Shark inched toward Majors, arm out comfortingly, wary of Steel’s blade. “Boss, don’t do this. This … the situation here, it’s not like you said. This isn’t worth it. Put down the remote.”
Majors glowered. “I thought you agreed with me. You’ve seen what these people can do! Who’s going to stop them if not us?”
“Did you ever consider that maybe we could all work together?” Celia said—to Shark, to Sonic. “I mean, our football teams may hate each other’s guts, but I never much liked football anyway.”
Danton pointed at her. “You, stop talking, unless it’s to agree to my terms. I’m going to detonate this building on the count of ten. One…”
Sonic pleaded. “Danton, Eliot is down there. If you collapse the building, he may not have time to get away—”
“Having powers means sacrifice. He knows that,” Majors replied. “Two … three…”
Shark ran his hands through his hair, pulling. “Steel, bro, come on, this is crazy. Don’t let him do this.”
“He’s right,” Steel said, his jaw set and lips trembling. “We all agreed, he’s right.”
“Four … five…”
—Please, Edgar, hurry!—
Sonic again: “Danton. Put that down, let’s talk about this.”
“Tell her to say yes!” Danton said, pointing with the remote.
The woman took a breath and begged. “Ms. West, please. No one will hold you to it, we can work it all out later. You’re the only one who can stop him.”
“No, I’m not,” Celia said, watching Arthur.
Whose eyes lit at the same time Anna yelled, “Dad!”
“There. There it is.” Arthur scanned the room with a dark, fierce gaze, and a familiar voice called to Celia from the back of her mind: —And there we are. I’ve got you all.—
Majors fell first, his eyes rolling back as he dropped the remote and collapsed. Steel was next, and Sonic and Shark looked at each other, bewildered and comprehending. Then Celia smelled sage, an achingly familiar scent of imposed sleep. She got a glimpse of Anna folding, and Arthur catching her to lower her to the floor, before her vision went dark.
—We’ll be here when you wake, dearest.—
TWENTY-FOUR
ANNA awoke to someone shaking her. Her nose tickled, her head ached, and her brain was full of panic.
Gasping, she tried to sit up, but the headache rocked her sideways and bile climbed into her throat.
“Easy,” her father murmured, propping her up. “Slow breaths. Good girl. I’m sorry I couldn’t let you rest, but I need help. Will you be all right?”
She looked around. They were still in the empty office space in Horizon Tower. A few minutes of fighting had torn the place to pieces. She closed her eyes when nausea hit again, but her breathing steadied.
Her father was a mess, soaked with water, smudged with soot, face cut, eyes sunk with exhaustion. She clung to him.
“Dad, what’s that about Mom having leukemia? Was that some kind of joke?”
He smiled. “Should have known that wouldn’t get past you. I’m afraid it isn’t, love. Can we talk about that later?”
Only a few moments had passed since Dr. Mentis knocked them all out. Having now experienced his mind control power, Anna could confidently say he’d never used it on her before. It was a strange comfort in the midst of the chaos. He’d already found a landline that wasn’t shut down by whatever Majors had done to cut off transmissions and called the police and EMTs. They’d checked the elevators, deemed them safe, and should arrive any minute. Apparently, Mindwall had turned himself in once he reached the ground floor and told them how to disable the rest of the booby traps. Mentis collected weapons from the bad guys and ensured that the detonator was put somewhere safe until the bomb squad could disable it.
“Dad—Sam. Were you able to find out anything about Sam?”
“He’s alive.” And that was all he’d say about it. Anna had a bad feeling. She was certain he was alive—now that she was out of Mindwall’s range, she could feel him. He was at the same hospital as Grandma, which was good. It should have been good. But Arthur wouldn’t tell her how badly he was hurt, and Anna’s powers couldn’t give her any details.
But she was massively, hugely, vastly relieved that she knew where everyone was now. She could feel them alclass="underline" Mom, Dad, Teddy, Eliot, Bethy, and Suzanne, everyone. All the holes in her awareness filled in. The world had righted itself.
The police and EMTs arrived, and Anna directed them to the aftermath. They went to Captain Paulson first. Anna was afraid he hadn’t survived the wound on top of Mentis’s mind control. But she could feel him, so he was still here.
When he could hand over authority of the situation to the police, Arthur went straight to Celia. Anna hung back.
The wig had been the biggest shock of the day. She’d imagined superhero battles. Not that the real thing was anything like she’d imagined, but none of what happened had been entirely unexpected. Until Celia took the wig off. Seeing her mother bald was just wrong. The expanse of skin made her look scrawny, bony. She had pale freckles on her scalp, mottled spots like an accidental splatter of ink. The shadows under Celia’s eyes seemed so much larger, darker, without hair to offset them.
Suddenly, all her mother’s behavior over the last few weeks made perfect sense, and Anna wondered why she hadn’t figured it out on her own. She hadn’t been able to conceive of the idea of Celia being ill, weak.
As Arthur shook Celia awake, Anna moved to join them, crouching at her mother’s other side and taking her hand. Celia took a long time to wake up, and Arthur didn’t rush her.
An EMT tapped his shoulder at one point. “Do you want us to look at her?”
“Not just yet,” he answered.
Finally, she opened her eyes. Looked at them both for a long time before asking, “Did we win?”
“We did,” Arthur said, stroking her forehead in a movement that would have brushed back her hair, if she had any. “Though you cut it very close there.”
“I had a feeling.”
“Mom,” Anna burst, unable to keep quiet. “Are you going to be okay?”
Somehow, Celia knew that the question didn’t mean right now, right here. She was asking about the long term. The illness. Would her hair ever grow back. Everything.
“I don’t know,” Celia said, squeezing Anna’s hand. “But I hope so.”
Everyone else started waking up on their own. Anna still had a million questions, but they’d have to wait.
By the time Analise walked over, Celia was on her feet, and the two women fell into a deep, rib-crushing hug. Anna eavesdropped.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Celia said.
“And I’m so mad at you I could scream. When were you going to tell me about this?”
“I don’t know. Never mind.” Celia pulled away, held Analise’s shoulders. “What happened? Typhoon?”
Analise just sighed. “I’m still working that out.”
Led by a uniformed officer, Sonic passed by, in handcuffs. She pulled up short, glaring at Celia.
“Why didn’t you just tell him yes? He would have stopped. He would have let everyone go.”
“Are you sure about that?” Celia replied. “He’d taken it too far. Even if I’d said yes, he might still have pushed the button. Just to prove he was right.”
“What are you going to do to him?”
On Arthur’s advice, the EMTs had sedated Danton Majors when he started to wake up. They were strapping him to a gurney now.