“Take the tape off,” a voice commanded.
Howard picked at the edge of the tape, got a hold, and ripped it off, taking part of Sam’s eyebrows with it.
Sam recognized his surroundings immediately. The school gym.
He was on the polished wood floor with Caine standing calmly before him, arms crossed, gloating.
“Hey, Sam,” Caine said.
Sam swiveled his head to left and right. Orc, Panda, Howard, Freddie, and Chaz all armed with baseball bats. Quinn tried to shrink out of sight.
“You have a lot of guys, Caine. I must be dangerous.”
Caine nodded thoughtfully. “I like to be careful. Of course, Drake has your girlfriend. So if I was you, I wouldn’t try to cause any trouble. Drake is a violent, disturbed boy.”
Howard laughed.
“Let him up,” Caine ordered.
Orc climbed off Sam’s back but not without digging a knee into his ribs first. Sam stood, shaky, but glad to be off the floor.
He studied Caine closely. They’d met at the plaza when Caine had first arrived. Since then, Sam had seen Caine only in passing.
Caine studied him just as closely.
“What is it you want with me?” Sam asked.
Caine started to chew at his thumb, then put his hands down by his side so that he looked almost as if he were standing at attention. “I wish there was some way we could be friends, Sam.”
“I can see you’re dying to be my new homey.”
Caine laughed. “See? You have a sense of humor. That wouldn’t have come from your mother. She never seemed very funny to me. Maybe it came from your father?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“No? Why not?”
“You have my mother’s laptop. You have all her personal papers. And you have Quinn answering questions about me. So I’m guessing you already know the answer.”
Caine nodded. “Yes. Your father disappeared soon after you were born. I guess he wasn’t too impressed with you, huh?” Caine laughed at his own joke, and some of his toadies joined in halfheartedly, not really getting it. “Well, don’t feel bad. As it happens, my biological father disappeared, too. And my mother.”
Sam didn’t answer. His hands were numb from the plastic tie. He was scared but determined not to show it.
“You’re not supposed to wear street shoes on the gym floor,” Sam said.
“So, your father disappears and you don’t even want to know why?” Caine asked. “Interesting. Me, I’ve always wanted to know who my real parents were.”
“Let me guess: you’re secretly a wizard who was raised by muggles.”
Caine’s smile was cold. He raised his hand, palm out. An invisible fist hit Sam in the face. He staggered back. He barely stopped himself from falling, but his head was reeling. Blood leaked from his nose.
“Yeah. Kind of,” Caine said.
He extended both hands and Sam felt himself rising off the floor.
Caine raised him about three feet, then laced his fingers together and Sam fell hard.
Sam picked himself up slowly. His left leg was wobbly. His ankle felt sprained.
“We have a system for measuring the power,” Caine said. “Diana came up with it, actually. She can read people if she holds their hands, she can tell how much they have. She describes it as being like a cell phone signal. One bar, two bars, three bars. You know what I am?”
“Crazy?” Sam spit out the blood that ran down into his mouth.
“Four bars, Sam. I’m the only one she’s ever read who has four bars. I could pick you up, fly you into the ceiling, or slam you against a wall.” He illustrated his point with hand motions that made it look as if he were doing a hula dance.
“You could get work with a circus,” Sam said brightly.
“Oooh, tough guy.” Caine seemed annoyed that Sam hadn’t responded with awe.
“Look, Caine, my hands are tied, you’ve got five of your thugs standing around me with baseball bats, and I’m supposed to be terrified because you can do magic tricks?” Sam made the count “five” rather than “six.” He wasn’t about to count Quinn as anything.
Caine registered the omission and shot a suspicious glance at Quinn. Quinn still looked like a kid who didn’t know where to stand or what to do with himself.
“And one of those five,” Sam said, “is a murderer. A murderer and a bunch of cowards. That’s your posse, Caine.”
Caine’s eyes went wide. He bared his teeth, furious, and suddenly Sam was flying across the room.
Flying like he’d been shot out of a catapult.
The gym spun around him.
He hit the basketball hoop hard, head smashing into the glass. He hung for a moment from the hoop and then fell onto his back.
He was dragged by unseen hands of terrifying strength, like he’d been swept back by a tornado. He came to rest at Caine’s feet.
He was slow getting back up this time. The flow from his nose had been joined by a trickle of blood from his forehead.
“Several of us developed strange powers, starting a few months ago,” Caine said conversationally. “We were like a secret club. Frederico, Andrew, Dekka, Brianna, some others. We worked together to develop them. Encouraged each other. See, that’s the difference between Coates people and you townies. In a boarding school it’s hard to keep secrets. But soon it became clear that my powers were of a whole different order. What I just did to you? No one else could do that.”