Her tone was light, innocent, but Adrian couldn’t stop gaping at her, unable to tell if the question was really as innocuous as it sounded, or if there was something more to it than appeared on the surface. If there was an accusation hidden beneath her words.
When Nova faced him, curiosity was etched into her features.
It was Ruby who responded first. “He’s an impostor,” she said, with enough spite to make Adrian flinch.
Nova turned to her. “The Sentinel?”
“He’s pretending to be a Renegade,” said Ruby, “but he’s not. He’s a fake.”
Nova’s gaze shifted between the three of them, a small wrinkle forming between her brows. “You all really believe that?”
Her focus landed on Adrian and he managed to gather himself, shaking off the bout of paranoia. “No one had ever heard of him before that day. Whoever he is, he hasn’t revealed his identity to anyone here.”
“But he’s a prodigy, and a powerful one,” said Nova, and somehow, that small, offhanded compliment sent a faint surge of pride through Adrian’s chest. “And who other than the Renegades would have the resources to make a suit like the one he wears? Or find a way to combine multiple superpowers into one human being?” She glanced at Ruby and Oscar, but somehow her attention always seemed to return to Adrian. Searching and quizzical, as though she could tell how hard he was trying to act oblivious. “If you guys don’t know who he is, then … maybe he’s a classified project that hasn’t been revealed to everyone yet. Right?”
“That’s what I thought at first too,” said Oscar. “But when the Council heard that he’d been acting on their behalf, claiming to have acted on their orders and whatnot, they seemed livid.”
Adrian lowered his gaze.
“And I’m not sure you can fake that sort of thing,” Oscar added. “At least, not all of them. Not like that.”
“Huh,” said Nova, and it was clear she remained skeptical. “I guess we’ll find out eventually.”
Adrian scratched his right forearm, where his new tattoo was still sore beneath the bandage.
“Oh, look!” said Ruby, pointing down to the training floor. “There’s Danna.”
Glad for the diversion, Adrian followed the gesture and spotted Danna on one of the training mats below, bracing herself against a padded bench. On the other side of the mat, one of their trainers was holding, of all things, a slingshot.
As they watched, Ballistic, the trainer, aimed straight up and fired, sending a high-drag projectile flapping toward the ceiling.
Danna crouched, flipping her long dreadlocks over one shoulder as she focused on the target. Then she leaped and her body dispersed into a cyclone of butterflies soaring upward. The creatures surrounded the projectile and Danna reformed, grabbing it with one hand and dropping back down to the ground. It was nearly a perfect catch, but as her feet touched the ground again, she let out a pained grunt and collapsed to one knee.
Adrian grimaced.
“Monarch?” said Nova.
“You’ve done your research,” said Oscar. “She’s on our team, too, but she got injured at the parade so she couldn’t come to the trials.”
“Come on,” said Ruby, latching on to Nova’s arm. “We’ll introduce you.”
They made their way to the next staircase. As they approached Danna’s mat, Adrian could hear Ballistic reminding her to stay in swarm formation as she descended, as her body wasn’t ready for such a fall. Danna fisted her hands as she rebuked, “It’s not that easy! Twenty-nine butterflies were burned off. It’d be like you trying to catch the thing with three missing fingers!”
She spotted their group and straightened, swiping her forearm across her damp brow. Her attention turned to Nova.
“They let you out of the med wing!” cried Ruby. Releasing Nova, she swung her arms wide in celebration. Adrian barely recoiled fast enough to avoid another hit to his nose. “That’s faster than they thought, right?”
Danna heaved a sigh, casting a sour look at the trainer. “They said I could start retraining myself to use the swarm. You’d be amazed what a difference it makes when I lose a bunch like that. It’s like learning to control them all over again.”
Adrian’s shoulders knotted. Twenty-nine butterflies were burned off.
“But I need to make it through the obstacle course before they send me out on patrol again,” Danna continued. “It’ll be at least another couple of weeks.”