my fists. I felt a combination of nerves and anger spiraling inside me. “What?”
Daniel didn’t look intimidated by me. He was one of the few who didn’t. “You messed up at the mall. And it isn’t the first time you’ve messed up. No wonder people are turning on you and the Resistance. Starting to feel pretty good about not getting myself involved.”
I wanted to turn away before I said anything I regretted; before I did anything rash.
But I couldn’t help myself.
I lifted my hands and punched the new can of beer from Daniel’s hands.
He glanced around at me. Then he caught the beer in midair with his telekinesis. “Not a good idea.”
“You owe your life to me. I saved you. I didn’t just spare you, but I saved you. Don’t ever forget that.”
“You did save my life. I accept that.” He pulled back his beer and took another sip, and then he walked toward me. “But something’s coming. Something very big. And I just hope you and your little team of soldiers are ready for the storm when it finally arrives.”
“You should…”
I didn’t finish my words.
Daniel disappeared.
The beer fell to the ground where he’d stood, perfectly upright.
I looked down at that beer can. Then I looked up at the orange sun as it made its final descent, simmering against the vast landscape.
As I stared into it, preparing to head back home as the heat diminished, I couldn’t let that final thought go.
I hope you’re ready for the storm when it finally arrives…
8
C haos kept her head down . She didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention. Or any attention, for that matter.
The Evoque nightclub in Tokyo was loud and busy enough for her to blend into the crowd. All around her, neon strobe lights pulsated, people dancing and partying on the floor. She could barely hear herself think, which again, was good news, because it meant that everyone else’s senses would be distorted even more than her. She could hone her hearing on a particular person if they were speaking to her. She’d been doing it for fun the whole night, jumping from conversation to conversation. Even if they were at the opposite side of the club, she could focus.
She thought back to the events earlier that week. The mall in Kenya. She felt bad about what’d happened. Truth be told, she wasn’t expecting the gunmen to be in there. That wasn’t part of the plan she’d agreed.
And the explosion. Yes, she could cause explosions. That was one of the gifts she’d discovered that day at the diner four months ago and had been training to hone ever since.
But that explosion at the mall wasn’t her.
In the first days of meeting Adam, their relationship had been… well, pretty blissful. He saw something in her. He told her he’d not given her abilities, but rather he’d unlocked them.
She liked that. Especially after all the hell she’d been through with family recently. It made her feel special.
She knew now that the whole unlocking powers thing was bullshit. As much as she still felt something for Adam, she knew she wasn’t his special snowflake anymore. And as much as she liked his plan for changing the world and shifting the power from the Resistance to the people—especially after what happened to her sister in the midst of an ULTRA conflict—she just wasn’t sure it was the reality she’d wanted anymore.
Especially not after what happened at the mall.
She’d thought about changing her allegiance. But she knew it was already too late. The world was talking about her. She was involved in the attack on the Kenyan mall. And sure, the plan to set Glacies up had gone pretty well, framed him as even more of a bad guy in the eyes of the masses. But it just wasn’t what she’d agreed, the whole killing thing.
So she was here to meet him .
She was here to quit.
She looked around, the strobes giving her a headache. She saw guys leaning against the bar with open-necked shirts. At the opposite side of the bar, a couple of