I merely shrugged the girl off. I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it. Not only would the new girl figure it out soon enough, but she actually seemed like someone who could handle the truth instead of crying in their bunk, tearing their hair out.
“I’m Mia, by the way,” she said, a forced smile gracing her face.
Iris gave her a nod before turning to glare at me.
“We don’t know what happened to them, but you shouldn’t scare her,” Iris muttered.
“Can’t you tell if she is or not?” I asked, giving her a look.An empath.That was what I had learned about Iris’s gift so far. I didn’t know her limits or how much she could actually tell. But it was something. The girls—myself included at times—didn’t like sharing too much about their gifts.
One of the last things we got to keep. As they stripped away our clothes, our identities, everything that made us who we were… the least we could do was keeponesecret to ourselves.
“I’m not that good of an actor,” Mia said with a small laugh, her hand coming to tug at her hair. “I’m still trying to digest everything, so I’m not sure my mind knows how to be anything but confused right now.”
I sat up straight, giving her a devilish smile.How fun.She doesn’t even know.In my short time in captivity, I had learned of only a few girls who didn’t know about their powers. It seemed the crazy, red-winged demon lady had given everyone the same spiel—or lack thereof—so some girls came to us more confused than others. I loved watching the realization dawn on them.
Some people were happy they weren’t alone in the world. Weren’tfreaks.Others thought it was a death sentence.
I wasn’t sure they were wrong about that.
“No, that’s her thing,” I explained. “She canseeit, can’t you, little mouse?”
“Don’t call me that,” Iris ordered. I gave her a wink. She was fun to mess with. Her innocent look brought out the playfulness in me.
“See what?” Mia asked, desperation slipping into her voice. “Please. I’m losing it here.”
Iris paused. I let her take the lead. After all, it was her gift we were talking about, not mine.
“I can read emotions,” she said after a moment. “Seethem. Kinda like an aura.”
Mia swallowed thickly. “So, what can you… see?”
I was wondering that myself. Mia looked composed, but just for a moment there she also looked… worried? Maybe there was something she didn’t want us to know.
Something more than her power?
“You’re confused,” Iris told her. “It’s frustrating you. You weren’t scared… until I told you about my gift. Sorry.”
Poor little mouse.Her disheartened tone made even a heart as cold as mine crack a bit.
“It’s not you. It’s just this whole situation?—“
“It’s okay, I was freaked out about it too,” I said, cutting her off. “I don’t like people seeing into me like that. Which brings me to you. What can you do? Read minds? Fly? Teleport?”
She looked at me like I had two heads.She really doesn’t know.Had she been walking around her entire life not knowing she had some sort of power at her fingertips?
Admittedly, not all of them were cool. I even thought mine was subpar at times. But not to know at all? Even the ones who came to us unaware hadsomenotion that they were different.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“It took a lot of talking, but we figured it out between us and the few that came before you,” I answered slowly. “We all have something. Iris is auras. I can tell when someone lies. And you?”
Her entire body stilled.She’s not gonna tell us. Great.A bit of a disappointment, seeing as how these two girls would probably be the last humans I interacted with before my untimely?—
Stop it.
I wished I could smack the thoughts of death right out of my mind.
“She’s having a breakdown,” Iris said, her back going straight.
