The Similars (The Similars #1)(49)

Just as the branch is beginning to give way under her, she leaps off and lands steadily on her feet on the sand. The Similars hoot and holler, clapping her on the back. Maude follows suit. I watch her climb the tree—only she ventures higher, to a branch above Theodora’s. Her ascent is quick, and her descent is even quicker. She jumps down from what must be twenty feet in the air. This time, her fellow clones catch her in their arms.

I’m bowled over by the sheer physicality of what I’m seeing. The synchronized diving, the climbing, balancing, leaping. I’m also disturbed by it. Normal teenagers wouldn’t be able to do half of what the Similars just did. Normal teenagers couldn’t hold their breath for that long or balance on a branch that high. I’m certain of it. Something is not right. The Similars are beautiful and lithe and fiercely confident. But they are also, somehow, inhuman.

I have to go. I can’t let them spot me, not after what I’ve seen. I don’t know why exactly, but I know in my gut that I can’t let them know what I know. I spin on my heels and start back to Cypress. I move faster the farther I get from the lake and the Similars, with their eerie middle-of-the-night routines.

A hand clasps my arm.

I spin around, ready to defend myself, but when I face my attacker, I’m staring into familiar eyes. Levi’s eyes. I move to slide out of his grip when I notice the blood in the moonlight. Levi has a gash on his bicep, maybe four inches long. It’s bleeding.

“Your arm—” I exclaim as I reach for him. Levi pulls back.

“I must have scraped it on a rock when I was coming out of the water. I thought I felt something sharp.”

“It’s deep,” I say firmly. “You might need stitches.”

“I’m fine,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest, dismissing my suggestion. “I know you saw us, Emma. Diving into the lake. Climbing that tree.”

“Yes,” I say carefully. “I did.”

“I can explain.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can,” I seethe, suddenly furious at him. “Just like you can explain how you helped your guardian dupe Booker and Jane out of shares of their own company.”

Pain flashes across Levi’s face, but not physical pain. He hardly acknowledges the gash on his arm. But inside, it’s a different story.

“They told you,” he says.

“Yes. And I’ve been racking my brain to understand how or why you would do that. But I’ve only been able to come up with one explanation: you did it to hurt them.”

“Is that what you believe?” Levi asks.

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “If you’d asked me this morning after I said goodbye to them, I would have said no. But now…” I falter. “I don’t understand any of it. You. The other Similars. What I just saw.”

“There are things I can’t tell you, Emma, but that’s not my choice—”

I don’t give him a chance to finish. “Then you won’t mind if I do. I’m happy to tell everyone about your extreme sports.”

“That took years of practice. You’d be amazed what you can do if you’re relentless. Some of the kids at Darkwood want to be world-class concert pianists and athletes. That takes talent, but mostly, it takes persistence. Hours doing nothing else. We swam on the island. Every single day. Sometimes for hours at a time. And Gravelle, he would time us. At first, we could only hold our breath for thirty seconds. It took years to learn how to do that, Emma.”

“Why were you out here in the middle of the night?”

“Same reason you were.” He shrugs, his wet T-shirt clinging to his chest. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“We should go,” I say. “The midnight session starts soon. Madison won’t like it if we’re late,” I turn to leave. He reaches out and grabs my arm again.

“Emma, please,” he says. “Hold on. Wait.”

That’s when I notice his arm. The gash. The one that was bleeding moments ago is almost entirely healed.

I must be seeing things. Was it on the other arm, the cut? But no. The skin on Levi’s other arm is smooth and unblemished. The gash is still there, the same shape and size, only it doesn’t look fresh anymore. It looks like it’s a few days old, with blood dried around it.

Levi glances at his arm, then at my face. In a heartbeat, we both acknowledge how strange and not right this is. I’m suddenly aware of how alone we are on these dark, desolate grounds. Where are the other Similars?

Levi lets go of me—thank God, he lets go of me—and I step away from him. If I were to scream, no one would hear me but Levi’s companions. And they are just as “other” as he is.

“I can’t do this,” I say. “The Wards are like my family. I can’t know what I know and not do something about it. If they get hurt, or someone else I love…”

“Then what?”

“I could never live with myself. Levi, you have to explain it to me. Why you did that to Booker and Jane. Why your skin healed so fast. It’s almost like you were never cut in the first place. Tell me or I tell everyone what I saw,” I say, and I hate myself for threatening him, but there is too much at stake.

“You want to know, Emma?”

“Yes!”

“You want to know what happened with Jane and Booker’s company? You want to know what my guardian has planned for them, for all the originals’ families?”