Super•Villainous

VIII

There was an unexpected rasp to his voice, a hint of desperation. He stretched out one hand, as if to brush it across my cheek, or perhaps wrap it around my throat. I stumbled back out of his reach, shielding Alexia, who had followed me out into the hallway, from his sight with the whole of my body. I didn't care that he'd been looking for me — barely had time to process his statement — all I knew was that he wasn't getting anywhere near her.

Shouts of alarm began ringing out while I stood there, frozen. Calls of "Nightshade is in the building," and "Run," overlapped into a garbled, meaningless hum. Teachers attempted unsuccessfully to keep the crowds from panic, and the whole school descended into chaos, people pushing to get past.

"Lexi," I murmured shakily, "run."

She didn't move, peaking around me at what must have been the first supervillain she'd ever seen in her sheltered life. "I'm scared," she whimpered.

I repeated, "Lexi, run!"

I thrust my hands at her chest from behind my back, forcing her into motion. It broke her from her petrified stupor. She got going, while I did my best to follow.

The crowds of students, teachers, and families thinned around us, bottlenecking towards the exit, the worst place they could be, because even if we reached them, we'd be sitting ducks at the edges of the herd. I'd paint us into a corner, and endanger everyone around us in the process.

I saw that future with horrible clarity. Although the last thing I wanted to do was leave Alexia alone, to keep her safe I had to make a gamble. Lose, and other people could die; win, and I could die. Fantastic odds.

With no other choice, I clenched my teeth almost to the point of cracking molars and took a sharp right, hurtling up a set of stairs, away from everyone else.

Threads of ice encroached the walls behind me, chasing my steps up the first flight of stairs into the next hallway, encapsulating each classroom I sprinted past. More glass clattered to the ground as the sudden shift from warm to freezing caused thick fractures to fissure through the panes until they couldn't hold together a moment longer. Glass crunched beneath my shoes and flew across my bare skin, drawing out small rivulets of blood. I heard Shade giving chase, like I hoped — and feared — he would.

I had no plan, no long term goal beyond drawing him far as possible from Alexia and eventually escaping myself, as well. I barely had time even to consider how he knew where to find me, given that I hadn't even known myself that I would be there until a few hours ago when my dad told me to go. The idea that my dad could be in cahoots with a super villain to bring about my demise would have made me laugh under other circumstances.

"Stop running!" he growled, making a slashing motion with his hand, as though to slice through the air.

In response, a block of ice immediately began walling up the entrance to the next set of stairs leading towards the third floor just as I approached it, taking shape from the outside working in, leaving an ever decreasing gap in the middle.

I cursed between ragged breaths. "Why does it have to be ice?" I gasped out. "Why can't you ever have one of the worthless powers?"

"I said," he ground out, rapidly closing the distance between us, "stop running."

"Like sweet hell," I muttered mostly to myself, and wasted no more time diving through the closing gap.

My knees cracked hard against the floor with the promise for additional pain after the adrenaline in my system dissipated, but there wasn't any time to waste nursing my wounds. Each step a new taste of agony, I forced myself to keep going, keep climbing. Maybe I would lose him, duck into a classroom when he wasn't looking and wait for him to pass me by, before doubling back to safety. That possibility seemed increasingly unlikely. I rattled each closed door I flew passed, but frost cemented them shut.