Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(79)

“I’ve been holding back my whole life,” Jason snarled. “Now get this thing off me.”

“Let him go,” Alia said. “This is wrong.”

Diana narrowed her eyes but let the rope slacken.

Jason pulled it over his head, casting the lasso away from him like a snake. “What the hell is that thing?”

Diana yanked the lasso back. “A necessity in the World of Man. You’ve been lying this whole time. To all of us.”

“And you’ve been so forthcoming?” He pointed an accusing finger at her. “You come out of nowhere. You shrug off bullet wounds like they’re paper cuts. You can outfight my best security guards.”

“I’ve made no attempt to hide my gifts,” Diana replied. “The secrets I protect do not just belong to me.”

“You think that lets you off the hook?” Jason made a sound of disgust and stalked through the chapel door. He looked back once over his shoulder. “If you want the truth so damn much, maybe you should think about offering it in return.” He vanished into the dusk.

Alia moved to follow, but Theo laid a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe give him a minute. If there’s one thing Jason hates, it’s feeling out of control.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Alia said to Diana. “You shouldn’t have used that thing on him.”

Diana coiled the rope at her hip, using the time to quell some of her anger. Alia was right. Maybe Jason was right, too. But he was also a hypocrite. The whole time he’d been badgering her for information, he’d been keeping his strength a secret.

“Well,” said Theo into the silence. “I guess now I know why he always wrecked me at basketball.”

Alia cast him a skeptical glance. “I’ve seen you play basketball, Theo. He beat you because you’re terrible.”

With great dignity, Theo stated, “I’m good on the fundamentals.”

Nim hooted. “And I’m the queen of the Netherlands.” She glanced in the direction Jason had gone. “It kind of makes sense, though. Alia, has Jason ever been sick a day in his life?”

Alia shook her head slowly. “No. Never missed a day of school. Never took a day off work. I thought he was just…I don’t know, Jason being Jason. Like a cold wouldn’t dare be caught by him.”

“Also, his sweat smells like pinecones,” said Nim.

Alia’s gaze snapped to her. “What?”

Nim blushed and shrugged. “Why do you think I liked his dirty T-shirts so much? He smells like a sexy forest.”

Jason did have a pleasing scent. Almost better than new car. But Diana didn’t intend to discuss it.

Alia gagged. “You’re disgusting.”

“I’m honest,” Nim said with a sniff.

“Well, there’s no way I’m going to stop giving him crap about his cologne,” said Theo.

It was almost fully dark now. Diana sighed. “It would be best if Jason didn’t stray far.”

“I’ll go,” Theo said.

“Great idea,” said Nim. “Maybe you can find a ditch to fall into.”

Alia pulled the parachute-tracking screen from her pocket. “Here,” she said, handing it to Theo. “The screen is pretty bright. You can use it as a flashlight.”

“I wish I could use it as a sandwich. Next time we throw ourselves out of a plane, remind me to grab a bag of pretzels.”

Alia pointed toward the grove. “We have olives and also olives.”

“Maybe we can cook and eat Nim,” he grumbled as he headed out the door.

Nim ran a hand through her black hair. “I would be delicious.”

Diana considered offering to go after Jason instead of Theo, but she knew she wasn’t quite ready to apologize, and she doubted he was ready to hear it. Besides, someone needed to remain with Alia.

At least there was one apology she could make and mean. “I’m sorry I lost my temper,” she said quietly.

Alia blew out a long breath. “I’m mad at him, too,” she said. “I’m just so glad he’s alive, I’m having trouble staying mad.”

Maybe that was part of what Diana resented, that horrible moment of watching Jason vanish, of believing he’d been lost for good. She thought of the soldiers they’d left behind on the jet, of Gemma Rutledge, someone she’d never met, a blond girl in a party dress lying dead beside Nim. She thought of Ben’s chest pocked by bullet holes. She’d never known someone who had died. She’d barely known Ben, and yet she felt the weight of loss pressing down on her, all that courage and easy humor gone forever. Jason was right. Death was too easy here.

They bedded down against the cold, packed earth. Eventually, Theo returned with word that Jason would take the first watch.

“Let him sulk,” he said with a shrug, curling onto his side a short distance from Nim and Alia.

Diana wasn’t quite ready to trust Theo. Once the others were breathing deeply, she slipped out of the chapel and crept silently through the trees and underbrush until she spotted Jason’s shape in the dark. His back was to her, his head tilted up at the stars. He looked like a figure carved in stone, a statue of a hero, still standing as everything around him fell to ruin. Or maybe just a lonely boy keeping watch with the stars. What had it been like for him to hide the truth of himself even from his best friend, his sister?