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“Half the time I feel it boiling me alive under my skin. It was like that even when I was a kid. It was like I was always standing too close to a fire and needed to just stick my hand in once, to see how hot it really was. I couldn’t sleep at night. I thought for sure it was because my dad was actually the devil. “Guess one of us was bound to be a chip off the old block. I used to wonder, you know, if the abilities we have are somehow dependent on something we already have inside us. I thought, this fire—this is his anger. This is my dad’s rage.” I knew it wouldn’t do anything, but I had to say it. I had to tell him. “You’re not a monster.” “Don’t monsters breathe fire? Don’t they burn down kingdoms and countries?” Cole sent me a wry smile.
