Page 54 of The Lightning-Struck Heart (Tales From Verania 1)

“Some fie,” he repeated.

“Yes.”

“Sam.”

“Yes?”

“There’s something else. That you haven’t said.”

I groaned. “Gods, I hate how you can do that. It’s creepy.”

He waited.

“Okay, so one of the Darks might have shot a blue fireball of doom at me and I might have absorbed it instead of deflecting it.”

“You did what,” he said. No inflection at all. It was really admirable. I wondered if that level of dryness came with age or merely having dealt with me for close to a decade. Probably a combination of both.

“Yeah. It was an ordeal.” I sighed the weary sigh of the put-upon.

“And your body didn’t reject it?”

I shook my head. “No. It felt strange at first, but then I felt it meld with my own magic and that was that.”

He stared at me.

I did my best not to fidget.

My best was not good enough. I started to fidget.

He said, “You could have been hurt.”

“I know.”

“You could have hurt others.”

“I know. But I didn’t. I wouldn’t. I’m not that kind of person.” I felt heart-stung at what he was implying.

“I know you’re not,” he snapped at me. “And I have never suggested otherwise. My gods, Sam. Do you have any idea what could have happened?”

I laughed bitterly. “Yes, Morgan. I am well aware. You don’t think I know? You’ve drilled it into me enough. How easy it is to be consumed by magic. How easy it would be to let it take over. Especially me. And don’t think I don’t know it. Don’t think I didn’t feel it when they stood in front of me, threatening Ryan, saying they were going to kill him. Don’t think I didn’t want to kill them right then and there, that I didn’t just want to wipe them from the face of the world so they could never make threats like that again. I could have turned that fire back on them. I could have pulled the rock over their faces and let them suffocate. I could have broken their beating hearts from their chests. So don’t think I don’t know. Because I do. I know. But I made a choice and I stopped them from hurting anyone.”

“And yourself and Todd,” Morgan said.

“What?”

“You said they threatened Ryan. Surely they threatened you and Todd too.”

“Of course,” I said quickly. “Yes. Todd and I were threatened as well. Poor Todd. With his ears.

”

“But it was just Ryan that made you act.”

“What? No. Of course not.”

“So let me get this straight,” he said. “They threatened you and Ryan.”

“And Todd,” I said.