Esther moved forward on the balcony, putting her in closer proximity to us. When she did that, my entire body vibrated with some kind of frequency. It was a subtle shift, similar to the feeling we all got when Kallie stopped time.
A pit formed in my aching stomach and sat there. Esther was a demigod. Shehadto be.
Charlie put his hand over mine, to tell me he felt it, too. I didn’t know why he didn’t just speak to me telepathically, until I realized we didn’t know what this girl’s power was. If she was like us, she could read minds, or something even worse. We had to be careful.
Marcus and Kallie automatically moved closer to me, and though the movement was small, the Warden noticed. He gave a smirk as he said, “We’re happy to have you, Esther. I’m sure once you get settled in, this place will feel just like home.”
I sneered. The Institute wouldneverbe home to people like Esther. This place belonged to us.The Warden had control here, butweowned this school. This bitch was going to learn that sooner rather than later.
“I’m delighted, truly,” Esther replied in a bubbly tone. “It’s an honor to be one of your students, Uncle.”
“The pleasure is all mine, my dear. I know every student at the Institute will offer you a warm welcome.”
He didn’t add,or suffer the consequences,but it was clearly implied.
The Warden turned away, and the assembly began to disperse. As he turned to leave, Esther reached out to touch him, grazing her fingers along the small of his back.
I blinked. Did she just…?
I shook my head. No. I was imagining things.
Chancey tugged on Charlie’s arm. “We gotta get out of here.” A sweat had broken across the top of his forehead— he was pretty serious.
We followed Chancey to an empty staircase. It wasn’t the greatest place to hold a conversation, but we couldn’t be sure our cells were completely safe, and there were few other places in the prison where we wouldn’t be overheard… save for the Lair, which we were doing our best to keep concealed.
“What the hell was that?” Kallie asked once we were alone. “He didn’t call up the entire prison to introduce them to his niece.”
“He wanted to show her tous,” Charlie said. “She’s his new weapon, like Jaymin was.”
“Why do that, though?” Marcus asked. “Isn’t it a better move to conceal her identity, get us to trust her so she can infiltrate the group and ferry back information?”
“He wants us to feel intimidated,” Charlie said flatly. “Getting us to comply is more important than finding out whatever we know, because if we manage to get out of here, there’s no controlling us from that point.”
“Yeah, but why’d it have to beher?” Chancey complained, giving a sigh.
“You know her?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, Esther’s one of a kind,” Chancey said darkly. “We used to run rackets together back in the day.”
“She looks more likely to sing in a church choir than run a gambling scam,” Kallie said.
“She’s got a dark side, and tough as it is to believe, it’s blacker than ours,” Chancey assured us. “But I never knew her to be one to get caught. She knew how to slip out of trouble, and with all the connections her family has, no way she would’ve been sent here unless the Warden called her in to fulfill a purpose.”
“He wants her to spy on us,” Kallie said.
“Or something worse,” Marcus added with a shiver.
“What’s she like?” I asked curiously.
“She’s nobody you want to get involved with, that’s for sure. She helped me set up that little gambling den of ours, but she sure left me to take the heat when the fuzz came pounding on our door.” Chancey scowled.
“There’s something else…” Charlie said reluctantly. Kallie and Marcus nodded, and we all knew.
“She’s a demigod,” I told Chancey. “She has to be. Something about her set the four of us off. She gave off some kind of… signal or something.”
“I’d say it was more like a resonance,” Charlie said. “Our powers are getting stronger, so we’re able to seek out those of our kind that much more easily.”
“If she’s like you guys, that ain’t good.” Chancey shoved his hands in his pockets.
