“There’s—” he started, putting up his hands to calm me down, before lowering his voice. “There’s a new doc who just arrived in town.”

“Okay…”

“Dr. Sharpe,” he said, letting the name hang in the air.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me, or…?”

“Not necessarily,” he said. “But it means something to me.”

That was when Damien explained the whole truth. The real truth this time. And FUCK I was so goddamned furious at first I wanted to stab him with a diner spoon.

“Wait … so you’re telling me that your friend, Blaze, the pyrokinetic who got experimented on and had his power start to burn him alive from the inside out—that was a real story? That really happened?”

“Yes.” He nodded and at least had the good sense to look sheepish about it.

“So you lied to me—”

“I didn’t lie—”

“No, you lied to me about lying, which is somehow even more messed up—”

“I wanted to cut you out, Rose,” he said, leaning forward, almost like he wanted to grab my hands. “I needed you to hate me. I just wanted you to have a good normal life and there was no way you were gonna have that if we were friends.”

“Nice to see you’ve given up on that hope for me completely,” I grumbled.

“You’re missing the point of what I’m trying to tell you, Rose,” he said. “You can yell at me all you want later—”

“Oh, I will—”

“But my friend Blaze is real, and he has been sick for the past ten years and I—after I got out of the AM, I got curious. About what happened to him. So I tracked him down. And like I told you, he’s been in a facility out in LA but he was just brought here. To Boston. The lead doctor on his case—”

“Dr. Sharpe, I’m assuming?”

“See, I knew it was good to have you around.” He smiled. “You’re … sharp.”

“Wow,” I said dryly.

“I couldn’t help it.”

“Get to the point.” I waved my hand in a “hurry up” gesture.

“She’s working on a cure for Blaze,” he said. “Something to suppress his power, make him able to live his life without constantly lighting himself on fire. I promise you: this is real.”

I started to shake, and not just because the diner coffee may as well have been jet fuel. Damien told me all the details—Dr. Sharpe had been working on the serum in LA but had come to work at the AM in Boston because they could offer her more resources. And she was close. Close to making something that could turn off abilities in Atypicals who were hurt by their powers.