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The leather was as soft as it looked. “I mean, I can’t be the only kid who got a perfect score on her SATs.”
    â€œBut you are the only student with perfect SATs and a father with a history of domestic assault.”
    Of course. Daddy Dearest. There’d be all sorts of information about him, me, us in the school system, with Social Services, in the Orlando Criminal Justice database.
    I wrenched my shoulders back. I’d be more than what Daddy Dearest had made me. “So, how’d you find those two?” My voice came out sharp as I gave a sneer and a nod behind us. “Are they some of Florida’s brightest lights, too?”
    â€œNo, Annelise. I said the other girls were gifted . You’re the only genius.” Something softened in his face as he delivered the news, like it was something for me to be proud of.
    I gulped convulsively, thinking I might sick up all over the beige Gulfstream rug. Abruptly, I began to fumble around my seat, beneath it.
    â€œWhat is it?” he asked. I thought I saw concern flicker in his eyes, but it was gone in an instant, making me doubt it’d ever been there.
    And why would he need to show sympathy? Ronan had gotten me on the plane, and now I was on my own. Again.
    How had he done it? How had he duped me? It wasn’t drugs—he hadn’t given me anything to drink. It was like he’d mesmerized me with that stupid accent. I felt like a total idiot. A cute guy paid me some attention, and I fell over myself, following him to God knew where. Idiot.
    The blood drained from my face. I wondered if I looked as queasy as I felt.
    I felt like more of a freak than ever. If I’d been chosen because I was smart, why were those other girls here? I was proficient in a few languages and had aced AP calc in ninth grade. Their gifts were probably Varsity Hotness and an uncanny ability to torment nerdbots like me.
    The plane slowed, turned onto the runway for takeoff. There was a tugging in my gut as it lurched forward. The sight of tarmac skimming by made my head spin with vertigo.
    I breathed through my clenched teeth, frantically running my hand along the gleaming wood panel at my elbow, searching for a hidden compartment. “Don’t they have any of those airsick-bag things?”
    I felt his hand on my arm, and froze. Despite his treachery, a tiny part of me willed his touch to warm me once more.
    â€œAnnelise,” he said, and his husky accent was gentle. I felt that familiar warmth spread from his fingertips, and the tight coil squeezing my chest loosened. “Your gift isn’t simply a high IQ. You are more than that.”
    â€œRight.” I leaned back against the headrest and shut my eyes. More than that? Really? More than a weirdo? More than a hopeless social case?
    I thought of the girls in the seats behind me. I had to swallow the sourness in my throat. If I’m more than that, what are they?

CHAPTER SIX

    â€œM imi? And Lilac von what ?” I kept my voice down, but I couldn’t do anything about my disdain. After withstanding five hours of my incessant prying, Ronan finally told me the other girls’ names, though surely I must’ve misheard. “You’re kidding, right?”
    â€œLilac von Straubing,” he said under his breath. He avoided my eyes, and I wondered if I spied amusement on that stony face of his.
    â€œLilac von Straubing,” I repeated to myself, marveling. What fresh hell was this? as my girl Dorothy Parker might’ve said. The only von anybody I’d ever heard of was that superrich Claus von Bülow, and he’d been suspected of murdering his wife. Was this Lilac of the idle superrich, too? She sure looked capable of murdering loved ones.
    A bell dinged, and the cabin lights went up. It was a gentle tone, in stark contrast to the alarms ringing in the back of my head.
    Ronan unclicked his seat belt and stood. His gaze locked with mine and lingered for an