Once I stopped humming, emotion that had been building started to peter out. I could actually see people start to shrink in on themselves. Unfortunately, it was Adam who figured out what had happened first.

“Hey, Ian.” He crawled out from under the table he had been crouched under. "I don’t appreciate being manipulated, and I don’t think anyone else here does either. "

“I’m sorry I was trying to make you a little braver!” I retorted.

“That’s not what you were doing!”

“Oh yeah? Then what was I doing?”

“You were trying to get me killed!”

“You cant die!”

“You don’t know that!” Adam trembled as he spat out each word.

“Enough!” Even though Blaine was the nominal leader, it was Roy who silenced us. He wedged himself in between us and slapped a hand on each our shoulders. “Adam, be quiet.”

“But-” Adam protested.

Roy ignored him and turned to me. “Ian, don’t do that again. Unless we ask you to.”

“Yeah. Sure.” Roy scared me and not just because he was black. There was a darkness inside him as well.