Chapter 369

SHAWN

These five-year-olds were the strangest children I'd ever met.

"Why did you come out here alone?" Samuel asked, his voice gentler now. "Without telling anyone where you were going or what you were planning?"

I hesitated, not sure how to explain the tangle of fears and doubts that had driven me into the woods.

"I didn't want to hurt anyone," I said finally. "My power—it's not like Lake's portals or Lyn's gravity manipulation. It's not controllable or reversible. When I hit someone, they're just... gone. Completely. And I was scared that if I lost control, if something startled me or I got angry, I might accidentally hit...