The Trials of Renegade X (14 page)

Dread flickers in my chest as I follow her gaze, half expecting my hand to be covered in electricity again. Like there’s nothing I can do to make it stop and
everyone
is going to know.

They’re all going to think this means I’m a villain. Which I only sort of am. But they’re going to think I don’t belong at Heroesworth, or at this house. That me getting my flying ability was a fluke and that I’m never really going to get my
H
.

Which might all turn out to be true, but that doesn’t mean I want them thinking it.

When I actually look at my hand, though, I see there’s no electricity. I’m safe. Well, except for the hole I blasted through the wall.

Amelia wrinkles her nose. “If it was one of Sarah’s gadgets, then where is it?”

“Why do you care?”

She sniffs. “Fine, don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter how it happened—Dad’s going to be so mad at you.”

“It was an accident.” Just, you know, playing with lightning in the house. Totally not my fault.

She shrugs and doesn’t even try to hide the gloating in her voice when she says, “He’s still going to be mad.”

“Damien?! Amelia?!” Gordon shouts. Then I hear the creak of his footsteps on the stairs.

He’s coming up here. He’s going to see this. He’s going to find out.

I glare at Amelia. “We’re going to hide this, and you’re not going to tell him. Got it?”

The corners of her mouth twist into an evil grin. “I suppose I
could
help you. If I
wanted
to. If I had a good reason.”

“I don’t have time for this. Don’t you have any posters or something? If we cover this up and if you keep your mouth shut—”

“Oh, I have
plenty
of posters.” She studies the back of her hand as if it’s absolutely fascinating and she has all the time in the world.

“Amelia. Come on.”

Someone says something to Gordon, and he pauses on the stairs, buying me a few more seconds.

“I don’t know.” Amelia sighs. “It would be awfully fun watching you squirm when Dad gets here.”

But she says
would be
, not
will be
. I hate myself for what I’m about to do. But what choice do I have? “If you do this for me, I’ll owe you.”

“Mm hmm. You’ll owe me a lot.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you want. As long as nobody else finds out about this.”

Her face lights up. “Whatever I want? You promise?”

I cringe inside, knowing I’ll regret this. But I nod anyway, just as Gordon resumes his climb up the stairs. Maybe I’ll get lucky. Maybe the really creaky step near the top will actually break and he’ll get stuck or something. But it doesn’t.

Amelia uses her power, teleporting a rolled-up poster into her hands, which she shoves at me through the hole in the wall. “Here.” She drops a couple of thumbtacks in my palm and then hurries to put her own poster up on her side.

I unroll my poster and make a face. It’s from
The Crimson Flash and the Safety Kids
and has the Crimson Flash in the middle and a series of ethnically diverse kids around the edges, each demonstrating some important safety tip.

And I’m supposed to put this on my wall and hope Gordon buys it? But I don’t have time to find something else. My hands shake as I hurry to shove the tacks through the corners before he gets here. The poster’s slightly crooked—I’ll have to adjust it later, or, you know, burn it—but at least it covers up the jagged hole I blew through the wall.

I finish tacking it up just as he knocks on my door. “Damien?”

I open it, maybe a little too quickly. There’s a spark of static as I touch the doorknob.

“Are you kids all right?” he asks. “We all thought we heard something.” He peers past me, into the room.

“Everything’s fine.” I try too hard to sound casual, so that it ends up coming out strained.

Amelia’s door clicks open and she pokes her head out into the hall.

Gordon wrinkles his forehead. “But what happened? And what’s that smell? Is something burning?”

“Um ...” I’d use the gadget excuse again, but then he might figure out that there was actually an explosion, which might lead him to discovering the hole in the wall. “I don’t—”

“It’s just an old candle I had,” Amelia says, slipping out of her room and standing next to Gordon. “And Damien was practicing his flying. But he fell.”

“You ... were?” A slow, proud smile slips over Gordon’s face until he’s practically beaming at me. I haven’t seen him this happy since I told him I was going to Heroesworth.

I glare at Amelia. I know for a fact that she didn’t find the embarrassing baby pictures of her I collected, so she’d better watch it.

“He’s been practicing a lot,” she adds, smirking at me. “He’s thinking about joining the flying team at school.”

Gordon’s so shocked and elated by that, he whips around to look at her, to see if she really means it.

While his back is turned, I motion for her to tone it down. We want to keep this at least remotely believable. Even Gordon’s not that gullible.

“I was captain when I went,” Gordon says, grinning at me and apparently eating up every word of Amelia’s lies after all. I guess he really is that naïve. Who knew? “Well, my senior year, anyway.”

“I still have a long way to go,” I tell him. “Before even trying out, I mean.” Which isn’t going to happen.
Ever
.

“But you’re trying. That’s what’s important. You’re getting over your fears and getting out there.”

Getting out there? By trying out for some stupid flying team? He is so delusional, because even if we were living in some alternate universe where I was actually going to try out, and where I actually had control of my power—well, either of them—I wouldn’t join some stupid team. Do I look like a team player to him? I don’t even know what the flying team
does
. And even if I had a major head injury and somehow decided I wanted to join, they’d have to be pretty desperate to even consider me, what with me being an evil half villain and all.

“Dad, I’m not ... I mean, don’t get your—” I was about to tell him not to get his hopes up, but then I realized that sounded like something Helen would say. “Let’s keep this a secret for now. Just between us.”

“Of course,” he says, but I don’t think he actually heard me, because then he says, “I’m going to go tell the others,” before hurrying off.

I wait until he’s gone before swearing under my breath. Then I sigh and lean back against the wall, startling a little when my elbow presses against the poster with the hole behind it.

Amelia grins at me, looking pretty proud of herself for the stunt she just pulled.

“What does the flying team even do?” I ask her.

“It’s like swimming,” she says.

“Swimming?”

“Yeah, they do all these big synchronized numbers. It’s really impressive.”

“Synchronized flying.” Nope.
Never going to happen.
“And Gordon was seriously involved in that? He was their
captain
?” He’s an even bigger loser than I thought.

“It’s excellent practice. It improves coordination, teamwork, and speed.” She sounds like she’s reciting a promotional flier.

“Great. You were supposed to be helping me, you know.”

“I did. I pretty much just saved your life. So you should be a little nicer to me. After all, you
owe
me.”

I shudder. The last time I made a deal with Amelia, I ended up getting pushed off the tallest building in Golden City. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to agree to anything, especially since she’s smirking at me like she’s already adding up all the ways she can exploit this. But it’s not like I had a lot of time to think about it. Plus, it could be worse. At least she doesn’t know what really happened.

“Uh, Damien ...” Amelia’s not smirking at me anymore. Instead, her eyes are wide, and she’s staring at my hand.

There’s a little crackle of electricity, and I glance down to see a couple of sparks arcing between my fingers. I clench my fist, willing the sparks to stop. I glare at Amelia. “You didn’t see anything.”

She backs away from me, her face going pale. “What
is
that?”

“Nothing.”

She turns toward the open door, starting to shout, “Dad!”

I grab her arm. There’s a visible spark of uber-charged static, and she flinches and jerks away.

“
Ow!
Don’t touch me!” She stares at me in horror. “I thought you could fly!”

“I can. This is something else.” I shut the door, standing in front of it and blocking her from leaving. “And nobody needs to know about it, especially not Gordon.”

“But you’re a ... a vill ...” She can’t quite make herself say the whole word.

“A villain?
Half
villain, and you knew that. What, do you think I’m going to murder you or something? I’m the same person I was five seconds ago.” Except now I have a really dangerous superpower that can blow holes through walls, and I can’t exactly control it. Nothing to be afraid of.

She makes a face, like saying I’m half villain is equivalent to saying I’m half evil. “You blew up the wall!”

“I told you, it was an accident.”

“You also said it was one of Sarah’s gadgets.” She gives me a wary look, wrapping her arms around herself and keeping her distance, as if I’ve revealed myself to be some kind of criminal and she shouldn’t get too close. “I thought you were trying to get your
H
. Was that a lie, too?”

“I
am
. I didn’t ask for this. Promise me you won’t say anything.”

She glances behind me at the door, like she’s still considering reporting me to Gordon. “Why should I?”

“Because. I owe you, remember? Now I owe you even more.” Erg.

Her voice wavers. “Are you going to get kicked out of school?”

“Not if no one finds out. Look, this isn’t a big deal.”

“Liar.” She doesn’t say it with her usual gloating. No singsong voice or any hint of “I’ve got you right where I want you.” Instead, she sounds sad and almost pitying.

My palms sweat and I wipe them on my jeans. This is so bad that Amelia’s first instinct is to feel sorry for me. She has the biggest dirt on me ever, and it’s
so bad
that she’s not even being smug about it.

“You can fly, and you can zap people.” Her lip curls in disgust. “What are you?”

“I’m your brother.”

“
Half
brother,” she says, emphasizing the distance between us.

“Please, Amelia.” My voice sounds too high, too desperate and panicked. “You can’t tell anyone.”

She bites her lip, studying my face for a while.

I hold my breath. I might be blocking the door, but I can’t keep her in here forever. And if she decides to tell Gordon—or Helen, or anyone, really—I’m ruined, and there’s nothing I can do to stop her.

She closes her eyes. “All right,” she says, finally giving in. “I’ll keep your secret. For now. But if you shock me again—”

“It was an accident.”

“—or do anything evil, I
will
tell.”

“Evil? That’s what you think of me?” One tiny zap, and she’s looking at me like she doesn’t know me at all. Like me being half supervillain was only okay as long as there weren’t any reminders of it. A perfect example of why no one can ever know. Or at least no superheroes.

“I don’t want you endangering anyone.” She looks down her nose as she says it, like she’s the protector of the world now. “And remember,” she adds, a hint of the old familiar smugness creeping over her, “you
owe
me.”

Chapter 10

SARAH’S DAD LETS ME in after I practically run to her house later. He’s on his way to the store, so, thankfully, he doesn’t ask me how school’s going, even though Sarah told me he’s fascinated by the anthropological nuances of a half villain “outsider” trying to incorporate himself into a “tribe” of heroes. I think he’s been watching too many documentaries. He tells me Sarah’s home, but he doesn’t mention she’s with Riley, which I feel is false advertising. I find them sitting in her room with the door open, even though, unlike at Kat’s house, Sarah’s allowed to have the door closed when a boy is over. Like her dad actually, you know, trusts her or something.

Er, not that Kat’s dad should exactly trust her. Or especially
me
. But that’s not the point.

Sarah and Riley both look up as I lean against the doorway. Sarah’s sitting in her computer chair, and Riley’s perched on the edge of her bed, next to one of her gadgets. I’ve never seen it before, but it’s a white plastic device that looks sort of like a hair dryer with a big green and red dial on the side.

“Hey, Sarah,” I say, “I need to ...” I trail off, noticing there’s a tiny screwdriver on the bed next to Riley, as if he’d been using it. Were they working on one of her gadgets
together
? “I have to talk to you.” I glare at Riley and jerk my thumb toward the door. “That means alone, Perkins.”

Sarah and Riley exchange a knowing look, then Riley rolls his eyes. It reminds me of when Gordon and Helen think they’re secretly talking about me, like I’m an idiot or something and won’t notice.

“I’m not going anywhere, X,” Riley says, though I see he slides his hands under his legs, like he’s worried I might break his finger again. “And can’t you tell you’re interrupting something?”

Sarah adjusts her glasses. “Damien, I’m kind of busy.”

“Yeah, but this is important.” Like,
I can shoot lightning from my hands and blasted a hole in the freaking wall
important. And I certainly can’t tell her that with Riley sitting there. He’d love to know I have a villain power—just another reason for him to think he’s a better hero than me, even if he’s not. I drum my fingers against the doorframe, then barge inside, since it doesn’t seem like an invitation is coming anytime soon. “What, exactly, am I interrupting?” It couldn’t be anything
too
important, right? I mean, they did still have the door open.

I don’t like the way they have that gadget sitting there between them, with a couple of tools sprawled all over Sarah’s glow-in-the-dark night sky bedspread, as if they were both working on it. Even though I know for a fact that Sarah works on her gadgets
alone
. I’m not allowed to touch them until they’re done, at least not since that time I accidentally broke the automatic nail trimmer she was working on, just because I misunderstood that it wasn’t at the testing phase yet. And I was the one who almost lost a finger, so I don’t see why she had to punish me further by banning me from touching anything. But Mr. Perfect strikes again, because apparently that rule doesn’t apply to him like it does to me.