“Ansel, buddy! Glad you made it,” Archer’s saying. Ansel gives a little smile and breaks off from our group, ambling over to return Archer’s greeting with a fist bump. Ansel has become a lot more comfortable in his skin than he was a year ago, when he first came to Darkwood and was so much shier than his über-popular original.

I’m about to tell Maude, Theodora, and Jago that I need to talk to them later when Headmaster Ransom walks up, and I don’t get the chance. I bristle at the sight of him, my mind replaying the image of the Similars, bound to those chairs in the abandoned science building last year, unconscious, at the mercy of Ransom and his twisted “research.” It’s all I can do not to threaten to expose him, right then and there, but Maude places a swift hand on my arm to silence me.

“Maude Gravelle. May I have a word?” Ransom asks, looking more weary than I remember, his face heavily lined.

Good. I hope he feels guilty as hell about what he’s doing to them. I hope his research is failing. And eating him up inside—

“Of course,” Maude answers, interrupting my thoughts. “But whatever you have to say, you can tell me here, in front of my friends.”

“As you wish.” Ransom looks downright exhausted, but I have little sympathy for the man who’s pretending to be the Similars’ champion. “You’ve been chosen as this year’s leader of the prestigious Ten. As the head of Darkwood’s most esteemed academic society, it will be your job to plan Ten meetings, formulate the group’s agenda for the school year, and serve as liaison between the Ten and the Darkwood administration. Do you have any questions?”

“I have one,” I say before Maude can stop me. “Are we required to intimidate the other students? Make them feel so bad about themselves that they consider leaving school—or worse?” I don’t say jumping off Hades Point, but I don’t have to. Ransom knows what I mean.

Ransom surveys me, and I wonder if he’s going to issue a reprimand, but Theodora jumps in before he can respond. “Obviously, it’s up to Maude to set the tone of the Ten. An honor she won’t take lightly,” Theodora adds with authority. “Right?”

“Right,” Maude agrees.

“If you’ll excuse me, assembly is about to begin.” Ransom walks off as Maude lets out a sigh of relief.

“At least that’s over,” she says.

“How do you do it? Stand there and talk to him civilly like that when he’s treating you like human science experiments?”

“We are human science experiments,” Theodora says, her voice quiet. “Remember?”

“And Ransom’s exploiting you for his own gain.”