“I’m right behind you,” he answers. He’s already exiting the car and grabbing our bags from the trunk.

“I love you, Dad,” I say quickly before he can react. I open the door and climb out. He follows me.

“Emmaline—”

“What?” I feel myself losing patience, fast. Gravelle’s call has set me on edge. And now this…

I let my father pull me into a stiff hug.

“Be careful, Emma. Please. And if you feel the need to run off to another secluded island without telling me,” he adds, without a trace of humor in his voice, “don’t.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Chance. Sir,” Oliver chimes in, right at my side. “I’ll be keeping a close eye on her.”

“I’m counting on it, Oliver,” my dad answers before returning to the Lexus and zipping his window closed, his nose already buried in work buzzes.

“I didn’t realize sucking up to my dad was your new extracurricular,” I mutter.

One end of Ollie’s mouth turns up, in that way he has of looking cocky and sweet and annoying as hell, all at once. “I need something to round out my college applications.”

Normally I’d smack him, but his witty comment is nearly drowned out by the protestors. “Say no to clones! Say no to clones!” The students amp up their rallying cries.

I look angrily past the knot of kids, still searching for that teacher to intervene, when I let out an audible gasp. It’s them, up ahead, maybe ten feet in front of us. I’ve been so focused on the rally, I almost missed them. It’s the Similars. Maude, Theodora, and Jago. I haven’t seen the three of them in months, since we all left for vacation. They spent the summer together in Boston, holed up in a sublet they rented with funds that their guardian had earmarked as spending money. I don’t know how they arranged that without an adult’s approval, but maybe Gravelle signed off on it. All I know is that they didn’t return to Castor Island. They feared that if they left the country, they might never be able to return. Which is why a feeling of dread has been churning deep in my gut since we left Levi on the island. What if he can never return to Darkwood—and to me?

Two of the Similars were invited to live with their DNA families over the summer. Pippa with Prudence and her parents on the Stanwick family farm, and Ansel in Los Angeles with the de Leon family. I spot Ansel now, exiting a black SUV to join his friends. I’m flooded with questions I want to ask them. Suddenly, the Similars feel like the only people I want to be with, besides Ollie and Pru. They are my only tie to Levi.