died—that’s all on me. I’ll never forgive myself for that. But you shouldn’t have touched Aaron Bell. And you shouldn’t have touched Nick. Those weren’t your first mistakes, but they’re going to be your last.”
Owen laughed wildly. “Always comes back to Nick, doesn’t it? You talk about justice and saving people, but it was always about him. It’s sad.” He looked down at Nick. “Isn’t it sad, Nicky? Almost as sad as your pathetic little crush on an Extraordinary who was right in front of you all this time.”
Nick ground his teeth together. He thought the spire behind him started shaking, but he hoped it was just his imagination. It was the last thing he needed at the moment. “You’re a dick, Owen. Had I known it was you, I never would have liked anything about Shadow Star.”
“You weren’t saying that last spring. In fact, I distinctly remember hearing Owen, please more. Owen, right there, yeah.”
“What do you think is gonna happen here?” Pyro Storm asked him. “You know this is the end.”
“I don’t think it is,” Owen said, holding onto the spire with one hand as he reached toward Pyro Storm. “You see, you need me as much as I need you. A hero is only as good as his villain. Think about it. You’re nothing without me. And I do enjoy this dance we do.” He smiled cruelly. “No matter where you go or what you do, I’ll be there right behind you.”
“Let Nick go,” Pyro Storm ordered.
Owen shrugged. “Okay.”
Two things happened at once.
The shadows holding Nick against the spire disappeared—
and,
Owen launched himself at Pyro Storm.
The latter concerned Nick almost as much as the former.
It was a strange split second, hanging suspended in midair hundreds of feet above the McManus Bridge. He heard Seth shouting his name before Owen hit him directly in the chest, wrapping inky-black shadows around him, and they both fell away.
Nick didn’t have time to make noise before he started to fall. One moment he was against the spire, and the next he started to plummet.
He’d always heard that in the seconds before one’s death, life tended to flash before one’s eyes. Nick could unequivocally say that was a freaking lie. His breath was caught in his throat, and he wanted to scream, to do something to let everyone within hearing distance know he did not want to become a smudge on the pavement below. A bright lance of pain—glassy and harsh—shot through his head, and even as he fell, he was knocked forward, right at Rebecca Firestone.
And since Nick absolutely did not want to die, he reached out for her even though she was shaking her head furiously and screaming at him to back off. Luckily for him, he didn’t give a crap what Rebecca Firestone wanted. He wrapped a hand around her ankle, stopping his descent before he could pick up speed.
She grunted above him. “Let me go!”
“No!” he shrieked up at her. “I’d really rather not if that’s okay with you!”
“You’re going to break my leg!”
“Oh no! How terrible for you! I’m going to break my everything if I let—are you trying to kick your leg? Stop it!”
But she didn’t. He felt the muscles in her leg tense as she jerked her foot. His fingers dug into her skin, the tendons in her ankle bunching under his grip. Nick swung precariously out into nothing, and—“Why is your ankle sweaty? Who has sweaty ankles! Oh my god, I’m going to—”
He slipped.
And landed on the metal platform less than a foot below him.
“Huh,” Nick said, looking down at his feet. He bounced up and down, testing its weight. It held. “I didn’t expect that. Awesome.”
Then he immediately threw up over the side of the bridge. He couldn’t even find the strength to be embarrassed about it.
He stood up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Ugh. I should not have eaten all that hospital Jell-O.”
“Get me down!”
Nick looked up.
Rebecca Firestone struggled against the spire, the shadow bands still wrapped around her, holding her in place. Above, at the highest part of the bridge, Shadow Star and Pyro Storm were battling it out. Nick cheered when Owen was hit with a ball of fire, only to wince when a long shadow tentacle lashed out, striking Seth in the chest, sending him spiraling into a metal support beam.