Nova by Keith R. A. Decandido

Author:Keith R. A. Decandido [Decandido, Keith R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Military, Action & Adventure, General, Media Tie-In, Games, Video & Electronic
ISBN: 9781416560067
Google: VZ6OY0mJhRcC
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-05-01T22:06:38+00:00

some reason, he couldn’t put his leg back down. Or blink. Or move his arms. Or anything.

His head started to hurt.

No, it was on fire. Like someone drove a hot metal spike right through his skull.

This was worse than the time he ran his head

through a brick wall just to see if it would work, worse than the time he lit his hair on fire to see how long it would burn, worse even than the time he took raw turk for the first and last time.

“AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

HHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

HHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

It had been easier than she thought it would be.

And that scared Nova more than anything else in

the world could have.

Pip walked over to the Pitcher’s body and sniffed it curiously. Big hairless cat fell down.

When she’d lashed out at Edward and everyone

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D E C A N D I D O

else at the Terra Skyscraper, Nova did so without

thought or focus, just throwing all her rage, all her grief, all her sadness, and all her anger out in one shot.

It was enough to kill three hundred and seven

people at once.

This time, she’d focused very specifically on one

mind instead of over three hundred, and smashed it to pieces.

It only took a few seconds. And then the Pitcher

was dead. He screamed and then fell forward, his

ugly, multiply pierced face smashing into the pavement with a bloody splat. Blood trickled out his ears.

Reaching out with her mind—she couldn’t bear the

thought of touching him—she managed to roll him

over.

Blood was coming out his nose and eyes and

mouth as well. Some of that was probably from the

impact of his face hitting the ground, but she knew from home that when she killed someone this way,

they bled out of every orifice in the head.

Nova collapsed to her knees, sobs now racking her

body. I shouldn’t have left the alley. I should’ve stayed here and died. Today she’d seen so much, from her sister declaring her dead to the miserable lives of the people around her to the casual vileness of Terence to the insane bruality of the Pitcher.

She didn’t know how much more she could take.

Pip wandered up to her. Big hairless cat hurt?

Sniffing, Nova tried to wipe her eyes with her shirt-N O V A

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sleeve, then realized it was so dirty as to not be of much use. She used the back of her hands instead,

though they were hardly cleaner.

“Mrow?”

“I’m sorry, Pip, I just—” She looked over at the

corpse of the Pitcher. “I don’t know what to do.”

Fagin said that he was going to leave her alone,

make her survive on her own until she came back to him, begging for forgiveness and a chance to work for him the way seemingly everyone in the Gutter did.

He’d lied to her. Instead of keeping his word, he

sent a monster to kill her.

What was more, the Pitcher probably wouldn’t be

the last one he’d send. He had hundreds of hired

thugs who did his bidding. She’d met some of them, from Markus and his dirty secrets on down to Tyrus and his dead sister.

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