A part of me cringed, knowing that Kellan wouldn’t have cared either way.

It didn’t matter. I’d just decided my role, and I clarified it again as I repeated, “You’re bullying him. How old are you?”

Pete looked like his mouth had become glued shut as his eyes skirted from me to Kellan and back again. The other guy had yet to make a noise since my brother’s appearance.

“His name is Scott,” Kellan informed me. He didn’t move from his leaning stance.

I kept my back to him. “Why would you even throw—what’s your name?” I turned and glared my question. The boy seemed to tremble, but I wasn’t sure if it was because Kellan’s feet rested just around his, entrapping him, or if my attention was too much too handle.

“What’s your name?” I repeated slowly.

Pete jerked forward. “Look, uh, this is just…ah hell.”

I was starting to get irritated. “What’s his name? Does he have a name?”

Scott came alive. “His name is Luke. We were just…we didn’t mean anything bad by it. The kid was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Like my car?” My irritation was growing, and in the back of my head I knew that Kellan was enjoying it. That sparked my irritation into anger.

I drilled holes in Scott and Pete, but something paralyzed them. They couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. They just stared, in horror. Luke had been sniffling during the entire exchange, but even that quieted. Everything just stilled, and my anger was nearing its exploding point.

It was like a battle had been waging inside of me. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. And then I decided to do the right thing, to save the boy, but nothing was happening. They wouldn’t talk. I didn’t know what to do because I knew Luke would be bullied again the next day, maybe even the same afternoon.

Kellan was loving it.

I took two threatening steps toward Pete and Scott. “You will leave Luke alone. You will be kind and courteous to him from now on. You will befriend him. You will do this, and you will be loyal to him, to each other, until you die.”

I felt a spark ignite from my hand and explode in the air. Just as quickly as everything had quieted, everything slammed back into reality.

Pete and Scott’s terror morphed into friendly smiles. Each helped Luke up and threw an arm around his shoulders. As they walked toward the school, Kellan noted, “That was…a nice thing to do.”

“We’re nice people.” I grabbed my bag and headed toward the school.

Kellan kept pace beside me, his hands stuffed in his jeans. “We’re not nice people, Shay.”

“Shut up.”

“We’re not people, Shay. And what you did just there, a normal person couldn’t have done that.”

“Shut up.” I didn’t want to hear about what I’d just done. I didn’t know what had come over me.

“You just bonded those three guys for life. You did it with magic, Shay. You don’t ever use that stuff.”

“Shut up, okay?” I shrugged him off, but Kellan caught my elbow. We turned a quick corner, another, and he shoved me against the wall.

“What is your deal?” I pushed back at him. “I thought this is what you wanted. You want me to use my powers, like you do, right? Like Gus and Vespar? Isn’t this what you wanted last night?”

Annoyance flashed over his features before he gripped my arm tighter and leaned close. “You’re on edge, Shay. Your powers don’t come naturally to you like they do to us because you don’t use them. We use ours all the time. I’m not going to accidentally kill someone if I get a little angry.”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to kill someone…on accident.”

Kellan stiffened. I grew wary as fury formed in his eyes.

“You have something you want to say?” He grew quiet. Too quiet.

A chill slithered down my spine. “You’re right, Kellan. We don’t do nice things. You’re a demon. We’re all demons.”

His eyes pierced mine. “We’re not demons, Shay.”

“No, we just come from demon blood. There’s a big difference, isn’t there?”

Kellan pulled me from the wall and against him. “Our mother was conceived by a demon. Yes, we have demon blood in us, but that doesn’t make us demonic or evil or murderers. It just makes us not nice people, but we’re not demons, Shay.”

I kept quiet. He was reassuring himself, too.

Kellan took a breath, brushed some hair away from my face, and tried to compose himself. He added, forcing a lighter tone, “And you’re wrong. This isn’t what I wanted last night. I want you to stop denying who you are. It’s dangerous. You snapped just now. You altered those guys for the rest of their lives. If you’d stop denying yourself, you wouldn’t have done that by accident. You need to control yourself.”

Holding my breath, I unwound Kellan’s grip from my arm and pushed him back a step. He teetered backward, then took another step away.

“Fine, you’re right.” My voice was unsteady in the wake of such intensity. “I’ll…practice my powers. I won’t do something like that again. I promise.”

Kellan didn’t say anything. He turned and nodded once, with his back slightly turned from me. He ducked his head and pushed his hands into his pockets.

I knew what that meant when he took that stance. He was off, and he needed to re-center himself. I shook my head, more to clear my thoughts than to deny what had happened. But then again…what had just happened?