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nutjob. “He’s patron for a lot of people.”
    Her eyes flash dark and broody like the sky before a storm. “I’m the one suing him.”
    â€œYou’ll have to be more specific,” I tell her with a snort. Definitely a nutjob. Who else would show up at a gallery opening dressed like a Plebe? “There are at least fifty people suing my father on any given day.”
    Calliope’s jaw drops. She steps forward, pinning me between her body and the wall. “Do you know what it’s like to have music take over your brain? It never stops. It’s like there’s a band inside your mind and the band keeps playing on and on and on.” She grabs the sides of her head.
    â€œCongratulations,” I say sarcastically. “Sounds like your ASA was a success!”
    â€œI was the first,” she says. “Did you know that? And your father paraded me around as proof for Plutes of what was possible for their kids. He has it all worked out, doesn’t he?” She keeps herself positioned between the pedestal and me so I can’t get past. “Who needs years of expensive private schools, backroom deals, and corporate ladders to climb when you can buy your kid an Acquired Savant Ability surgery and voilà—she’s a genius.”
    I laugh at her. “And what’s so bad about that?” I ask, even though I suspect it’s horrifying. I see the way my friends change. How obsessed they become with their vocation, unable to enjoy most of life.
    â€œNothing,” she says. “Except that your father is a liar. He never intended to let me have a career. He sold my contract out from under me along with hundreds of others who’d signed with him. Then he used that money to put the other patrons out of business so he could claw his way to the top and we were left with nothing.”
    â€œHey,” I say, hands up as if in surrender. “That’s business.”
    â€œNo!” She stamps her foot in my direction. “It was my LIFE! The only job I could get after that was as a warehouse picker. It took me years to save enough money so I could have the reversal surgery and not be haunted by music all the time.”
    â€œLook,” I say, softer now. “I’m sorry that happened to you, but it’s got nothing to do with me.”
    â€œOh, it’s got everything to do with you, Orpheus,” she hisses. “You haven’t gotten an ASA yet and who could blame you after what happened to your sister?”
    The hair on the back of my neck bristles. I step toe to toe with this crazy woman. “Don’t bring my sister into this,” I warn and think of beautiful Alouette, brain wasted, perpetually lying in the MediPlex since her botched surgery ten years ago.
    â€œWhy haven’t you done it yet?” she asks. “You’re nearly seventeen. You know he won’t hand over the company to you unless you get the surgery. But I know you have your doubts.”
    I press my back against the wall, wondering how she knows so much about me.
    She moves closer. In the bright lights of the gallery she appears otherworldly, as if she’s stepped out of the past to warn me about the future. “You’re just a pawn in your father’s game. He’ll use you like he used your mother and your sister. He’ll claim everything he does is for his family’s sake, but really that’s just a smoke screen to hide his greed.”
    â€œLeave my family out of this!” I push past her but she latches on to me.
    â€œConsider this fair warning,” she says into my ear. “I’m only the first person in a long line who’ll sue him over sold contracts and botched reversal ASAs. Think of me as the floodgate opening. Once we expose what’s really going on, the system will begin to crumble.”
    I turn and look at her but I can’t find any words.
    â€œJoin us!” she says. “Imagine the