"How could you be so stupid?" The words came hurtling out before he could stop them. In retrospect, maybe he would have asked the same question in kinder words, but with all the hurt swelling up inside of him, he couldn't pick and choose his words with that much care. They remained out of his reach in a murky sea of thoughts.

"Everyone else on this island lives without their magic. What makes you think you're so special?" It wasn't a rhetorical question. It was one he wanted he answered. But he didn't think she had an answer, or at least not a satisfactory one. And there was something systematic about his line of questioning, a series of logical steps that she had so recklessly skipped over. "There's an alien on the Council who's human now. Why would he change and you wouldn't? A simple visit to the doctors would have at least given you an idea, but did you do that? If you really thought nothing would happen, why did you do it in the first place? Because then it looks like arrogance, Claire. Doing something just because you can. And I don't think you're like that. So do you really hold your life in so little regard that you're willing to lose it on a test?" His hand shook minutely in hers, but he didn't once pull away. "I know you don't trust easily, Claire, but I didn't think you were that foolish."