“That’s okay. I’ll spend what I have. Teddy can do the same. We’ll be as ready as we can be. And maybe things will go all right.” She continued running her fingers through Athena’s hair until she’d convinced herself of that lie, then Emily got up. “Right, go get changed. It’s time for bed.”

“Owls are nocturnal.”

“And little sisters are diurnal. Get your pj’s. You can change while I drop this bear in bed.” Emily sighed. “We’ll need our sleep, I think.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

Healpats

The first order of business the next day was classes. The weekend was over, and Emily couldn’t ignore her school schedule any longer. She had to keep her grades up, and that meant paying attention in her lectures and doing all her work.

It was . . . surprisingly difficult to sit in the back of the class and listen to a lecture about some long-dead author’s work being dissected for meaning that the author had probably never intended for anyone to read into it.

It was empty. Not as exciting as the conspiratorial late-night phone calls with info brokers and the day spent patrolling the streets with real live Heroes.

It was, essentially, not as fun as doing the whole Hero thing, even if the Hero thing was terrifying.

Emily returned to the dorm after class and found both of her sisters cuddled up together on the mattress, hugging each other close. Athena was wearing her leather jacket over her pj’s and Teddy was drooling into her smaller sister’s hair.

She sat on her chair after setting her backpack to the side and made herself comfortable as she thought.

Was it worth it?

The risks were high. The rewards were kind of pitiful.

And yet she still wanted to do it.

“Was Teddy right?” she wondered to the near-empty room. Had the system given her Villain as a morality because she wanted that kind of freedom?

She kind of doubted it, and eleven in the morning was not the right time for navel-gazing. There were more productive things she could have been doing.

“Status.”

She had points to invest, and a few things to think about. Notably, her Sisterportation power. It was at Level 1, whereas Double Trouble, the power that gave her Athena, was at Max. The obvious conclusion was that some skills were direct passive upgrades and didn’t have any way to improve.

She could put points into Sisterportation, likely cutting down on the cooldown to use it, which was admittedly pretty high. But before that.

Do you wish to spend a Skill Slot point on the Power: Sister Summoning?

Emily nodded.

New Skill Unlocked!

Healpats has been added to your Power’s Skills!

“Status.”