I stared at my hand for a long time afterwards. Whatever this fire thing was, it was definitely getting stronger.

Or I’d forgotten I had it. And I was one quarter fire giant, so maybe…yeah.

But it had scared me almost as much as it had apparently scared Tyz’vel. Then again, a bird had implied I’d be able to take him eventually. Maybe that was the key to it.

And also the key to hurting a lot of people if I lost control. I didn’t want it, I decided. I really didn’t want it.

I turned and headed towards the bus stop. I was further away from school, but they weren’t trying to make me change, at least not yet. It wasn’t worth it, I thought. But having to take the bus every day was an annoyance.

Kanesha would, I knew, turn up later. If I hurt her, I couldn’t live with myself.

I had to talk to Thruor about this. Again. I called her from the bus, having to speak up to be heard over a loud argument between a couple towards the back.

The argument turned into a fight. I sighed. “Thruor, can we meet at my place? I need to go break something up.”

Smash.
That was a bottle breaking against one of the poles. I let myself move close to full speed, grabbing the wielder’s wrist before she could bring the broken pieces into play. It had contained olive oil, the viscous liquid dripping onto me.

Olive oil’s very flammable. But nothing happened, except that the bottle fell to the ground. The driver slammed on the brakes…and the other person involved in the fight fell to the ground. I let the one I’d grabbed go. “Quit it. Or get a room or something.”

The driver looked over his shoulder. “All of you. Off.”

Joy. I’d be walking the rest of the way home. “Hey. The kid was just breaking it up.”

There was a rumble of support. The driver, who was a large man, hopped out of his seat and paced down the aisle.

I rubbed at the olive oil on my arm. “I was actually trying to break it up.”

“Are the other two going to leave or do I have to call the transit cops?”

They both left…by different doors of the bus, and in different directions. I let out a breath. “Sorry about that.”

“Eh. You get a pass this time.” He stalked back to his seat.

I realized I was quite, quite lucky there weren’t any transit cops on the bus. On the other hand, I couldn’t exactly have let them keep fighting.

It reminded me, though, just how tired I was of the legal shenanigans. I wanted a good, honest fight.

Tyz’vel was not likely to give me one.