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"Don’t, Sam," she said

"You think you can read my mind, don’t you?"

"You don’t need rede to make a joke of it

"Onehis head "I’ve had more than my share, haven’t I? I’ve been way luckier than I should have been I mean, how many times should I have died? I can’t even count the it for? Just so I would survive?" He shrugged "Mostly, huh? But also so toor whatever"

"Yes You also kept a lot of other people alive Yes So enough, all right? You promised me, remember? You promised me you’d do whatever it took to stay alive"

He sighed "Here’s the thing, Astrid It’s likelike aan equation or whatever, and there’s an answer, and there’s only one answer, and so you’re stuck with that, aren’t you?"

"This isn’t etting angry because the alternative to feeling angry was to feel desperate

"I anoramus, aren’t I?" He s that would never one in a lot of ti ht? Well, the proble move here I see it just as clear as your very perfect nose"

"It’s not a winning move if you end up dead"

"Ah, it hasn’t been before, no But I keep running the equation, Astrid And each tie But not if she has my power That’s the trick here Would that be irony?"

"No, da your life away That would be suicide"

"I know you’re kind of over the religion thing, but what he did"--he nodded toward the cross--"that was still a big thing to do, wasn’t it? Was that suicide?"

"Really?" she asked with acid sarcashed softly

"You want to know the truth, Sam?" She pulled his face to her "No, it wasn’t suicide when Jesus did it It was fake If he really was the son of God, then he was risking nothing and he knew it He knew he had a couple of bad hours but then it was going to be all over and he’d pop back into heaven and have a really a story to tell all his friends"

"He has friends?"

She would not be distracted with jokes "You? If you die you’re dead We’ve seen dead now, Saly and permanent"

He turned to her and she saw the tortured look on his face "That light, Astrid? That light I shoot out of my hands? It’s like it’s mine It’s like I invented it Or at least I own it And that light killed Brianna And it’s going to kill a bunch of other kids You know it and I know it" He ran a hand back through his hair, slowly, like it oing to die because Pete won’t talk tosilence after that