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towards the White Mountain and my strange, unknown destiny.
    Before I reached the edge of town, I saw the one person I didn't want to see. The only thing in my favor was that he was alone. Normally I would have cut through the woods, but because of the horse and the direction I needed to go, I had to stick to the road. I avoided looking at him and tried to use the horse as a barrier. It didn’t work.
    “Going somewhere, Hellsfire?” Nathan asked, sauntering up to me.
    “No.”
    “Then what's with all this? Did you steal it? Where could you have gotten the money from?”
    “That's none of your business.”
    “I'm making it my business.” Nathan said, blocking my path.
    I met his eyes. “I don't want any trouble. Not today.”
    “That's too bad.”
    Nathan grabbed the reins from my hands and shoved me hard. I fell to the ground, landing on a rock. My cloak shielded me from the worst of it, but I was still going to have a bruise on my back.
    Nathan loomed over me and laughed. “At least it wasn't mud.” From the look in his eyes, he wished it was.
    He started walking off with my horse. I scrambled to my feet. “Stop!”
    He turned around and gave me a quizzical look.
    “It ends here,” I said.
    “It does, does it? It ends when I say it ends.”
    Nathan stormed over to me. I balled my fist, but he was too big, strong, and fast for me. I was knocked to the ground again, grunting in pain.
    My hand went to the dagger secured at my waist. I wanted to get revenge for all the pain Nathan had caused me over the years. For a moment I thought about drawing, but then I let go of the hilt. That wasn't why my mother had given me the dagger. I wasn't going to let her down. All I wanted was my horse and supplies. I wasn't leaving without them, and he wasn't taking them.
    I tried to get up again, but he yelled and hit me as hard as he could. I fell to the ground once more, breathing dirt instead of air.
    “Why won't you stay down?” Nathan asked.
    Blood trickled from the left side of my mouth. I ran my hand over my bruised cheek, feeling how bad a mark I was going to have.
    “Please,” I said, gasping for air. The fire within me roared. The heat boiled against my body as I struggled to contain it. “Stop. I don't want to hurt you.” That was a lie. A part of me did want to hurt him for all the times he had beaten and humiliated me. All I had to do was let go. But I was afraid of my uncontrollable power. I didn't want to kill him.
    “Hurt me? That's a joke.”
    Nathan bent down to hit me again. I put my hand up to try and stop him. All the pent-up emotion—the frustration, the anger, the pain—poured out. It became fire and funneled towards him.
    Nathan’s eyes widened in surprise. He was quick enough to turn at the last second. The flame still scorched the right side of his face. He fell to the ground, howling.
    I rushed to him, smothering the lingering flame. His once handsome face was scorched and blistered. I reached out, trying to see if there was anything I could do to help him.
    He slapped my hand away. “Get away from me, you freak!” His expression, normally full of so much anger and hatred, had changed into something I'd never seen before on his face. I had recently seen it on my mother’s. “You really are a monster!”
    Nathan forced himself up, wincing in pain with every movement. He ran, stumbling and falling because of how often he looked back at me.
    I checked to see if anyone had seen what happened. I breathed easier when I saw no one. I thought of returning to my mother and warning her of what had just happened. There were bound to be plenty of questions and accusations. I had no idea what she would tell them. If she was lucky, no one would believe Nathan. They all knew what he did to me, even if they didn't stop it. They might eveninterpret it as me besting him.
    The only thing I knew was that I couldn't stay here any longer. If an outburst like this happened while other people were around, they