Twisted Fate by Nicole A. Schroeder

Author:Nicole A. Schroeder [Nicole A. Schroeder]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lost Library Press
Published: 2023-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

“Tell me again what happened?”

I paused my scrubbing, looking to the ceiling while I recounted what I could of the events before the explosion. The sound I’d heard while inside the clock tower. The strange structure I’d seen in the alley. The man who’d guarded it.

“And you said you didn’t get a good look at him?” Mia asked.

“No, not really. Not at his face, at least.”

Mia frowned, her hand hovering over the hole in her suit she’d been sewing.

“What is it?” I asked.

She set her needle down, looking at me a moment while she thought. “Nothing,” she muttered. “It’s just weird.”

I nodded in agreement. It was later that night, and the two of us sat in her bathroom, me cleaning the dirt and stains from my suit in her tub, Mia sitting on the toilet lid and repairing a few minor holes in hers. It was something I probably could’ve done with a soapy rag on my own back in my dorm, but I think we both preferred the company tonight.

I dipped my rag back in the soapy water and wrung it out. Since that afternoon, words had hammered against my chest alongside my heartbeat—things I wanted to say but didn’t know how to. I hadn’t been able to say them earlier, when we’d been downtown. Now, I guessed I was just too nervous. As I tried to work up my courage though, Mia cleared her throat.

“I know today was . . . a lot. For both of us.” I turned to her, and she pursed her lips, not really looking at me. “But you did good. Really.”

I swallowed my guilt and shook my head. “I froze.”

“So what? I would’ve too, back when I started.” She shrugged. “You have powers, Cass, but you’re still allowed to be human.”

I nodded, letting her words sink in. “About what happened before . . .” I started.

She cut me off. “It was an accident. And someone was bound to find out at some point. I mean . . .” She trailed off, her attention drifting to the work in her lap. In the silence, she snipped the thread she was using and set aside the excess.

“Why was Andrew coming here in the first place?” I asked.

“That big grant for the physics department. I’m writing a feature on it for the paper, and we’d set up an interview, but I forgot the newsroom is under construction. The elevator’s out of order all week.” I watched her focus on the leftover thread for a moment, brushing a finger across the raw end. At her touch, the fibers melted together. She looked back at me. “I didn’t even realize at first that you knew him, but by the time I did, it was going to be more suspicious if I backed out.”

“And of course he wouldn’t have ever realized who you were,” I said, “until I walked right up to your door.”

Mia sighed, drumming her fingers on her leg. “I’m not gonna lie . . . it sucks.

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