“Of course.” Ari leaned in and pressed their lips together.

The kiss was soft and warm, and sent a hot, fluttery feeling dancing through Candace. It settled in her stomach by the time they broke apart. “One life?” Candace murmured.

“One love,” Ari replied.

Candace stole a brief second kiss before moving over to the window. She shoved it open and slipped out onto the slightly slanted overhang below. Thankfully a big tree, she didn’t know what kind, hid her bedroom window from view.

With a deep breath, she pushed into a leap. Gravity took hold of her but didn’t pull her down. Instead she shot toward the sky, a blur to anyone standing below. When she was certain she was high enough that no one would be able to tell who she was, she turned and headed for the square.

Wind licked her face and tugged at her clothes and braids. It clapped at her ears in a low whoosh. Man, she loved flying. Up here, it was like nothing could touch her. None of the problems on the ground were tall enough to reach her. Sometimes she just picked a direction and went for hours. It was the best feeling in the world, but she couldn’t get lost in that now; she had a job to do.

She tugged a bud from her pocket and pressed it into her right ear. A few taps from her phone, and she was dialed into a local news station.

“Police in riot gear have arrived on the scene and are ordering protesters to disperse,” Sara the newslady drawled. “After last night’s riots, and with the curfew looming, there’s no telling which way things could go.”

Oh yes, there was. These things always went one way when Black people were trying to get justice: bad. And after last night, they were bound to get worse.

“With tensions rising, locals are hoping to catch a glimpse of the latest sensation to hit our fair city: Freefall, the superpowered hero who’s been spotted several times over the past year, but has made an almost nightly appearance during the worst of the riots.”