Secret Super (Book 1)

35. Secrets Unveiled

By the time they had dodged the superheroes, they were both sweaty and out of breath— especially Zadia, who'd kept a thin illusion hanging over them the whole time. They'd cut through so many streets, Kara no longer had any idea where they were.

Once they were certain no one was following them, they circled back to Zadia's apartment.

After shutting the door, Zadia removed the illusions with a wave of her hand and leaned back against the wall, a sheen of sweat gleaming on her forehead, skin as pale as the underbelly of a fish. "You could've gotten us killed back there, you know," she said, directing a sharp look at Kara.

"You okay?" Kara said. "You look really—"

"I'm fine," Zadia said unconvincingly, swaying slightly on feet. "Don't change the subject."

Kara opened her mouth.

"And don't say that you didn't get us killed. Yeah, you didn't, but you could've."

"C'mon, Z, it was so worth it," Kara said, flipping her braid over her shoulder. "Didn't you hear Eva scream?"

A smile twitched at the corners of Zadia's lips. She pressed her lips together. "I'm being serious! You can't do that."

"Okay, fine, I'm sorry. But I'd do it again. I've been waiting forever to do that."

Zadia rolled her eyes. "Fucking superheroes. Yeah, go get yourself killed if you want. Just don't drag me into your stunts."

"Says the girl who broke into a superhero data center," Kara teased.

Blushing slightly, Zadia bit back a smile. "Speaking of . . ." She uncurled her palm to reveal the small, black drive in her hand. "I downloaded all the information onto this. Just searched the files for everything that mentioned Xavier, Andrea, or superheroes disappearing or defecting in the past fifty years. I couldn't find anything about Kian or Ezra, though. I searched their names and nothing came up. Also . . ." She hesitated. "I downloaded Harrison's files, since he was in the S.S.S. But we don't have to read it if you don't wanna snoop."

Kara grabbed the drive. "We're reading everything, and quick so that I can go rescue Harrison before— so I can rescue him."

Once they downloaded all the information from the drive onto their comm devices— and raided the apartment's cabinets for some old, hopefully-not-expired rations— they started combing through the files. Starting with Xavier's.

Sitting on the sofa, they crouched around the bright, glowing screen. The first thing that showed up was his name, Xavier Knightley, in bold letters, and a headshot. He looked younger in the photo, but with the same head of smooth brown hair, same golden eyes, and same disarming smile. Kara shuddered. It felt like his eyes were boring through the screen.

Zadia quickly scrolled past the picture. Next was listed his statistics, birthdate and age and all that.

"Hang on, this is weird." Kara frowned. "Age of entry to the Academy, eleven?"

"Is that uncommon?"

"Most people go to the Academy when they're really little." Kara had been five, apparently, and even that was later than most people. "I wonder why it was so late?"

"Maybe his powers didn't manifest until then," Zadia suggested.

But Kara shook her head. "It always happens really young." She kept scrolling, resting her chin on Zadia's shoulder and looking over at the screen. "Oh, here we go. Wait . . . it says he turned himself in. For . . . shit, for murdering someone." She shivered. How could an eleven year-old boy ever kill anyone? All of a sudden, that brilliant smile seemed a lot more ominous.