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Back When Villains Rise
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

They were all silent for a time, while Nita tried and failed to figure out what was going on in Fabricio’s head.

Kovit glanced over at Fabricio, his voice containing a little bit of wonder. “Why does the city look so . . .”

“European?” Fabricio didn’t turn, eyes still fixed out the window. “Lots of waves of immigrants from Europe who wanted to re-create the Old World. There was a time when Argentina was very rich, we had a lot of resources that were in demand. We spent a lot of that wealth trying to build a city to rival the famous ones in Europe. To put Buenos Aires on the map.” He smiled slightly. “People call it ‘the Paris of Latin America.’”

Nita considered, looking out as they passed ever more strange and innovative buildings—down some streets, she could see tall brickwork buildings with metal gratings that looked like they belonged in 1930s New York, elaborate fountains that reminded her of pictures of Italy—all of them stunning, none of them matching.

“It doesn’t really look like Paris. It’s too eclectic,” she commented.

Nita had visited Paris a couple of times with her mother when they were living in Germany a few years ago, just before they moved to Vietnam. Her memories of the city were fuzzy, she spent a lot of time dissecting in a small apartment in the south of the city, but she’d got out for a day and wandered around all the famous tourist areas with her mother, trying to burn the images into her memory.

It was one of her few good memories of traveling with her mother.

“They are eclectic, aren’t they?” Fabricio’s expression was fond, and his eyes seemed more vibrant, happier, than she’d seen them before. “It’s because buildings were built in whatever style was most popular at the time. Or most beautiful. There are buildings here built a few years apart, and one looks like a concrete block, and the other a German palace.”

Fabricio’s voice was wistful, and not for the first time, Nita realized that he loved this city, this strange, eclectic place he’d grown up. He was just very afraid of it. Or of someone in it.

The bus let them off at the side of a major street, across from a massive raised park. Green trees blocked the sun, and a clocktower arched up to the north of them, standing in front of another mass of modern glass and steel buildings. To their other side, the water of the port glinted in the light, reflecting the skyscrapers just beyond.