was pain of an entirely new sort.

She couldn’t lose Adrian, too.

A roar came from below, followed by a crash. Ace turned back. The Captain had made it around the front facade and begun scaling the cathedral’s northern wall. The crash had been a saintly stone statue being thrown to the ground and shattering.

Ace’s hands curled into claws. He lowered himself onto one of the stone buttresses, snarling as the Captain launched himself from pillar to window arch, gargoyle to finial. Every time he landed, he punched a new hole into the stonework, forming handholds for himself as he pulled his body higher.

Ace lifted his hands toward the Captain, but Nova wouldn’t know what happened next.

A hand snatched something from her belt. She gasped and swiveled around. Honey had taken her knife.

“For all the diabolical schemes,” said Honey. “If you can’t do it, then I will!”

Honey grabbed Adrian’s forehead and yanked his head back. She reached around, prepared to drag the knife against his throat.

“No!” Nova grabbed Honey’s arm and wrestled it away. Swinging them both around, she gritted her teeth and shoved Honey back against the wall. “Please.”

It was a pathetic plea—a begging, desperate plea.

Honey’s expression was startled, though it quickly darkened. She shoved Nova away. Nova stumbled, but caught herself. She still held the gun, but she wouldn’t aim it at Honey. Her ally. Her friend.

“I thought we were past this,” Honey growled. “He’s a Renegade, Nova. He’s one of them.”

“I know,” she said, her voice sounding weak even in her own head. “I know.”

It was all she could think to say. Because Honey was right. And there was no way for her to explain that at this moment, she didn’t care. She couldn’t even ask Honey not to hurt him. She couldn’t suggest that they let him go, because where would he go? And what would Ace think?

But still.

Still.

She’d thought she could do it. She’d thought—for Ace. For the Anarchists. For her family. For this world. She could do it, if that’s what it took for Ace’s vision to come true. For the Renegades to be destroyed once and for all. For all prodigies to have freedom from tyranny. For the balance of power to tip back toward actual balance.

But she’d been wrong.

She couldn’t kill him.

She couldn’t do it.

And she couldn’t stand there and watch him be killed, either. Not this boy, who had given her a quiet, dreamless sleep. Who had given her a star. Who had given her hope.

Not him. Not Adrian.

Honey’s face twisted.

Then Nova heard the buzzing.

She had barely cocked her head when the first wasp landed above her elbow and drove its stinger into her skin.

Nova had seen Honey’s bees at works, had heard the screams of agony—but nothing had prepared her for this. It was a burning nail being plunged into her flesh.

Nova screamed. The gun clattered to the floor.

A second sting pierced her thigh. A third beneath her shoulder blade. A fourth on her shin. Each one speared into her, more painful than she could have imagined. And they kept coming. Scorching needles being driven into her again and again and again.

“Stop!” she wailed, collapsing against a wall. “Honey—stop!”

Every instinct told her to run, to throw herself from the tower if it would only get her away from here. But one thought kept her there, despite the pain. If she ran, Honey would kill Adrian.

“Please,” she cried, swatting away a crimson hornet. “Honey—” She gasped as a stinger burrowed into her chest. “This is wrong, Honey! We don’t need to—fight them—anymore!”

“Is that so?” Honey yelled. “So what, you thought you’d keep one as your boyfriend? Or forgive his Councilman father? You’ve never understood, Nova. You were always too young to understand.”

Another sting plunged into the soft flesh behind Nova’s ear. She tried to cover her head and neck as hot tears blurred her vision. She could feel them everywhere. Not just the venomous stings, but their legs crawling across her skin, their wings beating against her hair, the deafening buzz all around her.