Imp lay on the ground, against the wall, with debris beneath her.

I reached behind her head, to find a way to take off her mask, so she could communicate. I recoiled.

Blood, and a fragment of… it looked like a fragment of mask, but it wasn’t. Too white, and it had skin and long hair attached to it. The hair was caught under something, and the fragment slipped off my finger as the hair pulled taut.

The blood was already cooling.

“Can only bring you,” I told him.

“Take her? I can tough it out,” he said, in a tone and with a complete lack of strength that suggested he couldn’t. “Imp and… Chastity and Cassie are on the other side of the room. They got flung.”

“They might be distractions. We need to do something concrete. Dinah first.”

I lifted him.

He used his power on me for just a second, inflicting rage. The effect was dampened, half-strength, but I still dropped him, and he writhed on landing.

We stood, huffing at each other, glaring.

I reached for him again. Again, he used rage, and my grip on his collar was fierce.

I used my aura, in response, exerting will. Dominance.

“You fucking think that works on me?” he asked. I could hear the outrage in his tone. “After how I was raised? Who I grew up with!? My dad used powers on me every day.”

I stopped.

I grabbed him. “We help them faster if you come with.”

He glared, his face twisting.

But he didn’t fight me as I dragged him.

I’d fought this hard to get to this hallway. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the fact it had been Roman calling my voice was the Simurgh’s plan. A delay, the one person who I cared about enough to take the time to rescue… but not as important as one of my teammates might have been.

The lights flickered, flicked on, flicked off. The hallway was only ever half-lit at one time, splattered with blood.

There was commotion at the end of the hallway.

Tattletale, Grue, Sveta, and Rain. Rain was sitting against the wall, curled up.

Then a few more renegade capes, one of them jabbering, and Dinah.

Hostage. A box-cutting knife held to her throat. The jabbering guy was moving his hand now and then, and moving his hand constantly. There were already four shallow cuts at the side of Dinah’s neck because he kept accidentally cutting her.

“Don’t,” I murmured.

“Huh?” Roman asked.

“Whatever you’re thinking about… don’t.”

I couldn’t help but feel like I had Roman next to me because the Simurgh wanted him. And if he used his power, it wouldn’t work for us.

“Victoria,” Sveta said. “Where’s Byron?”

“Downstairs, with Cryptid. The Mathers Giant flipped.”

“That’s… yeah,” Sveta said. “She got Rain.”

I looked down at Rain.

“Rain?” I asked.