Nerve

by Kirsten Krueger

  “Sure,” Eliana agreed as she stood, avoiding everyone’s eyes.

  “What does she mean you’re not allowed to leave?” Ashna asked after the two girls had sauntered to the mats. The slow, clumsy pace at which Kiki now ducked and rolled made Tray snort.

  “Uh…” Ackerly looked to Tray for help. He shrugged, unsure of how to tell these girls that they’d escaped one prison just to enter another. “W-wanna be partners?”

  Ashna’s brow furrowed, but after a moment she nodded. “Sure. I might have a hard time tackling you, though—you’re bigger than me.”

  “Not by…that much,” Ackerly said sheepishly, still glancing toward Tray for assistance.

  With a dramatic exhale, he joined them in standing. “C’mon, Seth.”

  “Ooh, super strength versus super strength,” his brother sang as he hopped down from the bleachers in the same manner Naira had.

  The peachy-haired girl practiced the drill with Cath, though every time she collided with those trunk-like legs, the monster didn’t even budge. Not far from them, Lavisa sparred with Hartman, who teleported away in fear every time she came close to knocking him down.

  “You both have super strength?” Ashna asked the twins as they stationed themselves on the mats. Ackerly adjusted his glasses uneasily when he was forced to face her.

  “Yeah, but mine is still developing,” Seth explained as he cracked his knuckles. Tray didn’t have the chance to comment before his brother ducked into a roll and exploded at his legs, knocking him onto the cushioned mat.

  “Are you sure about that?” Ashna said with a giggle that Ackerly soon joined.

  When Seth reached down to help Tray stand, he waved his hand away. “This is stupid,” he grumbled, straightening his shirt as he straightened his body.

  “Super strength must come in handy,” Ashna commented, looking between both Starks. “My brother had super strength. I guess it’s a common Affinity.”

  Ackerly must have noted that had as well, because he shuffled before saying, “Yeah…a few people here have it, like Nero.”

  They all glanced across the gym to where Nero aggressively tackled acid-spitter Dave, probably wishing it was Calder…who Tray now noticed was nowhere in sight. Had the Reggs punished him? All the teachers were here, but Calder was gone.

  “He does seem like a bit of an ass,” Ashna noted. “I thought he was going to hurt one of you last night… Luckily, I think the Rosses forgot about punishing you. We gave them some locations of the Wackos’ hideouts and the president—er, soon-to-be president—is pleased. A government unit already invaded one of the hideouts and killed a few Wackos this morning.”

  “Damn, that was fast,” Seth said with a whistle. “Did they kill any of the ones who captured you?”

  Ashna dipped her head. “Yes, one—a guy named Vishal. He was…well, he always said he wanted to make me his bride once I was of age.”

  “His bride?” Ackerly’s eyes widened. “That’s—um…how old is he?”

  “He was twenty-nine,” Ashna said, wrinkling her nose. “But now he’s gone, thank God… We told them where we think Headquarters is, too. Maybe they’ll manage to catch some more.”

  Ackerly cocked his head at that, puzzled, but then a woman waltzed up to them, paralyzing him with her authority.

  “O-Olalla Cosmos?” Ashna staggered back, as if stabbed. “You—you’re…an Affinity hero…”

  The Affinity ambassador chuckled, brushing her vibrant purple hair over her shoulder. “I’m not to be praised, dear. You, though—you must be the girl they’re talking about, the one with the extraordinary hair.” Ashna looked like she was ready to melt when Olalla ran a gentle hand over her rainbow locks. “So unique—but that isn’t why I sought you out. I came to congratulate you on the recent triumph over the Wackos. It isn’t often a hideout is raided, and with the coordinates for their headquarters…perhaps this whole issue will be resolved and we won’t have to use Affinity children to fight this war.”

  “You think the Wackos can be defeated so easily?” Tray asked, drawing the woman’s attention. When her eyes locked onto him, they lit with recognition.

  “Ah, Tray, isn’t it? And your brother, Seth. Have you any…news for me?” she inquired, likely referring to the Wacko sympathizer.

  Seth immediately opened his mouth, but Tray cut in swiftly. “Not yet. We’ll keep you updated.”

  “As I will keep you updated on my progress with the suits,” she replied with a wink. “To answer your earlier question…I don’t know how easily the Wackos can be defeated. I hate to think that the government will annihilate them all. They are terrorists, yes, but many are young, like yourselves. It seems…cruel not to give them a second chance. What are your sentiments?” she added, tilting her head toward Ashna. “You were among them as a prisoner. Do they all deserve death?”

  Biting her lip, Ashna peeked around for prying ears. “No, not exactly. Many are evil, but some, like my friend, Naira, joined and then realized how corrupt it was. I imagine there have to be at least a few who can be redeemed.”

  “The problem lies in determining who is innocent and who is deceptive,” Tray said, peering discreetly in Than’s direction. If he was, indeed, a Wacko, maybe he was like Naira and had realized how evil the Wackos were. If he were still with them, wouldn’t they have invaded Periculand again by now?

  “Yes, it is a slippery slope,” Olalla conceded with a solemn nod. Her gaze skipped around the room to Nero demolishing Dave, Kiki failing to roll, and the Rosses whispering to each other. “Be careful with whom you trust. Even mind readers can be deceived.”

  One of the Wacko hideouts had been exterminated—that much Eliana gathered from William’s elated thoughts. Although his mind was easier to read than Artemis’s murky one, it was still slightly warped, like that of Aethelred, Fraco, and anyone else who might have known Angor’s Affinity.

  Since concluding that Artemis was the mind controller, Eliana couldn’t stand in the same room as the woman without wanting to physically attack her. Her presence in the training gymnasium was enraging enough that, when it was her turn to practice the drill, Eliana actually ducked and rolled with force, slamming Kiki’s legs and throwing her onto her back.

  A high-pitched yelp escaped her roommate’s throat, and Eliana almost mimicked it when she found herself caught within her lengthy legs, the two girls tangled on the orange mats. Peeking up, Eliana met Kiki’s bulging eyes and was too mesmerized by her multi-hued irises to move.

  “You knocked me over.”

  “I-I’m sorry.” Eliana scrambled back and examined her limbs as if they were foreign. She’d never thought she would have any success in combat, but perhaps her festering aggressive thoughts had sparked physical capabilities she hadn’t tapped into before.

  “How did you do that?” Kiki demanded as she sat upright. “Why can’t I do that?”

  Though her initial reaction was to stutter a reply, Eliana paused and focused on her roommate’s mind, sifting through her thoughts like an unorganized pile of papers. When she discovered the answer, it was impossible to keep her lips from inching into a shy grin. “I…think you’re afraid of hurting me.”

  “Afraid…” Shaking her head, Kiki pushed to her feet and extended a hand toward Eliana. “Get up. I want to try again.”

  Placing her hand in Kiki’s, she tried not to notice the softness of it by saying, “You want to try to hurt me?”

  “I want to prove that I’m not afraid.” With a grunt, she hoisted Eliana upright. Perhaps it was the rush of blood to her head, but Eliana felt suddenly dazed as she studied the features of the other girl’s face. With the determination set in her jaw, it was hard to believe anything frightened her.

  A bit dumbly, Eliana asked, “Afraid of what?”

  Kiki blinked her long lashes. “Of—anything.”

  The memories running through her brain encompassed her dread for loneliness, the plague of her childhood. Much of it had been self-imposed—demeaning others,
refusing to open up emotionally, and insisting all of it was acceptable—but Kiki saw her errors now, and Eliana empathized with her lack of human companionship. Everyone else would always look at her as the irredeemable bully, but with the way Eliana’s own purview had altered over the past few weeks, she believed no one was beyond the scope of change.

  “Okay,” she said, stepping back. “Knock me down.”

  Swallowing, Kiki balled her fists and then ducked into a clumsy roll. Presumably, someone as popular as Kiki Belven would have had a cheerleader’s grace, but athleticism had evaded her; the move was painfully slow. Still, Eliana braced for the tackle, only for a pair of massive hands to grab her arms and lift her. Squirming proved futile as the person deposited her on the floor a foot away, taking her place as Kiki’s opponent. When she finally sprung out of her roll to attack, she met a wall of solid muscle.

  “What the…” Kiki froze upon realizing the legs she hugged belonged to Nero Corvis. “Oh—oh.” She staggered back and then fumbled into a standing position, fixing her wispy hair and ruffled shirt. “Hello, Nero.”

  Eliana cringed as a predatory grin spread across his lips. “Hello, Little Belven. Little Mensen,” he added as an afterthought. His slate-gray eyes landed back on Kiki with a flirtatious edge. “You’re looking ravishing today.”

  Kiki batted her eyelashes and twirled her hair. Eliana waited for her to send some mental message confirming this was an act…but none came. Did she really think fawning over this bully would cure her loneliness? The girl’s current thoughts answered that question. With a clenched jaw and curled firsts, Eliana watched the flirtation unfold.

  “And aren’t you looking hunky?” Kiki replied with an overdone smile. “It’s nice to see you aren’t drenched in that foul water anymore. Those Mardurus twins are despicable.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  Momentarily, Kiki’s lips pursed with confusion, but she recovered with a swift, “So, you’re done with that water bitch?”

  Nero maintained his fiendish grin, and Eliana panicked at the thought of her roommate actually dating this jerk. She’d grown too much since her breakup with Seth to revert back to this life of seeking acceptance, relying on popularity, and engaging in shallow relationships. Part of Eliana wanted to intervene, but Kiki would hate her for it. Before, she wouldn’t have cared about Kiki Belven’s sentiments toward her, but the past two weeks had been…pleasant with her company. It was different than with Hastings, of course, but like Kiki had predicted, Eliana considered them friends.

  Mustering the will, she prepared to interject, but then Nero covered his mouth in a girlish giggle. There was something unusual about his eyes, and Eliana guessed even before they transformed into a familiar bronze that this wasn’t really Nero. Astonishment morphed Kiki’s features almost as dramatically as Ruse’s form shrinking from the mass of Nero to the size of Tray Stark.

  “Water bitch? You’d better not let Nixie hear that one—she’ll drown you.” Ruse snickered, hand still covering his mouth. His hair was golden now, and Eliana thought him more handsome than Nero, but Kiki scowled like he was a worm that had snuck into her food.

  “You—you cruel, heartless being!” she fumed, cheeks reddening beneath her makeup.

  “Oh, c’mon. You didn’t actually think I was Nero; he doesn’t have that much charisma. His pick-up line is definitely something like, ‘Bang me or I’ll beat you.’ Plus, I mean…he got with your sister. That doesn’t deter you in the slightest?”

  Kiki’s exaggerated groan turned a few heads. Luckily, the Rosses were on the other side of the gymnasium and didn’t notice her stomp away from Eliana to approach Hartman and Lavisa, who was leaping out of a roll. Her flawless execution of the drill was interrupted when Kiki seethed, “You and your brother!”

  Pausing mid-tackle, Lavisa’s dull eyes slid over to Ruse’s shimmering ones. “I hope he did something worthy of this outburst.”

  Kiki groaned again and snagged Hartman’s freckled arm. “I need you.”

  “Uh—”

  “Don’t question me!” The intensity of her tone almost distracted Eliana from the reasoning buried beneath this ostentatious show of outrage. As Kiki stalked through the exit with Hartman in tow, the mind reader was hollowed by the sad truth.

  “Hopefully she doesn’t need to make out with him, for his sake,” Lavisa said to no one in particular. She strolled toward Eliana and Ruse as the Stark twins wandered over, Ackerly and Ashna at their heels.

  “And for your sake,” Tray huffed, rubbing his lower back. Based on his unvoiced complaints, he’d suffered quite the blow when his brother plowed through him during the drill. Eliana pried at Ashna’s brain to see why she neglected to ameliorate his pain, but the walls around her mind were impressively thick.

  Lavisa had no sympathy for Tray’s physical pain and focused on the insinuation of his jab. “Hartman’s a good kid. I empathize with him because his mother died when he was young.”

  “Does that mean your mother died when you were young?” Tray paused his back rubbing to really meet her eyes. Typically, his curiosity was born of the need to solve a larger puzzle or come to a concrete conclusion, but Eliana sensed he was genuinely intrigued by the intricacies of Lavisa’s past simply for the sake of knowing her.

  Her returning frown and her brother’s unease confirmed the fact without Eliana peeping at either of their minds.

  “I’m saying that just because I like him as a person doesn’t mean I want to pin him against a wall and kiss his brains out,” Lavisa stated much too nonchalantly.

  “Is there anyone in this world you’d like to pin against a wall and kiss their brains out?” Seth inquired.

  “No one I’ve met yet,” she answered with a careless shrug. Eliana wondered if this statement internally miffed Tray because he had a crush on her or because the act of kissing one’s brains out was physically impossible. The latter seemed the more accurate deduction, sadly.

  “We’re drawing attention,” Tray snapped, brown eyes roving the room suspiciously. Indeed, a few other students stared at them, but on the other end of the gymnasium, the teachers and faculty remained ignorant to Kiki’s theatrics—and her exit. “The adults already notice us enough. We need to stay under the radar until we can get this mess figured out.”

  “By ‘this mess,’ do you mean the fact that Than’s a Wacko?” Lavisa asked flatly.

  “It’s not a fact—”

  “And by ‘adults,’ do you mean Cosmos?” Seth added, nodding toward the unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate, who chatted cordially with Aethelred. “I don’t see why we can’t use her as an ally, bro. Seems like she’s against the Rosses as much as we are. You don’t trust her?”

  “I’m…not sure,” Tray admitted, his thoughts returning to the conversation he’d had with her a few minutes ago. It replayed with enough clarity that Eliana grasped Olalla’s intrigue with the possible Wacko sympathizer…and Tray’s suppression of their suspicions. “I don’t think we should start rumors before they’re confirmed, especially not to the people who can act on those rumors. We tread with caution. Anyone outside this group isn’t to be trusted. Including you,” he added to Ruse, who seemed unfazed by the accusation. “Still not sure what to think of someone who can become anyone so easily.”

  “You probably shouldn’t tell me any secrets,” Ruse agreed. “I’m a blabber-mouth.”

  With a faint smirk, Eliana eyed him sidelong, but then she heard a voice that drew her out of the external conversation and into a mental one

  Ellie? Ellie? Is this thing on? Does it work?

  Registering Seth’s mental voice, Eliana looked to him with slightly raised eyebrows, and he sighed in relief.

  I’m not good at this… What was I even thinking? Oh—oh, right. Is Kiks okay?

  Eliana wasn’t sure how to explain what she’d gleaned from Kiki’s frenzied thoughts, and she wasn’t sure she had the right to tell anyone. So, she nodded mutely to Seth and accepted his naïve gr
atitude while she recalled the thoughts whizzing through Kiki’s mind upon her departure.

  I need to stop being so gullible—I need to stop looking so gullible. I need to see someone in a worse position than me, so I can stop feeling so bad about myself. I need to see Adara.

  “Stop telling me what I can and cannot do!” was the unpleasant whine Adara Stromer woke to that Monday morning. After her friends had so willingly abandoned her the previous night, she’d refused to engage in Angor’s morning workout routine and intended to slumber her sorrows away—until she pried her eyes open to the sight of Kiki Belven storming into the hall beyond her cell. Sitting up slowly, Adara locked eyes with her nemesis and found they were nearly pink.

  The color combination of Kiki’s irises was so close to cotton candy that Adara almost began to salivate. When was the last time she’d eaten something sweet? Prison food was so bland. The rumble of her stomach distracted her until Kiki crossed her arms and spoke her name.

  “Stromer. You smell like rotten garbage.”

  It was reminiscent of the insults Kiki had spewed at her for years, yet it had zero effect on Adara. She was in jail, but for some reason Kiki didn’t have any power over her. Possibly, she lacked authority without her posse, though Adara doubted even Nero and his gang would have fazed her now. If anything, she would have basked in the negative attention of their derision.

  That was why, instead of remaining quiet like her previous self would have, she decided to play the game.

  “Funny, Belven. I was just about to say you look like rotten garbage. Telum,” she prompted, eyes sliding to the officer standing awkwardly in the doorway. “Really? You can’t bring me donuts, but you can let human trash in?”

  “I couldn’t stop her—”

  “That’s literally your job, Mitt.” Adara hopped off her bed, body aching with stiffness, but kept her movements lithe as she approached the bars.

  “He would have teleported her past me if I tried.” Mitt jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. In response, an orange head of hair popped up beside him.