BooksBarbecue
Back When Villains Rise Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Copyright
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Read More from the Market of Monsters Series
  50. More Books from HMH Teen
  51. About the Author
  52. Connect with HMH on Social Media

Then Nita was left in the bathroom. It was a handicapped one, large, with sparkling clean white tiles and walls. Nita dripped dark blood on the floor as she stumbled in, marring the pristine surfaces. She put the scrubs on a small shelf by the door and wandered over to the sink.

Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror. She looked dead. It wasn’t just the blood on her face or the waxiness of her skin. It was the expression in her eyes. The expression of someone who has lost everything. The expression of someone broken.

Kovit wasn’t going to make it.

Part of her demanded that she shouldn’t think like that, that he wasn’t dead yet, but she’d seen the doctor’s look, the EMTs’ expressions. She knew the chances were low.

And even on the slight chance he did make it, her mother wouldn’t let it last. Was her mother here at the hospital even now, waiting for a chance to sabotage the surgery? How would she go about it, Nita wondered, thoughts almost clinical. She could cut the power. Or poison Kovit. Even just take his IV out. Swap the blood bags.

Or she could just tell the staff to look at the news. They’d all see he was a zannie, and even though the Dangerous Unnaturals List was suspended now, someone would take matters into their own hands, thinking they were doing the right thing. There was always going to be someone.

A choked sob made its way from Nita’s throat, scraping the skin at the back of her throat with its force, and she crumpled to the floor, blood on her hands staining the towel she’d been given, coloring the pure white with death.

She thought of Kovit, with his beautiful black eyes, the way he smiled just for her. Not his creepy smile, his weaponized grin of violence and fear. No, she thought of the soft one he gave her when she laid her head on his chest, the gentle one that was full of childish wonder. The genuinely sweet one that was all him, none of the darkness seeping in.

She swallowed heavily, a barrage of memories playing through her head of all the different Kovits she knew, all the different faces he wore. She thought of the expression he made when people were cruel to him, internalizing his hurt so that no one could see it. She thought of all the conversations they’d had, how little he felt he truly knew himself, how much he wanted to learn.

She remembered the pure joy on his face when he’d seen Buenos Aires. And she remembered the cracked and broken soul he’d worn on his sleeve after he killed Henry.