Super Spy (Book 2)

11. See-through

A hand grabbed Jace's shoulder and yanked her back.

"Where are they!" a voice yelled. Nia's voice.

"What?" Jace just blinked, dazed. "Where's Tristan?"

Nia narrowed her eyes. "Your boyfriend's on his way." She pulled a fistful of leaves that had caught on her belt and threw them to the ground. "Answer my question."

"I— I don't know."

Nia raised her eyebrows, brushing more leaves off her uniform. She was splattered in greenish-black goop. "What do you mean you don't know? I know the rebels were here, that's why you called for backup! Where did they go?"

Jace turned and stared at the main hall. Or rather, what was left of it. Not a single statue remained. The entire museum had been leveled to the ground with the strange vines. With a final blast, they had knocked Jace back against a stone column, and she'd banged her head. By the time she got up, and all the spinning black stars had cleared from her vision, all the vines and people were gone.

Nia grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and pulled her back again sharply. "Answer me!"

"Enough." That was Tristan's voice. Jace turned back to see him. He gently pulled Nia away, and Nia let him. "She's disoriented, give her a minute," he said. He walked up to Jace and frowned.

"I'm fine," she said.

"Clearly." He reached forward, and she flinched back. He traced his thumb along her jawline, and blood came off onto his hand. "You don't look too hurt, just in shock. What happened?"

Jace swallowed, looking into his warm dark eyes. If his purpose had been to make her less disoriented, he had utterly failed. Jace snapped out of it, slapping Tristan's hand away and taking a step back. She took a deep breath, then turned to Nia. "I don't know where they are. I got thrown back, and everyone disappeared." Her voice sounded far calmer than she actually felt. "But there was an attack."

Nia nodded and zipped off to look around, a gray blur streaking around the ruins of the museum. A group of gold-clad superheroes burst through the doors behind them, likely called to the scene by one of the agents, and Tristan jogged over to talk to them.

Jace started looking around instead. Her ears were still ringing faintly as she tromped over the remains of the vines over the rubble. Only the parts that had been cut off remained, now brown and shriveling.

She walked through the ruins and found herself standing outside.

A purple light blinked. Kara's force-fields? Jace ran after it. As she reached it, it drew further back. She followed it, and a hand grabbed her and pulled her into a side alley.

Energy flared in Jace, and she slammed the person against a wall.

"Stop, it's me!" a voice hissed. The person yanked down their hood, revealing Zadia's face. Auburn hair, dirt-smudged face, a smattering of freckles across milky skin. A second later, her skin appeared to melt and reform into the face of a middle-aged man, another illusion. The man's face was heavy and wrinkled, and his eyes were a swampy green color.

"Zadia?" said Jace, startled. She had only spoken to Zadia a few times before, though Kara talked about her a lot.

"Yeah, it's me." It felt strange to hear the feminine voice coming out of the mouth of an adult man. "What the stars were you thinking, Jace? If the superheroes had gotten here any sooner—" She shook her head, exhaling. "I knew you would turn on us. Kara said you'd switched sides, but she's too trusting."

"I didn't switch sides," Jace protested, a furious blush heating her face. "I swear I didn't. I only wanted to help."

"Help? Do you realize that the superheroes have bounties on all of us? Do you know what would happen if they found us?" The illusion wavered, Zadia's real face breaking through in flickers as the emotion rose in her voice. It made for a disconcerting effect.