He answered it as I whirled towards the door, wishing I still had my phone. Then I could have found out what was happening. As it was…

I glanced to Mr. Sams. “Why don’t I step outside while you take that?”

“It’s somebody looking for you. Social services.”

If I ran off after he’d told them I was there, what would that look like? If I didn’t.

If I didn’t, people would die.

“Tell them I’m here, but not up to talking to them quite yet.” Before he could stop me, I ran from the room.

Now they knew I was alive they’d put me in another group home, wherever there was space, and Kanesha in a different one, and both would be in too much danger. I should have just kept running.

I should have let Mr. Sams think I was dead, but I wasn’t capable of that kind of disloyalty.

Fidelity. Fidelity and chaos. Warring within me…a lot of things made sense when thought of that way and I ran out into the street.

Mike was holding off one of the fire giants with his gun. Warwick was crouched behind the car with Kanesha.

I felt the red rage start within me. And this time, I let it flow. I couldn’t kill them out of fear that eye witnesses would see me killing humans.

I could, though, give them the scare of their immortal lives. The sword was in my hand without the conscious thought to draw it. And it blazed.

I wasn’t sure how I was doing that, but I felt something within me. Frost and fire and something else.

And I had no idea what I looked like in that moment, but one of them ran. The other closed on me.

“This stops now. You do not get to burn my friends.”

“You mean your pets,” the giant spat, a sword of flame seeming to form in his hands.

“Either way.” I kept my tone even, despite the red rising within. I had to keep it under some control or I might hurt Kanesha or Mike. “Either way they’re under my protection. And do you really, really think that hurting those protected by one your King would like to make his queen is what he wants?”

I could see the eyes now, in amongst the fire. They showed doubt and he started to back away.

“Go home now. If you do anything else like this, if any of your people do, I will kill you.” I meant it, too. Or at the very least I would die trying.

And he fled. I turned back to Mike, Warwick and Kanesha. “You guys okay?”

“Good job he didn’t call your bluff.”
“I was counting on him not.” I didn’t tell them I was trying to scare and intimidate, to avoid the fight which might otherwise happen. “Sorry…”

“For a moment there I thought you were going to catch fire too.”

I sighed. “For a moment there, I did.”