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Two things happened at once.

The shadows holding Nick against the spire disappeared—

and,

Owen launched himself at Pyro Storm.

The latter concerned Nick almost as much as the former.

It was a strange split second, hanging suspended in midairhundreds of feet above the McManus Bridge. He heard Seth shouting his name before Owen hit him directly in the chest, wrapping inky-black shadows around him, and they both fell away.

Nick didn’t have time to make noise before he started to fall. One moment he was against the spire, and the next he started to plummet.

He’d always heard that in the seconds before one’s death, life tended to flash before one’s eyes. Nick could unequivocally say that was a freaking lie. His breath was caught in his throat, and he wanted to scream, to dosomethingto let everyone within hearing distance know he didnotwant to become a smudge on the pavement below. A bright lance of pain—glassy and harsh—shot through his head, and even as he fell, he was knockedforward,right at Rebecca Firestone.

And since Nick absolutely did not want to die, he reached out for her even though she was shaking her head furiously and screaming at him toback off.Luckily for him, he didn’t give a crap what Rebecca Firestone wanted. He wrapped a hand around her ankle, stopping his descent before he could pick up speed.

She grunted above him. “Let me go!”

“No!” he shrieked up at her. “I’d really rather not if that’s okay with you!”

“You’re going to break my leg!”

“Oh no! How terrible for you! I’m going to break myeverythingif I let—are you trying to kick your leg? Stop it!”

But she didn’t. He felt the muscles in her leg tense as she jerked her foot. His fingers dug into her skin, the tendons in her ankle bunching under his grip. Nick swung precariously out into nothing, and—“Why is your ankle sweaty? Who has sweaty ankles! Oh my god, I’m going to—”

He slipped.

And landed on the metal platform less than a foot below him.

“Huh,” Nick said, looking down at his feet. He bounced up and down, testing its weight. It held. “I didn’t expect that. Awesome.”

Then he immediately threw up over the side of the bridge. He couldn’t even find the strength to be embarrassed about it.

He stood up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Ugh. I should not have eaten all that hospital Jell-O.”

“Get me down!”

Nick looked up.

Rebecca Firestone struggled against the spire, the shadow bands still wrapped around her, holding her in place. Above, at the highest part of the bridge, Shadow Star and Pyro Storm were battling it out. Nick cheered when Owen was hit with a ball of fire, only to wince when a long shadow tentacle lashed out, striking Seth in the chest, sending him spiraling into a metal support beam.

“Kid, you gotta help me out!”

Nick glared up at her. “You tried to kill me!”

“Well,yeah,but it didn’t work, right?”

“That’s probably not the best argument that you—”

An amplified voice roared below him. “Nick? Nick! Can you hear me?”

Nick peered over the edge of the platform. It couldn’t be—“Dad?”

Sure enough, standing next to one of the patrol cars, was his father, megaphone pressed against his lips. He was still in his hospital gown, but he wore a NCPD jacket. Cap stood next to him, staring up toward Nick. “There’s a service ladder!” his dad said, voice blaring. “Off to your right! Start climbing down. I’m going to meet you half—” Cap said something that Dad didn’t like, and they argued back and forth. Nick wanted to remind them that they didn’t exactly have a lot of time but there was no way he’d be heard.

Cap finally grabbed the megaphone from Dad’s hands. “Nick, get to the ladder! We’re going to send someone up after you who’s not an idiot with broken ribs. Move, kid!”