Chapter 229: 229 | Manipulation and Inspiration
The California sunset painted the campus in shades of orange and pink that belonged on a postcard, the kind of light that made everything look expensive and romantic and completely at odds with the fact that I’d spent most of the day being told I wasn’t good enough by a woman who could probably kill me with her pinky finger.
Sloane walked beside me on the path that wound through the lower campus, her pink hair catching the dying light in ways that made it look like actual fire. Her hand found mine without either of us saying anything about it, fingers lacing together with the ease of something we’d done a thousand times before. The Devotion’s Echo hummed with contentment, a low and steady warmth that had nothing to do with her Aspect and everything to do with proximity.
"The view here is stupid good," she said.
"They charge enough tuition. Might as well get a nice sunset out of it."
The training fields stretched out below us, empty now that evaluations had ended. Beyond them, the tree line marked the edge of campus property, and beyond that, the California hills rolled toward an ocean we couldn’t see but could smell when the wind shifted right. Halloran had been built on this elevation for a reason. Elena Halloran wanted her school visible from the waterfront. She also wanted her students to see exactly what they were training to protect.
Manipulation and inspiration weren’t opposites. They were the same thing wearing different outfits.
"We’re not going to have a lot of time for this," Sloane said. Her thumb traced circles on the back of my hand, a gesture that was probably unconscious and definitely distracting. "Classes. Training. Agency rotations. All the bullshit that comes with actually becoming Heroes instead of just talking about it."
"Worried you’ll miss me?"
"I’m worried you’ll do something stupid while I’m not watching."
"That’s basically the same thing."
She shoulder-checked me hard enough that I had to catch my balance, but she didn’t let go of my hand, which undermined the violence somewhat. The warmth bleeding through her skin had nothing to do with the sunset and everything to do with the fact that Sloane ran hot in every sense of the word.
"I’m serious." Her voice dropped into a register that meant she actually was. "Different cohorts. Different schedules. Steele has you at six in the morning for conditioning. Hale has us at seven. We won’t even eat breakfast at the same time most days."
"Then we make time for other meals."
"And when even that gets complicated?"
I stopped walking. She stopped with me, turning to face me with the sunset behind her and her eyes catching the light in ways that made my chest do something uncomfortable. Sloane Fitzgerald didn’t look worried often. When she did, it landed different than worry looked on other people. Less fear and more frustration, like the universe had presented a problem she couldn’t solve by setting it on fire.
"It’ll be fine."
"You don’t know that."
"I know I’m going to be a strong Hero." I said it like a fact because I was planning to make it one. "Strong enough that schedule conflicts won’t matter because I’ll handle whatever needs handling fast enough to make time for what actually matters."
Her expression shifted. The worry didn’t disappear, but something else joined it, something that looked like competitive fire struggling against the urge to be romantic.
"Second to me."
"What?"
"You’ll be a strong Hero." She poked my chest with her free hand, fingernail leaving a point of pressure that lingered after she pulled back. "Second strongest. I’m going to be number one. That’s not negotiable."
"I don’t remember agreeing to that ranking system."
"You don’t have to agree. Reality will agree for you when I’m standing at the top and you’re looking up."
The sunset behind her made the statement land differently than it might have in harsh fluorescent light. She meant it. Sloane always meant everything she said, which was part of what made her Sloane. But there was something underneath the declaration, something that wanted me to push back and rise to the challenge and prove that standing beside her was better than standing below her.
"Guess we’ll see."
"Guess we will."
Neither of us backed down. Neither of us looked away. The moment stretched into something that probably looked romantic from the outside and felt like mutual assessment from the inside, two people calibrating exactly how serious the other one was about their ambitions.
I broke first, but only because I pulled her closer and kissed her forehead.
"We’re really becoming Heroes together."
"Yeah." Her voice came out softer than she probably intended. "We really are."
The path continued down toward the dormitories, winding through landscaping that probably cost more than most apartment buildings. Sloane’s hand stayed warm in mine. The sunset kept painting everything in colors that didn’t exist in the real world, the temporary magic of the golden hour making the whole campus look like a movie set instead of an institution designed to turn teenagers into weapons.
"Your cohort seems interesting," I offered.
"My cohort is full of people who are going to spend two years being reminded that I exist." She wasn’t bragging. She was just describing what she considered inevitable. "Yours?"
"Cool, actually. Camille’s intense in a way that reminds me of you. Caden’s smarter than he pretends to be. Rina might be the most dangerous person in the class if she ever figures out how to believe in herself."
"The sheep girl?"
"Her Aspect made an entire training field forget they wanted to fight. Steele called it one of the most tactically significant powers in either cohort."
Sloane processed this information with the analytical approach she brought to everything related to combat. "Psychic suppression?"
"Comfort induction. The wool literally makes you feel safe and content. Extended contact reduces aggressive impulses to zero."
"That’s terrifying."
"That’s what I said."
