“Yep. She’s a true artist. She’ll look completely different tomorrow.”

“Amazing.”

“In the next row,” Rayelle continues, “is Chloe—you know who she is—and she’s sitting next to Harbor.” With her translucent skin and wheat-blond hair, she’s aptly named, as wispy as the fog rolling in on a December morning.

“In front of us are Toby and Marcel. Toby thinks he’s hilarious.” She rolls her eyes. “And Marcel is his sidekick.”

“Settle in.” Weiss appears at the front of the platform, his mouth set in a firm line. Despite his unruly brown hair, his eyes are serious, and he seems perfectly capable to me. “I trust you all had a productive break. Hopefully you used your time wisely and practiced escaping as much as possible.”

“You bet we did,” Toby says. “Watch me.” He stands and heads for the stairs.

“Sit down, Toby. That’s not what I mean.”

Throwing his hands up, Toby retakes his seat.

“I’m not sure how good he is at escaping, but he could work on his stand-up routine,” I mutter.

Rayelle giggles.

“As you’re well aware, we have a new member joining us.” Weiss gestures in my direction. “Welcome, Elisha.”

Six heads turn toward me. “Thank you.” I cringe, still afraid of being recognized as Ella Karman.

“I’ve heard you’re quite the talent,” he says.

“I am?” I squeak, hating being put on the spot. What does he know? In my periphery, Rayelle cocks her head to the side.

Weiss smiles, and something wild enters his eyes. “Would you like to do the honors and take today’s challenge first?”

“Not really?”

“Interesting,” he says, his expression unwavering. “Rayelle! Come up here and show her how it’s done.”

With a sigh, Rayelle makes her way to the front of the class, where Weiss binds her wrists together with zip ties.

“Escape,” he commands.

Flattening her hand, she pushes her thumb and pinkie to her palm and slides out of the zip ties.

Weiss frowns. “That’s one way to do it, but it’s not the way I taught you.”

“But that’s how I do it. I’m not strong enough to do it the other way,” Rayelle says. “I still escaped.”

He ignores her. “Go back to your seat. I’ll expect you to do it correctly by the end of class or you’ll be doing extra hours with me. Elisha!” He gestures me forward. “Your turn. Come on up. Show us why you’re so special that rules don’t apply to you.”

Not understanding his meaning, I swallow hard, but knowing I have no choice other than to obey, I tuck my hair behind my ear, quickly securing it with a bobby pin from my burglary kit so it will stay out of my face, and walk to the front of the room. I face him as he zip-ties my already black-and-blue wrists together. Even though I hate being tested onstage, I try to hold my shaking hands steady, making sure to keep my elbows together as he pulls the ties so tight they cut off circulation.