Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(68)

Diana had pulled herself onto the cream-colored banquette and sat rigidly in place, fingers digging into the cushions. Alia realized she’d probably never been on a plane before. Her dress had been reduced to what looked like a bedraggled ice-skating costume. The fabric was charred black near its edges—all but the lasso in a tangle at her waist, still as pristine as it had been when they left for the party. Her skin was pink in places.

Where the bullets struck, Alia realized. The wounds had already healed.

Alia had known Diana was strong, that there was some kind of magic at work on her island, but this was different. She’d thrown tables like Frisbees. She’d leapt into a moving plane. She’d survived an explosion and a gunfight with little more than a few bumps and scratches.

Theo shook his head and laughed, the sound strange in the quiet cabin. “Damn, Jason. You really know how to throw a party.”

Nim buried her face in her hands. Jason was watching Diana.

“What is she?” he muttered beneath his breath, low enough that only Alia could hear.

Amazon. Born of war, destined to be ruled by no one but herself. But that wasn’t Alia’s secret to tell.

“I don’t really know,” Alia said. “I’m just glad she’s on our side.”





They sat in silence until Ben’s voice came over the speaker. “You are now free to move about the cabin, fellow lawbreakers. We are clear.”

Alia released a shuddering sigh of relief, and Jason gave her hand a squeeze.

Theo unbuckled his seat belt and stumbled over to the jet’s bar by the banquettes. There was no turbulence, but Alia couldn’t blame him for being unsteady on his feet.

“You’re going to start drinking already?” said Nim, her tear-stained face bleak.

“No,” said Theo. “I’m going to continue drinking.”

“Theo,” Jason said warningly.

“Would everyone relax?” he said. “I just want some ginger ale. My tummy gets upset when I fly, and almost dying doesn’t help, either.”

Alia wanted to laugh, but she was afraid she might just start crying. She felt shaken and exhausted now that the adrenaline was leaving her body, but she also felt grateful. Theo was alive. Nim was alive. Once again, Alia had evaded death. They’d all made it out. Maybe Diana was right and they were destined to survive and reach the spring.

Alia knew they needed to talk, but she wanted a chance to gather her thoughts and get cleaned up. The jet was equipped with a shower, so she retrieved her small travel case from where it had been stashed beside Diana’s pack in the rear of the plane and headed into the bathroom to shed her golden scales.

The water was hot enough, but she didn’t linger beneath it. She stepped out of the shower and stared at herself in the mirror. Her body was covered in new cuts and scrapes, and she knew she was going to have more bruises from all the tumbling and falling she’d done during the fight. She had blisters on her toes from those ridiculous shoes Nim had picked out.

She looked at the heap of finery and again felt the events of the night, of the last few days, threatening to overwhelm her, but she pushed that panic away. In a day, this would all be over.

Alia pulled on the jeans she’d packed and a ratty old T-shirt with a double helix on it that she’d gotten at science camp years ago. She frowned at her reflection as a memory came back to her: a brawl that had erupted at the closing picnic that year. She and the other kids had thought it was hilarious. They’d called it the Great Nerd Battle. But when the fight had been broken up and some semblance of calm had returned, Alia had heard two of the counselors talking. A boy had almost been choked to death by one of the staff, and a fire had been set in the dining hall. They were just lucky it hadn’t spread. The camp had closed permanently after that.

At the time, it had just been something shocking for the campers to talk about, a story Alia brought home to her parents and Jason. But now she remembered her parents’ expressions when she’d told them about the fight, the look they’d exchanged. From then on, they spent their summers traveling or at one of the family’s houses. There were no more trips to camp.

Alia wasn’t sure what to do with the wreck she’d made of her beautiful dress, so she crushed it into a ball and shoved it to the bottom of her bag. No doubt Nim would be appalled, but she couldn’t bear to look at it. Thinking of how happy and hopeful she’d felt when she’d put that dress on, of how she’d imagined Theo looking at her in it, made her skin prickle with embarrassment. It seemed silly now, and dangerous, too. Diana had been right: The people pursuing her were relentless. They clearly had resources they were willing to use—on innocent people on a boat in the Aegean, and now in full view of some of the wealthiest members of New York society.

Alia untangled the pretty gold chain from her braids, pulled on her sneakers, and took a last look in the mirror. Warbringer. Had Helen’s legacy passed through her father’s bloodline? Through the Keralis name to Alia? It didn’t matter. She was her mother’s daughter, too. She’d thought it had taken all of her courage to leave New York and sign up for the trip aboard the Thetis without Jason’s permission, but she’d been so wrong. That had been just a scrap of her courage. Since then she’d faced shipwreck, a near drowning, and a gunfight, and she was still here, still standing. She was going to make sure no girl ever had to live with this curse again. And Alia knew it was because of the way her mom had raised her. For all her mother’s caution, she’d never wanted Alia to be meek. Look them in the eye, she’d always told her. Let them know who you are. When someone asked where you were from. When a new kid at Bennett wanted to know if she was on an athletic scholarship. Look them in the eye.