We sit in silence. Maude looks like she’s about to say something, then thinks better of it. She stands and kicks at a rock, letting out a guttural scream of frustration. Jago jumps up, grabbing her arm and speaking softly to her. I can’t hear what he says. All I know is that what Gravelle is asking my friends to do is despicable, and they must feel so trapped, and angry, and sickened by the idea of manipulating their DNA families once again.

“So what is it?” Ansel finally asks. “This ‘Legacy Project’?” he asks with disdain. “What is it that our guardian wants us to do?”

“I don’t have a lot of details,” Levi answers. “He said to continue to forge relationships with our DNA families and our originals.”

Pippa’s brow furrows. “I’m already doing that, but not because I want to ruin your family, Pru!”

“Of course not,” Pru answers her.

“What if we refuse?” Theodora says. We turn to look at her. “What if we simply won’t do it?” She stares back at all of us, challenging her friends to come up with a good reason why they shouldn’t simply say no and walk away from the Legacy Project before it’s even begun. “When we first came here, and we had our tasks…we had nothing,” she reminds us. “We were alone, and scared, and Gravelle was our only parent. Our only family. We trusted him implicitly because we had to. But now… Now, everything’s changed, hasn’t it? Pippa, you have Jaeger in your life. Ansel, you have the de Leons…your dads. And Levi…” She meets his gray eyes. “I know you’d rather die than hurt Jane and Booker again. We have seven more months till graduation. Then we’ll all be eighteen. We don’t have to do what our guardian wants anymore.”

I consider Theodora’s words. I watch the Similars; they, too, are letting her words marinate. Considering whether what she says makes sense. If there’s some way out of this.

“Don’t you think I’ve thought of that?” Levi asks. “Don’t you think that was the first thing I said to him, when he told me about the Legacy Project? I explained that you’d never do it. That we all played his game last year because we knew nothing else; we had nothing and no one else!”

Levi clenches his hands into fists, and all I want to do is go to him and reach for him. The longing in my chest is so intense it’s almost unbearable.

“I don’t understand,” says Maude. “What did Gravelle say when you told him that?”

“He said we have no choice, naturally,” Levi answers, letting his fingers relax as he returns to his characteristically controlled demeanor. “He’s right, of course. We have to complete our tasks. Because otherwise, he’ll kill us.”