Everyone was awake when the Scarlets arrived.

  Pix looked like death warmed over. Her short pink hair was as disheveled as it could be for barely being longer than mine. She’d refused to put her shirt back on and I didn’t blame her. Wearing something right now was like wool on a sunburn. Despite the obvious pain that she was in, my new ‘sister’ was trying to be positive.

  Gesai was worried about the rest of the class. Not being able to communicate with them didn’t make it any easier. I don’t think Rix’s pacing helped with that much either. The pain of her changing seal didn’t seem to bother her that much, but the older woman had also survived six years of Trent, which probably had pain dampening in there somewhere.

  Ether was staying close to me. I think the whole thing was starting to overload just how much she could process. The changing of the seal. Learning that I had a cousin that was going to be pretending to be my sister. Not knowing when her mother was going to drop in as well as her grandmother putting us all through as much pain as we were in. It was almost too much for me and I wasn’t going through it firsthand.

  Kara was staying close to Ether, though she wasn’t saying much. Seeing everyone in pain and not being able to do anything about it wasn’t sitting well with her.

  All of us looked at the elevator door when it opened. I’d expected a Scarlet, or two. I hadn’t expected the second Scarlet to be carrying Fray.

  The green woman was pale and barely conscious. Since Gesai had been doing the best out of all of us, I had assumed that Fray might not feel a thing.

  I was wrong.

  “What happened to her!?!” Gesai got up and ran across the room.

  “Seal Shock.” The Scarlet handed over the limp brunette to our teacher. “I’ve never seen it this bad before.” Their white helmet slowly turned so that it could see all five of us with our marks exposed. “What has been going on down here?”

  “That’s enough.” Kara got up. “You’re supposed to bring us the information, not gather it.”

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  “You’re not in charge of us.” The other Scarlet stopped part way towards Ether’s sister and tucked the screen under their arm. “You’re the runt.”

  “But I AM.” Pix marched up to the Scarlet and took the screen from them. “You might have a hundred years on me Lorr, but I’m still your boss.” She pointed at the elevator. “You’ve brought us what we needed. You can go now.”

  I could tell the Scarlet wanted to say something, but they held their piece.

  “Family…” Pixie shook her head. “Don’t worry, they’re not all like that. He’s just jealous.”

  “Of what?” I looked over at Fray. “I can’t imagine anyone intentionally wanting to go through this.” I started to get up. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “She’ll be fine.” Gesai carried Fray over to the cot that Pixie had been using and laid her on it. “I had the benefit of knowing it was coming and years of pain management.” She wiped the sleeping woman’s forehead. “She’ll feel better once she wakes up.”

  Ether followed me over to Fray’s side. The green woman had been raised as a Mundane and from the little she’d told us, it hadn’t been a happy childhood. Her biggest fear was being discarded, which was why Trent had let her take the seal first out of the rest of the class. Her second biggest fear was being hurt exactly like how she’d been tormented last night. I berated myself for not checking in on them before it started. I knew how uncomfortable it was, though this had been far worse than when Trent had done it.

  I turned to Kara. “I need to check on the others.”

  “Does someone else have a seal?” The older woman turned her full attention to me.

  I thought about lying for a moment, but I had a feeling that pretty soon there weren’t going to be many things about our group that Pixie didn’t know, which meant there wouldn’t be much about us that the Scarlets and Klix didn’t know.

  “Oz has the outline of the seal.” I swallowed. Why did it have to be these who were in my inner circle? “And Justia has one on her hand.”

  “I’ll have someone check on them.” Kara gave me a warm smile. “Maybe the outline isn’t affected.”

  “Maybe…” I turned to Pixie. “So what was the deal with Lorr, why was he like that to Kara? Is it because she’s the youngest Scarlet?”

  “Lorr’s always been grumpy.” Pixie shrugged. “But he’s mad that Kara is getting sent as my bodyguard instead of him. He’s like, a great-great-grandson or something. He didn’t even start here. He served under…” She paused. “Doesn’t matter. Anyway, he likes to complain. Ignore him.” She nodded at the screen in my hand. “What’s that for?”

  “Research.” I nodded at Trent. “I can guarantee that as soon as he’s awake, he sends us into the Dungeon here. So I want to be ready.”

  “Studying? Eww.” She mimicked gagging. “You have fun with that! I want to do something more productive.” She turned away. “Hey Rix! Wanna spar?”

  “Yeah you too…” What she’d just shouted registered. “WAIT!”

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