The familiarity of warmth and fume filled air was better than any fresh breath she could have taken. The difference was immediate, the disorientation from the transportation room far less now that she’d landed back at home.

  Alone in the room, Vivainne took a moment to breath and prepare herself before moving out in the hallway. With her mother now at trial, and that being all over the news, she had no idea how people were going to react to her.

  I could just avoid all of them, she thought, staring at the door. The lights in the room were too bright, however, and she didn’t want to put that much strain on her power. So she stepped out into the corridor of a level she’d never been on in the tower, pressing a hand to the lanyard around her neck to assure herself the keycard was still there. The last thing she needed was someone thinking she was an intruder, trying to get revenge for her mom or something stupid like that. Not that she’d blame them, but she’d rather avoid them if she could.

  Walking around the circular corridor, Vivainne realized she had in fact been on the floor before. Once, when on her date with Iris. Or whatever that was. She hadn’t heard from the hero since then, and didn’t quite blame her. Either she was busy, or uninterested. Either way, it wasn’t as if Vivainne had a right to be upset.

  Stopping near the stairwell, Vivainne pulled out her phone, shooting off a quick text to Charles to let her know she’d returned.

  The door swung open, the woosh of air so close to her face she caught her breath.

  “Oh!”

  Vivainne took half a step back as the brightly colored hero suddenly lost momentum, standing face to face with the familiar mask.

  “Oh hi you! I was wondering where you’d wandered off too.”

  Vivainne dropped her guard as the hero spoke, smiling down at Iris. Funny, how a hero could be so short. “You almost killed me with that door.”

  “Yeah, my bad,” Iris chuckled. “I gave someone a concussion once, coming through it. You’d think I’d learn to slow down.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.” Viv cleared her throat and stepped to the side. “Sorry, you need to go somewhere.”

  “I do!” Her attention jumped past Vivainne, to the balcony ledge she was known to leap off of, using her rainbows to sail all around the city. “I’ll see you soon, though! Apparently, I’m in charge of your community service?”

  She burst into a run again before the words could sink in.

  “What?” Vivainne spun after her, but the hero was gone, racing off to wherever in the city she’d been ordered to.

  Great, Vivainne thought, shadows knitting together in her core as she stepped into the darkened stairwell, stomping her way down. Now the only person who had a decent impression of me probably thinks I’m some sort of troublemaker.

  A delinquent. That was what Pip had thought she was. Iris couldn’t think the same thing, could she?

  A thought flitted through her mind, an urge that had her pulling out her phone before she thought better of it. No, she didn’t need to text Pip about that. No need to remind her of something that would not be a defining piece of her going forward. She wasn’t a delinquent, she was a well mannered, rule-abiding girl who had tried to do the right thing and gone about it the wrong way.

  That was all.

  Her phone vibrated, going off incessantly in her hand, Charles’s name emblazoned across the front. With a sigh, she answered the call and put the phone up to her ear.

  “You’re back?” he demanded, voice gruff. It wasn’t so bad as it had been the night she’d fought her sister, but it certainly wasn’t happy.

  “Yes,” Vivainne answered, stepping out onto the main highway floor of the tower. “There was no reason for me to tour the rest of the program locations—”

  “Come to my office, please.” The phone clicked off.

  Vivainne frowned, staring at the phone as she lowered it from her ear. Was she in trouble again? There was no reason for it. She hadn’t told him she was returning, but did she need to?

  This was her home. She didn’t need permission to return.

  Defensiveness tightened like a cage around her as she jogged through the halls, refusing to give attention to anyone who looked at her. With the access card fully visible on her chest, no one should have an issue with her. Charles shouldn’t either, but she prepared herself for an argument, half a dozen rebuttals ready at the tip of her tongue.

  Recompense’s office was tucked away in a tight corner of the tower, down a floor from the main deployment level. She jogged down another flight of stairs, passing the tech center and ignoring the questioning voices calling after her as she split away and down the corridor that would lead her to a tight, quiet corner of the building. She’d only visited it a few times, preferring to stay out of the room packed so densely with tech and paperwork she could hardly breathe. For as organized as most of his house was, his office at the tower was far from it.

  She wrapped twice against the door, wincing as she smacked her knuckles against the door. The cold had dried her skin out more than expected, leaving her hands wrinkled and papery.

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  The door swung inward immediately, the scent of stale coffee and burnt wires greeting her.

  Recompense didn’t look as she expected him to.

  He had on the dark brown suit he wore when not in his red leather super suit, jacket unbuttoned, tie loose. He looked more like a frazzled teacher than a put together hero, and she frowned at him as she stepped inside.

  “How long has it been since you slept?” she asked, closing the door behind her. “And how many pots of coffee have you had?”

  He shot her an exasperated look. “You don’t need to be asking that.”

  “I wouldn’t if you didn’t look like I needed to,” she said pointedly. “You look like my English teacher.”

  He sat back at his desk, a pile of folders in front of him, one open. The top of a diagram peaked out from amid pages of dense text, and Vivainne recognized it. Her mother’s research.

  “It’s been a long few days,” Charles said, leaning back in his chair. He ran a hand through his hair, a few grays that hadn’t been there before visible.

  “What’s this about?” There wasn’t another chair to sit in, so she followed him around the desk, sitting against the corner. “The trial?”

  “I’ve been combing through everything,” Charles said. “To make sure we’ve covered all our bases.”

  “Isn’t that what lawyers are for?”

  “Of course, of course. But I wanted to verify everything myself, make sure nothing had been missed.”

  A chill went through her body. “What did we miss?”

  “Nothing, nothing.” He stopped shaking his head and looked up at her, eyes gray as storm clouds. “But the lawyers want you and Vanya to testify.”

  It was only part of what Vivainne had been expected. She had prepared herself to be willing to testify. In the days before leaving to visit New York, the lawyers had spoken to her again and again, getting all the details straight regarding what she did to help the heroes stop her mom, and what she’d tried to do with her sister.

  But Vanya?

  “Vanya’s four,” Vivainne said, staring at him. “How is she supposed to testify?”

  “They had a dog testify once in court.”

  She glared at him. “My sister is not a dog.”

  “I know,” he said, wincing. “I’m not sure what they’re going to do, only that the lawyers just want to record her. I told them I wouldn’t allow Vanya anywhere near the courtroom.”

  “That’s good,” Vivainne said, even as she continued to stare at him. There was more he wasn’t saying. “Spit it out.”

  He sighed, dropping both hands into his lap as he stared at her. “I couldn’t get them to agree to the same for you, Viv. You’re an adult. No one can force you to testify, but if you do, it’ll be in the courtroom.”

  That was it. The ball she’d been waiting to drop. As soon as he said it, a moment of relief overcame her. “Okay,” she said.

  “Okay?”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding once. The fear returned even as she spoke, but she pushed it down. She would testify against her mother, and that would be it. Her mother would get locked away, and she would go off to hero training. Even if Vora would know that Vivainne was the reason everything had fallen apart, Viv would be safe.

  “I’m sorry,” Charles said again. “I tried.”

  “Stop it,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re the only one who thought we’d be able to avoid this.”

  He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. “I guess I was. I shouldn’t have promised you that you wouldn’t need to.”

  She shrugged, surprised to find she wasn’t angry. “It was what I needed to hear at the time.”

  “And now?”

  “I’m ready to get this over with,” she said. “If this brings it all to an end sooner, I’ll do whatever I need to do. I’m ready to move on.”

  Pride shone from his face. It took a while, but an exhausted smile moved into place. “That’s good,” he said, patting her on the arm. He sat upright again, no longer collapsed against his chair. She stepped backward, giving him space to stand. “I’m proud of you.”

  Vivainne stared at her shoes, the salt stains immensely interesting.

  “You’re going to have to tell me how New York went,” he said as they left the office. “Artemis said you impressed her.”

  Her face prickled at the words, heat rising up to her ears. “She’s impressed too easily.”

  “Or maybe your standards are too high,” he said. “Either way, I’m glad you went for it. I know I didn’t respond last night, but I think you made the right decision.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” Viv said, hiding a smile. “Being around a bunch of Carters is going to be interesting.”

  Recompense’s laughter carried down the length of the hallway. “You have no idea.”

  He led the rest of the way down the hall, rising up the flight of stairs again. Vivainne’s calves burned from the exercise, and the many, many flights of stairs she’d had to travel so far. But they weren’t going far enough to justify using the lift, especially when the daycare was only the next floor up.

  The receptionist, the same woman Vivainne had seen before, failed to get quite as red as the first time she’d watched Recompense stop by. She let them into the room, calling back for Vanya at the same time.

  The girl came running, her long hair tied back with a hair tie this time. Vivainne smiled as the girl ran up, wrapping her short arms around Viv’s knees, squeezing hard enough her legs went weak from the pressure.

  “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too,” Vivainne said, squatting down in front of the girl before giving her a squeeze. “I’m glad I’m home. Are you ready to get out of here?”

  “Food?”

  “Yeah, we can get food,” Recompense said, ruffling the girl’s hair.

  Thirty minutes later, they sat with bags of fast food in one of the tower’s conference rooms. Vanya picked at her fries happily, dancing in her seat as she ate.

  Only picking at her food, Vivainne couldn’t pull her eyes away. Why did they have to get a testimony from Vanya? She was so happy now, so far broken out of the shell she’d been in when they rescued her. Here was a girl who’d refused to look in anyone’s eyes, chattering with Charles about some boy in the daycare and a game they’d played.

  The door opened, a dark suited lawyer walking in carrying a leather briefcase in one hand. He laid it on the table, door shutting behind him, and popped the case open. Amid folders and loose papers, he pulled out a small, unassuming video camera.

  He propped it on the end of his briefcase, then lifted his eyes to the adult’s in the room. “Is everyone ready?” he asked.

  Charles turned to Vanya, giving the little girl a sad smile. “Vanya? We’re going to ask you some questions,” he said soothingly. “If you don’t want to answer, or if you can’t talk about it, we can take a break, okay?”

  Vanya nodded absently, and Vivainne had to resist the urge to speak up. This was important, but she didn’t want to hurt her sister.

  “All right,” the lawyer said, his tone even. “I’m going to start by asking a few basic questions to get her talking, and hopefully get her to open up. This will also give you an idea of the questions you’ll be asked tomorrow, and I’ll go into more depth after talking with Vanya.”

  Vivainne nodded, growing tense as the lawyer asked his first question.