Not broken. He’d had broken ribs before.

“I don’t know if you were around then, but when Mom had cancer, it was just Dad and me and a couple cousins in the house. He’d do stuff like tell us to sweep, and if we didn’t sweep right, he’d give us the belt. He wouldn’t even tell us what we did wrong or why we didn’t meet expectations. We had to figure it out.”

“I remember,” Rain managed. “I was there.”

“Then why the hell did you think this was a good idea? There are other people you can ask. That you have been asking, unless you’ve been lying to us. You could have gone to them.”

“I could have. I wanted—” Rain coughed. “I wanted this.”

“This? Oh, you’ve gone and lost your mind.”

Maybe, Rain thought. Maybe he had. He’d fit right in, if he had. But he’d wanted, needed to know if, when he was desperate and in very real danger, there was anything he could pull out or do.

There wasn’t.

“You sure you don’t need help?” Allie asked.

“I’ll manage,” Rain said, his voice coming out strained. He fumbled out with one hand, reaching for the fence.

It took him some time to get to his feet. He ended up leaning against the fence, hugging it, while trying to breathe properly.

He was pretty sure the dread and emotion in him was enough that he could have thrown up if he’d tried to. He was also pretty sure he would black out if he did.

A truck roared as it rolled down the dirt road, moving too fast in the dark. That would be why Rain walked on the side of the road when he walked that way in the dark.

“Rain,” Allie said.

“Mm?”

“I know we’re not close. I’ve probably been shitty to you.”

“Better than a lot of people,” he said.

“I mean I’m not in a position to ask any favors from you,” she said.

Leaning over the fence, still hugging it, he stared down at the dark grass on the other side. He didn’t respond.

“But I really, really need you to get your shit together,” his cousin said.

He winced, closing his eyes. He opened them almost immediately, because he worried he might black out.

“You’ve turned some heads and drawn a lot of attention,” Allie said. “You managed to do something nobody really thought was possible. You put a rung on the ladder that’s even lower than the unpowered. The person with powers that suck. Because if you have shit powers, you’re not going to trigger and get other powers. You have no chance.”

“Yeah,” Rain said. He barked out a couple of coughs, feeling a stabbing in his sides with each one.