Chapter 3

Callie

I sat at the vanity in the bathroom my sister and I shared, dabbing foundation on my face while she hovered over me. Now that we were grown, the space was too small for both of us. Our parents had grand plans to build mini-apartments for each of us within the house, but they were still just that—plans.

For now, Aurora and I were stuck with each other, but I didn’t really mind. Between her nightly hero work and my constant pursuit of our parents' approval, our paths only crossed in our embarrassingly small shared bathroom.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear more than lip gloss,” Aurora teased, swiping the liquid eyeliner out of my hand before I could use it. As she leaned closer to the mirror and began swiping the pen across her eyelids, her long, strawberry-blonde hair cascaded onto my shoulder.

“Isn’t it counterproductive to put makeup on to fight crime?” I asked.

“You’d think so... but, being a hero is more about image than anything else. You should know that, especially if you want to be in public relations.” She laughed. “Isn’t it counterproductive to do your makeup when you’re just staying home?”

My lips pressed together as I found myself hung up on the first part of her sentence. PR wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but it’d look good on the family. And, if I did it long enough, maybe I’d be allowed to do what I actually wanted: rehabilitate villains who fell down the wrong path.

Instead of confiding in my sister about my secret fondness for villains, I decided to focus on the second half of her statement. I studied her array of lip glosses as I prepared to speak.

“I’m not staying home, Rori. I... have a date.”

“Oh my God… with who?” Curiosity sparkled in her eyes.

“Just a guy from school.”

My admission was barely a whisper; I didn’t want anyone to overhear. I wasn’t allowed to date. Mom and Dad always dodged the question when I asked why, but I had a feeling they were afraid of someone using me to get to them. But... I had heard Sulien’s thoughts. I knew he wasn’t planning anything like that.

Plus, he was cute. Like, really cute.

My heart skipped a beat as the thought of Sulien’s smile danced through my head. I could see Rori studying me in the mirror as a dreamy expression began to creep across my face. Her eyes widened as a delighted grin sprouted on her lips.

“Tell me literally everything about him.”

“... What do you want to know?”

“Well, what’s he studying? Hero program, hero-tech, or general studies?”

“Hero,” I admitted softly, trying to keep my answer direct enough to pacify my sister but vague enough to prevent me from gushing about how much I liked Sulien.

Unfortunately, Aurora was a stickler for the details. She grabbed my shoulders, giving me a gentle shake.

“Who? What year is he in? Does Jack know him? ”

Aurora’s torrent of questions caused a ripple of heat to form in my chest. The sensation crept up my body, coloring my cheeks with a deep blush. Thankfully, she had no way of knowing exactly how I was feeling, since she wasn’t a mind reader.

Instead, Rori had the gift of temporal manipulation. She couldn’t rewind time like Professor Vitalis; at most, she could go back ten minutes. But unlike my history professor, Aurora could leaf through different timelines like pages in a magazine and pick out the one that best suited her in the moment. Somehow, she’d also figured out a way to wield temporal energy like a projectile. I’d never been hit with any of her golden blasts, but Jack had. He described the sensation as a weird buzzing that shook your bones, almost as if you could feel a few seconds of your life slip away upon impact.

“He’s in Jack’s class,” I mumbled. I regretted sharing that information the second it fell from my lips.

“Ooh, an older boy! Let me guess...” Aurora’s emerald eyes drifted to the ceiling as she tapped her finger to her lips. “Griffin, the super-strong one… or maybe Oliver? He’s the sharpshooter, right?”

Aurora kept rattling off names of boys in Jack’s class as if she were reading aloud a grocery list. With each name and power, she inched closer and closer to our brother’s friends and farther away from anyone I’d ever look twice at.

Most wannabe heroes saw me as a stepping stone, someone to impress for the sake of my family name. But Sulien was different. He didn’t care about any of that. Sure, he thought about fucking me more often than anyone I’d ever met, but he never made any rude comments about it out loud. He just enjoyed being around me; he didn’t care who my family was or how I could elevate his status .

That wasn’t something I was used to.

As I picked up a dusty rose lip gloss, the idea of Sulien flitted through my mind again, causing my stomach to flutter. I glanced at my phone, hoping to see his name light up the screen, but my notifications remained as dry as the Sahara Desert. Before I had a chance to be disappointed, though, a knock echoed through the house.

Aurora’s head snapped toward the door, her jaw dropping slightly.

“Is that him?” she asked.

I hope not .

Every muscle in my body went stiff as I squeezed my eyes shut. Both Mom and Jack were in the living room, and that meant either one of them would be opening that door any second. I hoped it’d be Mom. During year one of university, Jack and Sulien had a sparring match that immediately sparked a bitter rivalry between them. Ever since then, Jack had been extremely vocal about his hatred for Sulien. I never got the exact details of what happened or who won. All I knew was that Jack had made it his life’s mission to make sure Sulien got expelled from the program, thus ruining his chances of ever being a professional hero.

So there was absolutely no way I could let Jack answer that door.

My eyes snapped open, and I frantically checked my appearance one last time before scrambling toward the door. But the second I entered the foyer, I saw that I was too late. Jack’s stocky frame was already blocking the open door.

“You better have a good reason for showing up on my door, Seo.” Disdain dripped from Jack’s words, and his thoughts weren’t any better. Vivid images danced through his head of Sulien encased in a solid block of ice. I knew that, given the chance, Jack would bring those visions into reality.

Despite my brother’s rage, Sulien looked completely relaxed, and his mind was equally as calm.

“I’m here to pick up Callie.” There was an underlying authority in his tone—firm but not aggressive. He wasn’t going to let Jack bully him into walking away.

Jack clenched his fists, and the temperature around us began dropping as he glared at my date. Frost crept up the door frame like ivy climbing a building, alerting me to Jack’s rapidly waning patience. For someone who wanted to be a hero, my brother had an awfully short temper.

“I’m not letting my sister leave with a villain like you,” Jack growled.

Sulien didn’t flinch. Instead, his lips curled into a smirk.

“Wow… Good thing Callie’s an adult who can make her own decisions.” Sulien’s tone was confident, almost mocking, but his thoughts told a different story.

His mind was loud with the idea that he’d never outshine the shadows Necro had cast on him, with an undercurrent of insecurity as he worried that he probably wasn’t good enough for me. I didn’t think either of those statements were true, but that didn’t matter. Right now, Sulien’s worst enemy was himself, and it was my job to prove to everyone how great he was.

Apparently, I’d have to change his mind too.

Jack's jaw tensed as the temperature continued to plummet. Tendrils of ice crept up his arms now, forming jagged shards along the tips of his fingers. I knew if I didn’t act fast, things would get out of hand. So, instead of standing by and watching my boys duke it out, I stepped forward and placed a hand on my brother’s arm.

His freezing flesh bit into my fingers, and I struggled against the urge to pull away. Jack’s head whipped around, and as his gaze landed on me, he took a step back. Even after he moved away, the tingle of frostbite gnawed at my skin.

“Callie, you’re not supposed to fucking touch me. Mom’s told you a million times that you could get hurt.” His thoughts of murdering Sulien were quickly replaced with brotherly concern.

“Mom also says no ice in the house.” I smiled, subtly attempting to push past him.

“Callie, I can’t let you go with him.” A whisper roughened Jack’s words. “He is a villain with a capital ‘V’. He’s going to hurt you.”

Something about the word villain struck another chord with Sulien. His mind was overrun with anxiety, and he was considering cutting his losses, apologizing and walking away. I forced the warmest smile I could muster as I studied my brother.

“He’s not a villain. He’s a future hero, just like you.”

Jack’s icy blue eyes flickered between Sulien and me.

“He’s not like us. You have no idea what he’s capable of.”

That was laughable. I could read Sulien’s every thought—I knew everything he planned to do on our date, and I wasn’t afraid of any of it. Honestly, Jack should’ve been more worried about what I was capable of. But in his defense, nobody in this world had a clue how dangerous I could actually be.

“I’m not worried, Jack. Sulien said he’d protect me, and I trust him.”

I forced myself between the two, turning my back on my brother and focusing on Sulien. His dark eyes seemed to light up in my presence, and his lips twisted into a coy smile. Normally, at school, Sulien wore jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. But now, he stood in front of me in a white t-shirt that hugged his lean frame, emphasizing his broad shoulders and slim waist. My stomach flipped as I fought a girlish giggle.

“Hey,” he breathed.

The corner of my lips quirked up. “Hey.”

“Oh my god, look at them. They’re so cute,” Aurora chirped from behind me.

Sulien’s eyes widened before he looked to the ground, and embarrassment washed over me like a wave. Instead of prolonging the torture, I snagged a pair of tennis shoes off the shoe rack by the door and pushed Sulien back ever so slightly so I could join him outside. Then I slammed the door and mentally willed my siblings not to follow us.

“I… sorry about them.” I laughed, trying to shrug off my nerves as I tugged my shoes on. Each movement sent a sharp tingle through my hand, but I did my best to ignore the pain. This wasn’t the first time Jack had frozen my hand, and it wouldn’t be the last. Thankfully, supers were more resilient than people without powers, so this minor frostbite wouldn't leave any lasting effects.

“No need to apologize. Siblings, right?” He tried to mirror my laugh, but he just sounded nervous.

“Right… Do you have any siblings?”

Sulien tensed as he ran a hand through his short, inky hair. “Uh, well… No. But it’s a long story.”

“We have time.” I smiled.

His thoughts flashed to painful memories—his mother’s death, his father’s unrelenting grief. Sulien shifted from one foot to the other as he studied me, looking for anything to change the tide of our conversation.

“Hey, does that hurt?” He pointed to my hand.

I looked down at the frost still clinging to my half-frozen digits.

“It’s just frostbite.” I shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

Sulien’s facial expression hardened, and for a moment, I swore he was going to lecture me. But, instead, he took a breath and held out his hand.

“Do you mind if I help?”

I gawked at his outstretched hand. Part of me wanted to grab it just so I could hold his hand and satiate the schoolgirl crush I harbored toward him, even just for a moment. But I knew the frost was worse than I was letting on, and I didn’t want him to see just how badly Jack got me.

I looked up to find a familiar sincerity in Sulien’s eyes. He was so sweet. There was no way I could refuse his help.

My heart fluttered as I reached forward, placing my palm on his. God, his hands were huge —with our palms aligned, the tips of my fingers only came to his second knuckle. Glowing orange heat radiated from his hand as he wrapped his fingers around mine. Instantly, warmth spread through my skin and down my arm. A shiver of relief ran through my body as Sulien’s healing warmth washed away the lingering chill.

“There.” He smiled, breaking our connection far before I was ready for him to. “All better?”

I nodded, unable to do much else, considering my heart had leapt to my throat.

His smile widened, causing his eyes to crinkle in the corners. His hand stayed near mine for just a beat longer before he slipped it into his pocket.

“I guess we’d better head out then, huh?”

** *

The first part of our date went pretty much as I’d expected. Sulien and I drove around for a bit while we talked, and he said something about wanting to take me to dinner before seeing a movie. But the second he pulled into the parking lot of a local diner, he checked his phone.

Normally, I was above using my powers to completely immerse myself in someone else’s mind. Nobody else in the world knew I could do it, and I was a little afraid people could feel me poking around in their brains. But curiosity got the better of me, so while he was distracted by the device in his hands, I took the opportunity to look through his eyes.

I expected to see him texting someone. Instead, he was looking at his bank account. His mind raced as he added up each of his bills and calculated how long he had to wait before his next paycheck. During our lunchtime conversations, he’d mentioned the fact that he bartended a few nights a week to make ends meet. He also said they recently went from tipping out at the end of each night to pooling the tips and adding them to everyone’s bi-weekly checks.

After every expense was accounted for, Sulien was about fifty dollars short when it came to paying rent next week.

“Fuck.” He sighed, putting the phone down and patting his pockets.

“What’s wrong?”

“My roommate just texted me. I forgot my wallet at our apartment.” Sulien closed his eyes as he rubbed his temple.

“That’s fine. I don’t mind just hanging out at your place. We can just watch a movie and chill.” Sulien’s shoulders fell for just a moment as relief overtook his anxiety. I could have offered to pay for us, but I had a feeling that Sulien would rather eat glass than admit he needed help with anything.

“Are you sure? Fair warning, my apartment isn’t anything special.”

“Mhm,” I said brightly. “I’m here to spend time with you. It doesn’t matter where.”