Okay, maybe not Alfie. I’m pretty sure he just earned his seat through generations of nepotism and his family’s deep pockets. But even he went through years of training after being initiated. Whereas I was never even good enough to be considered until the Families needed to use my abilities as bait. Whatever, at least I have abilities. It’s not like Alfie’s bringing anything new to the table, besides his seemingly endless collection of hideous ties.

If he deserves to be here, so do you, I remind myself as I try to muster up the confidence of a mediocre trust fund white boy.

“Not only did Ada succeed beyond our wildest expectations in Italy,” Kor says, “she did so despite having incorrect information about the mark.” Whenever Kor speaks, everyone listens with rapt attention. The French minister of culture is making doe eyes at him and twirling her hair around her finger. Even my mother—whose eyes always seem to shift away from me when I speak up—is listening intently to Kor.

Kor has transformed the Families in recent years.

The order’s influence had been steadily growing over the centuries as they reintroduced some of the exiles’ lost innovations––derived from the order’s extensive archives and from centuries of hunting down relics––back into society. They’ve funded a lot of research based on their knowledge, which has contributed to everything from health care to agriculture to clean energy. But most of that was based on ancient knowledge. Now, because of Kor, the Families have a path to the exiles’ actual living descendants and whatever far-more-advanced innovations they may have since developed. And it’s all because Kor made contact with Prometheus, the anonymous informant from among the exiles who provided the information about how and where they would be recruiting. Between Kor’s success with Prometheus and the influence that’s come with his recent fame and public advocacy, the entire Inner Chamber is basically as obsessed with Kor as the teens who run his online fan clubs.

“Ada has the perfect cover, a direct invitation, and has already proven herself to us,” Kor continues. “Having her infiltrate the institute is the best course of action.” He sounds so sure of this plan. So sure of me. I, on the other hand, am the farthest thing from sure.

“She has no training,” Alfie argues. And he’s not wrong.

“What of our training would have better prepared her for this?” Kor challenges. “The tutoring in Aramaic and Latin? The art restoration and document preservation techniques?”

“She’s an immature and undisciplined teenager, and she could put us all in danger if she blows her cover.”

I do so love being discussed as if I’m not in the room. If Izzy were here, she’d tell me to assert my femininity and not let myself be talked over.