After a shower and a change of clothes, Ethan deposited himself onto the balcony behind Quinn’s apartment. He knocked gently at the glass, drawing a bewildered Quinn through the living room.

  “I guess I should’ve specified to use the front door,” Quinn told him, shutting the glass door and shivering against the sudden influx of cold air, retreating into her bright red oversized Metro State sweatshirt. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and, much like Ethan, she looked like she had a rough few days, though she was wearing it better than he had.

  “Right, right, sorry,” Ethan sighed, taking off his sneakers. He held up two bottles. “I, uh, couldn’t decide between white and red, so I got both.”

  “Thanks, that was…thoughtful,” Quinn said, but she stayed rooted in place an awkward few feet away from Ethan. He was still right in front of the balcony door and part of him wondered if he should leave, but he cleared his throat and decided to stick it out.

  “Yeah, well, there isn’t exactly a gift guide for someone looking to apologize for not telling a person that you knew where their missing sister was the whole time.”

  “That…makes sense, but I didn’t even get you anything, and it’s my sister who put yours in the hospital.” Quinn cleared her throat, eyes dropping to the carpet. “How is she, by the way? Alex?”

  “Healing,” Ethan nodded vigorously to reassure Quinn, who looked visibly relieved. “She’ll make a full recovery, eventually.”

  “That’s amazing to hear. I wanted to reach out after that night in the arena, but I didn’t know what to say, especially if things weren’t…”

  “Everything is going as well as could be. Besides, you shouldn’t feel bad; none of this is your fault, Quinn.”

  “Still, I’m so sorry about Alex,” she told him, her almond colored eyes watering. “If I had known Rainey was…capable of something like that, I would’ve called someone. I would’ve told Amory-”

  “It’s not your fault, it’s mine, I’m the one who-”

  “-never even thought this could happen and-”

  They were two engines quietly backfiring, failing to start but pushing themselves to keep trying. Rather than put all of thoughts into one giant long run on sentence, Ethan decided to simplify things. He held his hand out for her to take a breath.

  “Quinn, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying to you and for-”

  “Did you mean it?”

  Ethan paused, perplexed. It took him a second before he even registered what she had asked. “Mean what?”

  “What you said. That you couldn’t do this without me?”

  “Yes,” he answered quickly, stepping towards her. “I…wanted to be someone when I got powers. I thought I could be someone new, but everything I did, every mistake I made, followed me, no matter where I went in Ascension. Then I met you in Stillrock, and I thought….maybe I could be someone she likes. Someone she would like. Everything I did was The way I was doing things…didn’t work and nearly got Alex killed. What happened to her is my fault, not yours. I wanted powers for myself, but this is bigger than me and I can’t even start to unravel all this damage without you, Quinn.

  “You shouldn’t have lied to me.”

  “No, I should not have, and I’m sorry. I can’t even tell you how sorry I am. I will-”

  Before he could finish apologizing Quinn threw her arms around him, pulling him close. Ethan was surprised but the shock wore off quickly.

  “So much has gone wrong. I want to fix things but I don’t even know where to start,” Quinn told him quietly, shaking her head. Ethan smiled, holding up the red wine.

  “How about with this one?”

  ——

  “And then the rocks caved in and I thought we were dead, only my powers manifested and suddenly I was out of the tunnel, but Rainey was still down there!”

  “Typical. You wouldn’t believe how many mornings I had to drag her out of bed to make it to school on time. How did she escape?”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Ethan ate the last of his noodles, grateful Rainey knew a Thai place close by. He hadn’t eaten much in days and didn’t realize how hungry he was until he picked up their food. Before he knew it he had eaten all of their spring rolls and he had to go back in to order more. He wiped his mouth before continuing.

  “I offered her my hand but she refused, then her powers manifested and she broke through the cave-in not unlike a dolphin leaping from the ocean. It was majestic and terrifying.”

  “You know, there has to be something to getting powers by way of direct infusion to the Surge rather than being blanketed gently by its energy. Both her stone manipulation powers and your own teleportation abilities are many times greater than the average person altered by the Surge.”

  Ethan nodded. “I prayed I would get something cool and not lame like being able to memorize the periodic table better. Though, you would probably like that.”

  “Couldn’t hurt, certainly,” Quinn laughed. Her face grew tense. “So. The world’s falling apart. We’ve established that it’s mostly your fault for lying to everyone, me included, but I still feel like I share a little blame. What do we do now?”

  “I’ll probably continue to apologize until I’m dead, and when I’m done with that, well…I’ve been thinking about this, and I have a plan. If we find Kingston, we can find Rainey.”

  “Agreed, but how do we do that? Rainey has a part two to her grand designs for Apex, and with Alex out of the picture we know we’re running out of time.”

  Ethan rolled his shoulders, thinking. “Well, you worked with him for a few months, at least. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?”

  Quinn thought for a moment, but ultimately shook her head. “He mentioned a cabin out in the mountains, but he didn’t say where it was. Or maybe I didn’t ask. Frankly, I did not like the guy.”

  Ethan sighed, leaning his head over the back of his chair. “I can move fast, but not fast enough to scour the whole mountains for one guy. We’re going to need somewhere specific to look.”

  “Well,” Quinn said, “if Rainey wants to ruin Apex, she’s going to do it publicly, which means she’s going to try and pull something off in Ascension.”

  “Right,” Ethan said slowly, reality dawning on him. He grimaced. “There’s a slight complication to all of this.”

  “Lovely. What is it?”

  “I’m…not exactly sanctioned by Apex anymore. If I use my powers anywhere near the city I can be arrested or, worse, beat up by one of the Protectors. I’m basically an Altered in their eyes.”

  “Amory still won’t make you a Protector?”

  Ethan rubbed the back of his neck. “I, uh, did kind of hide the fact that I knew someone could hurt Alex, which was wrong of me. I also wouldn’t hire me, at least not now.”

  Quinn sighed deeply, swirling her glass. “That is a problem. You can’t even beat Rainey in a fight; you certainly can’t beat her and a few Protectors tracking you down for operating in the city.”

  “I knew I should’ve made more friends at work,” Ethan groaned.

  “Wait,” Quinn said, pulling out her phone, “that gives me an idea.”

  “I really think it’s too late to try and befriend Velo and Rayvon, but we can certainly try if you think they’d like me and-”

  “What? No, Kingston had a daughter,” Quinn explained. “Teenage girls are the most angsty people on the planet, and if my dad made me go out on a trip in the middle of a school week I would’ve posted all about it.”

  Ethan raised an eyebrow. “So our current, best plan is that we’re going to cyberstalk a teen?”

  “It’s not stalking,” Quinn paused, then smiled widely. She pulled up a photo of Kingston’s daughter pouting in front of a golden mountain, “if it works. They’re at the Dunes down south.”

  “It’s still stalking, but you’re brilliant for it. I’ll call Raz and loop him in on the way.”

  “On the way? You just had a whole bottle of wine!”

  “There is no law stating you can’t have a little wine and teleport and plus I don’t exactly have a job to lose. Now, no time to waste, I’m going to…”

  Ethan stood shakily and then opened his palm to make a portal out the balcony but accidentally opened it too small. He tried to poke his head through to see what the problem was but only managed to smack his head in the edge. Quinn chuckled as he groaned.

  “Maybe we call it a night?”

  “Might be smart,” Ethan agreed, sitting back down, “save our strength for our kidnapping tomorrow.”

  Quinn went to her closet and pulled out a blanket, placing it on the couch. Quinn turned back to him, standing in her doorframe.

  “I’m still mad at you for lying to me.”

  “For sure,” Ethan nodded, lying down on the couch. “That tracks.”

  “Never again, okay?”

  Ethan held out his pinky. Quinn walked over, leaned over him, and gave him a kiss.

  “Never again,” Ethan agreed. As Quinn shut the door behind her, Ethan pulled out his phone, giving Raz a call.

  “Ethan, what’s going on?” he said. “Is Alex okay?”

  “Yes,” he answered quickly, speaking quietly. Then he paused, backtracking. “Well, probably. I’m not there but nobody’s called me. They’d call me if she wasn’t, right?”

  “I would assume,” Raz told him. “Where are you?”

  “At Quinn’s.”

  “Oh.”

  “It’s not like that! Well, it’s a little like that,” he clarified, smiling. ”Anyway, I don’t know if you noticed, but things are not going our way.”

  “No, they are not,” Raz agreed. “And, on top of that, Altered related incidents are up with Alex being sidelined. Plus, Quinn publicly threatened the entire city and people aren’t sure of what’s coming next.”

  “Quinn and I have a plan to find out, except we have to do it off-books. I’m…not exactly welcome to use my powers in Ascenzion, so we need to get somewhere with a lot less eyes.”

  “Okay, where are you thinking?”

  “Meet me at the apartment tomorrow.”

  Raz laughed. “Where do you think I am? Not everyone sleeps on hotel rooftops in the cold.”

  “Not that one,” Ethan told him. “Ascension…hasn’t exactly worked out for us.”

  “Agreed, but we don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “For once,” Ethan relished the moment. The night was dark from an overcast sky, leaving the small mountain towns visible from Quinn’s balcony, dotting the vast landscape. He zeroed in on one set of faint light in particular, their old home barely shining through the darkness. “I get to tell you that you’re wrong. Pack your bags, because we’re going back to Stillrock.”