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He spun. A noise behind him.
“It’s not working, is it?” Astrid said.
“It almost did, you almost scared me enough to make it happen,” Sam said.
Astrid came closer. “I have a terrible thing I want to tell you.”
“A terrible thing?”
“I betrayed Petey. Drake. He wanted me to call him a name.” She was twisting her fingers together so hard, it looked painful.
Sam took her hands in his. “What did he do?”
“Nothing. Just…”
“Just what?”
“He slapped me a couple of times, it wasn’t so bad, but—”
“He hit you?” It felt like he had swallowed acid. “He hit you?”
Astrid nodded. She tried to explain, but her voice betrayed her. So she pointed at the side of her face, at the place where Drake’s hand had hit her with enough force to jerk her head sideways. She steadied and tried again. “No big deal. But I was scared. Sam, I was so scared.” She stepped closer, wanting maybe to have his arms around her.
Sam took a step back. “I hope he’s dead,” he said. “I hope he’s dead, because if he isn’t, I’ll kill him.”
“Sam.”
His fists were clenched. It felt like his brain was boiling inside his skull. His breath came shallow and harsh.
“Sam,” Astrid whispered. “Try it now.”
He stared, uncomprehending.
“Now,” she yelled.
Sam raised his hands, palms out, aimed toward a tree.
“Aaaaahhhh!” he yelled, and bolts of brilliant, green-tinged light shot from his hands.
He dropped his hands to his side, panting, stunned by what he had done. The tree was burned through. It fell, slowly at first, then faster, and crashed heavily in a patch of thornbush.
Astrid came up behind him and slid her arms around him. He felt her tears on the back of his neck, her breath in his ear. “I’m sorry, Sam.”
“Sorry?”
“You can’t summon fear whenever you need it, Sam. But anger is fear aimed outward. Anger is easy.”
“You manipulated me?” He untwined her arms and turned to face her.
“It happened with Drake, just like I told you,” Astrid said. “But I wasn’t going to tell you until I saw you out here trying. You kept saying it was fear that made the power work. So, I thought…”
“Yeah.” He felt strangely defeated. He had just, for the first time, willed the light to come. But he felt sad, not elated. “So, I have to be mad, not scared. I have to want to hurt people.”
“You’ll learn to control it,” Astrid said. “You’ll get better at it, so that you can use the power without having to feel anything.”
“Well, won’t that be a happy day?” Sam said with bitter sarcasm. “I’ll be able to burn someone without feeling anything.”
“I’m sorry, Sam. I really am. Sorry for you, I mean, sorry this has to happen. You’re right to be afraid of the power. But the truth is, we need you to have this power.”
