THEY CAME, OF COURSE. DESPITE my desperate wishing that the moment just would end--that I could stay there, laughing on the floor with my best friends--Syrena, Chris, and Aria (both of whom had been staying with us for the past few days for convenience) showed up in various states of messiness from sleep, glaring at us.

"What's going on? Why are you guys up at, like, 12:30 in the morning?" Syrena snapped. Aria and Chris looked at her, surprised. Clearly, the 'let's shun Sam' thing hadn't been explained to them.

Nonetheless, I still couldn't stop laughing, and neither could the others. Any time one of us was about to stop, it'd start all over again. I think we went on like that for at least 10 minutes before calming down enough to explain.

"Um, you see," I said, still trying to catch my breath. "I was coming down... with Macey... to get some food. And I, uh, bumped into Thomas, and we started talking, and then Macey ran back into the room and started... throwing..."

I started laughing again, and Thomas finished for me. "Chocolates. She threw chocolates at me."

And it started all over again. Aria was smiling, amused but still uncertain of what was going on, but Chris was still focused on Syrena (who didn't appear to be even slightly amused).

"Right, so Macey throws chocolate--"

Another round of giggles started, and she rolled her eyes.

"--at Thomas, and your response to this is to wake up the whole block with your noise?"

"No, I just..." I felt my breathing even out slightly, "It's been too long since we had a good laugh, and you know it. We just needed the excuse."

"Yeah, about that--why has everyone been acting so weird lately?" Chris asked. Aria glanced at him, curious, but his only response was to shift so he'd stand slightly closer between them. I wondered what was between them--sometimes they acted like they were going to kill each other, others they seemed like brother and sister.

I had bigger problems, though, and was actually trying to signal Macey not to say anything, which she apparently took the wrong way.

"Sam had super-powers and has been lying to all of us for ages," she blurted.

"Macey!"

"Sam!" Chris yelled.

"What?!?" Aria exclaimed, disbelief and anger written on her face.

"Macey, I was telling you not to tell them!" I said, momentarily ignoring all the shouting in the room.

"Well, I didn't tell them everything! LIke, I didn't tell them that I walked in on you and Thomas making out on the carpet."

"Macey!" we shouted in unison.

"In my defense, there was a 75% chance everyone would've known in a day anyway!" she said, putting her hands in the air, nervousness and guilt written across her face.

"Okay, someone needs to back up, here. What's going on?" Aria asked, looking at everyone, confused.

"Yeah," Syrena said, eyeing Thomas and I like we were particularly smelly insects, "I think several explanations are in order."

***

AN hour later, we were sitting in the basement, looking down at the same wooden table that had carried so many important decisions.

If these walls could tell stories...

"Alright, start from the beginning. What happened?"

"I found out I was Tainted," I said, taking a deep breath, not looking at their faces, "when we broke into Warren Yaxley's manor. For a few weeks, as you all know now, nobody found out. But... we were on a heist. Thomas got hurt, so I healed him. And then I passed out. And then I woke up to a household that avoided me, besides my best friend."

"Wait, so that's why you haven't been up and around? Because you were recovering after saving his life and too afraid to come out of your own room, to say anything?" Chris asked, angry.

"Yeah. Why? What did you think?"

"I was told," he said, glaring at Syrena, "that you were sick and needed undisturbed rest to get better."

"Me too," Aria said, looking between me and our suddenly not-so-fearless leader.

"Look, guys, I was mad because no one was looking at Sam's point of view--why don't we let Syrena explain her point of view?" Macey offered, clearly uncomfortable with the levels of tension in the air.

"What's your power?" Syrena asked, looking at me.

"What?" I asked, off guard.

"You heard me. What's your power?"

"I... I don't really know how to explain it, but Macey and I have started calling it my Sense. I can sort of... feel when all the living things around me."

"Then how did you heal Thomas?"

Once again, her question caught me off guard. "I... I have this theory..."

"And what else can you do?" she interrupted, unfazed.

"I might be able to absorb negative emotions... where is this going, exactly?"

"Absorb emotions? Well, that explains a lot," she snapped, her arms crossed as she leveled a death glare across the table at me.

"What are you talking about? What's happening here?!" I exclaimed, frustrated by her silent, unexplained judgement.

"You can suck up emotions, and 'sense' things, and heal people... that isn't just a little bit weird? I mean, don't most people only get one power?"

"Yeah, but--"

"And if you can suck up our emotions, who's to say you can't control our minds?"

"Syrena, that's--"

"And, why should we trust you? You've been lying to us for weeks, for months, actually. Why should we believe you haven't lied about everything else?"

"You're completely paranoid!" I exploded, before she could interrupt. "I didn't ask for this, I don't know the answers to those questions any better, and how could you possibly think I've been planning this since I was 13, when we met? How can you possibly accuse me of lying about everything when you know I've shared my heart with you guys?"

"I don't trust you," she said, her eyes cold.

Not cold, I realized, shut down. She doesn't want to deal with the fact that this will change things, so she's convinced herself I'm here to destroy them. Or her. Or both.

"Syrena," I said, trying once again for calm, "I understand why you don't trust the Tainted, but even you have to know that the things you're accusing me of are crazy."

Her gaze shifted, just for a second, but enough for me to know I'd gained ground.

"Syrena," Thomas said, looking at one of our oldest friends, "I know you don't like Tainted people. I know you have bad blood with that man who let your mother burn, but for just a second, can you look at Sam and see one of our best friends, instead of some faceless entity here to kill us all?"

We waited for a tense second, but all she did was stand from the table. "I'm sorry. I know you guys want everything to always be perfect, for me to just forgive and forget, but... no. Not this time. I can't give this up."

She left, and we just sat there in silence for a moment, stunned.

"I'll go after her," Aria said after a moment. I shook my head, pushing my chair back.

"It's my fault. I'll talk to her."

"Sam--" Thomas began, but I shut him up with another quick kiss. The residual heat from earlier spread through me quickly, but I pulled away after only half a second, smiling at him.

"It'll be fine, don't worry."

And then I went to face her, and the demons my secrets had created.

***

"IT'S nothing against you, you know. I like you. I remember being friends, and I miss it. I miss it like hell. I'm just trying to do what's best for the group, you know?" she said as I walked up behind her.

"No, I don't. I have no idea what it's like to be you. I don't know how to make the hard calls, or how to be a leader. I can tell you the different shades of dark blue ink, and where they were made, and how they can be used, but I've got no idea what I should do with the mess Ju'mat's thrown our way."

She laughed and looked up, and I saw the first glimmer of tears in her eyes. "I miss you, Sam. And I wish I could pretend. But they are, which means someone has to be the voice of reality--we don't know anything about what's going to happen next. We don't know if you've changed, we don't know what you can do, if you might decide you're sick of us one day and kill everyone... I know I sound paranoid, but someone needs to look at the bigger picture here."

"I would never hurt anyone. I need you to believe that," I said quietly, wishing my voice hadn't betrayed my pain.

"Even if you don't," she continued, "look at the risks of just being around you. People are thrown in jail, or executed, or both, and that's when they aren't vanishing in the middle of the night to be manipulated by people like Warren Yaxley. We all know he brought back magic for a reason. Are you really trying to say you haven't wondered why?"

"I... I'm sorry. I didn't ask for this, Syrena, and I'm sorry, but you need to accept it."

She simply looked away, as if she couldn't bear to look me in the eyes with her next words. "We're the same, you and I. Both tied down by responsibilities we don't want, both forced into things we only want to escape from... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, but you need to know: if it gets bad--if you become a serious danger--I'll do whatever it takes to stop you."

And then she walked away, leaving us both with tear-streaked cheeks and minds full of haunting words.

He brought back magic for a reason. Are you really trying to say you haven't wondered why?

Her words kept circling in my mind, distracting my mind from the rest of what she had said. I couldn't deal with it, not right now.

Are you really trying to say you haven't wondered why?

No, I realized. Until that moment, I hadn't.