"You joined The Seven to go after Vought?"
Lucian didn't move. Starlight blanketed the ground, and he lay with his arms behind his head, looking up at that torn-open patch of sky.
Judging by the shock on her face, he'd cast the hook just right. You couldn't reason with someone who'd lost heart. That would only exhaust her further. You had to give her a goal big enough to make her forget her exhaustion.
"Not just Vought," Lucian said. "The Seven is only a starting point."
Annie opened her mouth but made no sound.
Lucian sat up to face her. The night wind pressed the tips of the grass in one direction. Occasional headlights swept along the distant highway like shooting stars on the horizon.
"Let me tell you something." He patted the grass beside him. "Sit down and listen."
"I was injected with Compound V too."
"When I was little. An infant." Lucian sounded as though he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him. "Just like you, it wasn't some gift from God. A vial of blue serum. There wasn't even a deal involved. I was practically a test subject delivered to their door."
Annie looked at him.
Lucian knew she was waiting for him to continue.
"A hospital took me in. On the surface, it operated as a charity, but Vought International was behind it," Lucian said. "But my case was unusual. I got the injection, yet my powers never awakened. Later, I was transferred to an orphanage. Sixteen years passed just like that."
The wind blew down his collar, a little chilly.
Annie reached over and laid her hand on his. Her touch was very light, as though she were afraid of breaking something.
"My powers finally awakened on my eighteenth birthday. But