“To start, the rest of what would have been your final school year at Ridgemore High. You’ll live in luxury, with your every need and desire met.”
“So long as we die on the regular,” Layla said with a snort. “Right.”
“Right. It’s not ideal, I understand that. But the gift you all possess is extraordinary, beyond extraordinary. And so are each and every one of you. I intend to draw out and examine every bit of that uniqueness you each possess, to marvel at it, to bow at its feet.”
Oh-kay then.
“And after the school year is up?” Griffin asked. “Come June?”
“You can leave. But I’ll be doing my very best to convince you to stay. I’ll make you an offer that will be very difficult to refuse.”
That sounded like both a promise and a threat.
“And if we decide to leave now?” I asked, though he’d already told us the answer to this question. I just didn’t like it—not one bit.
“I’m not prepared to let that happen.”
“Which means you’ll order your goons to shoot us again,” Brady said.
“Most likely.”
“Basically you’re saying our options as you see them are death, or death, or more death,” I said.
“Yes.”
I dragged my attention across every other person sitting at that table. A few of them twitched with discomfort at hearing our situation distilled so succinctly, but not many. Whatever Magnum had done to buy their loyalty, he’d succeeded.
“In all the wide world we live in,” Magnum said, his eyes becoming a tad dreamy, “there’s not one other like the five of you.”
“What about the other students you said would be coming?” Brady asked.
“None exactly like you, none as wholly remarkable. Most are young adults like yourselves with a variety of abilities that defy logic and the laws of science. Many of them are extremely resistant to death. Still very useful, but not the same. I have some of my best people out scouting, tracking rumors and legends, chasing down leads. So while there will be other students, for the foreseeable future you’ll be my superstars. And if others with your particular skills arrive”—his eyes glittered with greed—“then it will only enhance our ability to comprehend your immortality. The more data we have, the faster we’ll advance.”
He leaned his elbows onto the table and watched us. “So? What do you say? Are you in?”
My friends and I exchanged long, loaded looks. On their faces I saw reflected my own panic at being trapped in the situation as effectively as if our prison were walled in with bars. I wasn’t deluded into thinking police of any sort would help when Magnum probably could erase any problem with sufficient bribes and violence. But in my friends I also recognized the excitement that was building inside me.
If we stayed here, one way or another we’d get answers. Yes, the way we got them would majorly suck and would likely be extremely terrifying. I for sure wasn’t ready to face down death as a regular occurrence.
ButI needed to know.
I needed to understand myself and the four other people I loved most in this world.
I needed answers more than I needed safety, something we wouldn’t have even if we told Magnum to fuck the hell off right now. He’d hunt us, as he was hunting these other kids with desirable science-bending abilities, until he had us back in his clutches again. He wasn’t even denying it.
I needed to understand what I was fighting for, and how hard we actually needed to fight to survive this hellish situation.
I needed to know what we were capable of—and what we weren’t.
“So you’re decided?” Magnum asked.
After another look at the others, I saw that we were, and that Magnum was a fucking ace at reading us.Fewer advantages for him, not more, please.
“For now,” Griffin said. “But we’ll only agree to take it one day at a time.”
From beside him, I nodded.
“These four people mean the world to me,” he added. “They’re everything. There’s no one I won’t murder to protect them, and I do meanno one. If I were you, I’d keep that in mind. We’re agreeing, but only so long as it suits us. We don’t like something you do or how you do it, we’ll let you know, and you may not like how we choose to do the informing.”
