Archenemies (Renegades #2)(70)

“Okay,” she said, rubbing her eyelids. “I probably shouldn’t have done that.”

“McLain?”

She jumped and spun in a full circle before realizing that the stern voice had been coming from her wristband.

Gulping, she lifted her hand. “Uh … yes?”

“This is Recoil in security. We just saw what appeared to be a small explosion there in the artifacts department. Is everything all right?”

Nova willed her nerve to stop trembling. “Uh—yeah. Sorry. Everything’s fine. I was just”—she cleared her throat—“cleaning a few of the objects here, and, um … must have mis-measured the … cleaning … solution. Sorry to worry you.”

“Would you like us to send down a cleaning crew?”

“No,” she said, adding a lighthearted laugh. “No, no. I’ll take care of it. You know the things in here can be … temperamental. I think it’s best if I handle it.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

The communication faded out, and Nova inspected the results of her failed—oh, so very failed—experiment.

She ran her hands through her hair and cursed.

So much for science and persistence.

Shoulders slumped, she picked up the brooch and set it gently back in its place, then went off to find a mop.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

ADRIAN’S CHEST ACHED from his newest tattoo, still sore from a thousand tiny pricks of the needle. Of all his tattoos, this had been the easiest to persuade himself to go through with. He’d known he would do it the moment the Vitality Charm had successfully admitted him into Max’s presence.

The charm worked, and this tattoo would too. After this, he would be able to come and go from the quarantine as he pleased.

With so much importance resting on this design, he had not simply copied the symbol onto his skin. He had spent hours poring through dictionaries, encyclopedias, and tomes on symbolism and ancient healing practices. The symbols that the blacksmith had long ago stamped into the medallion were found across multiple religions and cultures, often carrying messages of protection and health.

The open right hand was said to be a ward against evil, and snakes had been associated with healing and medicine for eons. The more he read, the more he understood how this design could protect someone from forces that would seek to weaken him or her.

Protection. Health. Strength.

The words came up again and again in his research, and had repeated like a mantra in Adrian’s mind as he’d worked on the tattoo.

A serpent curled inside the palm of an open hand.

The hand held up in defiance—Stop. You may not pass.

The serpent, ready to devour any affliction that dared to ignore the hand’s warning.

Together—immunity.

The tattoo, inked directly over his heart, would work. Adrian had already accomplished remarkable things by inking new designs into his skin. He had stretched the limits of his power beyond anything he would have previously thought possible. He had made himself into the Sentinel, and the scope of his abilities seemed endless, limited only by his imagination.

So who was to say that he couldn’t give himself this ability too? Not complete invincibility, like the Captain had. The only way he could think to accomplish that would have been with a tattoo that spanned the full length of his body, and he wasn’t ready for that sort of commitment.

But invincibility from Max? It could be done. It was possible. He had never been so sure of anything in his life.

He went to the mirror to inspect his work. The design looked good. Clean and sharp. Despite having had to work upside down on himself, he was pleased to see how balanced he’d gotten the overall shape. It had turned out exactly how he’d envisioned. A perfect replica of the symbol on the Vitality Charm.

Relaxing his shoulders, Adrian pressed his palm over the tattoo and let his power seep into his body. He felt the same warm, stinging sensation he had every time he did this, as the design sank through his skin and into his muscles, through his ribcage, into his steadily beating heart. As it became a part of him.

When he pulled his hand away, the ink was glowing orange, like melted gold inlaid on his skin. But it faded fast, leaving only the tattoo behind, no different than it had been when he first pulled off the bandage. Unlike his other drawings, the tattoos didn’t disappear after he willed them into reality. Maybe because they were intended to be permanent. Maybe because he wasn’t creating a physical manifestation of the drawing, but rather, using it to change himself.

Adrian was as confident in his tattoos and his new abilities as he’d ever been about anything. As he put away his tattooing kit, he found himself wishing that he could have been even half as sure about Nova and the mixed signals she’d been sending lately.

He was sure … well, pretty sure … a solid 83% sure that Nova had been flirting with him in the training hall. And at the park too. A dozen small moments kept flashing through his memory. A smile that was a bit too bright. Eyes lingering on his a second too long. The way she sat just a little closer to him than she had to. The way her fingers brushed against his back when she’d been teaching him how to shoot.

That was flirting. Wasn’t it?

And flirting meant interest. Didn’t it?

But then he remembered the carnival, and how she had pulled away so hastily when he’d tried to kiss her, and how everything had been awkward between them since, and he figured he had to be imagining things.