The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism Novel - Chapter 447

The dart buried itself in Radiant’s left eye.

Not the real eye. The poster version. A glossy promotional shot ripped from some magazine two years back, the kind of image that showed up on lunchboxes and billboard advertisements and the sides of city buses that Silas Malfoy had watched burn on three separate occasions.

Radiant’s grin filled the entire frame, that impossible smile with the impossible teeth and the impossible jawline, the costume all red and white and blue and gold like someone had designed a man specifically to make other men feel inadequate about existing.

Silas pulled another dart from the cup on the armrest and threw it without looking. It punctured Radiant’s forehead with a wet thwack that made the poster ripple against the concrete wall. The wall itself bore dozens of identical wounds, little constellation patterns of dart holes spreading outward from Radiant’s face like the poster had developed a skin disease.

"Seventeen," Silas said to the empty room. His voice came out flat and nasal, the kind of voice that belonged in a classroom asking whether the homework was really due today. "Eighteen."