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nose and lips dipped into the urine-filled bowl, getting piss all over his face, into his mouth, and up his nose.
    Adam choked, spitting and gripping either side of the bowl with both hands, trying to push himself back up as it felt like a hundred hands were on him, forcing him back down, his head into the water.
    Adam was certain he was going to die.
    Then he was yanked back, choking, gagging, eyes stinging in piss, as Tommy yelled, “Admit it!”
    Before he could say anything, they shoved him back down, laughing hysterically as he grew certain that he was going to die right here and now without ever getting a chance to use the weapon Keller had given him.
    “Admit it!” Tommy screamed again.
    Adam wondered why nobody could hear what was going on. Why hadn’t anyone come to his rescue?
    The three bullies continued lifting him up, telling him to “admit it” and then shoving him back down until Adam finally realized the bastards didn’t care whether he admitted a thing.
    “Fucking freak!” Tommy said, kicking Adam hard in the back.
    The three of them backed away, laughing as Adam sobbed, crumpled over the toilet in pain, humiliated, wet, and reeking of piss.
    Maybe it was the horrible bray of their laughter; or the way they left him helpless, hurt, and humiliated; or maybe it was because he had been stupid enough to believe their friendship.
    Whatever it was, he’d had enough.
    Adam found his power and got to his feet.
    As the three boys were filing out the door, Adam yelled, “Hey, fucker!”
    Morgan was the last one through the door. He turned back, face twisted in surprise and anger. Adam raced at him, mini-stunner concealed in his hand until the last possible second.
    He squeezed the buttons on either side and thrust it into Morgan’s chest.
    Morgan’s eyes shot open, with his mouth, a scream trapped as he clutched at his chest and fell to the ground.
    “What the fuck did you do?” Tommy called out, staring down at Morgan as his entire body was caught in violent spasms.
    Tommy and Daniel looked up at Adam like they were going to kill him.
    Adam thrust the mini-stunner forward, not even sure if it had another charge in it, and screamed, “You wanna die?”
    The boys took a step back, and then everyone’s attention was pulled to Morgan, who was shaking worse, his eyes rolling back into his skull as pink foam bubbled from his mouth in a river of phlegmy blood.
    No one said a word; everyone was silent with no one knowing what to do until Morgan stopped twitching. It was a half-minute before anyone spoke.
    “He’s dead,” Tommy whispered.
    Daniel dropped to his knees and felt for Morgan’s pulse. He looked up at Adam, and his face went from menacing to frightened child in one terrifying moment. “You killed him!”
    Without another word, both kids ran from the bathroom.
    Not knowing what else to do, Adam waited another minute, then slipped from the bathroom, making it a few feet before he heard Brian Bob behind him.
    “Stop right there, Lovecraft!”
    Brian Bob grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and led him back into the bathroom, where he fell back against the wall in surprise a second after opening the door.
    His giant hand tightened around Adam’s neck as he barked into the comm on his collar. “We’ve got a situation here — I need City Watch ASAP!”
    Adam pled through the four minutes it took for the Watchers to arrive, then through the two minutes it took for them to roughly wrap his hands behind his back and fix him with restraints.
    “Keller said it was OK,” he pled, over and over, more than a dozen times before they reached the ground floor of Chimney Rock, each time followed by, “He gave me the stunner to protect myself! Please, you have to call him. He’ll tell you it’s true.”
    The Watchers ignored Adam, dragging him through Chimney Rock, kicking and screaming, out the front doors of the orphanage, down the steps, then into the back of the open City Watch van.

CHAPTER 29 — Anastasia Lovecraft
    F or several minutes following their escape from the barn, the only sound was the clomping of snow as Liam and Ana trudged numbly through the melting slush beneath the midday sun.
    Neither of them said anything for what felt like forever, walking under the weight of their collective guilt and shared grief.
    A cool breeze shook the pines above them, the sound soothing, calming her more with every step. Once confident enough in her anger’s containment, she opened her mouth