A clock ticked steadily against Vivainne’s wrist, reminding her with every beat of the deadline in place, and how fast she needed to move to beat it.

  She was ahead of schedule, but that was her mother’s schedule, and Vivainne had another goal in mind. If she moved fast enough, she would have a bit of time to spare, time enough to get caught.

  Shadows hugged to her, her body dissolving into them. Fully meshed with the dark, Vivainne pressed through the wall in front of her and moved into the space between them. She couldn’t explain how what she did worked, considering by all known laws of the universe, she shouldn’t have been able to breathe right now even despite her powers. But the laws of physics hadn’t really affected the world in the past seventy years, so there was no looking to them for explanation.

  She also should not have been able to see, but once again, fuck science, because Vivainne could see perfectly fine.

  Perhaps seeing wasn’t quite the right way to put it. She could sense the space around her, not by a huge margin, but it was as if her shadows snuck out and whatever they touched imputed straight into her brain. That, combined with the map she’d studiously memorized, let her know exactly where she was.

  She was meant to continue along the inside of the wall around the room to squeeze into the vault hidden behind the fireplace. However, Vivainne didn’t actually intend to steal any of the artifacts hidden inside the vault.

  That may be what her mother sent her here for, but Vivainne had set her sights on the hero who lived here.

  She melded her shadows with the door and let a piece of herself return to normal. Her power protected her from immediately severing pieces from her body by materializing in the middle of a wall, allowing her to open her eyes and look around the room.

  A fire burned from the large fireplace at the end of the room, protecting the vault Vivainne was supposed to rob. The rest of the room was furnished in a warm, cozy manner resembling a classic farmhouse despite being built in California. A table set with a chess board, pieces laid out mid game sat in front of the fireplace. A small wooden bar and glass shelf against the wall neared Viv, an open bottle on the tabletop. And facing the fireplace, a large cushion chair, the leg rest kicked up, and a man lounging in the seat.

  Vivainne glanced down the open doorway, confirming it was empty, forced a deep breath into her lungs, and stepped out of the wall. Her body solidified once more, shaping out of ribbons of shadow.

  God, she hoped he wouldn’t just blast her on the spot.

  She steeled her nerves and cleared her throat, suddenly certain she’d be dead in a minute. How am I supposed to get a hero to listen to me?

  The room went deathly still.

  The man froze in his chair. Vivainne found herself rooted to the floor, unable to breathe, waiting for the older super to react. Even while the rest of her turned to stone, her heart raced, threatening to come bursting out of her chest.

  “I take it you’re not here to kill me, considering you’ve announced yourself?” The man’s voice was steady, no indication of fear or uncertainty. It was, in a way, calming.

  He pushed slowly down on the leg rest, folding it up before placing a near empty glass on the table beside him.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Then again,” he continued as he rose to his feet, continuing to face away from her. “I’ve made enough enemies through the years, there’s sure to be a few who really want to torture me before they kill me.”

  Vivainne opened her mouth to speak, finding it so dry she could hardly piece words together. “I’m not here to kill you.”

  “That’s a relief,” the man said. “I’m not in the mood to kill anyone tonight. Or any night, really.”

  Viv’s heart hitched, stopping for a breath as the super turned around. His eyes landed on her, confusion flitting across it in the next moment. She forced herself to breathe, all too aware she was wasting time and if she took too long, she’d get caught. And getting caught by her mother was so much worse than purposefully getting herself captured by a hero.

  “You’re just a kid,” Recompense, Hero of State, said.

  Viv nodded. She’d turned eighteen in the spring, but she’d realized the truth a long time ago. She was still a child, and she needed help. “I need help.”

  “There are plenty of places you could have gone for help that don’t involve breaking into a hero’s house,” Recompense said. He didn’t look as old as Vivainne would have expected, considering how long he’d been a hero. That didn’t say much, considering how supers aged, but it unnerved her to be staring into a thirty year old face when he had the experience of a fifty year old.

  “I had to break into your house anyway,” Vivainne said, then winced. This explanation wasn’t coming out the best. “My mother, she made me. She thinks I’m breaking into your vault.”

  “Good thing you didn’t,” Recompense said, a hint of amusement in his voice. “I can assure you, whatever your power, you would have been eviscerated.”

  Vivainne blanched, the blood running from her face as a cold washed through her body. What had she gotten herself into?

  “Oh, calm down,” Recompense said. “I told you it was a good thing. Come here, and explain to me why you felt the need to break into my house to talk to me specifically, and why your mother is making you break into heroes’ houses.” He sat back down at his chair, motioning for her to follow.

  Vivainne jerked her head in a nod. Part of her hadn’t expected to get this far. She moved toward the chair, glancing down at her watch. “I don’t have much time.”

  Recompense raised an eyebrow. His brown hair was mused, whatever he’d used to style it worn out. “You have somewhere to be?”

  “My mother is waiting,” Viv said. This was taking too long. She decided to dive straight into the meat of the matter, and started talking. “She’s a villain. She has been for as long as I can remember, and she’s made me work with her since I graduated high school and decided to take a gap year. She…” Viv balled a hand into her fist, skipping over that subject for now. “I don’t want to be a criminal.”

  “You want me to get you away?” Recompense asked.

  “No,” Viv shook her head. “I don’t expect you to do anything for me. But I want you to stop her. Lock her up.”

  Recompense looked at her, his head tilted to the side as he considered her words. “And why not just go to your local law enforcement, or the Unity of Heroes tower?”

  “My mother is Vora Monet.”

  Finally, she’d said something that took Recompense by surprise. “Of Monet Institute and Integrated Tech?”

  Vivainne nodded.

  “Well, that is interesting.” He pushed himself to his feet once more and walked over to the bar, pouring himself a glass. “We have a lot to discuss.”

  Viv touched her watch. “I have to get going.”

  “No, I don’t think you do,” Recompense said. Before Vivainne had a moment to question, alarms began to blare, and the entire room locked down. Massive steel doors locked in place over any possible entryway, lasers bursting into being around the edges of the room. Even the fireplace ticked up in intensity, as if someone had tried to escape via that route before.

  Vivainne leapt to her feet. “Hey, what are you doing?”

  “Sit back down,” Recompense said. He motioned at the stool she’d been sitting on as we walked back to his lounge chair, unbothered by the noise. “Now you don’t have to go back to your mother.”

  “But—”

  “Were you going to go back empty handed? Or did you expect me to hand something over for you to appease her?”

  Rather than respond, she lowered herself slowly back onto the stool.

  “Good. Now we have time to talk this through and figure out exactly what we’re going to do for you.”

  Vivianne licked her lips before speaking. “Am I… going to jail?”

  Recompense let out a loud burst of laughter. “Tempting, but no. We heroes do try to help people before throwing them behind bars. What you have ahead of you is going to be a bit more difficult than jail.”