The silence was brief.
“All right, then,” said Honey, dragging a pointed nail down the back of a plump bumblebee that was crawling along her pinky finger. “Shall I have the honors?”
Leroy yawned. “I’ll warm up the car. Do you think it’s best to drop the body into the bay or the river?”
“The river is closer,” said Honey. “And I don’t really think anyone’s going to miss her, despite this talk of Rejects.” Her smile became wicked. “I’ll call the bluff.”
Narcissa’s defiance extinguished as her attention darted toward the swarming bees.
It took a lot of venom from even the most dangerous of wasps to kill a person who wasn’t allergic to them, but it could be done.
It was an awfully painful way to die.
“Death,” rasped a voice. “And bees, at least at the moment.”
Phobia’s form solidified from the shadows, filling up the doorway to the kitchen. There was a bit of moonlight coming through the windows, and a shard of light glinted along the scythe’s blade.
“Also spiders, snakes, cockroaches, rats,” Phobia went on, rattling off what fears he could detect within the recesses of Narcissa’s mind. “Scorpions. Public humiliation. Drowning.” He chuckled lowly. “Ace Anarchy.”
“Great marvels,” muttered Leroy. “She’s decent at faking courage, at least.”
“But most profoundly,” continued Phobia, and his gritty voice turned mocking, “she has an almost paralyzing fear that she will never experience true love.”
“Oh, she’s one of those.” Honey groaned dramatically. “Unfortunately, it seems that fear is going to come to pass.”
“Wait,” said Nova, lifting a hand. “Narcissa, we’re never giving you that helmet, but maybe we can help each other. Your … Rejects … it sounds like their feud is with the Renegades, not us. You don’t have to die for this.”
Narcissa fixed her with a cold glare. “You should be worrying about yourself, Nightmare. Are you really prepared for the Renegades to know who you are, after you’ve worked so hard to keep it concealed?”
Nova’s palms were sweating. The answer was no, of course she wasn’t ready. She still needed to rescue Ace. She still needed to bring her enemies down.
Then her thoughts went to Adrian. The way he smiled at her. The way he kissed her.
It would be over.
She wasn’t ready.
“It doesn’t matter,” Nova said. “They’re going to find out soon enough. It’s not the bargaining chip you think it is, Narcissa. And we need the helmet. We’re going to free Ace Anarchy, and when we do, he will use that helmet to end the Renegades and their tyranny once and for all.” She spread her fingers, almost pleadingly. “Why not help us do that?”
They held each other’s gaze a long time. Slowly, Narcissa shifted her attention to Phobia. She gulped, then looked back at Honey and Leroy, and finally to Nova again.
Nova could tell that her walls were crumbling. Despite the anger she harbored for the Anarchists and what had happened at the library, she must have seen the logic in Nova’s words, because she appeared to be wavering with temptation and uncertainty.
Whatever she would have said, though, was interrupted by the squeal of tires out on the street.
Narcissa’s lips curved with relief. “Time’s up, Nightmare.”
Something struck the front window. The glass shattered. Nova ducked instinctively, even as Narcissa shoved past her.
A huge rock tumbled a few more inches before coming to stop beside the armchair, just as Narcissa’s red braid disappeared up the stairwell.
Someone whooped outside. There were celebratory cheers, and someone yelling, “Rejects forever! Power to prodigies!” before tires screeched again and the vehicle peeled down the street.
Cursing, Nova launched herself up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She spotted Narcissa crouched on top of Honey’s vanity. One hand was holding the frame of the large mirror, the other gripped a glass mason jar. The gold-and-black butterfly flapped frantically inside.
Nova froze as Narcissa’s eyes filled with intrigue. “They’ve been talking about that Renegade on the news lately. Monarch. The one who led her team to the lair of Ace Anarchy.” She inclined her head. “Interesting coincidence.”
Pulling her arm back, Narcissa threw the jar at the bedroom’s far wall.
Nova cried out. At the same moment that Narcissa was vanishing into the surface of the mirror, Nova dove for the jar, but she knew she wouldn’t reach it in time. It seemed to move in slow motion as it tumbled through the air.
It smashed into the wall and exploded into dozens of tiny shards.
The butterfly lurched upward, spiraling toward the ceiling. It darted just beyond Nova’s grasp and took off toward the window that had been left open for the bees.
Cursing, Nova chased after it. The butterfly dipped downward. Nova lunged, arm outstretched, fingers straining.
The butterfly was flying straight for the window. Bees were clouding in around it, having noticed new prey in their midst.
The butterfly shot through the opening.
Nova dove. One knee on the window’s ledge, one hand barely catching the frame to keep from falling, one outstretched hand crushed into a fist.
She hung there, motionless but for her erratic breaths. Though wasps and hornets surrounded her, and some even dared to perch on her knuckles and inspect her squeezing fingers, there were no stings.
Trembling with adrenaline, Nova pulled herself back into the bedroom.
Dazed, Nova looked down to see one hive with a footprint shoved into its papery shell in the center of the room. She’d moved so fast, she hadn’t even noticed stepping on it. The bees who had called it home were swarming around, enraged, their buzzing deafeningly loud, but they were not the insects that worried her.
Exhaling, Nova pried open her fingers.
The butterfly’s wings were broken. Its hairy, speckled body was still twitching.
Stomach roiling, she dropped the creature to the floor. It was set upon instantly by the waiting bees.
There would be nothing left of it.
She dusted the powder from her hands. Her body was trembling.
This butterfly was dead, and while Danna wouldn’t retain the memories of what it had seen, there were hundreds of other butterflies that would be able to re-form now, to tell what they might have uncovered. What else had Danna learned from following Nova, before this one had been captured?
Nova’s heart ricocheted inside her chest. She felt hollowed out. Terrified.
She didn’t know if Narcissa or Danna would inform the Renegades first, but it didn’t really matter. Nova knew one thing for sure.
She was out of time. Danna could become human again at any minute. Maybe she already had.
How long before everyone knew the truth?
“Leroy! Honey!” she yelled, rushing back down to the ground floor. “I hope that explosive you talked about is ready to go. We need to leave, now.”
Leroy and Honey were both standing amid the broken glass in the front room. Leroy was examining the rock that had been thrown through the front window.
Snarling, Honey shook her head. “A plain old rock,” she said, aghast. “It’s practically amateur hour around here.”