She hurled the phone to the floor as if it had stung her. She wished it had. That wound would be easier to heal.
“Don’t you dare tell me I told you so,” Lucy threatened.
Ravi dropped to a crouch, collected the phone, and scanned the cracked screen.
“I’m sorry.” He straightened himself to standing, his expression grave. “I would’ve preferred to be wrong.”
“Would you?”
“Of course.”
“But now I have no choice other than joining the Order of Archimedes. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Lucy,” he said. “I would never force you into anything. Neither would Professor T. We’re only trying to help. We care about you. I care about you—a lot.”
Salty tears dripped onto her lips. Ravi extended a hand but she batted it away. He set her damaged phone on the worktop beside them.
For a long moment, the only sounds were Lucy’s ragged breaths. Both of them jumped in place as the brass section of the marching band announced the arrival of the graduates.
The procession! Lucy was missing it. Her heart pounded. She didn’t want to miss it. Not on top of everything else.
She lunged for the door. Ravi blocked her path. “Where are you going?” he asked.
“To get my cap and gown! Where else?”
He worked his jaw. “Lucy, think. It’s not safe. If your father changed Claudia’s memory, then your parents must know what happened on the High Line. They know you’ve discovered your powers. It’s not safe for you to stay with them.”
“You don’t know that for a fact. What happened to not forcing me into anything?”
“I’m not. You don’t have to join us—but I do want to keep you safe.”
Her hands balled into fists. “If my parents were going to do something to me, they would have done it already. Maybe you’re wrong about the Order of Sophia.”
“I’m not wrong.”
“You don’t know my parents, Ravi.” Lucy lifted her chin.
“Look, I can’t begin to know how you’re feeling right now, but we need to be smart. And the smart thing would be to slip away while everyone is distracted by the graduation ceremony.”
Lucy closed her hand around the brass doorknob. No flames. Strange. She didn’t feel in control at all.
“I’m going to graduate,” she told him, “and I’m going to give my parents the opportunity to explain themselves—unless you’re planning on kidnapping me.”
“I would never hurt you,” Ravi said, words clipped.
“Then get out of my way.”
He stepped aside and Lucy nearly ripped the door from its hinges.
“I’m coming with you,” he said into her ear, frustration obvious, at the same moment she exclaimed, “Dad!”
Lucy halted in her tracks and Ravi knocked her forward as they collided.
“What are you doing here?” she said in surprise.
“I could ask you the same question, young lady.” Her father’s fiery glare shifted from Lucy to Ravi. She had no idea which dots he was connecting, but none of them would be good. “Your mother was concerned when she didn’t see you in the graduate procession and sent me to find you.”
Regret seeped from every one of Lucy’s pores. Her mother had been so proud of her that morning and she hated to let her down. But that woman wasn’t her mother, was she? Her stomach plummeted. It must be the shock preventing Lucy from having a total breakdown.
Her father threw back his shoulders as he eyeballed Ravi once more, and the look he gave him could practically bend steel.
“And you are?” he said to Ravi.
“Ravi Malik.” Stepping around from behind Lucy, he extended his hand. “Mrs. Brandon’s teaching assistant.” Her father waited a few beats before accepting it in a bone-crushing shake. Ravi grimaced.
A shrill arpeggio from a badly tuned trombone shattered the hush of the deserted hallway.
“Nice to meet you,” her father said, though his tone implied the polar opposite. “What are you doing with my daughter?”
Ravi’s mouth tilted up in a smile so natural it made Lucy blink.
“I’m sorry for delaying Lucinda. We were just reviewing her independent-study project.” The lie slid easily from his tongue. “She did exceptional work.”
“Lucy is exceptional.”
The edges of Ravi’s smile grew hard. “I couldn’t agree more.”
Turning to Lucy, her father said, “Let’s get to the ceremony.”
“I’ll escort you,” Ravi told him.
“No need to trouble yourself, Ravi. I’ve got it from here.”
“Oh, it’s no trouble at all.”
Lucy’s eyes pinged between the two of them, two apex predators preparing for a fight.
But there was no fight.
She didn’t even see her father move. One minute Ravi was standing beside her. The next he sank to his knees, convulsing.
“Dad!” she shrieked. “What did you do!” Lucy lunged for Ravi, but a strong arm instantly wrapped around her waist, dragging her back.
“We need to go,” her father said roughly. “It’s not safe.” He set Lucy back on her feet and holstered the Taser that his suit had concealed. He glanced at Ravi with disdain. “This place is crawling with Initiates.”
Oh God. Her dad knew who the Initiates were. “You really are a Sophist,” she whispered, edging away from him. Ravi had been right, and she hadn’t listened to him, and now …
Lucy moved towards Ravi’s prone form again and her father seized her shoulders. “Stop, Lucy. The teaching assistant will be fine,” he said, and relief flooded her chest. “We need to be gone by the time he comes around. Your mother will meet us at the car.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She struggled under his grip. “You tased my friend!” Whatever more Ravi might be to Lucy, he was at least that. He’d warned her. At every turn, he’d looked out for her. She watched as his body stilled and her breath buckled.
“Your friend works for some very dangerous people,” said her father.
“And you don’t? I’ve been defending you! I was going to give you the chance to explain. But you came to my graduation armed!” Lucy’s bottom lip quivered. Don’t cry, don’t cry. “I guess that’s all the explanation I need!”
Her father’s expression softened. “The Archimedeans have no doubt told you many lies about the Order of Sophia, Lucy.” Glancing up and down the corridor, he said, “I’ll explain everything once we’re on our way.”
“On our way where?”
“Somewhere safe.” Lucy snorted at that. She was getting pretty tired of vague statements and assurances. Her dad squeezed her upper arm. “I’m sorry you’re missing your big day. Truly.” Regret stained his words. “Your mom and I both wanted to see you get your diploma.”
Indecision rooted Lucy to the spot. This man looked like the dad who’d invented Einstein Time, who’d tucked her in at night, and taught her to tie her shoelaces. But he wasn’t. This man …
She didn’t know what to think of him.
“Before I go anywhere with you, I think we should talk about the fact that you’re not my father.”
He flinched as if she’d sucker-punched him. “I’m your father in all the ways that matter, Lucy. I love you,” he said, and pain glimmered in his eyes. But he had successfully lied to her for years. “So does your mom.” And so had she.
Lucy spun one of the tourmaline bracelets, sorrow cramping her heart.
“She’s not my mother.”
“Elaine raised you. She would do anything for you.”
“Except tell me the truth. Are you two really married or was it all an elaborate ruse? Were you ever going to tell me I wasn’t yours?” she said, temper igniting.
“Goddamn Archimedeans!” Her father cursed. “You are ours, Lucy. We are a family. You’re the most important thing in our lives. We’ve tried to give you a normal life.”
“Normal?” She scoffed. “By hiding me away? Making me scared of my own shadow? You’ve always treated me like I’m broken. Damaged.”
“That’s never what we intended—”
“And all the time, you knew I had the lightning gene.” Lucy’s pulse continued to rise but strangely her hair remained in place, and the lockers didn’t jangle. Not even a little bit.
Her father didn’t need to say anything. The answer was written on his face.
“Dr. Rosen was in on it too,” Lucy realized. “He’s a Sophist, isn’t he?”
He nodded. At least now she understood why Dr. Rosen had told her the EEG was normal. He’d been lying.
Which meant the Sophists had known her powers had been developing for months.
“You knew I’d decoded the photo, that I’d found the Tesla Suite. Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? Do you have any idea how scared I was?” Lucy said, voice trembling. Her father’s features tightened. “Families are supposed to trust each other.”
Lucy’s eyes darted to Ravi. He looked like he was sleeping. “At least the Archimedeans were honest with me.”
“I very much doubt that. Honesty isn’t their policy.” Her father crossed toward her, and Lucy backed up against a bulletin board. “When we discovered you’d found the lab,” he said, “we waited to see how you would react. Your mother and I were hoping the medication would be enough to keep you stable.”
Like an experiment. They’d been observing her as if that’s all she was. Lucy’s whole life was one giant experiment.
“What was in the pills?” Lucy said roughly. “I’m betting the prescription didn’t really come from CVS!” She wouldn’t tell him she’d stopped taking it weeks ago.
“A formula the Order has been trying to perfect for years, to—”
“To suppress my abilities,” Lucy interrupted. He gave a curt nod. Lucy had had more than enough of being suppressed. “And now that you know the meds weren’t enough? That I’m … whatever I am. You’re going to lock me up and throw away the key, is that it? At this undisclosed location?” she demanded, raising her voice. “You stole me from my real parents because you think my mutation makes me a monster, after all!”
His expression grew bleak. “We didn’t steal you, Lucinda. It’s complicated,” he said. “And I’ve been working for months to convince the more conservative members of the Order to allow you to attend Gilbert in the fall.”
“Because it’s a Sophist institution?”
“Yes.” Ravi had been telling the truth about that too. “All the business trips—that’s what I’ve been doing. Negotiating. Believe me, kiddo, nothing matters more to me than your welfare.”
Lucy swallowed a lump in her throat. Her father wasn’t denying that a faction of the Order of Sophia did want to contain her. Possibly eliminate her. Why should she be surprised? They had murdered Ravi’s family to achieve their aims.
“It would be easier to believe you if you and Mom hadn’t been lying to me for my entire life,” she retorted.
On the floor, Ravi groaned. Her dad spared him a glance, and then clutched Lucy’s shoulder. “We can discuss my mistakes later,” he said, gritting his teeth, “but I need to get you away from the Archimedeans. And the Freelancers. Now.”
Her lungs emptied of air. “You know what happened on prom night,” she said as he yanked her towards the fire exit. “You did erase Claudia’s memory.”
“I had no choice. It was too dangerous for her to know the truth about you—about our world.”
He’d admitted it. Her father was responsible for violating the mind of the person Lucy loved most. While part of Lucy would be willing to excuse her parents’ lies, she’d never condone hurting Claudia. Ravi had also thought the memory erasure prudent, but he’d at least respected Lucy enough not to go through with it.
Because of her father, however, Lucy would never have the chance to earn genuine forgiveness from her best friend.
“And Cole?” she rasped.
“It was for the best.”
If it was that easy to play with people’s minds, how could Lucy be sure her parents hadn’t altered her memories over the years? How did she know what was real and what wasn’t? Her whole life might be a total fabrication.
Fear curled inside her and she felt sick. The Sophists were ruthless, and her fa—Victor was a Sophist. Was Victor Phelps even his real name? And did Lucy dare cling to the hope that her mother didn’t know what he’d done?
Lucy tried to wrench herself from his grasp.
“Lucy, I swore to protect you with my life. You can hate me if you want to—but I’m getting you out of here.” Victor’s tone brooked no compromise. “Don’t make me knock you out.”
Her eyes went wide. He’d already tased Ravi; she had no reason to doubt he wouldn’t make good on this threat. Ravi had said she needed to be smart, and she couldn’t fight back if she was unconscious.
“Okay,” Lucy agreed. She would pretend to cooperate until the opportunity to escape presented itself.
Victor kept an arm clamped around her shoulders and broke into a brisk pace. Lucy had to take two steps for each of his to match it.
“I keep having this dream,” she began as they walked, partially to distract him, partially because she needed to know. “I’m in this tropical garden. Mom is there. I mean, Elaine,” she corrected herself in a pointed tone. “It’s like the garden in Kleopatra’s Pharmakon. A storm is coming. There’s lightning overhead.”
She angled her head to stare Victor in the eye.
“It’s not a dream. Is it?” The question came out hollow, which was precisely how Lucy felt.
He stopped short. Good. Lucy would keep stalling him.
“You were so young. I can’t believe you remember that.”
“Did you erase the memory?”
“No.” A harsh syllable. “It was when we first saw … saw that the lightning gene had expressed itself.”
Anger filled the hollowness inside Lucy. Her younger self had been joyful, carefree. “So you started suppressing my powers,” she concluded. Her impostor parents had taken that away.
Victor raised a hand to her cheek. “We’ve been looking for a cure, Lucy.”
“Maybe I don’t need to be cured,” she said hotly. She almost added, Dad, but stopped herself. “The Order of Archimedes doesn’t think I need fixing.”
“They’ll exploit you. It’s what we’ve been trying to prevent all these years.”
“Seems to me there’s little difference between your protection and imprisonment.”
Victor’s chest contracted and he dropped his hand. She’d landed a blow.
From outside, the roll call of graduates blared over the loudspeakers. It was almost enough to blot out the noise of someone running toward them from behind.
Both Lucy and Victor wheeled around to see who was coming, and hope swelled inside Lucy that Ravi had regained consciousness.
But it wasn’t Ravi. It was a woman with short auburn hair wearing a dark pantsuit. Lucy didn’t recognize her. An Initiate?
She didn’t wait to find out. She stomped on Victor’s foot with all her might and ran for her life. He might be waylaid for only a second, but it was enough to give her a head start. Lucy legged it to the fire exit. Even if her parents truly believed they were protecting her, she couldn’t trust the rest of the Sophists.
As she burst into the faculty parking lot, alarm bells sounded.
Over the high-pitched wailing, Lucy heard the distinctive sound of a shot from inside the school.
Who had shot whom? Her thighs throbbed but she didn’t stop running.
“Lucy!” shouted Victor, not nearly as far back as she was hoping.
Glancing behind her, she barreled straight into the hood of a stretch limousine.
That certainly didn’t belong to any of the teachers.
The door swung open and Professor T stepped out. He was dressed immaculately in a three-piece suit and leaned his weight against a walking stick topped by a golden ouroboros.
He trained his eyes on her pursuer.
“Victor Phelps, I presume,” said Professor T. “You didn’t expect me to miss my own granddaughter’s graduation, did you?”