When the group descended from the sky a second time, their destination seemed, to Nova, no more hospitable than the pawnshop.
Ace had brought them back to the wasteland, where his cathedral had stood more than ten years before. The moment their feet touched the ground, Narcissa, clutching a backpack of hastily gathered belongings, shuddered in relief and collapsed against a toppled column.
Much of the northeast side of the cathedral was still standing: the library, the chapter house, the main chapel. Even the bell tower was there, though most of the roof and the south wall had crumbled, leaving some of the huge bronze bells visible through the stone ruins. Otherwise, the cathedral was not much more than a pile of rubble. The nave, the choir, so much exquisite architecture, destroyed in the cataclysm between heroes and villains.
Already Nova could sense the dismay from her companions. The pawnshop may not have been much, but it had provided shelter and security. Ace couldn’t expect them to stay here.
But Ace’s countenance was altogether different as he stood before the ruins, taking in the abandoned bell tower with the faint light of dusk glinting off the helmet. Nova began to wonder if Uncle Ace, when he wasn’t downtrodden and suffering, might actually have a taste for the grandiose.
Ace stepped forward, clearing a path in the rubble with a twitch of his fingers. He paused a few steps away from where the main entrance had once stood, where worshipers would have entered the nave through a pair of vast, ornately carved wooden doors. “I am proud of you all,” he said, facing them. “Prodigies the world over will be encouraged by our victory tonight.”
Leroy lifted a hand in Nova’s direction. “Our little Nightmare deserves most of the credit. She planned it all.” He winked at her. “Everything will change now. You will see, Nova. Nothing shall be in vain.”
Nova frowned, memories of the fight flashing through her thoughts. Callum. Winston. Adrian.
She didn’t want credit for everything that had happened, and she certainly hadn’t planned it all. By using Agent N, Leroy and Honey had double-crossed her. Perhaps the decision had resulted in some sort of victory, but Nova couldn’t help feeling that she’d lost as much as she’d won.
Phobia stood off from their group, gripping his scythe in one hand as he peered toward the city buildings beyond the wasteland. “There will be a delectably exorbitant quantity of fear today,” he said, his voice being carried on the evening breeze. “Panic. Desperation.” His cloak fluttered as he craned his head toward Ace. “Retaliation. It will not be long before they come for us.”
“So they shall.” Ace sounded almost excited by the prospect. “And we will be ready to meet them when they do. I will not fall to the Renegades again.” He flicked his fingers through the air and the rubble trembled at their feet. Rivulets of dust slid down the sides of fallen arches. Colorful shards of stained glass glinted beneath the setting sun.
“Oh, Ace,” Honey swooned. Nova realized with a start that Honey was crying. Already her dark mascara had made pathways down her cheeks. She sank to her knees at Ace’s side and grabbed his hand, nuzzling her face against it. “It is so very good to have you back. To see you as you were.”
She went to kiss Ace’s fingers, but he pulled his hand from her grip. “Stand up,” he said, almost sharply.
Honey started, blinking up at him, but Ace was already making his way over the foundation of where the nave had stood. Stone and crumbled benches parted before him.
“You are a queen, Honey Harper,” he said, lifting his hands to either side. The crumbled stone blew upward and stayed, hovering, in the air. A million pieces of debris, waiting.
Narcissa gasped and dove off the column as it, too, began to rise. As it all began to rise.
It felt like the threat of an earthquake beneath their feet.
“You must never kneel,” Ace continued. “Not to me. Not to anyone. Not one of us shall ever kneel again.”
He spun in a slow circle, studying the bits of wreckage that now filled the air. Nova remembered this look from her childhood. Ace had always seen the world differently—like a series of building blocks that he could learn the secrets to, if only he cared to inspect them a little closer.