November was on its way out, but the Los Angeles sky remained bright and blue, the weather mild enough that the grassy hill called the beach was still dotted with students in shorts and tees. I thought about heading out to join them, but my Academy sweats identified me as a Power, and I wasn’t feeling up to the usual whispers and stares.
I got enough of those just limping my way across campus to the first-year dorms.
As I passed into the relative darkness of the common room, Kayleigh bounded up off of a couch, and rushed over to me. My eyes were still too busy adjusting for me to see her expression, but her voice sounded worried.
“Damian! You look terrible!” One small hand wrapped around my bruised wrist, she guided me to the couch. I’d barely seen Vibe over the past few weeks, but she seemed as casual as ever. If Sofia was right, and Kayleigh had taken my argument with Ms. Ferra the wrong way, she’d already gotten over it.
Either that or she just needed another break from her Empathy.
I settled into the couch next to her, trying not to groan. Gladys was taking this only heal the first-years to 80% thing a little too far. “You should see the other guy.”
“We did see her. In Control, this morning.” Kayleigh’s voice was quiet.
“Oh. Please tell me they didn’t heal the bruise?”
“First black eye she’s had in months,” she confirmed. “Was it worth it?”
“Ask me again in a few days, when I find out whether or not I’m still part of Combat class.” I shook out the fingers of my right hand and gingerly formed a fist. It wasn’t until after the fight that I realized I’d cracked two knuckles with my first punch. They were healed now, of course, but throbbed like a motherfucker. “After eight months, it was nice to at least land a hit.”
“You like hitting women, Crow?”
Don’t ask me how I’d managed to miss the silver-eyed Lightbringer on the far couch. Maybe Orca had broken my eyes too. I glanced past Vibe to Olympia and frowned.
“Shouldn’t you be in Projection, Spectra?”
“Mind your own business,” she shot back.
“I will if you will.” I rolled my eyes. “But since you asked so nicely, no, I don’t like hitting women. Even obnoxious ones who treat me like shit. But hitting people is kind of the whole point of the class. Besides, Nadia’s dismantled me every single time we’ve fought… it was nice to turn the tide this once.”
“I heard she still kicked your ass.” Olympia’s eyes were still fixed on the far vid screen, but I could hear the spiteful satisfaction in her voice.
“She kicked yours too, back in first semester, Olympia,” shot back Kayleigh.
“She’s kicked everyone’s asses except for Alan’s, and even there, she holds her own.” I shrugged, wincing as pain radiated through my recently dislocated shoulder. “I know she’s better than me. I wasn’t trying to win… just to show that I could survive.”
“And did you?”
I looked down into Kayleigh’s concerned eyes. “I’ll find out from Nikolai soon enough. For now, I just want to relax and not think.” I kicked my feet up on the nearby table, and leaned back into the couch’s cushions, turning my eyes to the vid screen on the far wall.
After a few moments of blessed non-conversation, I frowned. I’d seen pretty much every Cape vid ever made, but I didn’t recognize this one. It didn’t seem to feature any Capes at all. In fact…
“Are you two watching the news?”
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s just… kind of boring.”
“It’s the world we’ll be defending when we graduate,” said Vibe.
“If we gradua—” I started to say.
“Besides, you’ve heard Amos. The better we understand current events, the better we’ll be able to respond to, or even predict, future crises.”
“I think he slept through that class, Kayleigh,” said Olympia, her tone still snide, “but here’s a little something that just might grab his interest.” She waved a hand to engage the vid screen’s volume control, and the smooth, cultured voice of the anchorman rolled through the common room.
“…And that concludes today’s address. As you’ve just heard, President Weatherly, in his first major policy change since taking office, has declared next February’s Remembrance Day to also be a national day of reconciliation. For the first time in the Hole’s thirty-year history, family members of the prisoners will be permitted carefully supervised visitations.” He paused, letting that statement sink in and then nodded to the camera. “It’s a bold step, and one that supporters are already saying could define the president’s legacy. For more on the administration’s decision, let’s go to noted sociologist and criminal reform advocate, Dr. Heinrich Wass. Are you with us, Dr. Wass?”
Kayleigh muted the vid screen and turned back to me. “Isn’t your—”
“Yeah.” Olympia had been part of the group that researched me, so she knew all about my dad. I’d told Kayleigh and Silt the story when they came back for the new semester.
If I’d ever questioned Vibe’s claim that she couldn’t read my emotions, her next question banished those doubts forever. “Are you going to go see him?”
I shook my head. Even if leaving campus hadn’t been strictly forbidden, there was no way I was going to blow off the last few days of school to make a trip out into the desert. Not for him. Not ever.
“That asshole killed my mom. If I ever see him again, it’ll be to return the fucking favor.”
CHAPTER 57
The good news is that Orca kicking my ass—yet again—wasn’t enough for Nikolai to drop me from Combat class. The better news is that he decided to give me one more shot, and the best news of all is that the next opponent
