Enemies(105)

I thought about it after he said it. “I guess Minneapolis is as good a place as any to make a stand.”

He shrugged. “Beats the underground bunker, if I had to pick. Though I’m a little unclear on why you chose it.”

“It’s home,” I said. “We’ll have to find a way to start gathering metas to us without drawing Century down on our heads.”

“That could be tough,” Reed said, “considering you pretty much called out this Sovereign guy and slapped the hell out of his bestie. If Weissman isn’t full of crap, it sounds like you’re coming up on Sovereign’s list.”

“I’ll deal with it—and him—when the time comes,” I said with a wellspring of confidence that originated … hell if I knew where. Somewhere inside. “It’s not like there’s anything I can do to prepare.” Reed stared at me with smoky eyes, and I knew there was something he was holding back. “Come on. Out with it,” I said.

I saw his tongue move within his closed mouth, as if he were licking the inside of his lips, causing them to bulge. “What if I told you … I know where Old Man Winter is going to be in three days?”

I felt the slow tension run through my body. “Where?”

“Rome,” he said. “He was supposed to meet with Hera. Obviously, she’s not going to make it, but I know the time, the place … everything. She was holding it back as a bargaining chip.” He gave me that same rueful smile. “If you want to know, I’ll tell you everything.”

I thought about it for almost a minute, weighing everything, before I answered. “No,” I said. “No. Winter’s in the past. I don’t have time to deal with him now. There are people who need my help.”

He smiled as he looked in my eyes. “There she is. Or just a little bit of her, at least.”

“Really? You think so?” I ran my fingernails gently over my face and stared over my shoulder at my own reflection in the lit window behind me. The basics were all still there but different. Somehow I looked more like … my mom. “I guess I just don’t see it anymore.”





Chapter 38




“Thank you,” I told Breandan as the whole of Heathrow terminal buzzed around us. Karthik had driven the five of us to the airport; they’d insisted on sending me off in style, and I didn’t argue persuasively enough to convince them. Besides, Reed had argued it was smart for my safety, and I hadn’t minded. It was nice not to be alone for once.

Breandan’s face wore a look of measured surprise, one eye opened wider than the other as we stood just inside the ticketing area. “You thanking me? Whatever for?”

“For reminding me that not every stranger you meet is out to destroy you,” I said, tugging on his hand with my left. “For letting me believe again that people are mostly good and that they need help to keep the bad away from them.”

“It’s funny that a thief whose face you bloodied the day you met him would be the one to teach you that,” he said with a wry smile.

“I’m appreciating the irony,” I said as I clutched my ticket within my right hand. “And thank you, too,” I said to Karthik, “you and Janus, for showing me that not everyone from Omega is as horrible as I believed.”

He gave me a pained wince. “Based on the experiences you had, I’m rather surprised you didn’t kill us all or leave us to our just desserts.”

“They wouldn’t have been just,” I said quietly, the crowd melting around me. I could sense them, the pulse of them, as they flowed around us. They were all on Century’s list too, eventually. “It would have been vengeful.” I looked to Kat. “And on that note … I don’t hate you anymore.” I did struggle a little to get the words out, though.

Her careful concern, her bare skepticism, dissolved and she leapt forward and enfolded me in a tight hug before I had a chance to do much more than stiffen in surprise. “Oh, I’m so glad to hear it, Sienna! You know, I never forgot you, never, and I always remembered—”

“I didn’t say I liked you,” I said, shrugging off her embrace. “I just said I didn’t hate you anymore.” I watched her face fall and I felt a pang of guilt. “Give it time, Kat,” I said, and she perked just a little. “It’s … still a lot to take in.”

“I followed you back then,” she said, serious, her age showing once more. “If you’d been in charge of the Directorate, I would have still been following you. I only left for Omega because I knew that Winter wasn’t prepared, wasn’t even thinking in the right direction.”