Michelle sent Sam to take a shower so they could discuss. She sat on the couch next to Patrick, and Elena sat on the floor across from them.

Elena had to explain everything a few times, since it had been a long time since Michelle had been in a college lab, and Patrick never had. "I'm just tracing this out to where Sam is going to be in a few days," she told them. "See the curve?"

"How do we know the anomalies will keep following that curve?" Patrick asked.

Elena set down her laptop. "I mean, I guess we don't. Not really. But as far as I can tell, they have been."

"So—" Patrick shifted in his seat. "Do we actually know what the anomalies are?"

She picked up her notebook. "Technically, no. Somehow he's changing how much energy is in the light we see, so that we see different colors."

"Is that dangerous?" Patrick asked.

"It could be," Michelle said. "All light is electromagnetic radiation. Nuclear power uses very high energy electromagnetic radiation."

Patrick raised one eyebrow. "Radioactive stuff just . . . gives off light, and that kills us?"

Elena shrugged. "You wouldn't hesitate if I told you a laser could kill you, and those are usually just visible light."

"Okay." Patrick held up his hands. "Fine. But do we know how he's doing that?"

"No. But we know enough. We know he's changing the energy in light; we know the amount of flux he's giving off has nothing to do with how much he can push out or pull in his powers, but it is changing with time. Always increasing. Increasing more and more the bigger it gets."

"So he's getting more powerful."

"We'll all be dead in a week."

Patrick blinked and shook his head. "Okay, here's what I don't get. Why now? What caused him to get so powerful right now?"

Elena and Michelle exchanged a glance "We don't know," Michelle said. "Based on the equation Elena used, it's possible for the ability to have been mostly dormant for years, but now—"

"No, but I mean . . . couldn't something have been, like, keeping it dormant?"

Elena raised her eyebrows. "And now whatever that is, he's missing it."

"Exactly," Patrick said.

"It would have been something that was present at the most recent home," Michelle said.

"And the ones before that. But—" Elena winced— "I don't know. That would have had to be some kind of really weird device. Those anomalies are weird. They're literally science breaking down. How do you happen to have something in your house that can stop someone who can break down the laws of science?"

Patrick squinted. "I bet it's garlic."

Elena rolled her eyes.

Michelle snapped her fingers in front of Patrick's face. "Crisis situation here."

"Sorry. Habit."

"Two weeks," Elena said, "and that's assuming we can get Sam to push out his powers further than he can right now. If not, he'll die way before then. And then—"

The world would be safe.

Elena's heart sank. The cabin was silent except for the running water from the shower.

It would stop the problem. It would save the world. It would kill everyone and everything within a hundred foot radius, but that was a small price to pay for the entire world, and it didn't even have to include themselves. If they left Sam in a remote enough place, he could be the only one to die.

If she asked him to pull in his powers all the way today, he would. If he did, he would be the only one to die.

There was no way she could ask him to do that. And there was no way they could abandon him, which meant they'd keep teaching him to push his powers outwards, further and further, his range of destruction multiplying . . .

One of them might be brave enough to do what needed to be done. Patrick never could; she couldn't imagine Michelle making that choice; but someone at Tech United might be able to pull the trigger. If they explained to Sam what they were doing. Of course, he was only eight. There was no way he could understand why he was being made a sacrifice, no way he could be brave or conscious enough to sacrifice himself if they gave him the choice.

Of course, if someone from Tech United were forcing the sacrifice, they'd probably lie to him. Or possibly just give him a lethal injection.

Then again, there was no way to know whether his ability required him to even be alive in the first place. Maybe it was merely inherent to the cells, the atoms in his body. And there was no way to test that one, not without—

A firm tap on the side of the head knocked Elena out of her train of thought. Elena blinked, and Michelle narrowed her eyes at her. "Stop that."

"What?"

"I know what you're thinking."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

"I suggest we figure this out."

Elena's breath caught in her throat. "I know, I know, we have to. Because anything else is horrible and obviously not an option. But this is literally an impossible question."

"Hey," Patrick said. "You know why I'm not worried about this one?"

Elena groaned. "Because you're incapable of worrying about anything?"

"Not helpful, Elena," Michelle said.

He laughed a little. "Because in two days, Elena, you taught Sam how to control the reach of his powers. You figured out how strong the powers were, how fast they were growing, and what they were doing. Two days, Elena. We have seven to stop this."

She winced. "About that . . . it's more like two before we're constantly sick, five or six before excruciating pain consumes us."

Patrick shrugged. "If he can control the distance, I bet you can teach him to control the amount, too. And what about whether the energy increases or decreases?"

"It's erratic, as far as I can tell."

"That's another thing you can teach him, then."

Elena bit her lip.

He smiled. "If anyone can do it, it's you."

"And what if no one can do it?"

His smile faded. "Then it truly was an impossible question, and you get to be right about this whole thing being hopeless. That's all you want, anyway."

Elena flinched.

Michelle tapped Patrick on the side of the head a bit harder than she'd tapped Elena. "Not helpful."

"So." Elena stood. "What do we tell Sam about all of this?"

"Nothing," Michelle said. "If it's terrifying to us, imagine what it's going to do to the person who's causing it."

"We can't tell him nothing," Elena said.

"He's eight."

"Exactly. He's curious, and he's stubborn, and we're going to have to work with him even harder now that we know what's going on. We have to tell him something."

"Have to tell me what?"

Elena gasped and whirled to face Sam, whose head peeked out of the bathroom. His curls were plastered down to his head, and he was wrapped in a towel.

Michelle went over to stand by Elena. "It's really nothing, Sam."

"Yeah. Nothing," Elena said. "Just that . . . we're going to have to keep working really hard for the next couple of days."

Sam cocked his head.

Elena rubbed the back of her neck. "How long have you been listening?"

"I just heard I'm going to have to work really hard."

She let out her breath. "Yes."

"On my powers?"

Elena nodded. "And you're going to have to trust us. We're going to tell you to do things, and you're just going to have to do them, even if you don't like it or don't understand it."

Michelle elbowed Elena in the ribs.

Sam wrinkled up his nose, but nodded. "What do I need to do?"

"Well, for one thing," Michelle said, "you're going to have to give me all the addresses you can remember for the other houses you've lived at."

He shrank back. "I don't want to go there!"

Michelle raised her eyebrows. "Sam."

A pause, and he sighed. "Okay."

"You get back in there and get dressed, Sam. You're going to need to be ready to work with Elena just after she finishes something for me."

Sam disappeared back into the bathroom, and Michelle turned to Elena and Patrick. "Call your families," she said.

Patrick nodded and took his phone out of his pocket.

Elena winced. "You don't know—"

"I'm sick and tired of this, Elena. You don't want to talk about it. You weren't abused, it's just bad, it's just awkward. You think things aren't awkward with my family, too?"

"I—"

"Call your mom."

Elena swallowed hard. "Yes, ma'am."