Fight back? Surprised, I jerked my stare to hers. Immediately, she rolled the stool away, taking the stethoscope with her. She sat next to where Jude now stood, neither of them showing any sign they’d be moving closer again. Their message was clear. If they pushed it more, someone would suspect—and if someone would suspect when they’d been this careful, this pristine in their performance, then we were being monitored even more carefully than I’d imagined.
It was a big decision to make, and surely it would have been wise to measure the pros and cons carefully, to really study the risks.
But everything about our stay at the newInstitute for the Advancement of Immortalswas a risk. Magnum was open about his intentions to kill me and my friends. I’d bet everything I had to my name, including the bones of Cleo, my soon-to-be-beautiful-and-purring 1999 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra Coupe, that this place was designed entirely for the purpose of advancing Magnum’s desires to achieve superhero status. All risks to us were acceptable to him on his way to gaining what amounted to paranormal abilities.
Normal risk assessment went out the window. These weren’t normal times. We weren’t dealing with a normal man or his normal goals.
I saw only one reasonable path forward, and it actually felt quite unreasonable.
As Jude removed the cuff from my arm, I asked them, “Okay, so what’s next? I felt pretty crappy after being zapped by that lightning light stuff.”
Jude put on a smile that said,I’m compassionate and I’m paying attention to you.Ventriloquist style, he whispered, “He’s gonna steal powers. More students arriving. He’ll take. You must be ready.”
“Do you have something that could help me feel better?” I asked. “I understand the risks of new procedures.”
Jude and Lynne looked at each other. Lynne actually brought a hand to her chin as she feigned considering what procedure they could do to help and study me next.
Jude scratched his neck, as if distractedly, before suggesting to Lynne, “Hmmm, maybe something along the lines of hypnotherapy? To diminish the trauma of the incident?”
Lynne tipped her head this way and that before shrugging. “Yeah, that might help. Plus, then we’ll get more insights into how her brain reacts to interaction with the powers of others.” I was guessing Lynne was dangling that tidbit to win over Magnum.
“It could give us data on how different powers can assimilate in a subject’s brain,” she added.
Jude’s eyes widened. “Wow, Lynne. That’s a great idea.” He stood. “Let’s get it set up with Jackie right away. It’ll help Joss, and we’re bound to learn something new.”
When Jude and Lynne continued the charade by leading me into an adjacent room, I followed. But when they guided me to lie down as Jackie entered, nerves pulsed under my skin.
Ultimately, I didn’t trust them. I might trust them a smidge more than Magnum, Fanny, and their trigger-happy security force, but only because at least I didn’t believe our faux parents actually wanted to watch any of us die.
As a standard, it wasn’t all that impressive.
“I want at least one of my friends in here with me,” I said. “Someone to look out for me.”
“We’ll look out for you,” Jude said, his eyes as earnest as I’d ever seen them. But dude had also just proven he was an amazing actor, worthy of a freaking Oscar.
I met the earnestness in his gaze. “Griffin, Hunt, Layla, or Brady, any of them will do. But I’m not doing a single thing more unless one of them’s in here with me.”
“Well?” Lynne snapped at Jude. “Go get one of them. Seconds matter right now.”
And with that, Jude rushed from the room even as Lynne dimmed the lights to prepare me for a process I guessed I wasn’t near ready for.
Apparently, when it came to our lives recently, we learned like baby chicks did. I was about to be pushed from the nest to see if I could fly.
Within minutes, Jude returned with all four of my friends—along with the rest of the pretend-parents. They all squeezed into the windowless room that had felt spacious enough moments before, but now was crammed full of people.
“We have to hurry,” Jackie said, gesturing them to shut the door behind them and then fiddling with some dials on an odd-looking sound system and plugging headphones into a port.
She was already extending the headphones to me where I lay atop a padded medical bed. I sat up to stare at my friends even as Jude tucked a thin blanket around me. “Watch my back.”
Layla huffed. “Dude, obviously. But what the fuck’s going down here?”
Theparentslooked at each other, cracks showing in their usual cool façades. Finally, they all looked at Jackie.
Her eyes widened as an idea plainly dawned. “Joss is going to undergo a proprietary sort of hypnosis I developed that will help her accept any new adjustments to her powers. I’ve prerecorded a quick explanation of what’s going to happen to put her at ease with the procedure. Here, sweetheart, why don’t you have a quick listen while I finish getting Joss ready? We don’t have much time before you have to head to your classes.”
As far as I knew, we weren’t going to classes today. But I lay back down as the already low lights dimmed further, probably to make it more difficult for the cameras to make out our expressions. First, Layla listened. Then, eyes wide as saucers, she passed the headset to Hunt, who passed it to Griffin, who in turn handed it off to Brady.
When all of my friends had listened to whatever Jackie had recorded, they looked to each other and to me, then Hunt announced for them, “We’re doing it too.”
