Page 51 of Flash Fire (The Extraordinaries 2)

Going to bed?

Yep! Exhausted. Easy stuff, no worries. Even sent a new tweet on the account!

Playful. Fun. Their usual banter.

And a lie, because he switched back to the app and saw that Seth still wasn’t going home. The dot was stopped in the alley.

He was about to text back that he couldseethat Seth wasn’t going home. His thumb hovered over the screen. But that wasn’t cool, right? The app wasn’t made for Nick to track his boyfriend. It’d be an invasion of privacy if Nick called him out for it. He trusted Seth as much as he did his … well, as much as hehadtrusted his father. So what if Seth was lying about where he was? He didn’t need Nick’s permission to do anything.

He switched back to the app, planning on shutting it down, when the green blip disappeared.

It only did that when Seth turned off the tracker himself.

Like he realized he wasn’t where he said he was.

But …

Nick’s gorge rose, his mouth flooding with saliva. What if Seth had been captured by a new villain? What if this new villain had taken Seth’s phone from him to respond to Nick’s messages while ordering his lackeys to torture Pyro Storm? What if Seth was screaming for help and no one was there to save him? That was more likelythan Seth Graylyingabout where he was. Seth never lied. Sure, he’d kept his alter-ego from Nick for years, but there’d been a good reason for that.

Doubt crept in. Sethwouldbe the type to keep things from Nick if he thought it’d put him in danger. He gnawed on the inside of his cheek as he stared down at his phone.

He typed back a response.Glad ur using the Twitter. Remember that candy I gave u last year? What was it called again?

No one outside of their friend group would know the answer. If this wasn’t Seth on the other end, then they wouldn’t be able to tell him.

Skwinkles Salsagheti. Good night <3

“Oh no,” Nick breathed. “You’re lying.”

He left the alley behind.

Nick tried to run the entire way but he’d already run more today than he’d probably done in his entire life, and the stitch in his side grew teeth.

He made it to the cross streets he’d seen on the map. The snow flurries had lessened, the sky now spitting a few flakes that swirled around him. People laughed and smiled as they hurried by him. Though the streetlamps lit the sidewalks, the shadows of night seemed to reach toward him, and he felt colder than he had in his life.

The alley was as he thought: in between a bodega and an apartment building at the forefront of gentrification, sleek and made of steel and glass.

Nick crossed the street as soon as the light gave him the go-ahead, hurrying as he pulled his hood up and over his head. It wasn’t a costume, but it’d have to do until he could change that. He reached the alley, hoping Seth hadn’t left. No lights, only darkness. He couldn’t even see how far back the alley went. “Okay. You can do this.Furious Lightning Punch. Make sure they know you mean business. Move silently. Don’t let them hear you.”

With that, he stepped into the alley.

And immediately tripped over a bag of trash lying on the ground. The bag was apparently filled with at least five hundred pounds of glass; it shattered so loudly, Nick was sure the sound registered as a seismic event on the Richter scale. He managed to stay upright, but only because he stepped down hard onto the bag, breaking even more glass.

He froze, waiting to see if anyone called out to him.

No one did.

He took another step forward. More glass broke. And then more. “Are you kidding me?” he whispered angrily. “Comeon.”

He took an exaggerated step forward, clearing the glass. Relieved, he hurried further into the alley, keeping close to the building on his left.

He was halfway down the alley when he heard Seth’s voice.

Scratch that.

Pyro Storm’svoice, modulated and deep.

He didn’t sound hurt.