by Liz Long
I didn’t have time to react. The tip of the knife slid across my hand in a fluid motion that didn’t even come close to breaking the skin. The knife fell to the table with a clatter and I yanked my hand back, cradling it against my chest as though I’d been burned.
“Penelope!” Cole admonished. The look he gave her was more of annoyance than concern. Did she do this to all their new friends?
Not wanting to grab any attention from other patrons, my voice came out like a hiss as I accused her. “You tried to stab me?”
Penelope shrugged tiny shoulders hidden under her waterfall of hair. Her pale golden eyes never left mine; compared to Cole’s eyes, hers were plain spooky. “Wanted to make sure before we told you stuff. So you really are an Unbreakable. We haven’t met one of those.”
“What does that mean? And if you say I can’t be broken, I’ll punch you for funsies.”
Penelope snorted. Cole couldn’t hide his small smile, but quickly talked so his sister wouldn’t. “Gifted beings are all different, even when they have the same gift. Unbreakables come in all kinds and sizes, with different ways to be…well, unbreakable. Mostly it means you don’t break bones or get injured because your skin is impenetrable. Everyone’s different.”
“But I can still die.” It wasn’t a question.
“Of course you can. You experienced it firsthand; had we not showed up, he could’ve choked you to death. Unbreakables can die in other ways: drowning, fire, disease. It doesn’t make you immune to death. You’re a lot more durable than most,” Cole said, trying to keep the end of that statement light.
“Grandpa knows a guy who can lift cars,” Penelope added. “Your incident with Andy the other day made me think about it. We wanted to make sure.”
“So you followed me all the way into the city, into that warehouse?”
“When you saved Andy, we had to know,” Cole said. “We thought you knew about what you were, about our world. But our gifts are pretty obvious, so we needed to be certain we wouldn’t expose ourselves to everyone. We walked around the neighborhood tonight and when we saw your car leave, we followed you.”
“How did you know what I was doing?”
“I didn’t,” Cole said. “Rest assured, had you been going to a friend’s house or on a date or something, we would’ve left.”
My eyes met his and I remembered that tickle in my stomach the other day. He’d known what I was when I’d stopped the car. That was why he’d been so weird in class. Right?
Realization dawned on me. “A Timekeeper. You froze the car.”
Cole grinned a little, his hand ruffling the back of his head with an awkward shrug. “Technically, I froze the block. Pen pushed the car back so it wouldn’t keep moving when I unfroze everything.”
“It felt weird, even though nothing really changed. I don’t know how to describe it,” I said.
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s kind of when I figured out you were gifted. I could see it on your face.”
“Thanks for doing that. I couldn’t risk Henry or anyone else asking questions.”
“Henry doesn’t know?” Penelope asked in a sharp tone.
I shook my head. “No, and I’d like to keep it that way. Too dangerous for him.”
Cole nodded. “Sorry we followed you tonight. When you headed into the city, I started wondering. I hadn’t planned on stepping in, but we would never sit back and watch someone kill you.”
“Thanks for stalking me, I guess?”
“We saved your life, so you’re welcome,” Penelope said, her tone sharp as she focused back on the conversation. “You got any other talents? As far as other Unbreakables go, some have a bit of extra speed or can lift extreme amounts of weight. You threw that guy pretty far, come to think of it.”
“I can do a little of both. Not a car or anything, but enough to give me an advantage,” I said to them.
“That’s good,” Cole said. “You’re going to need it if you take on Fortune.”
My eyes narrowed. How much did I want them to know? “What do you mean?”
“That guy was a Runner,” he said.
“Original.”
“Doesn’t matter what you think of the names.” Cole shrugged. “You saw his speed; if you were human, he would’ve killed you.”
“He gave me several chances to get away.”
“Because you’re a girl?” Penelope sounded almost offended.
“Maybe. Or because I’m a kid, as he kept saying.”
Cole narrowed his eyes. “What makes you think he was with Fortune if he gave you a chance to get out?”
“He didn’t deny it. Told me I had no idea how to deal with Fortune.”
I didn’t miss Penelope’s eyebrows go up in question, but she remained quiet.
“If he’s with Fortune, he won’t be the only gifted guy in the circle,” Cole said. His solemn face unsettled me.
I’d considered the idea of Fortune surrounding himself with likeminded people, too. Cole sounded like he didn’t think I could win. Before I’d finished the thought, Penelope spoke up between sips of her milkshake.
“You’re going to need our help.” She settled her weird eyes on me again. “You know they’re dangerous. You can’t do something like this alone. Not if they know what you are and how to kill you.”
I looked at her, then to Cole in disbelief. “You can’t possibly think I’d let you put yourselves in danger for me? For someone you hardly know?”
He shrugged, but there was a flash of something in his gaze. “We didn’t expect any gifted to be here. But to find someone our age is pretty exciting, even more so because you have a real need for our gifts.”
I resisted the urge to cross my arms over my chest. “And why do you think that?”
“I can get you into almost anywhere, provided it isn’t crowded and we move fast,” Cole said with a shrug.
I gave Penelope a curious look. When she finally noticed, she blinked as though surprised at my ignorance. “Oh, you didn’t figure it out already? I’m a Telekinetic.”
“A tele-what?”
“Telekinetic. Means I can move objects with my mind. Like puppeteer a guy when he tries to choke a girl.”
“Ah, okay. Uh, thanks, by the way. That makes us even for trying to stab me,” I said. The left side of her mouth briefly turned upward and I moved on. “How do you plan to help? Why would you even do that?”
“Fortune’s a bully,” Cole said. “We don’t like bullies.”
“You’d risk your lives for a near stranger? I don’t buy it. What do you two get out of it?” I pushed my glass away, full of ice cream and confusion.
Penelope and Cole exchanged looks again. Pen had the decency to look halfway sympathetic. “We know what happened to your sister…to everyone else, too.”
“He’s a terrible person for what he did to you, to everyone he’s hurt,” Cole said, his eyes gentle. “He deserves to be punished and we want to help.”
“But you just moved here, you don’t even know anyone,” I pointed out.
“It’d be fun, wouldn’t it, to be like superheroes and save the city?” Penelope asked. Excitement flashed in her eyes at the thought and I scowled at her.
“We aren’t superheroes. We’re teenagers and this isn’t a game,” I said. It sounded so ridiculous when I said it aloud. “It’s not about having fun. We could get really hurt or into trouble if people found out what we were doing.”
“Correction: We could get really hurt,” Penelope said, gesturing to herself and Cole.
“Yeah, and I could die,” I retorted. “See my point?”
“Sure we do,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to help.”
“There’s no weird ulterior motive you aren’t sharing with me, right?” I asked, splaying my hands out on the table in question. The last thing I needed was a last minute backstab.
Cole laughed and my shoulders unknotted a bit at the nice sound. “No ulterior motive. We don’t work for Fortune and he hasn’
t done anything to us. But I won’t sit back and watch, not while we’ve got gifts that can help you.”
“Fortune’s totally yours when we catch him,” Penelope said. The confidence in her voice almost made me believe her. The way she said it, however, made it sound like she’d jump in to help me torture him if I asked.
“So why? Why do this?”
Penelope spoke first. “My brother here, ninety-nine percent of the time, is all about the greater good, doing the right thing. Dear Dad ingrained justice into him.”
Cole rolled his eyes but a tiny shrug of his shoulder confirmed it. I turned attention back to Penelope. “And you?”
She shrugged. “I’m bored and this sounds exciting, whether you like it or not. I didn’t want to move and now I get to use my gift, so it’s a no brainer.”
Well, at least she was honest. As quickly as I could, I considered the pros and cons of each decision. On the one hand, it was a really bad idea to let them tag along. If either of them got hurt or killed, I had to be responsible for it. Could I deal with the weight of their deaths on my shoulders? I did, however, stand a much better chance of getting through the slime to reach Fortune. If Cole could get me into places and Penelope could get obstacles out of my path, I might not even need to put them in danger for very long. Besides, could I even stop them?
I gave each of them a long, hard look, tried to convey without words the danger they’d be in. Two pairs of light gold eyes watched me, waited for the decision.
A sigh escaped me before I caved. “If we did this, what’s your plan?”
Penelope didn’t bother to hide her smug smile, but Cole answered me. “We can get information from our dad, what he knows about the actual robbery that happened that day at the bank. We take what he says and compare it to other robberies. I can do that part.”
“Is there any way your dad would help us out?” Penelope interrupted.
“We’ll come back to that later,” I said, perhaps a little too curt. I wouldn’t risk anyone finding out information from my father. He would remain out of this little…project of mine.
“When we put all the details together, we can see exactly how Fortune is getting away with everything. It’s too clean, too perfect. Maybe we can see a pattern or at least find something to give to the police,” Cole said.
I nodded. “Yeah, okay. It’s a start. And you’re right about him having gifted henchmen. Fortune’s absolutely gifted.”
“Dad thought so too, but are you absolutely sure?” Cole asked.
I hesitated, remembering Fortune’s last words to me. I couldn’t tell them about his weird blue fingers, could I? They might think I was a coward for not taking Fortune down since I was some unbreakable thing. If we got caught and they knew, Fortune would kill them. Maybe if they were clueless, he would spare them. Before I could roll my eyes at that optimistic notion, Penelope waved a hand at me.
“Earth to Nova?”
That fun little saying never got old with anyone else but me. I sighed and quickly made my decision, going with another theory I’d been brewing on.
“The day that Sta—she died, Fortune tried to get me to come with him. He said it was interesting that he didn’t see me coming. Should that mean something?”
Cole had a blank look on his face in concentration, but Penelope figured it out first.
“He ‘didn’t see you coming?’ That sounds like a future-type gift. If he’s a Seer, he’ll spot us a mile away,” she complained. The whine in her voice set my teeth on edge.
I didn’t have to ask what a Seer gift did. The names are straightforward at least.
“Calm down, Pen. Maybe it’s one of his guys that’s a Seer. There are ways to work around stuff like that,” Cole said.
I shook my head. “If he — or whoever — can see gifted people, why didn’t he see me? He didn’t plan for us to walk in there when we did.”
“All our gifts are different, like I said.” Cole finished off his milkshake and shrugged. “Maybe he can only see humans or something. But if he can’t see you, we can act on that.”
“What if he can see me? What if he already knows everything about me?”
“Don’t you think he would’ve come after you already? After you’ve, you know, foiled his plans or whatever?” Penelope butted in, surprising me. She never appeared as though she paid attention; in fact, even now she didn’t look up from playing with the salt shaker. She might be a little ADD, but she was clearly observant.
I had to nod in agreement. Fortune wasn’t the guy who hesitated to get rid of a problem if he knew where to find them. Now the question was, if Fortune couldn’t see me, what did we do about it?
You have to tell them, a tiny voice in my head yelled. You’re making plans to fight the wrong gift and you’ll die! Tell them about the blue lightning!
But I couldn’t do it. My mouth seemed to seal itself shut, fear making me unable to tell the whole truth. Not with the very real possibility that one or both of them could spill Fortune’s secret to someone and risk my entire family. If Fortune caught even one whiff of gossip and went after the source, it was all over for me.
“I’ll tell our dad. Maybe he’ll recognize Fortune’s patterns when we tell him about the Seer thing. That could help a lot,” Cole said.
“Your dad’s gifted?” I asked.
“Gifts are hereditary. He’s a Timekeeper, too, and knows lots about gifts. He can help us.” I didn’t miss the pride in Cole’s voice as he spoke of his father, nor did I miss Penelope’s eye roll.
Before I could comment, my bag vibrated. I retrieved my cell phone to find a text from Henry: Ur not home? Surprise 4 u.
I responded: Home in 10.
Pushing the glass of my ice cream treat to Cole, I got out of the booth and grabbed my bag. “Gotta go—Henry’s at my house.”
“I’ll walk you,” Cole said, getting to his feet. Penelope tried to drink the rest of her shake and gulped it down. She winced as she got up.
“Brain freeze. Ow,” she grumbled. The silverware and glasses on all the tables rattled from her headache as we ducked out.
When we reached my house, Henry was sitting on the front porch. He waved in greeting but as we walked up, I could see his surprise. I hadn’t hung out with anyone but him since the spring.
“Hi,” I said. “We were having a milkshake at Pop’s.”
“Cool,” he said without any hint of suspicion. “Nova, I have something for you.”
“That’s why I rushed home. What’s up?”
He got to his feet and we all stood on my porch. Cole stayed in the background, while Penelope leaned against the railing, chin on propped hand, clearly listening to every word.
Henry pulled a rolled up newspaper from his back pocket. “I have this week’s edition of the Gazette. It comes out tomorrow.”
“And?”
He snapped it apart to reveal the front page: a picture of me, looking up at Andy Vicker. I winced at the unflattering photo that showed my shirt half twisted up around me; my butt seemed unusually large and my expression looked somewhere between a blink and a sneeze. That wouldn’t win me any cute points. Above the photo a headline read “SuperNova Saves the Day” with an article below.
“I figured out my front-page story,” Henry said.
His chest puffed up and I restrained myself from punching Henry’s nose clean off his face. Bet I could do it, too.
“Where on earth did you get that photo?” I asked.
“Ashley Donovan snapped it with her cell phone. She texted it to me after I asked around for witnesses. It’s not your best side, but you get the idea.”
“Why did you do this?” The horror in my voice must have matched my face.
His broad grin faded. Confusion and disappointment replaced his excitement. “What do you mean? You’re a hero! Everyone thinks so.”
“No, they don’t. They think I’m some freak, another one of ‘Andy’s stalkers.’ They all think I’m nuts since my sister died.”
&n
bsp; Henry gaped at me. “Nova, you need to read the article. I don’t know what you’re smoking, but that’s pretty much the opposite of what’s happening.”
“‘SuperNova?’” I asked, the anger clear in my voice. I slapped the paper back to him, against his chest. The motion send Henry’s hair flapping as I barked at him. “I told you that was a Starling nickname—”
“I know, and I’m really sorry about that,” Henry said, clearly anticipating this error. “The advisor thought it sounded better than the one I wrote; he did it without my consent.”
“Sorta like you did this entire article without mine?” I spat out.
Henry had the decency to look guilty, remorse clear. “I didn’t see it that way when I wrote it. I thought it would help your…situation. Will you please read it first?”
He motioned for me to sit on the steps with him. Cole and Penelope also sat Indian-style behind us, remaining silent. I didn’t care that they were here. When I thought about it, I wanted them to stay, really. They knew what I was and could possibly help me figure out who I was.
Henry handed me the paper and I read his words aloud:
Many of us talk or dream of heroic acts, but few ever get to actually witness it. Several students on Tuesday afternoon, however, were lucky enough to see it happen right in front of them (including yours truly). The corner of 12th and Jennings Avenue behind our school (where school property connects to the neighborhoods) is often discussed when complaining about safety hazards. Many of us know firsthand how dangerous it can be to get across the road during heavy traffic (it’s like playing Frogger with a backpack).
Star athlete Andy Vicker went to cross the street Tuesday afternoon just like any other day. However, he didn’t see the car coming his way as he walked right in its path. The driver, admittedly distracted on her cell phone, lost control of her SUV when she saw Andy standing in the road, slamming on her brakes and careening straight for him.
Fifteen witnesses saw Nova Benson dart into the street and push Andy out of the road. He went flying, tumbling onto the pavement (though later to be found completely uninjured) while she turned and braced herself for the car’s impact.
“It was incredible,” said Lila Evans, junior. “My friends and I were waiting to cross and suddenly heard brakes screeching. When we looked, we saw Nova shove Andy out of the way. She saved his life.”
