Natalie slid off of Gwen's back. Her father flinched as the wolf growled a little, but Gwen took no notice of him. Natalie took a few steps forward, toward her dad—and with every step, she could see him grow a little more afraid.

  "Dad—" she started, but he spoke first.

  "Just stop," he murmured, echoing her own request from a minute earlier. "Please stop, Natalie. Go back."

  "...Go back to what?" she asked.

  "To you. Go back to being you."

  "That's…" Natalie shook her head, her voice still painful and raw. "That's not how it works."

  "You really want to be… this?" he asked, with so much disgust in his voice, Natalie felt like throwing up. She hurt in more ways than she could imagine.

  "I want to be me, Dad," said Natalie.

  "No."

  "It's not evil. Some…" and Natalie realized she was about to echo Cinza's words, but even so, she agreed with the sentiment. It made sense, even if she hated Cinza for betraying her… like everyone else had. "Some people do evil things with it, but it's not always bad. That's how everything works."

  "You don't understand, turtle," said her dad, and Natalie felt a thousand times worse hearing her old nickname. She'd been desperate for it for so long, but now, in this moment, it couldn't have pierced her more. "You haven't had time to learn how the world really works yet."

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  "I know how the world works," said Natalie. "I hate it."

  "And you want to let them have this kind of power?" he asked. "Where people are ripped apart by cruel magic they can't control, where innocent bystanders are killed?"

  "I—"

  "Jenny wasn't the first," said her dad. His voice was dark and full of rage. Natalie quivered—she'd never heard him talk like this before. His eyes were narrow, burning with some inner fire she didn't recognize. "I've seen it happen. I've seen men who thought they could control magic, and it burned them. Tortured them from the inside out. So many have died, and it'll keep spreading. It'll get even worse."

  "We can control it—"

  "Do you know why so many people follow me, turtle?" he asked. "It's not just my story. It's every other story that follows. Their children, their loved ones, their friends and family—they're all victims. People are dying because of magic."

  Natalie shook her head. "It's… it's just another thing. People would die 'cause of guns, or knives, or drugs or whatever."

  "They would," her dad agreed, confusing her for a moment. "But it would be less. Magic is too much. Every time we discover something new, some new way to kill people, more die. We're at the beginning of another horrible new tool, and we can stop it."

  "We already did," added Rat-face, unable to help himself.

  "You're wrong," Natalie shot back, glaring at him. "She'll come back."

  "Doesn't matter. Nobody's gonna awaken now that there's a huge risk, and we got time to clean up the rest."

  "What about me?" asked Natalie, turning back to face her dad. "I'm one of them," she added, with all the disgust she could muster. "What happens to me?"

  Her dad didn't answer. Natalie waited, watching him, all thought of the ongoing battle outside gone from her mind. She needed to know, now, what his choice was—what he really thought about his daughter.

  Dad… please…