Unlike the high-achieving members of her family’s secret society, Ada Castle has mastered nothing but the art of falling for the wrong guys. But now she finally has the chance to prove her worth: she just needs to gain access to a hidden school that her family has been trying to locate for generations. Granted, she accidentally goes on a date with the recruiter first, then is temporarily abducted, but Ada manages to secure herself an invitation to the Genesis Institute, where descendants of exiled Renaissance masters practice long-lost arts and sciences.
The school is a utopia of sustainable technology, medical advancements, and myths come to life, yet they are unjustly hoarding their resources. Ada goes undercover to steal their innovations for the rest of the world, but Genesis nurtures her creativity and challenges her views, and she can’t help but fall for the school...and maybe also for her frustratingly off-limits recruiter-turned-mentor.
Ada’s tangle of lies starts to unravel when one of her new friends goes missing. To rescue her, Ada is forced to work with a dangerous (and dangerously hot) classmate whose suspicions threaten her cover. And when the information she’s shared with her family puts her missing friend and all of Genesis in peril, she’ll have to choose whom to betray: the family she loves or the school that has helped her find herself.
Unlike the high-achieving members of her family’s secret society, Ada Castle has mastered nothing but the art of falling for the wrong guys. But now she finally has the chance to prove her worth: she just needs to gain access to a hidden school that her family has been trying to locate for generations. Granted, she accidentally goes on a date with the recruiter first, then is temporarily abducted, but Ada manages to secure herself an invitation to the Genesis Institute, where descendants of exiled Renaissance masters practice long-lost arts and sciences.
The school is a utopia of sustainable technology, medical advancements, and myths come to life, yet they are unjustly hoarding their resources. Ada goes undercover to steal their innovations for the rest of the world, but Genesis nurtures her creativity and challenges her views, and she can’t help but fall for the school...and maybe also for her frustratingly off-limits recruiter-turned-mentor.
Ada’s tangle of lies starts to unravel when one of her new friends goes missing. To rescue her, Ada is forced to work with a dangerous (and dangerously hot) classmate whose suspicions threaten her cover. And when the information she’s shared with her family puts her missing friend and all of Genesis in peril, she’ll have to choose whom to betray: the family she loves or the school that has helped her find herself.
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Overview
Unlike the high-achieving members of her family’s secret society, Ada Castle has mastered nothing but the art of falling for the wrong guys. But now she finally has the chance to prove her worth: she just needs to gain access to a hidden school that her family has been trying to locate for generations. Granted, she accidentally goes on a date with the recruiter first, then is temporarily abducted, but Ada manages to secure herself an invitation to the Genesis Institute, where descendants of exiled Renaissance masters practice long-lost arts and sciences.
The school is a utopia of sustainable technology, medical advancements, and myths come to life, yet they are unjustly hoarding their resources. Ada goes undercover to steal their innovations for the rest of the world, but Genesis nurtures her creativity and challenges her views, and she can’t help but fall for the school...and maybe also for her frustratingly off-limits recruiter-turned-mentor.
Ada’s tangle of lies starts to unravel when one of her new friends goes missing. To rescue her, Ada is forced to work with a dangerous (and dangerously hot) classmate whose suspicions threaten her cover. And when the information she’s shared with her family puts her missing friend and all of Genesis in peril, she’ll have to choose whom to betray: the family she loves or the school that has helped her find herself.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781665959841 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Margaret K. McElderry Books |
| Publication date: | 05/13/2025 |
| Series: | Academy of Muses |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d) |
| Age Range: | 14 - 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1 1
It figures that when I’m finally chosen for something, it’s to be kidnapped.
I’m trapped in a box. My knees are pulled to my chest, my whole left side numb from lying here for so long. My head throbs from the blow that knocked me out earlier, and metal gloves restrain my hands behind my back, painfully burning my skin. The burning subsides when I relax, but that’s difficult under the circumstances. If I ever get out of here—please, please let me get out of here—I expect to find my palms burned and blistered like over-grilled cheese.
A sob escapes, and in the cramped space, there’s no room for my breath to go except back to me, warm and cloying against my cheek. Strands of my wavy brown hair stick to my face and tickle my eyes, forcing me to keep them shut.
Maybe if I’d received some training before this ill-fated trip, I’d know what to do. Instead, I’m utterly helpless.
I have no idea what’s going to happen to me.
The allegro of my heart beats faster, and my throat tightens. My palms prickle with a familiar warmth. No.
Breathe. Don’t panic.
I had a glass of wine before I was taken, which, at first, helped subdue my hysteria. But now it’s worn off and traveled from my head to my bladder, where it sits with an uncomfortable, building pressure. I won’t be able to hold it in for much longer.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Think of puppies and guys with dimples.
I was with a guy with dimples when I was captured. A guy who is clearly not who he seemed to be.
Tsss. I gasp as the glove scorches the flesh of my palm near the base of my thumb.
Don’t think about him.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Don’t panic.
Who knows how many hours earlier...
When I was planning my trip to Italy, I daydreamed about falling for an Italian, so this should be no surprise. However, I hadn’t expected him to be over five hundred years old. I also hadn’t expected to cry. Yet here come the tears, blurring my vision as I look up at him.
David.
The veins in his hand pulse with tension. I can almost feel him breathe, can almost see the blood orchestrating the life under his skin of cold, hard marble as he prepares to face his much stronger foe. I’ve heard his expression described as determined, but as his gaze bores into me now, it seems more... unsure, self-conscious.
Same, babe. Same.
I can’t believe I almost skipped coming to the Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo’s David stands ready to sweep unsuspecting tourists off their feet.
I’ve seen enough naked male bodies (only one and a half up close and personal, but who’s counting) to realize how incredibly lifelike he is. Though I haven’t ever seen, uh, anyone uncircumcised, so I can’t comment on that particular bit of artistry. Not that I’m looking.
But the fact that a person could hew this man out of stone absolutely boggles my mind.
My dad often quotes that “Man was created in the image of God.” Having a Jewish father, an agnostic mother, and a Catholic grandfather, I’ve always found the concept of “god” to be pretty abstract. But for the first time, I maybe understand what that quote means. The ability to create something as beautiful as David, to craft flesh and bone from mere marble, is surely some kind of divinity.
But this realization of the heights of human potential kinda sucks.
Because how do I use my potential?
This question settles over me, and for a moment I hate myself. For every unfinished painting, every half-written song, every abandoned story. Every attempt that was never quite good enough. Even this trip, which is almost over, and I have yet to accomplish what I was sent to do. I’d come knowing it was a long shot, finding one man in all of Florence, but I’d hoped to finally prove myself to my family. And the door’s about to close on my one and only chance to do so.
I look up at David again; his intense gaze now seems to be one of accusation.
It’s a familiar feeling. Growing up as the least talented member in a family of artists and scholars, I’m accustomed to being judged. I know I have talents, but they often feel more like expectations.
And I always fall short.
I sniff and glance around to see if I can get away with wiping my nose on my sleeve, but somebody’s watching me. A very handsome somebody. And this handsome body has an actual heartbeat, and, though quite tall, is still within the realm of human size, unlike my new boyfriend towering above us. Now I’m even more self-conscious of my tears.
I look back at the boy—the living, breathing one, that is—and he’s still watching me. When our eyes meet, he smiles, and he has dimples that are so charming that I decide to break up with David on the spot.
Sorry, my love. I’ll still buy a postcard with your face on it.
Mr. Dimples is moving toward me now, or maybe he’s just trying to see the sculpture from another angle. He’s even cuter up close, all long limbs and floppy brown hair. A blue gemstone hoop hugs his right earlobe. I’ve been on the hunt for someone wearing a sapphire earring but... no. He’s nothing like the recruiter I’ve been told to look for: a Black man in his fifties with an eye patch or sunglasses and three piercings in one ear of sapphire, emerald, and pearl. This guy might have a blue earring, but he’s white, looks like he’s in college, and has nothing obscuring his twinkling brown eyes and too-long lashes.
The T-shirt he’s wearing has a picture of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man playing an electric guitar.
Be still my beating heart.
I pretend to scratch my nose so I can deal with the snot situation as inconspicuously as possible. Then I too decide to see David from another angle, wandering close enough to give Mr. Dimples an opening to flirt with me. Though the fact that he just watched me cry over a statue might reduce my chances.
He smiles in a way that shows he sees right through my ploy, and now he’s close enough for me to see that the dimple on his left cheek is deeper than the one on the right.
“Nice shirt,” I say.
“It’s refreshing,” he responds, “to watch someone truly appreciate a masterpiece.”
Heat rises in my cheeks. “Isn’t it rude to come in here flaunting a rival’s work?” I ask, eyeing his T-shirt meaningfully.
“Da Vinci and Michelangelo weren’t rivals,” he says with complete assurance.
Considering that I don’t know nearly as much about the Renaissance masters as I wish I did, I’ll take his word for it.
He extends his hand to me. “I’m Michael.”
I awkwardly shake his hand. It’s warm and calloused, but his nails have been chewed to the quick.
“I’m Ada,” I reply as I pull my hand from his, though I can’t say I want to.
One of his dark brows arches. “Like Ada Lovelace,” he says.
This takes me by surprise. Only a certain kind of person immediately associates my name with Ada, Countess of Lovelace, the first computer programmer.
“The inventor of poetical science,” he continues, amused. “My very favorite kind of science.”
“Theoretical physics is my favorite kind of science,” I respond. “Too bad I suck at math.”
“Theoretical physics is definitely in my top three,” he says.
“For the time travel, right?” I ask.
“How did you know?”
I should stop grinning so hard; I don’t want to appear too eager. But he’s grinning too.
“So, you’re a fan of sculpture?” he asks.
“I didn’t know I was until today.” No other sculpture has ever hit like this one.
“Ah, yes, the David can have that effect on people.”
I feel the easy flow of the conversation settling to a natural conclusion, see the polite shift in his manner as he prepares to move on. But I dumped David for this guy, so I can’t let him slip through my fingers just yet. I say, “If you know so much about its creator, what else can you tell me about my new favorite piece of art?”
“Ah, so I’ve been unsuccessful at hiding the fact that I’m an insufferable know-it-all.” Michael runs his hands through his thick brown hair, pushing it out of his eyes, and his forearm flexes in a way that makes me want to inspect his form as closely as I just did David’s.
“You say know-it-all. I say kind educator of ignorant, helpless tourists.”
“Ah, yes, ignorant and helpless, the exact two adjectives I would use to describe you,” he says with a dimpled grin. “Well, did you know that in order to familiarize himself with human anatomy, Michelangelo dissected cadavers?”
“I did not know that.”
Michael mimics the position of David’s hand with his own. “So much of the realism is because Michelangelo was as knowledgeable about the human body as any physician.”
I add, “And he was also a painter, architect, and engineer. Talk about a know-it-all.” I roll my eyes dramatically.
“You say know-it-all. I say true embodiment of the Renaissance ideal.” He lowers his hand.
“The epitome of a Renaissance man,” I say wistfully and perhaps with an edge of bitterness.
The concept of a Renaissance man—someone who’s an expert in multiple fields—is an ambition I’m all too familiar with. It’s the very ideal that’s been hammered into me by my family ever since my hands were big enough to hold a paintbrush and plink at the keys of a piano. But I couldn’t keep up with those expectations. So while my brilliant best friends, Kor and Izzy, spent years training in all sorts of disciplines, I was left home to merely dabble in various hobbies just long enough to start to get good at them and then get bored and move on to something new.
“And here’s another fun fact,” Michael continues. “The piece of stone used for the David had been discarded by other artists for being too flawed. But Michelangelo saw its potential. He carved it freehand, with no model, claiming that he was revealing the form that was already inside as opposed to designing it himself.”
I look up at the statue of an underestimated boy about to fight a giant with nothing but a slingshot. The knowledge that the stone he was created from was equally underestimated adds an additional layer to my appreciation.
Am I underestimated? Or do I just suck?
Considering that many people are relying on me to accomplish a crucial task, but instead I’m getting my flirt on—I’m leaning toward the latter.
“That’s really cool,” I say. “Seeing something’s truest potential instead of its most negative outcome. Unfortunately, I’m a chronic cynic.”
“Is that so? Then what’s this interaction’s most negative outcome?” He motions his hands between us.
“You turn out to be a kidnapper who’s hoping to add my teeth to the collection hidden behind your bedroom mirror?”
His eyebrows shoot up, and his eyes widen. “Okay. Thank you for reminding me of the realities of being a woman alone in a big city. My answer was going to be you leaving before I get the chance to ask you out. But you’re right, molar harvesting is a lot worse.”
I tuck escaping waves of brown hair behind my ear. I heard correctly: the hot, smart dude wants to ask me out. “Well, I can’t possibly go out with you now that I know what you keep behind your mirror!” I say.
Michael steps closer. “Or instead of planning for the most negative outcome, you could consider the positive potential.”
My breath hitches. “Well,” I say. “What do you think the most positive outcome of our interaction could be?”
“I have a few ideas.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed.” He winks. “Starting with more titillating discussions of sculpture.”
“You think you’re joking, but that sounds excellent to me.”
He grins. “In that case...” He motions for me to follow him as he heads away from David and down the corridor. It’s lined with statues of men. But they’re incomplete, their shapes emerging from rough, unfinished stone.
“These are Michelangelo’s Prisoners,” Michael explains. “He deliberately left them unfinished to represent the struggle of humanity.”
Prisoners. Like they’re trapped in the rock, trying to escape. God, don’t I feel just like that sometimes. Like I could just break free if—
“Sometimes I feel just like that,” Michael says. Our eyes meet, and I’m flooded with the warmth of shared experience.
“I know what you mean,” I say, finding it hard to break his gaze. I blink and clear my throat. “So, where does all your sculpture knowledge come from?” I ask. “Do you read up on art trivia just to pick up tourists?”
“I do, actually,” Michael replies.
“I knew it.” I’m grinning too big again. “Okay, but what’s the real answer?”
“Well, I have a vested interest in Michelangelo because I was named after him.”
It takes me a moment for it to click. Michael, Michelangelo. My eyebrows rise.
“I applaud your valiant effort not to make fun of me,” Michael says.
I scrunch up my nose. “No! I was just... thinking about what kind of parents you must have.”
“Ha. The kind who read Machiavelli and Maimonides to my sister and me before we were old enough to read on our own.”
“I see. I was only getting Shakespeare at that age. My grandfather didn’t graduate me to the philosophers until middle school.”
“A kindred spirit! Have you too been raised constantly terrified to fall off the pedestal you’ve been placed on?”
“Oh, no. I fell off my pedestal long ago. I’m now officially ‘the disappointing one.’”
“You? Disappointing? The standards must be high.”
I feel a blush creep up my cheeks. “You have no idea.” He really doesn’t. The standards I’m compared to are ridiculous. Kor is at Columbia with a growing collection of honors, has his artwork displayed in various prestigious galleries around New York City, and have I mentioned his recent Grammy nomination? Izzy’s in her first year at MIT, and an app she designed was just bought by one of the world’s most successful companies, Ozymandias Tech. Meanwhile, I—though I’ve been aggressively avoiding thinking about it—have already missed the deadlines on some of my (very mid-tier) college applications.
I brush my bitter thoughts aside and ask Michael, “What has you worried about falling from your pedestal?”
He looks away, talking to the statue instead of to me. “Sometimes... I want to question the status quo. Do what I think is right instead of what I’ve been taught is right.”
“What’s the worst that could happen if you do?”
“I’ll let people down, lose their trust.” He pauses and then adds, “Not know who I am if I’m not who I’m expected to be.”
It scares me just how well I know what he means. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this connected to someone this quickly. And that’s scary too, like holding something impossibly delicate, just waiting for it to fall apart.
“And what’s the best that could happen?” I ask.
He looks at me contemplatively without answering.
I teasingly poke his arm. “What happened to seeing the truest potential instead of the most negative outcome?”
He cocks his head, watches me for a moment, then says, “I needed to hear that. I feel like meeting you today was meant to be.”
Meant to be. It does feel that way. But I’m not about to admit it. “I don’t know. That sounds an awful lot like something a kidnapper would say.” I jokingly back away.
He lifts his fingers toward his mouth as if to continue the decimation of his nails, but he catches himself, lowers his hand, and instead says, “Come out with me for a drink.”
My heart is thumping so fast. I want to say yes. But there’s a small tug at the back of my mind telling me that he’s too handsome, too sophisticated to actually be interested in very average me. I can’t help but wonder if he’s taking interest for another reason. He does know an awful lot about Renaissance history....
No. I’ve given him no reason to suspect who I am. He’s asking me out for real.
“A drink sounds lovely,” I say.
When we exit the museum, the sun has mostly set. The days are short during these winter months.
Mom would not be happy. Me going out with a boy was definitely not something she had in mind when she agreed to let me go on this assignment during my winter break. To alleviate my guilt, I send her a quick message saying that I’ll call her before I go to bed. I’ve been good about calling her daily, though I don’t know why I bother since she’s always too busy to talk. I also text my aunt who I’m staying with to let her know I’ll be back late.
Apparently, in addition to art, Michael is also extremely knowledgeable about Florence, and as we walk to a restaurant he recommends, he tells me about the different churches and piazzas we pass. We stop a few times to listen to buskers filling the squares with their crooning covers of every generation’s greatest hits. I even hear a rendition of “Mona Lisa Smile,” the single that skyrocketed Kor from playing the underground Columbia University music scene to the top of the Billboard charts last year. He’s still pissed about it, considering that everyone thinks it’s a love song, and he insists that it is not a love song.
But even though I know Kor’s intention with the song, I can’t help but find it romantic when the lyrics You’ll see whatever you want to see, her truth is whatever you want it to be pull Michael’s gaze to mine. And when the line If that’s what you seek, then she’s sure to beguile, but don’t lose yourself in her Mona Lisa smile draws his gaze down to my lips, I don’t think I’m reading this wrong. I’m pretty confident I’m getting kissed tonight.
Michael leaves a jangle of coins for each busker before we move on. I like that. I like a lot of things about him.
When we’re not talking, there’s a comfortable quiet between us that buzzes with possibility. I watch his hand, which swings beside mine. It’s constantly animated, stretching, tapping, emphasizing his words. If I shift just a little, our hands would inevitably brush against each other the next time he swings his arm. I imagine the thrill of the contact, but I don’t step closer.
We arrive at the restaurant, and it’s crowded with people enjoying their meals, nursing glasses of wine and plates of decadent carbohydrates. The room is small and echoes with the sounds of live piano. Really good piano. I breathe in the smells of crusty bread, simmering sauces, and melting wax.
Michael is familiar with the necessary choreography to get us a cozy, candlelit table with a bench facing the music. He slides in next to me and asks me if I want anything to eat or just a drink.
“Just a glass of red wine,” I say, trying to sound like the type of girl who might actually have a preference between red and white grape water. It must work well enough because no one asks to see my ID.
While we wait for our drinks, Michael asks, “What instrument do you play?”
“How do you know I play an instrument?”
“I can tell,” he says. “I have a sixth sense when it comes to pretty musicians.” Grin. Dimple. Eyebrow raise. His eyebrows have more expression than my entire face. “Also, you’re tapping your fingers along with the music in a very telling way.”
My cheeks warm. “I play guitar, but I’m hardly a musician. I’m really bad at it.” Despite growing up surrounded by multiple musicians, this is true. I’m even worse at the other instruments I’ve dabbled with. I try to hold off the descending wave of mediocrity and focus instead on the part where he called me pretty.
“I play guitar too,” he says.
“Yeah, I had a feeling.” His hand is resting on the table next to mine, and deciding to be bold, I trace the callouses along the tips of his fingers. The kind earned by the intimacy of stringed instruments.
He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I’m... not bad at it.”
“I bet.” Who knew I had a thing for Adam’s apples? I very much do.
My fingertips are still touching his, and he gently twines our fingers together. His hand is strong and warm, and everywhere our skin touches feels sensitive, like the nerves are directly connected to my tightening belly.
The waiter arrives with our wine, and Michael raises his glass while keeping one hand linked with mine. “To seeing the true potential despite the flaws.” We clink our glasses. In the candlelight, his brown eyes look almost amber from beneath his thick, long lashes. His thumb is tracing circles on my palm, spreading heat along my skin. My breathing starts to go wonky.
It feels a little too intense, so I pull my hand away. I also instinctively work to calm the tingling sensation in my hands. The tingling is something that often happens when I’m nervous or excited, but I don’t want to worry about that right now, even though it has everything to do with why I’m in Florence in the first place.
I take a sip of wine. It’s tart and, honestly, not very tasty. But definitely better than the craft beer that Kor likes (and that I pretend to like to impress him). I take another sip and feel it warm my empty stomach and my excited nerves.
“You seem really familiar with the area,” I say to Michael. “Do you live here?”
“No. I live quite far away.” He doesn’t elaborate, and his expression tells me I have reason to be curious.
“Where’s far away?”
“I doubt you’ve heard of it,” he says with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
Why is he being cagey?
The gemstone in his earring glitters in the candlelight, and I feel a fizzing in my blood, a return of that nagging feeling from earlier. He approached me first. He won’t tell me where he’s from. He knows more about Renaissance history than the average college guy.
No. I’m being silly. He asked me out because I shamelessly flirted with him. Do I really find it so hard to believe someone would want to go out with me without ulterior motives?
“What about you? Where are you from?” Michael asks, diverting the attention away from himself.
I shake off the feeling that this is anything other than what it is. “New York City,” I respond, and take another sip of wine. “How did you know about this place?” Maybe it’s the alcohol in my blood that encourages me to shift closer to be heard over the rising noise in the room, so close our thighs press together.
Michael leans even closer to answer. His breath tickles my ear. “I’ve been coming here for the pianist. We’re considering recruiting him to the school where I work.” His nose is so close that it brushes against my cheek. But I don’t respond to the physical touch because I’m confused by what he’s said.
Recruiting for a school? It’s too much of a coincidence.
But also, if he’s not a college student, how old is this guy?
I’d assumed around nineteen. The fact that he was clearly older than me had felt exciting, but how much older is he actually? I try not to stare as I reassess. Full head of dark hair. Crinkles around his eyes, but only because he’s smiling. There’s certainly a maturity about him that I hadn’t noted before. Suddenly, he seems kind of ageless, and I feel panicky. How old does he think I am? Will it matter? I really don’t want to ruin this.
“So, you’re a teacher?” I ask.
“I guess you could call it that. What do you do? I’m guessing you’re still in school.” His smile is wide, and by the way he says “school,” I know he means college and that he’s not going to be comfortable when he realizes I’m only a senior in high school.
“Um... yeah, still in school. I’m on winter break,” I respond.
“What are you studying? Wait, let me guess... art history?” Still with that smile and those oh-so-playful dimples. I really don’t want to, but I know I need to tell him.
“Actually, um, Michael, I’m still in high school.”
His thigh that is pressed against mine tenses. His eyes widen, and he assesses my appearance much like I did his a moment before.
“How old are you?”
“Almost eighteen.” Depending on what constitutes as “almost.”
“Oh.” He sits up straight, shifting over so none of his body is in contact with mine. I feel cold air replace his warmth. “I should’ve... I just assumed... I mean, a smart, beautiful—uh, traveling on your own...”
The bench is small, and we’re still very close, and the music is loud, and it’s just too much for me. I stand, my napkin fluttering to the floor. “Maybe let’s go outside and get some air?”
“Good idea.” As Michael leaves some euros on the table, I rush into the cool night. He follows behind me tentatively. We dodge a couple of smokers and lean against a stretch of the cast-iron gate. The leaves of a dying potted plant sag along the rails, crunchy and brown. I busy my fingers by massaging the stem of the plant. Michael starts to nibble his nails, then catches himself and instead pulls a Swiss Army–style multi-tool from his pocket. He flips the bottle opener open and shut, open and shut. We both look at the ground instead of at each other.
He called me smart and beautiful.
I’m too soft, too frizzy to meet the standard definition of beautiful. I have some nice features: large brown eyes and a button nose, a butt that’s too big, or just right, depending on who you ask. Average pretty. But I understand that there is a distinct difference between pretty and beautiful.
Unfortunately, “average pretty” has never been good enough for Kor, but Michael seems to like it.
Not that it matters anymore. The disappointment burns deep. I guess I should have known Michael was too good to be true.
“So how old are you?” I finally ask him.
“Twenty-one.”
Okay, that’s not that bad. I went out with a senior during my freshman year of high school, and he must be about twenty-one by now. Kor’s already twenty. But the active distance Michael is keeping between us makes it clear that my age is a hard no for him.
I continue fiddling with the plant, wrapping it around the bars of the gate. It brings that tingling warmth to the skin between my fingers, a feeling I’m so used to suppressing that I immediately remove my hand from the leaves. I don’t quite know where to look or what to think as the silence descends between us, the buzz from earlier now completely unbuzzed, doused with a cold bucket of awkward.
The easy thing to do would be to walk away. But I can’t. No matter how disappointed I may feel right now, the fact that Michael is here to recruit students is not something I can ignore. I need to establish whether he’s who I’ve been sent to find.
Despite my instincts warring against the action, I reach out to touch the plant again; I can use it to help confirm my suspicions. I normally try to avoid the tingling in my hands at all costs, but now I do the opposite and let it flow freely. As I do, I pry for more information.
“Twenty-one seems pretty young to be a teacher at a graduate level,” I say. There’s no way he’s teaching anyone younger; that piano player had been a full-on adult.
Michael blushes at this and looks down as he says, “I was the youngest, uh, graduate in my field in the past two decades.”
Handsome, sweet, and a prodigy. Figures.
I’m itchy with nerves as I feel the warmth still flowing from my hand into the plant. I can’t help but hear my mother in my head warning me that someone is watching, my father telling me to take deep breaths and hide it.
But when Michael glances at the plant curling around my fingers, his eyes light with wonder.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“Just adjusting the stem so it will have better sunlight in the morning.”
“Ada, look at the vine. It was practically dead a few moments ago. Now it looks one sunny day away from pollinating.”
“I’ve always been good with plants,” I say. It’s true, but that’s not all this is. This is me using the abilities that make me different. The abnormality that, if I play my cards right, could get me the invite I’ve been sent across the globe for. The curse that, until recently, I was convinced no one must know about but now may finally prove useful for something.
Michael’s eyes are rapidly roving over me, but not in a suggestive way; it’s more... clinical.
“Do you heal easily?” he asks.
Alarm ignites in my gut. This line of questioning practically confirms my hunch. The answer to his question is “yes.” Though I’ve injured myself many times, it’s never been serious. Like the first time I went snowboarding and crashed into a tree but was completely fine, or when I cut halfway through my finger with pruning shears and didn’t need stitches.
When I don’t answer, he presses on. “Does your hair grow fast?”
Yes again. My wavy brown hair, and my nails too, no matter how often I cut them, constantly seem to grow, grow, grow. I have always suspected that these traits are symptoms of what makes me different, but the only way Michael could guess these things is if this rendezvous was less of a coincidence than I thought.
I still haven’t responded, but he senses the affirmative in my gaze.
“Eureka,” he says in a quiet voice. His playfulness has been replaced with seriousness, and now he looks older. More his age. “I’ve been coming to this place every night this week to recruit a pianist when I should’ve been looking for you all along.”
I should be excited by this; instead, my stomach is heavy with disappointment. I just wanted to go on a date with a cute boy.
Not a boy, I remind myself. A man.
And over the course of our flirtatious banter, I have learned almost nothing about him. I don’t know where he’s from or what he’s really doing here in Italy.
Which probably has to do with why I was sent to Italy.
My pulse picks up. I’m so close to what I came here for, but I’m also scared. I’m alone at night with an older stranger, who I accepted a drink from, who’s watching me like I’m a science experiment. I need some space.
“I need to use the bathroom,” I say.
“Oh, okay. I’ll wait here for you.”
I reenter the restaurant and wind my way through the throng of people to the hallway in the back. A draft from the service entrance to the parking lot chills me as I push through the bathroom door.
I go to the sink and press cool water to my flushed cheeks. The door creaks, and I twist around, but no one’s there. The hair on the back of my neck rises, and I turn off the water. The faucet continues to drip.
Drip.
Drip.
I see movement in the mirror, but when I whip around again, there’s still nothing. I reach into my pocket for my phone, fumbling to unlock it, too scared to even breathe.
A large arm snakes around my torso. Panic jolts through me as my phone drops and skitters across the tiled floor. I push against my attacker and almost manage to slither out of his grasp, but then pain explodes behind my eyes as I’m struck on the back of my head. Everything goes fuzzy around the edges.
That’s when I’m shoved into a box.