"He's not."

Luka turns. Frowns at the voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Wow. What a greeting, Couffaine. Be careful not to pull a muscle thanking me for saving your ass."

"You lied to all of us."

"You're welcome."

"You sedated my ten-year-old sister!"

"You're still welcome."

"Hey, Nino." I acknowledge him.

"My clothes look good on you." He steps a bit closer, smiles.

I roll my eyes. Luka examines my outfit for the first time.

"I didn't have anything else to wear," I explain.

Luka nods a little slowly. Looks at Nino. "Did you have a message to deliver?"

"Yeah. I'm supposed to show you where you'll be staying."

"What do you mean?"

Nino grins. "You and Juleka are going to be my new roommates."

Luka swears under his breath.

"Sorry, dude, but we don't have enough rooms for you and Hot Hands over here to have your own private space." He winks at me. "No offense."

"I have to leave right now?"

"Yeah, dude. I want to go to sleep soon. I don't have all day to wait around for your lazy ass."

"Lazy-?"

I hurry to interrupt before Luka has a chance to fight back. "What do you mean, you want to go to sleep? What time is it?"

"It's almost ten at night," Nino tells me. "It's hard to tell underground, but we all try to be aware of the clocks. We have monitors in the hallways,and most of us try to wear watches. Losing track of night and day can screw us up pretty quickly. And now is not the time to be getting toocomfortable."

"How do you know Agreste isn't dead?" I ask, nervous.

"We just saw him on camera," Nino says. "He and his men are patrolling this area pretty heavily. I managed to hear some of their conversation.Turns out Agreste got shot."

I suck in my breath, try to silence my heartbeats.

"That's why we got lucky last night-apparently the soldiers got called back to base because they thought Agreste was dead. There was a shift inpower for a minute. No one knew what to do. What orders to follow. But then it turned out he wasn't dead. Just wounded pretty bad. His arm was allpatched up and in a sling," Nino adds.

Luka finds his voice before I do. "How safe is this place from attack?"

Nino laughs. "Safe as hell. I don't even know how they managed to get as close as they did. But they'll never be able to find our exact location.And even if they do, they'll never be able to break in. Our security is just about impenetrable. Plus we have cameras everywhere. We can see whatthey're doing before they even plan it.

"It doesn't really matter, though," he goes on. "Because they're looking for a fight, and so are we. We're not afraid of an attack. Besides, theyhave no idea what we're capable of. And we've been training for this shit forever."

"Do you-" I pause. Flush. "Can you-I mean, do you have a . . . gift, too?"

Nino smiles. And disappears.

He's really gone.

I stand up. Try to touch the space he was just standing in.

He reappears just in time to jump out of reach. "HEY- whoa, careful-just because I'm invisible doesn't mean I can't feel anything-"

"Oh!" I pull back. Cringe. "I'm sorry-"

"You can make yourself invisible?" Luka looks more irritated than interested.

"Just blew your mind, didn't I?"

"How long have you been spying on me?" Luka narrows his eyes.

"As long as I needed to." But his grin is laced with mischief.

"So you're . . . corporeal?" I ask.

"Look at you, using big fancy words." Nino crosses his arms. Leans against the wall.

"I mean-you can't, like, walk through walls or anything, can you?"

He snorts. "Nah, I'm not a ghost. I can just . . . blend, I guess is the best word. I can blend into the background of any space. Shift myself to matchmy surrounds. It's taken me a long time to figure it out. When I become invisible I can sort of create a thin layer of protection around me, but it's obviously not enough, hence the shot leg."

"Wow."

"I used to follow Luka home. That's how I knew where he lived. And that's how I was able to run away-because they couldn't really see me.They tried to shoot at me anyway," he adds, bitter, "but I managed not to die, at least."

"Wait, but why were you following Lula home? I thought you were looking for me?" I ask him.

"Yeah-well, I enlisted shortly after we got wind of Agreste's big project." He nods in my direction. "We'd been trying to find you, but Agreste hadmore security clearance and access to more information than we did-we were having a hard time tracking you down. Fu thought it would beeasier to have someone on the inside paying attention to all the crazy shit Agreste was planning. So when I heard that Luka was the main guyinvolved in this particular project and that he had this history with you, I sent the information to Fu. He told me to watch out for Luka, too-youknow, in case Luka turned out to be just as psycho as Agreste. We wanted to make sure he wasn't a threat to you or our plans. But I had no ideayou'd try to run away together. Messed me the hell up."

We're all silent for a moment.

"So how much did you spy on me?" Luka asks him

"Well, well, well." Nino cocks his head. "Is Mr. Luka Couffaine suddenly feeling a little . . . intimidated?"

"Don't be a jackass."

"You hiding something?"

"Yeah. My gun-"

"Hey!" Nino claps his hands together. "So! Are we ready to get out of here, or what?"

"I need a pair of pants."

Nino looks abruptly annoyed. "Seriously, Couffaine? I don't want to hear that shit."

"Well, unless you want to see me naked, I suggest you do something about it."

Nino shoots Luka a dirty look and stalks off, grumbling something about lending people all of his clothes. The door swings shut behind him.

"I'm not really naked," Luka tells me.

"Oh," I gasp. Look up. My eyes betray me.

He can't bite back his grin in time. His fingers graze my cheek. "I just wanted him to leave us alone for a second."

I'm blushing through my bones. Fumbling for something to say. "I'm so happy you're okay."

He says something I don't hear.

Takes my hand. Pulls me up beside him.

He's leaning in and I'm leaning in until I'm practically on top of him and he's slipping me into his arms and kissing me with a new kind ofdesperation, a new kind of passion, a burning need. His hands are threaded in my hair, his lips sosoft, so urgent against mine, like fire and honey exploding in my mouth. My whole body is steaming.

Luka pulls back just a tiny bit. Kisses my bottom lip. Bites it for just a second. His skin is 100 degrees hotter than it was a moment ago. His lipsare pressed against my neck and my hands are on a journey down his upper body and I'm wondering why there are so many freight trains in myheart, why his chest is a broken harmonica. I'm tracing the bird caught forever in flight on his skin and I realize for the first time that he's given mewings of my own. He's helped me fly away and now I'm stuck in centripetal motion, soaring right into the center of everything. I bring his lips back upto mine.

"Marinette," he says. 1 breath. 1 kiss. 10 fingers teasing my skin. "I need to see you tonight."

Yes.

Please.

2 hard knocks send us flying apart.

Nino swings open the door. "You do realize this wall is made of glass, don't you?" He looks like he's bitten the head off a worm. "No one wants tosee that."

He throws a pair of pants at Luka.

Nods to me. "Come on, I'll take you to Ella and Etta. They'll set you up for tonight." Turns to Luka. "And don't ever give those pants back tome."

"What if I don't want to sleep?" Luka asks, unabashed. "I'm not allowed to leave my room?"

Nino presses his lips together. Narrows his eyes. "I will not use this word often, Couffaine, but please don't try any fancy secret-sneaking-away shit.We have to regulate things around here for a reason. It's the only way to survive. So do everyone a favor and keep your pants on. You'll see her inthe morning."

But morning feels like a million years from now.