Page 104 (1/2)

Connie didn’t wait but took off, laying rubber across the parking lot

"Hell, yeah," Abana said, and drove with one hand as the tweets andher phone

THIRTY-FOUR

4 HOURS, 21 MINUTES

"HE CAN’T CONTROL it," Astrid said The first words she’d spoken in what felt to Sam like an eternity

He’d beco But she had not pulled away then And for a long time afterward he wondered if she was asleep He’d deter so

He knew Edilio and all the rest were expecting hih of realizing he wasn’t the leader, carrying everything on his shoulders He re that his role was as warrior The great and powerful warrior and that was all And he was that Yes: he was He had the power in his hands, and he knew he had the strength and courage and violence to use that power

But he was also, at least as ht noas powerless to put that part of himself aside He couldn’t have left her side when she was like this, ever, not if Drake had shown up and challenged him to one-on-one combat to the death

He was a warrior But he was also this Whatever this was

"Who?" he asked

"Petey Pete It doesn’t feel right to call hied"

"Astrid, Petey’s dead"

She sighed and pulled away He stretched his arot pins and needles in payment His arm was asleep

"I let him in In my head," Astrid said

"His memory?"

"No, Sah, and then you came And I turned it all to you Hoeak, huh? I’e It hts into… Well,hard to ain: sorry that’s not more coherent"

He had let her ra any sense of it Now that shecrazy he wondered if she had, well, becohts, Astrid laughed softly and said, "No, Sa freaks boys out"