My immediate reaction wasn’t panic, but some kind of hidden childish excitement at seeing four Capes out in public, then I realized I was smeared in blood, with the entrails of a man squished underneath my boots. I lifted my foot gingerly, watching as his guts came off the tarmac like gum peeling off pavement on a blistering summer day. I hadn’t come into contact with any Capes myself, not as Rylee and definitely not as Olympia, and it was bitterly ironic that Tempest was the first person to meet them, face to face, eye to eye, one of us clearly the villain rooted against.

I took a cautionary step backward, an inch, and hoped to Zeus above that Damsel or Witchling or, hell, even Ace would come racing down the street and pull me out of here. I couldn’t leave, not in the state I left the entire street in. Besides, these weapons, these drugs that reeked, would be better in Ava’s hand, simply because I’d be able to watch what she did with them. If the Capes got a hold of them, then what would stop them from trying to create more of those weapons? As soon as they vanished into the Olympiad HQ, the next time I would see any of these rifles would probably be when I had a barrel pointed square into my face by one of them.

Olympia wasn’t universally liked, least of all by the Olympiad. I’d lost count of the amount of times they ‘condemned me for public endangerment’ or whatever. The only reason they never actively went after me was because… I didn’t know, actually. We just never crossed paths. I guessed, though, that people who only worked on a schedule, a set of instructions written down on a piece of paper, and how tight the hand around their throat squeezed, wouldn’t be the biggest fan of the one girl who dressed up almost every night to do their jobs for them (for free, by the way).

Emelia said I had a responsibility, and I wasn’t so stupid to think I didn’t know that. A responsibility to the superhuman community around the world to make us all look a little bit better when the official Capes weren’t legally allowed to smile and wave at the cameras like they used to do. To try and clean up the image that had been tarnished after Titan killed hundreds of thousands of people in the span of several hours. That’s when the humans understood that no, their weapons, their governments, and their fragile human spirits didn’t matter in the face of realized power.

And, yeah, I wasn’t the greatest example of a superhero, but stick with me. I’m trying.

Olympia was everything the world hated about superheroes—free. Normals wanted to control us, to use us like we should: as movie stars and athletes, scientists and mathematicians. Not in the military, though, and definitely not in seats of power. They’d rather fork up millions of dollars than see any one of us snug in the oval office, but running for president never crossed my mind. I just wanted to be a superhero, but to them, that word died right along with the Olympians.

But, and I was just throwing this out there, if a government entity got a hold of weapons that could take down the one person who was actively disobeying international law, then how long would it take for the humans to figure out that if weapons so powerful they could punch the likes of me almost halfway across the city existed, then why need Olympia at all? They could take down supervillains themselves. Then when those were taken care of, as well as the gangs, then…

Well, I’d be the only one left on that list. They wouldn’t be out to kill me. I doubted it. The government wouldn’t go out of their way to kill some teenager just trying to do the right thing.

The humans needed me, whether they understood that or not. Call it ego, but being a superhero was all I had left in my life. It was all I had going for me. I wasn’t going to be replaced by some Normal with a rifle like the one that put me into that convenience store a minute ago.

I wasn’t scared. I was just making sure I knew what would happen to the weapons. Plus I wasn’t going to back down from my promise of making sure supervillains stayed hidden because of me. I was going to put in the work, clock in the hours, but I had to survive to actually do that.

My heart was a drum banging against my chest as the Capes stared me down. Their shadows stretched down the side of the building and across the street, inching toward me as the sun’s rays reached over the horizon. Still no sign of O’Reiley or Damsel. Silence sat heavily in the air. My throat was dry, my palms slickening with sweat. I squinted my eyes, narrowing on each of their faces, and my stomach dropped just as quickly as the mercenary’s at my feet had. These weren’t your average starry-eyed fresh recruits, or people so low on the wrung their names were still black on the public Cape Catalog websites. No, I knew these people. Hell, I’d met one of them and written a school report about meeting them. Gods above, I had sat at his dinner table before, eaten his ice cream and had sleepovers right there in his living room because his sons were…

I cursed as the four of them leaped to the ground, each in their own way. The first down was a slender woman with cornrows and hazel eyes, a blur of movement as she bounced on the balls of her feet, and quite literally, because her shoes weren’t roller blades like they had last been on her junior Cape profile page, but thin, glinting silver blades a lot like ice skates. The other woman shook the earth as she landed, denting the tarmac. She carried a warhammer, one so big it was probably taller and wider than I was. She carried it with ease, resting it on her shoulder. Her platinum blonde hair was braided into one long tail that snaked down her spine, her muscles bulging underneath her flexible black shirt as she rolled her shoulders and worked her neck.

Then came the two S-Grades, which—of course—had to be here tonight.

Dominion’s official ranking was somewhere high up in the world’s top ten, but nobody except the Olympiad really knew the extent of his powers, which made sense when you had the ability to warp the probability of anything you want to your will. And because of that, he appeared beside the two women, one hand in his trench coat pocket, the other toying with a playing card he flipped around his knuckles. His smile was a lot like Ace’s, empty and yet so full of this vileness that you couldn’t really place. He was apparently from Korea, but who could tell when he could most likely change the way he looked at the drop of a hat and a night in front of the mirror.

Shit, shit, shit, I thought. Glanced over my shoulder: nothing. A street full of wrecked cars, pavement, bent street lights, and a dead body. Where are the supervillains when you need them?

“Hey, listen,” I said, putting my hands up, as well as laying on as thick of a lower east end accent as I could muster. “Nobody’s gotten hurt, ‘cept a guy who was supposed to get hurt.”

“She’s small,” Bellatrix—the near-viking goddess—said. “She caused this herself?”

“Doesn’t matter if she did, she’s a bad guy, and we’re supposed to deal with them,” Velocity added. Her speech was rapid, her tongue firing words from her mouth. “And quick.”

“Whaddya say, Poseidon?” Dominion said. “We let the new girl deal with this?”

Poseidon was the one Cape that hadn’t made a flashy entrance, but he was the one most of the smartphone cameras were pointed at. He was taller than Dominion and just about Bellatrix’s height, meaning he dwarfed me nearly two times over. He was wide, had the kind of jawline that would get some men questioning if they were as straight as it, and had salt-and-pepper tousled black hair. Each strand had been eaten away by salt water, and the sun had turned his face and skin a golden hue. In his fist was a golden trident, large and sharp and just as tall and rigid as he was.

His light gray eyes were piercing, slicing right through my chest. I swallowed the lump lodged in the base of my throat. He had dad’s penetrating stare, and who could blame him?

After all, Poseidon was supposed to take my father’s place as leader of the Olympians after he eventually retired. Dad never had sidekicks—nobody ever kept up with him, not even me.

But Franklin Parker was the closest thing Zeus ever had to a son.

That wasn’t bitterness in my voice, by the way—just plain facts.

And he was the same guy who used to take Emelia and I to track meets when Ronnie couldn’t, I thought. Fighting him had never crossed my mind, and neither had telling him my secret. It was a little difficult trying to explain to your friend’s dad that you were his former mentor’s daughter, and you dressed up and actively went against the kind of laws that some of the Olympians supported. Sometimes my lives were simpler by keeping them entirely separate.

But this was one hell of a way to smash them together.

“Velocity,” Franklin said, his voice a baritone carrying through the night. “Make sure the civilians are out of harm's way. Judging by the mess she’s left, she’s more than just a threat.”

Velocity sighed under her breath, muttering, “Gotcha, I’ll play nanny,” then sprung forward, flashing across the first line of civilians and shuttling them away in a blink of an eye. Sparks spat from her skates as she slid across the pavement, startling the Normals as she ran.

Bellatrix let her hammer fall to the ground; the vibration stumbled the closest cluster of pedestrians. “She’s backing further away from us, and she’s supposed to be that big of a deal?”

“Come on, Bell,” Dominion said. “She’s just a girl, be a little nice.” He angled his head as if to take a better look at me. Sweat built under my arms and ran down my back. Another look over my shoulder; nothing and nobody. Shit. “Hey, you’re looking kinda nervous. How about we take this somewhere private, like… say a cozy room in the Olympiad? We can talk all of this over with some food. Sounds nice, right? No games. No silly fighting. Just a friendly conversation.”

Bellatrix grunted, folding her arms. “Yes, a friendly conversation between friends.”

“My mom said I shouldn’t listen to strangers,” I said. A step back. More civilians vanished as Velocity took them somewhere else. She could only take about four or five at a time. I had about a few minutes at best before the Capes stopped sweet talking me. “Plus it’s way past my curfew.”

Dominion’s eyes narrowed. “You’re waiting for someone. Friends, maybe? That’s great! How about we wait for them together so we can end this night without any funeral black, huh?”

I swallowed; my throat was desert dry. C’mon, Witchling, I need you right about now.

I heard nothing in response, just the empty silence that was usually between my ears.

In a low voice, possibly because Poseidon doubted I had more than one superpower (as was usually the case for humans), he said to Dominion, “I need a barrier along this road, protecting the broadwalk and the apartments. The city can always build a new street. I need her here, and whoever she’s looking for away. Give Velocity two minutes, starting now—nothing more.”

“Patriot’s not gonna be happy we ruined one of his streets,” Dominion muttered. “Poor bastards ‘round these parts are going to be stuck in traffic for days with all those diversions.” He raised his hand at me, narrowed his eyes, splayed his fingers. I tensed, waiting for something.

Nothing came my way, which I was partly thankful for after the amount of times I’d been punched around tonight. But I heard it, the damping of sound that surrounded us. I looked around, squinted, narrowing my vision so far down that I was able to see what he was doing—but I didn’t get the highest physics test scores for a reason; all I knew was that the air was becoming a little slower, maybe, but not so slow that it was cooling. I brushed my hand backward, faking a cautious step backward and away from them, and felt the stiffness of the air that pressed against my back.

Not so much a wall, but it was like the air decided I wasn’t going anywhere.

I’d usually give you an explanation on what his power was, but probability never made any kind of sense to me. All I knew was that he was a threat, right up there alongside Franklin.

“These containers, that powder and those rifles, what are they?” he asked. I nearly answered, was how commanding his voice was. He definitely learnt that trick from dad.

“You could let me leave with them and I’ll get back to you in about a week.”

“It looks like she’s been shot,” Bellatrix said quietly. “She’s still standing, too.”

“Those guns pack a punch,” Dominion muttered, then tapped his ear discreetly. “Yeah, those blocks of chaos a few minutes ago were probably from her. She’s durable. Dangerous.”

Bellatrix snorted. “If she can survive, then those rifles must not be powerful.”

“If she can survive being thrown across the city,” Poseidon said, “she’s an S-Grade threat.”

Bellatrix looked like she wanted to argue, but judging by their rank and file, she bit her tongue and dug her fingers deep into her meaty bicep. Her braid didn’t move an inch as Velocity ran past her. All I knew about her was that she was a brute of a powerhouse, stronger than most superhumans could ever hope to be. Where she came from or what her real name is weren’t questions that would be going through your mind as she smashed your skull into the point of your spinal column. My bones were aching deep into the marrow, so fighting her would be more like dodging her fists and her warhammer. Besides, I wouldn’t want to fight a Cape. My plan was to stall, stall, stall. Wait until I could somehow get out of here without getting my teeth kicked in.

The thought crossed my mind sometimes, though, of who would win in a fight against Olympia and an S-Grade Cape. I’d had that argument with hyperactive kids who came into the coffee store plenty of times, playing it up so much that the kids would damn near try and beat me up to prove a point. But the answer was simple: I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to ever find out.

Superheroes just didn’t fight superheroes, because the last time that happened in New Olympus, dad fought his own teammate to the death, taking most of the Olympians with him.

“You’d think Olympia would want a slice of this action,” Dominion said to both of them. I internally flinched as he muttered, “But I guess the Golden Gal’s got better things to do right now.”

Poseidon’s jaw tensed, but he kept whatever he had to say behind sealed lips.

Velocity shrieked to a stop beside Bellatrix, panting profusely. Her skates glowed a deep scarlet, and I was sure she was inhaling smoke as she rested her hands on her knees, breathing. “Done,” she gasped. “I mean, I’m done escorting all of the civilians to safety, sir. Sirs. Ma’am.”

Time’s up, Ry. I could stop the charade here. Step back and put up my hands and spill my guts to them, telling them everything they needed to know about the Triumvirate, Ava, Lucifer not being in the picture anymore, and whoever the hell Caesar was. I could choose to not fight my heroes. To not fight a man who would probably call me in the morning and ask if the superhuman chaos got in the way of a good night’s rest. I could be a hero and end the games right now before anyone got caught in the crossfire, myself included. Two lives were difficult enough to balance.

Adding a supervillain twist to the mix would throw me way off course.

But if I did, then my life would be in the hands of a supervillain. These weapons would be examined and broken down, taken apart and put back together and aimed my way. How long would it take for Damage Control to ‘somehow’ get their hands on a rifle like this? I wanted to join the Olympiad, yes, I did—I really, really freaking did—but I also had my reservations. Nothing concrete, but a feeling. A gut feeling. One that grew as Bellatrix picked up her hammer. Something that blossomed when Velocity stood, not panting, and looked me dead in the eyes across the street.

Nobody’s gonna save you, kiddo, Lucas had told me a long, long time ago. So long ago that I hadn’t even started calling myself Olympia at that point. And if you can’t save yourself, then who can we trust to save the world? The memory came from nowhere, bursting into my mind. He told me to be selfless, to not think too hard about myself when I was nearly invincible and the people I flew around trying to protect were very, very far from it, but if I couldn’t stand my ground for the goals I had and the people I cared about, then how could I ever be anything like my dad?

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You couldn’t save the world if you buckled at everything it threw your way. I had to trust my better judgment, at least for now, and figure out some way to fix everything another time.

Trust your instincts, kid, because you’re barely ever gonna have time to think it through.

My instinct had my fists raised high and feet squared, eyes looking at the hands of those in front of me because that was always the first indicator. I had a goal: stop them from taking the crates and the weapons and the drugs. This is for the city’s sake, I told myself, but I wasn’t so sure about that right now. Fuck it. I’d figure this mess out tomorrow after it was all said and done.

Or when I was locked away so deep inside of the Olympiad I had nothing better to do.

A beat of silence resonated through the air. Wind shoved my filthy hair across my face. The stench of spilled gasoline coming from the truck sweetened the air, but burned my throat as I swallowed. Bellatrix’s knuckles whitened. Velocity bent a little at the knees. Dominion and Poseiodon stood perfectly still, watching me with baited interest. With eyes that had seen and experienced far more than I had in my years as a superhero. It was easy fighting supervillains, just because supervillains weren’t so highly trained, never really had the pipeline to follow after they graduated high school. Back in the day, there used to be collectives and guilds of them, people who wanted to sign you up and smuggle you into the hands of the Night Watch or Chaos Legion.

It was a lot harder fighting people who started their superhero careers in middle school, trained through high school, skipped going to Olympus U and went straight to the Olympiad.

They had skill. Experience. I had whatever else was left in the gas tank.

Just survive until they get here, Ry. They’ll come. They’ve got to.

My stomach turned, knowing I was trusting supervillains to have my back.

“Seventh positioning,” Poseidon said quietly. “Engage with immediate effect.”

Velocity crouched, then darted toward me. I saw the sparks spit upward from the concrete. Heard the shriek of metal as her blades sliced along the tarmac. I waited until she was close, then—

She ran past me, skidding to a halt behind me. I turned, stepping back to keep my peripheral on Poseidon and the rest of the Capes, and watched Velocity come to a stand still. She grinned, an expression that quirked her thin lips, as she cracked her knuckles and ran toward me again. Once more I stepped out of her way, catching a gust of wind so strong I staggered. Nothing. Not a single hit. Again and again. Turning me around in circles as she ran straight past me so many times I lost count. The stench of heated metal stung my throat. I forced my eyes to follow her movements, trying to pick out a pattern, but they were random. Routes picked in milliseconds.

When I realized what she was doing, I snapped around on my heels, facing the others.

Bellatrix lunged forward with one mighty leap, something I felt more than heard as the ground shuddered with the impact of her shooting forward. She bellowed as she came down through the air, warhammer raised. I leapt out of the way as she slammed into the concrete, missing her by inches as chunks of stone snapped against my skin. She didn’t pause—she swung the hammer around, forcing me to roll away with a curse. Velocity was on my case before I could even get onto my feet. She planted a right hook to my jaw, and a brief flash of pain flooded my mouth.

It tasted warm and metallic. I spat it out, then wiped the blood off my lips and onto the back of my hand. Fuck, I thought. She hits hard for a speedster. Or maybe I was just too worn out.

I didn’t have the time to figure it out. Bellatrix followed the hook by swiping her hammer through the air, forcing me backward, and right into Velocity’s rapid set of punches she planted into my gut, my side, then across my face for good measure. The world blurred. My ears rang. I took a step back, then got shoved forward by the stiff barrier Dominion had created. I glanced down the street, hopeful to see something or someone racing my way. All I saw was Velocity’s face suddenly appear in my hazy vision, fist raised, a blur of warped motion. I dodged, missing her jab. I fainted a blow to her ribs and followed by swiping my leg underneath her. She leaped over it, getting away.

“You know,” I said, panting as I staggered. “You guys really are profess—”

The air shifted around me, shoving me straight toward Bellatrix. I saw Dominion flick his wrist, watched as Poseidon gripped his trident with both hands. Bellatrix swung her hammer down. My eyes widened, fear spiking through my chest as I squared my feet and raised my hands, catching the blow that sent a shockwave through my body and into the pavement. Spider web-like-cracks spread around me as my knees buckled. I grunted underneath her strength and her glaring eyes as she took a step forward, towering over me, forcing my arms to lock and bend at the elbow. I gritted my teeth as sweat trickled into my eyes, a bi-product of looking right up at her.

My toes dug into the rubble. The ragged black cloth of a sleeveless top stretched as my muscles tensed. I wanted so badly to use my powers, to delve into the pool of it calling my name.

But a part of me couldn’t help but relish in the look on Bellatrix’s face when I didn’t move an inch backward. Further into the ground, sure, by several inches as she pressed harder and harder. But not backward. My arms quaked and so did my core. My shoulder burned with pain that went down my spine and didn’t stop until my lower back was a screaming mess. But she was wasting time, wearing me out. Something I only figured out when Velocity shoulder checked me.

The hit was only good enough to stumble me, shoving me out of the warhammer’s way, but it was all Dominion needed to send me passing through the brick wall of an apartment building. I fell on my back and rolled onto my side, finding myself inside of a dimly lit lobby. The silence was sudden and oppressive, glaring compared to the whine in my ears. I glanced around, looking at moth-eaten drapes and time-chewed sofas. The carpet beneath me reeked, and I found that out the hard way as I seamlessly fazed through it. My gut lurched as I fell. I tried to fly upward, an automatic response to saving myself, but gravity shoved my back down, down, down until I hit the hard concrete of a gloomy boiler room. Steam sat in the air, musty and humid, warping around me as I picked myself up off the floor, a groaning, aching heap of body parts.

I swore, getting onto my elbow. “I didn’t even finish,” I whispered, then spat a goblet of blood onto the floor. An emergency exit light illuminated the darkness a deep scarlet, painting the grimy walls and dusty floor blood red. The creaking groans and creaks of archaic infrastructure echoed as I stood. I was wary. Cautious. Searching my surroundings for anything and anyone, but all that was near me was this hazy, sticky darkness that reeked of dead rodents and heavy, sulfur-smelling steam. My gut turned. Sweat rolled down my spine as I wiped it off my brow.

“Scared?” a voice said. I spun around. Dominion stood beside a hulking boiler, its pipes hissing through the tape keeping superheated steam passing within them. “Don’t be. We’re the good guys, you know. I really do mean it when we say all of this can be over in a few seconds.”

“Yeah, but I’d have to make a good decision first,” I said. “And look at me.”

He chuckled, his sharp canines glinting in the harsh light. “Not the picture of good choices, I know.” He didn’t move. Didn’t flick his fingers. What was going on up above me? Were they taking the drugs and the weapons? Shit, Ry, of course they are. He trapped me here on purpose.

“You don’t understand,” I said. “I’m trying to do the right thing here. Those weapons—”

“—are special grade assault rifles,” he answered, waving his hand through the wispy air. “Those drugs are a mix of chemicals so potent I’m sure even my nose wouldn’t be able to sniff it.”

I frowned. “So… you know what they are?”

“I know that a supervillain wouldn’t fight so hard for anything less than average,” Dominion said. The playing card he rolled between his fingers snapped against each knuckle, like a clock counting down. “And, by my guess, you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, so I doubt you’re the brains of this operation, but you’re probably their heaviest hitter. Like a hammer. A chainsaw. You do the damage and you get used, then you get thrown away when they’re done.”

I clenched my jaw, annoyance creeping in. “I’m not some tool for them to use. I chose to be here tonight. Hell, I could’ve been doing anything else except fighting you, but here I am.”

“Right, exactly,” he said. “Because here is where they swung their hand.”

My nails dug into the meat of my palm. “Kinda starting to hate the sound of your voice.”

Dominion laughed, a small, silent sound that slithered out of his mouth. “You sound like my ex-wife.” He stepped forward. “How about you cut your losses and tell us everything. And before you interrupt me, let me clue you in on something: the Olympiad would love to have you.”

His words didn’t register for a moment, but when they did, they hit like a truck. “What the hell?” I whispered. “But you just kicked the shit out of me. You just called me a supervillain.”

“Yeah, but usually you’d be dead by now, you villains,” he said. “See, we’re not technically supposed to kill your kind, only incapacitate with any force necessary, but oh, boy, you should see the mess we leave behind sometimes. It’s just our luck that the government is really good with a mop and a bucket. Those are petty criminals, though. Small fries. You? You’re strong, kid. Not a single person has ever stopped Bellatrix’s hammer before, and look at you! I bet when you’re at your best, this fight would have been a walk in the park for a kid like you. Easy as pie.”

“What the fuck do you want?” I growled. I hated this deep into my bones. Something told me I should get out of here. That I should burst through the concrete above me and escape.

But this tiny, dimly lit room was a clenched fist holding onto me tightly. Like we were standing in a different reality all-together, somewhere where only the two of us existed. I was in just as much danger on the surface as I was here with Dominion, and, admittedly, nobody having my back had pissed me off a little. I was defending a villain’s keep, only for none of the actual villains to come and actually get a piece of the pie I was protecting from the Capes. Was I fighting too hard for someone like Ava? Our success was mutual, but, like she said, we’re natural enemies. This entire night had been one giant shit show from the start, like Ava had just thrown her most powerful superhumans at the problem and expected it to all work out. If she didn’t care…

So what happens now, Ry? I thought. You work for everyone but yourself now?

What happened to this superhero gig being easy like in junior high?

“Supervillains just don’t exist like they used to,” he said. “But when they crop up, like you, we take note. We need strong superhumans. People who don’t have anything going for them except petty gang wars and squabbles in the filth. We need Capes without faces and names. The kind of people who wouldn’t mind cleaning up the streets their own way. Superhumans want cash these days, the movie roles and the sponsors and the trophies. Villains don’t always want those.”

“And who said I’m anything like your average supervillain?”

“You’re not,” he said, shrugging. “You’re different.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re gonna just bet on me being ‘different’?”

Dominion smiled a little wider, his narrow eyes glinting with something dark. “You think the likes of me got into the Olympiad because I had Zeus pajamas and Cleopatra posters?” He shook his head. Another step forward. Pipes whistled around him, a silent, high-pitched scream. “I’m just saying, kid. You could be comfortable and not have to deal with these silly little ego bouts in the streets. You’re a prodigy waiting to happen. You’ve got gold in your blood and you don’t even know it.” He smiled, stopping the card he turned in his hands. “You could be a hero, kid.”

My blood chilled. “Heroes don’t work with villains.”

“Sure, maybe in the 1950s when Peacemaker was still kicking it,” Dominion said, lowering his voice. “But not anymore. Today, right now, we get shit done however it has to get done.”

“So you hire people who would get locked up by the Olympians?” I asked. My chest was tight, squeezing around my heart. “The Olympiad isn’t a place for supervillains. I know that.”

“Nobody said it was a place for heroes, either,” he continued. “It’s a place for people who’ve got a job and a duty to do, and have the guts to do it. It’s not pretty. It’s not always fun. But we’ve got a purpose in these clothes and these badges that you can’t find anywhere on the streets.”

I took my chance as he was talking to shoot toward him, nothing but a bluff to throw him off. I fazed through him, a weird feeling like passing through dry oil, and came out the other side. I slid on my feet, coming to a stop beside a network of hissing pipes. Dominion sighed, turning around leisurely to face me. He was a scarlet shadow amidst the black surrounding him. This tall, leering figure of a man with a thin smile and crude eyes. I shuddered as he continued speaking.

“How much longer do you want to be someone else’s pet?” he asked dryly.

“I’m not some fucking pet,” I spat. “I’m doing this ‘cause I want to, remember?”

“No, kid. You’re doing this because you have to. People don’t choose to become supervillains, or become superheroes,” he said. “We all do it for one reason or another. Always.”

“What if a girl just likes the thrill of screwing with Capes?” I asked.

“Then you’re just as dumb of a little dog as your owner probably thinks you are.”

I was really, really starting to hate the sound of his voice.

“I know who I am and what I can do,” I said, tightening my fists, feeling heat swell inside my gut. “And if you think you can fuck with that, then you’re as thick as they come, jackass.”

He smiled even wider. “See? Cut from the same cloth, me and you. The only difference is that I know what I want, and I took the chance when I got it. If you don’t, someone’s gonna get you. If it ain’t us, it’ll be Olympia, and she makes us look like a troop of God’s finest angels.”

“So, what, I come to you for protection?” I said. “To find my ‘purpose’ or whatever?”

“Nah, you’ve already got a purpose,” he said. “You come to us to make it a reality.”

I was silent for a moment, words thick and heavy on my tongue. Finally, I whispered what was circling my mind: “You expect me to betray the people I work with, just for that?”

“Betray is such a boring word,” Dominion said. “All I want is for you to be on the right side when this powder keg of a city finally lights up. The only reason I came here tonight was because we heard chatter about a powerful Supe, maybe a possible S-Grade. Now, maybe you’re not quite there yet, but in a few years, with enough training, you could be just as good as anyone.”

Just as good as anyone. And I wouldn’t have to be a supervillain to afford it.

Silence dragged between us, seconds I purposefully let slip through my fingers. A ball sat in my chest, making me feel uncomfortable. Weighing the options, this sounded so much better than anything Ava offered me. No lies and secrets. No bullshit black mail. And no paying my dues and earning my stripes just to afford the first semester’s training in the Olympiad. But… That feeling was still there, of not being comfortable, happy, with everything standing in front of me.

Dominion was one of the few Capes the world knew by name and face and voice. Capes weren’t allowed to be superstars, just because they were officially government agents. But he was trying to hire Tempest, and not, well, me. Was Olympia just not good enough for them? What did I have to do to prove myself to them? Not once had I gotten a talk like this from a single Cape. The closest I’d come to getting recruited was when I practiced my interviews in the bathroom mirror to my shampoo bottles. But this is who they chose: the new supervillain in town wreaking havoc.

Not good enough. Almost there. Just keep pushing, Rylee, just fly a little faster.

I shook away the memories. Whatever. I didn’t want to hear any of this from Dominion. It was stubborn, I know, and maybe stupid on some level, but getting in had to be on my terms. And maybe that’s why I wanted to do it as Rylee and not anyone else, just so that I could feel like… like who I was—who I actually was—amounted to more than just the girl who put on the costume. Gods, I was getting a headache thinking about this, and maybe getting punched wasn’t helping.

But I knew for certain that Tempest wasn’t getting into the Olympiad off the basis of being a supervillain that they could stuff in one of their monkey suits. If I was going to put on a white tie, Rylee was going to be the one who figured it out all on her own. Dammit, Lucas could teach me.

Still, if the Olympiad had been hiring villains all this time - for whoever knows how long - then what else were they hiding?

The last thing I wanted to do was doubt the only thing left that dad built and left behind for me.

“Stuff it,” I said. “I’ll get what I want however way I want it. No shortcuts here.”

“You sure?” he asked. “We have dinner with the mayor if whenever we have a good month.”

“Remind me to kidnap her so I can hang out and eat shitty steak in a few weeks, too.”

Dominion laughed a lot louder than he had before, a sound that echoed through the silence, mingling with the whispering steam. He raised his hand and flicked the playing card he held between his fingers at me in one smooth motion. It sliced through the air, and I caught out of reflex just before it whizzed past my ear—a heckling red jester. “Well, if you ever change your mind.”

“What, does the Olympiad put trackers in their business cards now?”

“Cheating’s beneath me,” he said. “If I wanted to find you, I could. That’s just a gift from me to you, but I guess you’ll only be able to use it if you actually survive fighting us to figure out how to use it. Until then, kiddo, I hope you enjoy the rest of your night, ‘cause it’s gonna be hell.”