Super•Villainous

LVII

Wind gently ruffled Ezra's golden hair. For once, he wore no mask, likely ripped away based on the gash stretching across the bridge of his nose, and the eyes that it usually hid were artic. They only froze a few more degrees at the sight of my fingers laced through Atticus's.

"This is suddenly making an unfortunate sort of sense." Tempest stepped closer, frown deepening in response to Atticus cutting a protective space between us, using his own body to shield my own. "I had wondered -  I thought maybe - but not to this degree. And that doesn't begin to explain why, or how."

I hadn't the slightest clue what he was getting at, and didn't intend to stick around long enough to get to the bottom of it. "Please, Ezra." I was beyond tired of begging him for human decency, but I had little choice. "Let us pass."

"For how long?"

"Ezra!" I exclaimed, exasperated. Already, the distant sirens of emergency vehicles formed a soft music beneath the howling of his wind, in contrast to the helicopters taking to the sky to replace the one Fate somehow grounded. I had no time for this. "Have you seen what your people have done to me? Just let us go this once and you will never, ever see us again."

"FOR HOW LONG?" he shouted, visibly struggling to regain his composure, like forcing water back into a glass after it had already shattered. "Were you always in on it, from the first time he supposedly kidnapped you? And don't you dare lie."

"Of course not!" I snapped. "You were there the first time I met him, and you know damn well that wasn't on purpose!"

"Of course. Of course I know that. Of course." Nodding several times in quick succession, as though in silent conversation with himself, he seemed to ease in his anger. Like a storm, quick to fury and quick to calm. "Don't worry, Lily." He adjusted his stance, and my heart sank, because he clearly intended to fight. "He's manipulating you. I don't know how yet, but he's a mimic, and they always have their little tricks. I'll put a stop to it, and in a few weeks, after his influence over your mind has passed, you'll thank me."

How did that seem like the more rational explanation to why I would ally myself with Atticus than the truth?

"Your people hurt me far worse than he has!" I repeated, wishing I could take a hammer and force the words into his thick skull. "Why won't you listen to me?"

Raising his single glassy spear, Atticus began slowly circling away from me, putting distance between us in preparation for Tempest's unpredictable wind. "He's beyond reasoning with. Don't waste your breath."

Tempest attacked, a sharp whistle the only warning offered to us before his invisible gale struck. Atticus leapt out of the way at the last moment, a deep rivet sliced into the ground where he'd been only seconds prior. The second strike found him less fortunate, nicking his arm while he leapt back on his heels to avoid it.

My resolve hardened. I edged slowly around to Tempest's opposite side so as to not steal his attention. Frustrated by my own inability to help, I palmed a dislodged piece of the street between my hands until I got a feel for its weight and aimed it at the back of Ezra's head. It never hit its mark. Regardless of the restrictions of his own limited senses, Tempest's wind protected him like a nurturing mother. It pushed me away in a steady wave, as though fighting a massive cloud. My hands sank into the breeze, but it still succeeded in forcing me back, skidding on my soles, until I was pressed up against a wall.

He couldn't maintain it for long, however, not with his attention otherwise occupied.

Ferrus fast approaching and the Constable following a safe distance behind, I felt us falling back into the same repeating scenario as before. Sure, Tectonic was dead, and Will-O was nursing a vicious frost bite somewhere, but the Guild seemed to have infinite replacements for their lost ranks. Take two down and ten show up in their place.