When Hell Runs Cold

Chapter Twenty Four

Alysia groaned as she was thrown back onto the mat for the thousandth time. "Ouch." she muttered, glaring at Nathan as he held a hand out to her. "Like I said before, you using your wind powers is just not fair."

Nathan rolled his eyes, amusement glimmering in them. "You're just saying that because you're losing." He retorted, grabbing her hand and pulling her up. "Your defense is weak, I could easily just..." Alysia fell back to the ground as a gust of air hit her body. "Knock you down."

"You're a jerk." This time, when Nathan held out his hand again, Alysia grabbed it, pulling him down with her. He let out a small grunt as he fell, putting his hands on either side of her to prevent him falling onto her.

He hovered over her for a minute, and Alysia swore she saw him glancing down at her lips. "That was unnecessary." He said quietly.

"Well, so was knocking me down using your powers." She replied. "That was just rude." she muttered. She gulped as Nathan stared at her, his usual dark blue eyes, looking even darker in the shadows.

What was happening?

He leaned in slightly, their faces only centimeters apart. Alysia held her breath as Nathan put all his weight onto one arm, moving a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail, out of her face.

Nathan rested his hand on the side of her face, his eyes searching hers. He leaned in a bit more, his gaze flitting like butterflies all over her-

The sound of the hatch opening brought them out of their trance. Nathan quickly stood up, Alysia following suit, dusting herself off hurriedly. She cleared her throat awkwardly, glancing at the hatch, seeing none other than Ben standing there, staring.

"I bought coffee." He muttered, placing the tray of coffees and a big brown paper bag on the table. He pulled out what Alysia assumed were breakfast sandwiches, putting them on the table. "Bacon, egg, cheese breakfast sandwich for you." He tossed a sandwich at Alysia.

Alsyia's eyes widened as she grabbed the sandwich midair, fumbling with it in her hands. "And I got the same for you, since I don't know what you like." He told Nathan, who caught his thrown sandwich with ease.

"Thanks." Alysia muttered, leaving it on the table. "I'm going to go change." She went over to her suitcase which she had quickly packed before leaving her apartment. Alysia glanced over her shoulder, rolling her eyes when she saw Nathan and Ben glaring at each other.

Nathan unwrapped his sandwich, taking a bite out of it. "Decent."

"Whatever." Ben muttered, and Alysia rolled her eyes, taking a random pair of jeans and a t-shirt out of her suitcase, heading to the bathroom. She quickly pulled off her training clothes, putting them in the washing machine that Nathan had conveniently decided to put in the bathroom. She heard her phone chime, and she glanced down at it, smiling when she saw it was April.

From Apes: Are you busy today?

Alysia's fingers flew over the electronic keyboard, typing a quick response.

To Apes: Yeah, kind of. Nathan and I are trying to figure out who Frostbite is, so we're stalking this dude named Flynn Cross. The police are being too slow.

Ever since Alsyia was fully certain that April knew that she was Monarch and that Nathan was Frostbite, a huge sense of relief had come over her. She had hated lying to April, the two barely kept secrets from each other.

And now she could tell April what was going on and didn't have to live with the guilt of lying to her. A benefit to having April as a friend, especially with all that was going on, is that she was a good hacker, so if needed, April could help them.