The Trials of Renegade X (33 page)

Which Sarah has obviously seen too many of.

I pick up one of her shoes from the bottom of the closet and toss it into the room, disturbing some of the beams. As soon as it touches them,
real
lasers—like, the lethal kind that blow stuff up—fire and blast the shoe to pieces.

Great. When did she put this in? I’m going to assume it was after I screwed her up. Because if it was before that, then I think I should have had some warning. What with having a key to her house and all. Not that it really matters right now, because either way, I’m still trapped. By a lethal security system.

And there’s only one person I know of who might be able to get me out of this.

And he’s never going to let me live it down.

Riley waits until we’re safely outside of Sarah’s house to say anything, though it’s obvious he’s pissed. He just used his invisibility power to sneak in through the window and get past the lasers to disarm the system, after I used my cell phone to call him from the closet and tell him I needed his help. He should be smirking at me and gloating about how the tables have turned, especially since this may be his only opportunity for it—what with me not planning on needing him to save my life again or anything—but instead he’s mad.

Which actually kind of sucks, because I really don’t need one more person mad at me.

“What the
hell
, X?!” he says when we’re out on the sidewalk, moving away from Sarah’s house. He shoves me in the shoulder really hard. Luckily it’s my left arm, the one without the burn.

“I believe the words you’re looking for are ’you had it coming’ or maybe even ’I told you so.’ I mean, you didn’t tell me so, but you were probably thinking it.”

“No. I wasn’t. What were you doing?”

I hold up the personality enhancer. “You know what I was doing. Stealing this. Obviously.”

“Yeah, so why didn’t you call me? It’s not like I can turn
invisible
or anything!”

I wince. “I had a plan. To fix things. You didn’t need to get involved.”

His shoulders sag and his arms flop down at his sides. “You weren’t going to include me. After everything that’s happened, you were seriously going to leave me out of it? I thought we were friends.”

I glance over at him, at the hurt look on his face, and then I stare very hard at the sidewalk. I step over a crack with a plant growing through it. “Why would you think that?” My voice sounds very small. Very small and very guilty.

“I don’t know, X, I thought— You know what? It doesn’t matter! I just left school in the middle of the day—and missed a test, no less—to help you out after you decided to break into Sarah’s house to get the device without even telling me, but apparently I did that for no good reason! Just, you know, didn’t have anything better to do, so why not?” He shakes his head. “God, I’m an idiot.”

“No, you’re ... you’re not.”

“I’m not? Then what do you call it?”

I let out a deep breath, rubbing my face with the palm of my hand. “You’re not an idiot, because we
are
friends.” I might mumble that last part.

“What was that?”

“We
are
friends, okay, Perkins?! Do you want me to tattoo it on my forehead? Geez.”

He looks kind of startled by that. He raises his eyebrows, then lowers them. “Okay. If we’re friends, then why did you do this without me? Try to, I mean.”

“Because. I got us into this mess. I was going to get us back out.”

“Yeah, but I thought
we
were working on this? That’s what you told me on Sunday. You said we’d figure something out. Is this because I screwed up? Because I couldn’t stop Sarah?”

“No. Look, it wasn’t anything you did. I just ... I’ve caused everyone enough problems as it is, including you. No, especially you, because I not only got you hurt, but I messed up Sarah.”

“I’m not hurt. I’m fine. And—”

“Your girlfriend
shot you
because of me.”

“It wasn’t her. The real Sarah would never do that. I know that and so do you.”

“Well, it doesn’t need to happen again. That’s why I left you out of this. I was going to fix everything on my own, and when everything was back to normal,
then
you could be mad at me.”

“I’m not mad.”

I give him a really skeptical look.

“Okay. Fine. Maybe I’m a little mad, but I get why you did it. It was stupid, but I get it.”

“I’m going to get this fixed”—I indicate the personality enhancer again—“and then I’m going to— I mean, then
we’re
going to use it on her.”

“Yeah, sure, you’re just going to pop down to the local evil genius store and have them fix it right up.”

I lean my head back and sigh. “Something like that.”

“You—
Oh
.” He swallows. “Can you do that? I thought you said that wasn’t an option? That your mom never wanted to ...” He trails off and glances away.

“Never wanted to see me again?”

“Yeah, that. And I thought you weren’t exactly talking to her.”

“I’m making an exception.”

“Do you think she’ll do it? Do you think she even can?”

I shrug. “I’ll find out. But ... probably.” As in probably she
can
fix it. I have no idea if she will.

He considers that for a minute. “And then you call me. Whichever way it turns out.”

“Yeah. Then I call you. And then we take down Sarah.”

“Right,” he says. “And then we take down Sarah.”

Chapter 25

IT’S ABOUT TEN O’CLOCK at night when I finally sneak downstairs to grab some food from the kitchen. Dinner was at six, but I didn’t eat. Like yesterday, I stayed up in my room, because I couldn’t face Gordon. Or anyone. I couldn’t handle sitting there at the table while Alex made sure not to sit next to me and Gordon refused to speak to me. Or, worse, to even look at me. And I couldn’t take Amelia recounting everything everyone said to her at school—since everyone wants to know how she’s handling living with a dangerous supervillain in the house, especially one who’s destroying her famous dad’s reputation—or Helen talking about her day and acting like keeping the shop closed on a Tuesday is normal and isn’t because she had to stay home and keep an eye on her evil half-villain stepson who got expelled and who nobody trusts to be on his own.

As if the second their backs are turned, I’m going to run off and blow up another school or something. I mean, I did run off the second her back was turned, but only to break into Sarah’s house and steal her personality enhancer. Which, er, maybe sounds kind of bad, now that I think about it, but it’s not like I didn’t have a good reason.

So, anyway, I’m pretty hungry by the time I sneak downstairs. I’d meant to wait until ten thirty, just to be on the safe side, but I couldn’t hold out. But maybe I should have made more of an effort—or stocked up more snacks in my room when I had the chance—because Gordon is still up. He isn’t getting ready for bed like he’s supposed to be. He’s sitting at the dining table, which is right in my path to the kitchen. I don’t know why he’s here—doesn’t he know some of us have to eat?—but I turn around, intending to slink back upstairs and not come down again until at least midnight.

Or to send Amelia down here instead. I’d have her use her power, but I’m pretty sure she’s eaten all the food she’s ever touched.

“Damien.”

I stop in mid-step. He sounds tired when he says my name. Exhausted and fed up and like he doesn’t want to talk to me. Which is fine. I think more people should do what they want. Like, say,
not
talk to their son that they hate. Because it’s not like I can’t tell he hates me. It’s not like I don’t see it in his face or hear it in his voice. I’m avoiding him for a reason. And he should be happy about it. He should be glad that I’m staying out of his way and letting him pretend I don’t exist.

“Come here.”

Seriously? He could just let me walk away, and we could both act like he didn’t speak to me, like he only said my name as a reflex, like the way Jess says “cat” or “dog” whenever she sees a picture of one. But no, he has to make this messy and more complicated than it needs to be.

I turn around and approach the table.

He looks me over, like he hasn’t seen me in a long time, even though it’s only been a couple days.

“Sit down. I want to talk to you.”

“No, you don’t.” My stomach growls and I stare longingly into the kitchen. All that food, so close and yet so far. “We don’t have to do this.”

“Yes,
we do
.” He gets to his feet, anger blazing in his eyes. “Do you have any idea the kind of sacrifices I’ve made for you?!”

I swallow, suddenly not all that hungry after all. “Yes, and I—”

“No, I don’t think you do! And if I say you’re going to sit here and talk to me, then you are going to sit here and talk to me, damn it!”

I sit. I spread my hands out against the table and examine my fingers.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

I know he means my electricity power. I shrug. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to. That it would just go away.”

“Just go away.” He laughs. It’s not, like, a happy laugh or anything. It’s more angry and mocking, like he can’t believe I said that. “Superpowers don’t just go away!”

I wince and hunch my shoulders. Him yelling at me sounds especially loud when the rest of the house is so quiet. And I’m sure everyone else can hear him—they all know he’s chewing me out right now. “I didn’t want you to look at me like you didn’t know me. Like I wasn’t who you thought I was. I was hoping I could keep it a secret until it wasn’t a problem anymore. You should understand that better than anyone.”

“
I
should understand? You endangered hundreds of people and made me the most hated superhero in Golden City, but I should
understand
?!”

“I didn’t tell you about my lightning power for the same reason you didn’t tell people about me. Because you were hoping you wouldn’t have to, that I would just ... maybe not go away, but that I’d stop being someone you were ashamed to admit was your son. You couldn’t tell your fans you had a half-villain kid any more than I could go up to you and say, ’Hey, Dad, I can shoot lightning from my hands—that cool with you?’” I shake my head. “Maybe after I got through Heroesworth, and maybe if I got an
H
on my thumb, then telling people about your mistake wouldn’t have been so bad.”

“My mistake.” He lets out a deep breath, some of his anger draining away and leaving a pained expression on his face.

“You sleeping with my mom. With a supervillain. And yeah, okay, I guess I mean me. I’m not exactly someone your fans would approve of. I probably never will be, if we’re being honest here, but I thought I could at least look good on paper. So that you could tell people about me with a straight face and not have to answer awkward questions.” Or, you know, ruin his career.

“So, you lied to me and pretended you wanted to go to Heroesworth.” His voice burns, angry again.

“It wasn’t a lie. I—”

“Did you know already? Did you knowingly get me to pull strings to get them to enroll someone with a
villain power
?”

My stomach growls again, despite how sick I feel from him yelling at me. “It didn’t start until after that. And the way you said ’villain power’ just now, like it’s disgusting ... That’s why I couldn’t tell you.” My hands start to shake. Probably from hunger. Definitely not from the way he’s looking at me like everything I say just reminds him how much he hates me.

“You should have told me the second you knew.”

“Why? You couldn’t have done anything about it.”

“I could have pulled you out of Heroesworth!”

“I didn’t want that.”

He slumps down in the seat next to me, staring at his hands. “Damien, I told you you didn’t have to go there for me. Now it’s obvious you really didn’t want to be there. And you didn’t take your classes seriously.”

“They didn’t give me a reason to. The history book was wrong, and everything was stupid, and—”

“You made a poster on what heroism means to you, and it was
blank
.” He shakes his head. “I should have known this wasn’t going to work. You never wanted to go, and ... there was no flying team, was there?”

“No. I mean, I think there is one, but ... Look, you’re wrong, because I
did
want to go.”

“Because you thought I wanted you to.”

“That’s not it. It’s part of it, but mostly I just wanted to belong.” I don’t look at him while I say it. It’s hard enough to admit, and I don’t need to look over and see the disgust and disappointment on his face. “I was supposed to get a
V
and go to Vilmore, but I didn’t. Nobody else has an
X
. Not very many people, and not anyone I know, anyway. I didn’t want to be the only one of your kids who didn’t go to Heroesworth. I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t good enough. And I wanted to prove that I could. And, okay, maybe I don’t agree with everything they teach there, and maybe I don’t want to join the League or anything, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to be left out.”

“You went to Heroesworth because you wanted to belong?” He sounds extremely skeptical. “You expect me to believe that?”