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“Novak laid down the law. We aren’t allowed to go near you. He said you’re being punished for stepping out of line and we should all be careful or the same will happen to us.” Angus waited for my reaction.

I had been happy one second ago for the first time in weeks. Now I felt humiliated. And scared.

“Julia, it was a fuckup—not the rescue, but the rest of it. He’s making an example of you to show that even his own daughter needs to follow the rules. It probably also helps him for you to blend in here to make us look normal. It buys us some time.”

“And of course it’s easiest for me to do,” I said bitterly. I was slipping; I never brought up that I looked different. And it was an unspoken rule that no one else was allowed to bring it up either.

He was quiet for a moment. “Don’t worry—you’re coming back. I think it’s a bullshit scare tactic. What would he really do? Leave his own daughter behind? I mean, how can any of us go from that to this?” He gestured out the window at the school beyond. “Alone, trying all the time not to get caught.”

Angus changed the subject. “Look, Liv’s been telling me things she shouldn’t—about stuff they’re learning.”

“She what?” While of course I wanted to know anything about what Liv and the other kids were learning, I couldn’t believe she would talk out of turn and break the rules. And Angus was right there to take advantage.

“Actually, Liv’s worried about us. You know how we start to have abilities at the beginning of adolescence and they come into full expression by early adulthood—eighteen or nineteen? We all kind of guessed that. But then the freaky part…Liv might have overheard that if we don’t use our abilities during this growth period, they just never develop.”

I was already shaking my head. “That’s not what we were told. She misunderstood. She ‘might have’ heard. They just said they’d delay our training.”

Angus wasn’t finished. “Do you know what else Liv told me? Novak’s teaching them how to move objects. Liv was so excited that she moved a pencil a quarter of an inch. And I’m not sure the others in her group are much better.”

He paused. “Julia, I’m beginning to wonder…I don’t know, what if Novak didn’t pick our groups at random? You and me…we were incredible at Barton Springs. And the boys—they aren’t like us, but they’re getting better. It’s like Liv’s group’s on training wheels while we’re competing at the X Games.” Angus stared blankly into the parking lot. “What if we’re the talented ones and he wants to take it away from us? Make what we have go away?”

“Why would he do that?” I was ready to blow him off.

“I don’t know. Maybe he thinks we’re harder to control and we’ll get everyone caught. And he’s right. Look what happened at Barton Springs. But, still, you fucking saved Liv’s life and now look where you are.”

I studied Angus. It was true that no one had ever acknowledged that fact.

“We both had something happen that day,” Angus said shortly. “I’ve never had that kind of strength. It felt like an electrical charge went through my body to those bars and then to that cop. You can’t tell me that wasn’t high-level shit. Maybe Novak doesn’t want us to have what he has. Maybe it’s a power play disguised as covering our tracks. He’s practically worshipped because he’s been the only one for years.”

“No, Novak put us in groups because he wants to keep us safe, Angus.” I sounded like I was trying to convince myself.

“Has anything happened to you since Barton Springs?”

“Not since I’ve been here.” Just my little tricks to keep me calm, but I wasn’t going to admit to that. “You?” I asked, almost jealously.

“No, I’ve been…distracted.”

“I’m sure Liv and the others are being shown things we can only imagine,” I said.

“I don’t know. Maybe Liv isn’t the next leader like Novak says. We choose based on ability, and if Liv’s really only moving a pencil, she’s not looking so good. Anyway, I don’t know about you, but if there’s any truth to what Liv said, I want to know what I have and I don’t want to lose it. If we’re the last, why shouldn’t we go out with a bang?”

“Well, I think your theory is wrong. Novak is too busy to know what each kid is capable of.”

“He knows everything,” Angus said shortly.

“And he wouldn’t undermine his own daughter.”

Angus looked at me almost kindly, and with some pity in his voice said, “Yeah, but you’re the wrong daughter.”

That sat between us like a bomb.

Angus indolently lit a cigarette. “I’m supposed to meet your sister,” he said vaguely, as if remembering that part of his life.

So they were together. I had been afraid to know for sure. It really was the final blow. “He’s letting you near the princess?” I said snidely, getting him back by reminding him of his status as well.

Angus looked at me hard, growing cold. “He doesn’t know.”

“He knows everything,” I said, using Angus’s own words right back at him.

For a second Angus looked at me like he wanted to explain or even apologize. For what? The mixed signals he had sent all summer and even today? That he’d chosen my beautiful younger sister? Then his mood shifted. “Your coach is going to yell for you in five seconds.”