**Gaia's POV**

I don't know what she's scheming, but Evelyn is being unusually warm toward me. She's my full-blooded older sister—only one year my senior—and we should be close. Maybe some part of me still craves that familial connection, still harbors hope for sisterly affection. So when she asks, I agree.

I throw a white knit cardigan over my pajamas and slip downstairs. Moving carefully, quietly—everyone in the beta villa is asleep, the entire place shrouded in ...