Archenemies (Renegades, #2)(66)
“Draw something,” Max demanded, ignoring his glee. “Quick.”
Adrian took out his marker, still beaming. “Sure thing, Bandit. Any requests?”
Max shook his head, and Adrian stepped closer to the window and drew the first thing that came to mind—a Renegade pin, like the one he gave Nova at the trials.
When he pulled it fully formed from the glass, Max gave a little squeak of shock. “How?”
Adrian met his eye, and beneath the stunned disbelief, he could see the start of possibilities filtering into the kid’s mind.
For almost Max’s entire life, he had been kept separate from the ones who loved him, everyone but Hugh, anyway. And Hugh may have loved Max, but he was so busy, trying to squeeze his fatherly responsibilities in between Council meetings and public appearances and the occasional heroics. When was the last time Max had sat next to someone and played video games and ate snacks into the wee hours of the morning?
Never. That was when. He had never experienced anything like that before.
“I have the best idea,” said Adrian. “Tomorrow, I’m going to bring some chips and soda and a super-greasy pizza and I’m going to completely slaughter you in an all-night Crash Course III marathon. Unless you’d rather, I don’t know, learn to play backgammon or something, and then we’ll do that. Doesn’t matter. It’s up to you. You let me know.”
Max shook his head, bewildered. “Adrian, how?” he repeated, more forcefully this time. He grabbed the medallion and flipped it over, examining the back, which contained a mirror image of the protective hand. “What is this? How does it work?”
“I don’t know!” said Adrian, still beaming. “It protects from diseases and poisons and stuff, so I just thought—”
“I’m not poison! I’m not a disease!”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It shouldn’t work!” Max dropped the pendant. “It shouldn’t.”
“But it does. And next, I’m going to give myself a tattoo of this symbol,” said Adrian, pointing. “That will make me permanently immune, and then I can give this charm to anyone who wants to visit you. Can you imagine the look on Ruby’s face? And Oscar, and Danna? They’ll be so excited to come see you. And Simon, of course.” He gasped, leaning forward. “Dude. Simon. He’ll be … I don’t even know. I bet he’ll cry.”
“The Dread Warden crying?” said Max. “Let’s get it on film.” He said it jokingly, but Adrian could tell he was overwhelmed, and on the verge of tears himself. “Did you say tattoo?”
“Oh. Yeah. That’s how I do … you know. All that other stuff I do.”
Scanning Adrian’s shirt, Max stammered, “You give yourself tattoos? And that’s how you—”
Adrian held up his hands. “That’s not important right now.” He swooped his arms around Max’s waist and lifted him off his feet, letting out an excited whoop. “Vitality Charm! Visitors! Think of the possi”—his voice hiccupped as he glimpsed a figure in the lobby beyond the glass—“bilities.”
“Put me down!”
He set Max down and took a step back, clearing his throat. “Visitors like … Nova?”
Max spun around.
Nova was standing not far from the lobby’s information desk, staring up into the quarantine with her mouth hanging open.
“Act normal,” Adrian whispered, his glee quickly overcoming his surprise. He elbowed Max in the side and they both raised their hands and waved.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“EXPLAIN,” SAID NOVA the second she stomped onto the sky bridge. Her arms were folded tight over her chest, her brain churning through a hundred explanations, each more absurd than the last. Adrian was inside the quarantine. And smiling. And apparently fine.
Then the pendant around his neck caught the light and Nova gasped, launching herself forward. She pushed her finger into the glass wall. “That?” she barked in disbelief. “Really?”
“Really,” Adrian confirmed, flashing more teeth than she had ever seen him flash before. He was practically luminescent with joy.
He started to explain his theory and the research he had done on the Vitality Charm and why he’d guessed it would protect him from Max’s power, but there were so many pauses and jumps in his story that Nova struggled to follow it all.
Plus, he couldn’t seem to stop laughing. It was partly the laugh of a mad scientist who hadn’t fully expected his latest experiment to be successful, and partly the laugh of a guy who could finally hang out with his little brother, without a glass wall dividing them.
He kept reaching out to ruffle Max’s hair, or punch him lightly in the shoulder, or wrap his elbow around Max’s neck and put him in a pretend chokehold. Max didn’t seem to know quite how to respond to this outpouring of brotherly affection, but he kept smiling. A smile as full of disbelief as Nova felt, but a smile all the same.
There was something endearing about the way Max was watching Adrian. A bit of awe, coupled with an abundance of hope.
Yesterday, Max was a prisoner and an outcast. Valuable and loved, yes, but also an anomaly. A science experiment. A lab rat. He knew it as much as anyone.
“What about Agent N?” said Nova.