Adrian knew the result of that food chain.
The birds passed over Ruby and Oscar. Ruby released a scream of rage and swung her bloodstone at them, knocking two birds from the air. One crashed into the fence, the other crumpled into the ground, one wing twisted at an odd angle.
The others seemed unbothered by their lost companions.
“Danna!” Ruby cried.
Adrian started to run. And then he started to fly, using the tattoos on the bottoms of his feet to launch himself forward.
Flame crackled around his fist. He could feel its heat through the armor, but it encouraged more than frightened him. The fire grew until it nearly claimed his entire arm. White-hot and churning, the flames licking at the air.
Oscar grabbed Ruby by the back of her uniform and hauled her out of Adrian’s way.
He blew past his friends and took to the air, thrusting his palm forward.
The fire blazed along his limb and shot toward the gathering of crows. It devoured them, swallowing their squawks and cries, igniting their feathers and talons. Extinguishing them.
Adrian landed hard on the ground just inside the chain-link fence. He collapsed to one knee, struggling for breath.
Beyond the wasteland, he saw a smattering of birds who had escaped the fire turn into wisps of black smoke. They faded away while the butterflies dived beneath the remains of a battered taxicab.
A flutter drew Adrian’s attention to the side and he saw one of the crows that had been knocked down by Ruby’s stone. Its wing was crippled, and it was staring at Adrian with one beady black eye, intelligent and calculating.
Adrian shuddered.
The bird dissolved into black ash, scattering to the wind.
He released a long, exhausted groan. He was not naive enough to think that Phobia was dead. But he hoped it was the last he would see of the villain today, at least.
A boot crunched in the dirt.
Adrian squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself, and stood. He turned to face them.
Smokescreen and Red Assassin. His teammates. His friends.
Ruby was gripping her wire in one hand, a ruby dagger in the other. Oscar had a charcoal gray cloud storming around him, obscuring the ground at his feet. They wore matching looks of apprehension.
Adrian could tell they didn’t want to fight him, but he didn’t think it was out of a sense of camaraderie.
No. They were afraid. They didn’t think they could win in a fight against him.
They would be right, he figured, though it was the first time he’d stopped to consider the possibility.
Oscar glanced at Ruby. A brief look, born of worry. He was planning a diversion, Adrian could tell. He would conceal Ruby with his smoke, drawing the brunt of the Sentinel’s attack toward himself. It was a risky maneuver, knowing what the Sentinel could do, but it was their best bet to take him down too. It would at least give Ruby a chance to move into a more offensive position. Maybe even launch a counterattack while the Sentinel was distracted.
It was a strategy they’d practiced dozens of times in the training halls. Their tiny gestures, the almost imperceptible way they arranged their limbs, was so familiar that Adrian was tempted to laugh.
Never would he have expected to see those tactics used against himself.
Adrian lifted his hands, fingers spread. The universal sign of supplication.
“I’m not your enemy,” he said. “I’ve never been your enemy.”
“Sorry, but we’re going to have to let the Council make that decision,” said Ruby. She gave the slightest of nods.
Oscar swiveled his hands, aiming to create a wall of smoke between Adrian and Ruby.
But in that same moment, Ruby gasped. “Wait!”
Oscar’s eyes widened.
Something fluttered in Adrian’s vision, just outside the visor. He blinked.
A monarch butterfly had landed on one of his fingers.
Another quickly followed, perching on his thumb. Then three more on the other hand.
Adrian held completely still as Danna’s swarm overtook him, alighting on his shoulders, his arms, his toes, even the top of his helmet, he guessed, though he couldn’t feel them. He was afraid to move lest he accidentally crush one beneath a metal limb.
As their expressions morphed from determination to astonishment, Oscar and Ruby gradually let down their guard. Ruby’s muscles relaxed, letting the weapons hang at her sides. Oscar’s smoke cloud dispersed into the air.
They gaped at him, and Adrian found himself fidgeting beneath their stares.
“Who are you?” Ruby finally asked.
He pressed his lips together. He didn’t have to tell them. He could shoo the butterflies away. He could be gone before they would think to stop him.
But was that really what he wanted? To continue with these lies forever? To never be able to trust anyone with this secret, not even his best friends? The team he trusted with his life?
Inhaling shakily, he reached for his helmet.
The butterflies left him. They swirled across the wasteland and took up watch on the toppled statue of a saint, their bright yellow wings the only splotch of color beneath the moonlight.
Adrian unlatched the visor. It hissed as it lifted up, revealing his face.
Their silence was pervasive. He tried to read their expressions, searching for disbelief and betrayal. But mostly they just seemed stunned.
“Please don’t tell anyone,” Adrian said, and the words came out more pleading than he’d intended. “Especially not my dads. Or … or Nova either. I need to be the one to tell her.”
“Nova doesn’t know?” Ruby said, her own voice carrying a bit of a squeak.
Oscar answered for him. “Of course not. She hates the Sentinel.”
Adrian frowned, but couldn’t deny the truth of it.
Releasing a string of expletives, Oscar ran his hand through his hair. “How could you not tell us? I thought—all this time!”
“I know. I’m sorry. I wanted to. But after the parade, when Danna got hurt—”
“Because of you!” Oscar yelled. “She got hurt because of you!”
Adrian shrank back. “I know. It was an accident. I would never … I didn’t mean to.”
“And you were there,” Oscar continued, shaking his head. “At the library and … and chasing after Hawthorn. How did we not see it?”
“Because it’s Sketch,” said Ruby. “You draw things! You don’t control fire or laser beams! You can’t jump fifty feet in the air! How … How?”
“Tattoos,” said Adrian. “I draw permanent tattoos on myself, and they deliver different powers.”
They both gawked at him.
Then—
“Tattoos?” Ruby screamed. “You can’t be serious.”
Oscar, though, had turned thoughtful, his mouth rounding with comprehension. “Tattoos. Holy smokes, dude, that’s genius. Can you give me some?”
“No!” Ruby responded. “He can’t—you can’t—I still can’t believe you didn’t tell us!”
“I know. I really am sorry. I wanted to—”
“Don’t,” Ruby snapped. “Don’t you even say that. If you wanted to, then you would have.” She threw her arms into the air and began pacing, kicking debris out of her path as she went. “What are we going to do now? Next to the Anarchists, you’re, like, the most-wanted prodigy in the city. You’ve been breaking rules left and right. And we’re just supposed to become your accomplices in this? We’re just supposed to keep our mouths shut?”