“Hello?” I call out. I don’t get an answer back. By the time I’ve hobbled over to where the noise came from, there’s no one there.

Wincing as I begin the walk back up to campus, I chide myself for acting so recklessly. What was I thinking, throwing myself off a roof like that?

You were thinking you wanted to see if you’d be hurt. If your injuries would heal quickly. You were thinking you’d test, once and for all, your capabilities. To see if you have the same regenerative properties as the Similars.

By the time I make it back up to main campus, a good ten minutes later, my ankle doesn’t hurt anymore. When I pull up my pant leg, the bruise and swelling have almost entirely healed. It’s as if I never jumped off that roof at all.

• • •

I stay in my room until the midnight session at eight o’clock, only briefly stopping by the dining hall to grab dinner. I avoid my friends by waiting until the last second to slip in and fix a plate. I’ve done nothing but study my ankle, which is now completely fine.

I splash water over my face before the midnight session, in hopes that no one will be able to tell I’ve been crying. When I arrive, I slip into a seat between Maude and Theodora and wait for the other members of the Nine to filter in. They do, but it’s clear Harlowe’s pissed, and her friends, Ivy and Graham, take seats without making eye contact. I’m barely able to concentrate on the meeting, not with my mind spinning over confirmation of what I’ve suspected. I’m a clone.

The evidence is staring me in the face, and yet it’s too big to grasp. I was born on Castor Island. I lived there, raised by British nannies, till I was three. I lived there with my friends, and with Levi. Which means Levi and I weren’t strangers when we met last year. We’d known each other as kids.

And my father has lied to me for fourteen years.

I debate pulling the Similars aside after the meeting, telling them everything.

Why not? They would understand. They would welcome it—you. Wouldn’t they?

But I don’t want to tell them. Not yet. Not before I’ve figured out what this means for me. Besides, there’s only one person I want to tell, and he isn’t here. Levi.

Maude takes her time with the meeting, plotting out a strategy for the school year that includes mentoring new students and setting up fund-raisers for charitable causes. She’s dragging this out for as long as possible; Pippa and Theodora are in on the joke too, raising their hands to ask tangential questions. With each one, Harlowe grows angrier, finally standing up to declare that she has somewhere else to be.