Catwoman: Soulstealer (DC Icons #3)(66)

Selina smiled, scratching the cat’s whiskery chin. “I’m shaking in my boots.”

Ivy frowned down at the cat. “So are the birds.”

The cat blinked up at Ivy, as if scowling herself, and scuttled off into the dark.

Selina snickered, picking up the paper again and flapping through it.

Ivy smirked. “You pretend to be serious and broody, but beneath that mask, I know you’re smiling all the time.”

Selina waved her off, snapping the sagging paper upright. She paused at the Science section, sighing as boredom set in, and tapped the article on the front page. “You think this stuff is all just hocus-pocus?”

Ivy leaned over, skimming the article. “Ley lines?”

Selina shrugged, glancing to the alley below. All clear. “?‘Naturally occurring pathways of energy that run across the earth like highways.’ Sounds fake to me.”

Ivy hauled the paper toward herself. “Oh, they’re real, all right. They’ve done tests on them—some of the energy is so strong that if you find a ley line on a hill and put your car in neutral, it can move the car uphill for you.”

“That’s got to be a hoax.”

Ivy frowned at her over the paper. “This is the Science section. They don’t publish hocus-pocus, as you called it.” Ivy paused for a moment, as if weighing some internal debate. Selina held still as she did. At last, Ivy nodded, more to herself than anything, and said, “There’s a ley line outside Gotham.”

Selina scanned the rest of the page. “That’s not in the article.”

“That’s because no one knows it’s there. I mean, those of us in the science community do, but…we don’t blab to the press. I’m sure some evil corporation is probably going to find a way to destroy the ley lines.”

“Probably.” Selina neatly folded the paper and set it aside. “Want to take a drive out there? See the car trick in motion?”

Ivy considered, then jerked her chin to the alley below. “What about them, though?”

Selina snorted as two figures entered the alley at last. “This won’t take long.”

She launched herself over the brick wall of the roof, down the drainpipe, and right into the path of the two midlevel cronies of Carmine Falcone.

By the time Ivy’s toxins slithered over the roof edge, knocking the men out cold, Selina was grinning.

It would only be a matter of time before the two of them reported to their boss what she’d deigned to warn them: the League was coming to steal what Catwoman was selling to Gotham City’s underworld. And that the League would raze the city to the ground before they left. They had no interest in alliances, in money.

Because what Selina was selling…it was that valuable. And to get it back, to avoid it falling into the wrong hands, the League would make sure that every lowlife and criminal in Gotham City was swept away in the bloodbath that would soon be unleashed on the city.

If the underworld did not prepare. If they did not ready to strike back. If they were content to continue being grunts and worms.

Gotham City would fall—but not to these foreign interlopers.

It would fall to her.



* * *



—

“I’m assuming this car is stolen.” Ivy frowned at the Range Rover’s black leather interior. She perched on the leather as though she couldn’t stand to have it touch her skin.

“It is,” Selina said mildly. She’d swapped out her helmet for an onyx domino mask that revealed the bottom portion of her face, her hair hidden beneath the hood of a heavy black sweatshirt. Ivy, surprisingly, had said nothing when Selina emerged, car in tow, with her helmet stashed in the back seat. It seemed that silence was about to end, however.

“Do you know what sort of evil the leather industry does on a daily basis? The slaughter?”

“Hence you being vegan,” Selina said.

Ivy watched the city passing in a blur. “You’re not going to laugh about it?”

“It’s your life. Your choices about food don’t impact mine.”

Ivy studied her. “You really need the mask?”

Selina snorted. “Little steps.”

Ivy shrugged, monitoring the dark road ahead. The ley line was forty minutes to the west of the city, most of that drive down a single-lane road with no trees or anything to surround it. Only a flat, barren plain. “This used to be a forest.” Ivy motioned to the hints of grass the headlights revealed. “It was cut down in the early 1900s to fuel the expansion of Gotham.”

“Never grew back?”

“Obviously not.”

Selina frowned. “The city should have planted new trees.”

“Back then, no one gave a shit. Still don’t.”

Selina considered. “What would it cost—to replant the forest here?”

“A lot. And it’d take a long time for anything to grow.”

There was enough sorrow in her voice, enough resignation, that Selina said, “Well, maybe some of our profits…Maybe it can go to that.” More green spaces were never a bad thing. Not at all.

Ivy studied her for a long minute, and Selina kept her attention on the road, monitoring for any deer or wildlife trying to cross as she gave her space to reply.

Ivy said a bit softly, “I’ve never had many friends.”