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“What do you think of the Gifted religion?” she asked him, toying with Gabriel’s sleeve and pulling in a deep, comforting breath of linen teased around clove and woodsmoke.

“I don’t think of it.” He puzzled out her question for a moment before asking, “Why?”

“Do you know the names of the gods?”

“Yes.”

“The name of the god who looks after our souls when we die?”

“Moros?” The confusion in his tone increased. “Why are you talking like you believe in them? I never even taught you the Gifted religion.”

“Moros lets the souls visit me when they want to … they leave … a river or something, I think. It’s a Sigma ability. Did Teak tell you that?”

“Souls,” he repeated, like he was reading back a grocery list. “A river.”

“A river of souls, yes.”

“That visit you.”

“Some souls, not the whole river.”

“ Some souls visit you,” he hissed, then, after a moment, he mumbled, “Putting you on speakerphone. ”

Teak didn’t say anything to her, but Isobel had the impression she was now listening.

“So a soul visited you,” her father summarised, “and told you I kidnapped Teak?”

Isobel barely managed to contain an eyeroll. “Not just a soul. Charlie. She asked me to thank you. The kidnapping part I added on myself.”

“Well fuck,” he muttered, the words a little muffled like he was stroking his mouth or chin. “And you’ve seen other souls?”

“I saw grandpa.”

“Buddy fucking Carter?” her father rasped out. “Are you sure you’re seeing ghosts? Maybe they’re demons.”

“He really was awful.”

Braun let out a surprised chuckle that quickly devolved into a loud bout of laughter. It was full and bold, like the laugh he had on the red carpet, except the way incredulity tinged this one made it feel more genuine.

“Yeah,” he finally choked out. “He was a real asshole. That’s where I get it from.”

“You’re not so bad.”

“Thanks, kid.”

“ Anymore ,” she added. “You didn’t let me finish.”

He scoffed. “How are my boys? Are they all safe?”

Elijah immediately tipped his eyes up to the ceiling in exasperation .

“Everyone’s fine.”

“And Bellamy?”

“He’s fine too.”

“And Mikel?”

“He’s—you already asked about the Alphas,” she reminded him.

“Right.” He cleared his throat. “You lot need to stay hidden?—”

“We weren’t planning to waltz back into the academy, Dad?—”

“It’s not safe?—”

“We’re not that d?—”

“Dumb,” he conceded. “No, you’re not. Callum Rowe isn’t going down for this, you know that, right? He’s been far too careful for far too long. The evidence implicating him directly is going to be minimal to nonexistent.”

“He’s making Yulia his scapegoat,” she said.

“It would seem that way,” he agreed.

“She’s the one I want to see punished,” Isobel admitted. “More than anyone else.”

Her father made a tittering sound. “You’re an idiot if you think she did anything without Callum’s approval.

You have no idea who he is. He’s the biggest predator of them all.

He’s the mastermind behind everything . The network of collateral, the Stone Dahlia itself, the trafficking of teenagers and the exploitation of the Gifted, all of it packaged up into a sellable American dream, which he then spread like a disease to the rest of the world.

If you think him getting away with this is fine as long as they catch all his little henchpeople, you’re wrong.

They’re just cutting him down to the stump and ignoring all the roots he’s been planting for decades. ”

Isobel mulled that over, the tightness of Gabriel’s body matching the tense muscles bunching in Elijah’s thigh, where he held her fingers against his pants.

“But they’re bringing in … all kinds of people. Governors, cops?—”

“Didn’t you see the news? He’s been offered a deal. He’s handing over evidence on all those people to escape a conviction. All those governors, cops, politicians and celebrities are in exchange for him.”

Isobel chewed on her lip. “What do we do, then?”

“You know what?” Braun loosened a heavy, rough sigh. “I think you’ve done enough. You’ve given enough. Just stay safe, stay hidden, and sit back for a while. Let’s see if the world is finally ready and willing to step up and protect all of its people.”

“And if it isn’t?”

“It’s nothing we haven’t faced before. We’ll figure out a way. There are rumours that Canada is welcoming Gifted asylum seekers, but you’d have to be smuggled over separately, and?—”

“And we’re in France,” Isobel stated the obvious.

“ And ,” her father continued undeterred, “I’ve heard rumours that countries are breaking from the European accord, and that Sweden and Denmark are now accepting Gifted refugees. I’m saying there are options. I’ll look into it all and figure out a plan.”

“You don’t need to do that.” She hesitated to say more.

Now that it was clear her father wasn’t angry at her loss of “top star” status at Ironside, she was a little less eager to start an argument with him.

Hope was allowing her to believe that the terrifying bully who had dropped her off at the bottom of Ironside Academy in her first year was now, in her fourth year, a man capable of change.

Still abrasive, still bossy, still full of anger and resentment, but …

instead of him existing on one side of a wall with all his worst qualities projected out the other side, he had allowed her and certain others to stand behind that wall with him.

Now, he used those qualities to defend her, rather than to flatten her.

It wasn’t so much that he had changed; it was that the way they dealt with each other and understood each other had shifted. If anyone had truly changed, it was her.

“You’re my daughter,” he scoffed, the statement deliberately careless. “Of course I have to plan out how best to protect you.”

“All right, we’ll work on some backup plans as well, now that it seems clear Callum will probably walk free.”

“No, you won’t.” His old, authoritarian tone crept back in, promising punishment if she dared to disobey, but it didn’t land in the same way it used to.

She almost smiled. “For once in your goddam life, you’re going to just …

be a kid. I know it’s a little late, but I was never allowed to be a kid myself, so I didn’t teach you how.

For once, you don’t have to work, perform, or exist for other people.

Your birthday is in five days … how about you give me that long to be the father you deserve, to come up with a plan to protect you, and you can just exist . It’s just five days.”

She pulled back her phone to stare at the screen in incredulity.

And also to check the date. He was right.

Her birthday—and Mikel’s—was in five days.

She swallowed, feeling tears threaten the lower line of her lashes, gathering fatter and fatter, until a single blink sent them spilling down her cheeks.

Elijah edged closer. Gabriel held her tighter.

She put the phone back to her ear. “Why?” she muttered. She could have just accepted and let the past be the past, or accepted before going ahead to make her own plans anyway. But she didn’t, because her hope was too much to bear.

“Because …” He paused, searching for a way to explain.

“At first, I tried to change, but it was hard. And then it seemed like I was given a second chance out of nowhere. I failed miserably the first time. I let that awful pit inside me swallow everything, let that damaged beast take over and live my life for me while I wallowed away in my own pain, caring only about staying as far away from the settlements as I could, and keeping my blood out of them too. I’m not going to live like that anymore. ”

“What do you mean, you were given a second chance out of nowhere?”

“Caran Carter snuck into his car,” Teak said, her voice a soft rasp, like she hardly spoke. “I snuck onto his plane.”

“And emotionally blackmailed me into believing this was my divine second chance,” Braun added, though he didn’t sound as frustrated as his words pretended.

“And? Are you okay?” Isobel blurted, wincing as soon as the words escaped her.

Teak chuckled, and though there wasn’t much humour in the sound, it wasn’t slurred, drowsy, agitated, or unfocussed, all of which had been a constant state for her during the settlement tour when Isobel had seen her last.

“Better. Worse.” Teak let out a small, raspy sigh. “I’m facing it. Braun is helping.”

“I’m trying to picture him helping with anything,” Isobel joked, because she had no idea how to respond to that.

Was her father acting as a surrogate? Surely he was. But how , exactly? Suddenly, Isobel felt awkward.

“He has a hard time understanding other people, it’s true.” Teak chuckled again. “But he walked through all those memories with me, inside my head. He felt all of my pain, all of my joy. He feels closer to me than my closest friend.”

Isobel could hardly believe what she was hearing. Her father had used his ability to … understand and empathise with someone? And it had worked?

“So what are you guys, now?” she asked on an exhalation of air. “Since we’re being so open and honest?”

“Don’t pretend you have no idea what a platonic surrogate looks like after spending so much time plotting your escape from my penthouse with Bellamy,” her father growled out.

“Fair enough.” She fought the urge to laugh. “It’s just that … we kind of had a bet going.”

“Who won?” Teak asked, perking up a little while Braun made a disgusted and disappointed sound.

“Us,” Elijah said flatly. “Obviously.”

“He means him and Gabriel,” Isobel specified. “I didn’t actually make a bet because I have boundaries.”

“Are you implying I don’t, Daughter?” Braun smothered an obvious yawn.

“You literally ran away with my therapist.”

“Your therapist ran away with me,” he countered. “I barely had anything to do with it. You should make that clear to Charlie. And on the topic of Charlie … how often is she … here?”

“I have no idea, Dad. I’m not exactly hosting tea parties and chatting with them all the time. I’ve only spoken to Charlie twice. Mom, a handful of times. The rest of them are kind of unpleasant. ”

“Buddy fucking Carter,” Braun breathed out, and Isobel was sure that he was shaking his head in disbelief.

“It was when I was near you,” she told him. “Sometimes it’s like these more traumatic remnants cling to certain people, and I only see them when I’m near those people and scared.”

It was silent for too long, and then Teak spoke up again. “You should ask,” she said softly, too softly to have been talking to Isobel.

“If you see your mom again,” Braun spoke the words in a brusque hurry, “tell her I’m sorry.” Before she could even respond, he was changing the subject. “We should keep contact to a minimum, just in case. I’ll talk to you again on your birthday. Lie low—don’t do anything stupid.”

He hung up a little too quickly, obviously trying to avoid opening a conversation about her mother, and she was left staring at her phone screen.

“Let’s see what people are saying,” Gabriel muttered, sensing that she needed a distraction as he turned her in his lap to face the laptop, opening a social media site.

He didn’t have to look very far to find comments about Ironside—it was all people could talk about.

@ReelTimes: Carter was literally tortured, almost died multiple times, and still performed better than every other contestant on Ironside.

@KaneME: Theodore Kane has the most cumulative views, the most followers, and the most streams of a solo song. The stats would disagree with you.

@ReelTimes: Was Theodore Kane tortured? You totally missed my point.

@KaneMe: They tortured Sophia Rosales to get to Bellamy, and everyone knows Kane is in love with Carter. How is it not the same?

@ReelTimes: Because Rosales and Bellamy are mates?

@KaneMe: Kane is one of Carter’s surrogates. It’s the same thing.

@AltShiftOmega: Are you a Gifted expert or something? How do you know it’s the same thing?

@ReaganReacts: How many of these students are performing under duress? #Ironside #GiftedRights #StoneDahliaExposed

@TheWatchers: Mei Ito? Recruiting minors for a trafficking ring? What the fuck. What. The. Fuck. #nevermeetyourheroes

@SigmaOnPurpose: If the academy knew … If the government knew … If the police knew. How did we not know? #StoneDahlia

@eden_watches: The scene with Carter in the “Flicker in the Crowd” music video just broke me. She was literally crying for help, and none of us noticed. #GiftedRightsAreHumanRights

Gabriel scrolled further, exhaling softly as they read, Elijah shifting to peer over Gabriel’s shoulder.

@TheRealLily25: Call this a victory if you want, but the people who actually blew the whistle on this are a very small group of Gifted. The authorities have known for years, and they did nothing. #SeeSomethingSaySomething #ProtectTheGifted

@StitchSnark: Dorm A had a camera on them at all times and still managed to expose a multi-national underground criminal network. I can’t even respond to my emails.

@unbonded&unbothered: I wonder what else has been going on behind the cameras.

@Claireincolour: The whole of Dorm A deserves Academy Awards for managing to look so utterly unbothered for 4 years.

@Whoislily: Did Braun Carter and Matthias Bellamy know about this?

@Lucaswiththegoodhair: They’re both actors … maybe they coached Bellamy and Carter?

@bondedbymyself: Braun Carter has a net worth of 1.2 billion and Matthias Bellamy has a net worth of 748 million. They should sue Ironside into oblivion.

Isobel stared at the screen as a hollow laugh caught in her throat. The outrage against Ironside and the officials poured in, but she had experienced how easy it was to turn the tide.

This was only the first day.