[ Aha. Well, a kidnapping makes sense to him, at least in terms of how two little kids might have wound up in the position of sacrificial lambs. Bitterly, selfishly perhaps, Matt's annoyed at whoever the fuck this cult is. Trafficking children for some obscure sacrifice? That's exactly the shit gives magic users a bad name. Witches got dragged from their homes and thrown out of town in some parts of his world for even a wisp of rumor that they were hurting kids.

He tries to smile at Sebastian's observation. But he can't manage it: The most his lips do is twitch, like a crushed insect giving its last gasps. ]

No, [ he decides, ] that makes sense. [ For just a second, he feels so angry and devastated that he thinks he's going to cry. And Matt's so bad at disguising what he feels once he knows he feels it. But he goes someplace--the place he used to go when he got angry or upset in his teens and lights would flicker and pop in their bulbs, a place that feels like meditation, because only breath is real there. Only a gradually slowing pulse. And he doesn't cry. He's even steady as he says, ] It's like you said: Humanity is creative in a way demons aren't. And I don't know how you feel love, but ...

I wouldn't be surprised if that made us worse too.