For once I’m lost for words while “friend” plays on repeat between my ears.

“Go team.” He raises his fist for me to bump and I do. “Okay, so back to the stones and kidnapped kids.” He frowns, getting serious again. “What do you think this chaos mage wants with Hannah and the others?”

My brain is gripped by a sudden and terrible thought. I want to ignore it, but it sinks its claws into my mind, making it impossible to shake off.

“What did you do last night, when you took my hand?” I try not to make it sound too much like an interrogation.

“Oh, that…” Morgan tugs at a stray curl and glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah, we should probably talk about that.” He takes a moment and I give him the time he needs. “I’m not supposed to use another person’s energy. It can be dangerous.”

I keep quiet, giving him space to find the words.

“Using energy like that feels good.” Morgan doesn’t look up from the book where he’s dog-earing the corner of the page. “It feels so damn good, like—I don’t know—like landing a flip-kick or your first sip of coffee in the morning. But you can hurt someone if you’re not careful. I mean, really hurt them.” His gaze snaps up to meet mine. “You can kill someone like that,” he says. “I could’ve killed you.”

“But you didn’t.” I suck in a steadying breath.

“Doesn’t make it okay.”

“I don’t have magic though, so why use me at all?” I regret it instantly when he winces at my careless words.

“Your regular, human energy is plenty. Tapping into someone’s magical energy would be…”

“Chaos magic?”

We regard each other for a tense and painful moment.

“Exactly,” he says. “Which is why no mage is supposed to take another person’s energy. Except”—he hesitates—“except, my family is a little different. Using energy like that hurts us too.” He holds his wrists.

“Let me see.”

Slowly, he extends his hands toward me, and I push up his sleeve on the right then the left. The skin around his tattoos is blistered and scabbed as if he’s been burned.

“Ouch.”

“At least it means we can borrow a person’s energy without having to worry about going too far. The more we use from another person, the more it hurts us. I could’ve been charred to the bone. It happened to my uncle once.”

“That sounds awful.”

“Magic always has its price.” He pulls his hands away and gingerly rolls his sleeves over his injured wrists.

“Don’t you need a bandage?” Or antibiotics or a doctor?