Making Fate

Not liking this at all, I hesitated and narrowed my eyes, trying to see through the glamor to establish what, exactly, the car was.

 

All I saw was a twisting shape, though. Not demonic. Fae, but the bad kind of Fae. Probably only following me because I was magic, probably nothing personal. I didn’t think, anyway, that I had done anything to upset the Winter Court.

 

“Ho!” I called.

 

Somebody got out of the car. Somebody unseelie, I could see the overlay of their glamor, a tall, thin man, and their elfin self. “A godling.”

 

“You followed me.” Not an accusation. Not really. A mere statement of fact.

 

“Of course I did.”

 

“I’m not here to interfere with whatever you’re worried I’ll interfere with. Unless you push me.”

 

That unseelie feeling meant that this one was up to no good, firmly so, but I was willing to ignore it unless he decided to make it my business.

 

Which I had a feeling he would.

 

I continued, “Wouldn’t even have known you were there if you hadn’t started tailing me.”

 

He snorted. “Don’t trust your kind.”

 

“Mutual.” Which wasn’t entirely true. I didn’t have a huge problem with fairies.

 

But I had a problem with this one. He stank. He radiated a feeling of wrongness almost equal to a demon, something which I wanted to purge with fire.

 

“So, what assurance do I have that you won’t?”

 

“My word.”

 

“Not good enough.” He glanced past me, and then made a run for the car and Kanesha.

 

Who jumped out and drew her sword. Seeing that, I elected not to trip him, this time. I figured she could handle it.

 

I was right. She stepped to the side and had the blade across his chest.

 

“You even think to touch her and if she doesn’t kill you herself, I will.” I strode over to the Unseelie. “Congratulations. You’ve made me very interested in your affairs.”

 

Kanesha was grinning a bit, although I could see the tension in her. She didn’t have any resistance to fairy magic. He was going to try something.

 

No, he was going to whirl on me…and start to prepare a spell.

 

“Oh, don’t bother. Go back to fairy, and I’ll forget we had this meeting.”

 

I hadn’t forgotten about the car.

 

I wasn’t even surprised when it turned into a chariot drawn by two scaled horses.

 

Kanesha was trying to get him in the back, but he was just too fast. I dived to avoid the spell, rolling to come up next to our vehicle. My sword was on the floor in the back. I tried to get the door open, but he managed to get off a different spell.

 

One which apparently electrified the outside of our car. Neat trick. I had to give him tactical points for it.

 

So, I had to do this unarmed. I wasn’t taking Kanesha’s blade.

 

Especially as she got him in the shoulder. He hissed…and then abruptly ran.

 

His chariot charged us, although not to hit, but just to slow us down before it ran after him.

 

“What was that about? It’s steel, not cold iron.”

 

“I don’t know. Maybe fairies don’t like dwarven steel? Maybe he just can’t handle a bit of pain.”

 

Most likely he realized it was dwarven and decided not to mess with people who might be allied to dwarves. Or something. “Let’s get out of here before he comes back with friends.”

 

The car was no longer electrified. Kanesha drove. I rode a rather more literal shotgun than normal, blade next to me. But we were definitely thinking about stopping whatever that fairy was up to.

 

It couldn’t be anything good, and I wasn’t just judging by Unseelieness at this point, although that was usually a fair bet.

 

“So, what do we do?”

 

“I think…we find a place where we can talk to the Summer Court.”

 

“Good call!” Kanesha grinned at me. “Nearest wood should work?”

 

“If I can find a fairy ring.” Which might be challenging, but she pulled up in a tiny little park that was mostly trees.

 

It should work, and I started to search while Kanesha kept watch. I wasn’t about to take on a group of Unseelie fae of uncertain power.

 

But the Summer Court needed to know they’d decided to attack me. Or he had. I could be nice and assume he was acting, if not alone, then at least without direct orders from anyone else.

 

I could decide only to be mad with him.

 

And there. Fairy ring. “Wish we had a witch.”

 

Kanesha shrugged, stepped forward, and held just the tip of her sword inside the ring.

 

It shimmered, and she pulled back the blade before the portal opened. I was starting to think the dwarves had not been entirely honest about that sword.

 

Or perhaps not entirely honest with me. It would be a very dwarf kind of thing to not tell me everything my girlfriend’s sword could do so she could surprise me. And really, it wasn’t strictly necessary that I knew.

 

A fairy stepped through. Her first words were, “Point that somewhere else.”

 

Kanesha laughed, and sheathed the sword. “Happy.”

 

“Dwarven steel in mortal hands. That has not happened for centuries.” Then she turned to me. “Ah. And I see why.”

 

Aha. So it was just a dwarven steel thing.

 

“I protect those I care about.”

 

“So, what do you want?”

 

I considered it for a long moment, then, “Little problem with an Unseelie Sidhe who chose to attack me and mine.”

 

“Ah. That one. We really need to work out the best thing to do about him.”

 

I smiled. “I can help.”

 

She found us a place that sold burgers, fries, and the best fruit pies I’d had in my memory.

 

I had a dim memory that dwarven pies were better, from perhaps some childhood trip, but it was still behind a veil. Existing, but not fully retrievable. But I couldn’t…no, I could relax.

 

I just couldn’t pretend to be normal. It would be lying to myself. And I spent enough time lying.

 

But I could be me, on vacation. That was probably better anyway. I finished my pie slice and sat back with a sigh. “I wonder if this place ships frozen pies.”

 

“Mmm…that would be good, wouldn’t it. Except we’d never agree on a flavor.”

 

“That’s why we get all of the flavors.” Well, maybe not all, but. “Stock up.”

 

“Hrm. Maybe we could get one of those coolers on the way back.”

 

Reluctantly, “I think it’s slightly too far, and Angrboda’s not around to do a cold spell for us.”

 

Kanesha laughed. “I bet she would, though.”

 

“Oh, she’d want something from me in return, but she’d do it.” I still wasn’t sure why she liked me, it was an awkward friendship. But it was definitely a genuine one.

 

“Well…we should probably get the check?”

 

I was in no hurry to move, perhaps having eaten slightly too much pie. But Kanesha was right – somebody else would want the table. “I don’t want to go back to normal.”

 

“What’s normal?”

 

“Being shot at.”

 

She laughed. “Or fireballed at, more likely, of late.” She tailed off as the waiter came over with the check.

 

Hopefully he hadn’t heard. Or he had misheard it as something more legitimate.

 

I knew we couldn’t entirely rely on that phenomenon, though. But…it was nice to know most people would mishear us.

 

And we got out of there with no incident. It was only the next day that we grew a tail.

 

It was a blue car, battered, rusty, no front license plate. Very convenient, that, but wherever we stopped, it parked nearby.

 

At lunch, I glanced at Kanesha. “You see that, right?”

 

“Yeah. Shall we?”

 

“You stay with the car, just in case they have friends.” I headed over to the blue car. For all I knew it was a friend, but I doubted it.

 

And I smelled something very off about the car as I approached.

 

Something not dissimilar to the Valkyrie’s steeds, but something…not nearly as clean and pure.

 

We didn’t get out of there before noon. The diner gave us free sandwiches, but wanting to get clear, we took them with us.

 

“I wonder who they were.”

 

“I’m still thinking some kind of safehouse. I don’t know. For all I know…or care…they were mob.”

 

She laughed. “Maybe.”

 

“Mob, CIA, foreign spies, I don’t care, they got me shot at, so lunch is only a small repayment.” Not that I was as annoyed as that. I still took the first driving shift, figuring I was likely to have less of the shakes than she was.

 

The road was clear, though, the city in our rear view mirror. I hoped that was the worst thing that would happen.

 

“It’s better food, though.”

 

“I still think whoever they escorted out that night was the chef being fired.”

 

Kanesha laughed, and made a gun shape with her hand.

 

“Hey, don’t joke about terminating people.” It was tasteless. It was still funny, much like a game of Cards Against Humanity, which Clara had managed to sneak past her parents and introduce us to.

 

“I don’t think it was, or I wouldn’t joke.”

 

I just kept us going north. At least we didn’t have a schedule, or a plan. Just…the road and each other.

 

And that tension knot in my stomach had finally relaxed some. A mundane issue, or what seemed to be, had sort of reminded me not everything was my problem.

 

Then I thought of the girl in the subway.

 

That wasn’t my problem either. My real issue was that I wanted everything to be my problem.

 

I wanted the power to fix them all, but I didn’t have it. And I… “You know. I want to fix everything.”

 

“Yup.”

 

“And I both want and don’t want more power. How mixed up is that?”

 

“Very, but it’s part of why I love you. You want the responsibility but not the power. Wrong way around.”

 

I laughed. I wondered how right she was. Thinking about it, I fell silent as the miles rolled past under our wheels.

 

Kanesha had her phone out and was looking for restaurants.

 

But I no longer felt any kind of normal.

 

The broad-shouldered man went down a moment later, but there was no sound of a shot.

 

I wasn’t even sure how she’d done it, before she turned her attention to us. At that point, she drew a gun.

 

Kanesha ducked under the table. I followed her, but I could hear her walk over. Something strange about her gait.
Almost like a concealed limp, hidden behind the training she demonstrated, hidden within her ability.

 

Sensing that hiding under the table would not do it, I waited until the last possible moment before exploding out from under it.

 

She wasn’t expecting that. The gun went off, the bullet hitting the bench. “Hello,” I said as I reached for her gun hand. “I don’t appreciate being randomly attacked.”

 

She hissed. “I can’t leave witnesses.”

 

“Sorry to disappoint you.” She was fast.

 

I was faster, my hand striking into her jaw and then her solar plexus. She dropped the gun and doubled over. Honestly, I’d probably done some real damage.

 

Yeah.

 

I’d broken her jaw. I didn’t feel bad about it at all. I grabbed her gun and stood up. “Kanesha, check on that guy.”

 

The waitress was coming out of the back room with a gun.

 

“I think this is your trash,” I said, holding the woman’s weapon on her, but she was too busy trying to hold her jaw together.

 

“He’s still alive,” Kanesha said. “But stabbed. The knife’s stuck in him.”

 

Which was why she’d pulled the much more obvious gun. “Don’t pull it out.”

 

The waitress nodded. “I’ll call for an ambulance. Are you hurt?”

 

“No. I guess she thought you guys had a lot of cash.”

 

She looked at me. Looked at Kanesha. Then, she winked at me and went behind the counter to find the phone.

 

She knew I knew it wasn’t that. I knew she knew I knew. We could both pretend we didn’t know and then she wouldn’t have to arrest or silence me.

 

I did have contacts, anyway. I wasn’t asking what this was really about. But this did mean we were stuck here waiting for the cops.

 

Having called them, she found some twist tie handcuffs and secured the woman. “I’ll vouch for the fact that she was trying to kill you.”

 

“Thanks.” And she had been. The fact that she wouldn’t have succeeded was immaterial.

 

My adrenalin levels were still up, though. Also, I was rather annoyed that something that wasn’t even anything to do with me was interrupting our vacation.

 

We did make it back to the motel. “If that superhero’s the worst thing…” Then Kanesha burst out laughing. “I think we met Callisto.”

 

“Calwhatsit?”

 

“The leader of the Morlocks in Marvel comics. Mutants who live in tunnels and abandoned subway stations under New York.”

 

I laughed a bit myself. “I think your theory fits.”

 

“I wonder if there are any more like her. At least she seems to have the sense not to try to be Supergirl.”

 

“Although she’d have looked good in the dress.”

 

Kanesha pretended to punch me. We decided not to bother leaving too early in the morning and slept in.

 

I wasn’t comfortable, though. I woke up early again, and this time I had a sense of alarm that almost had me running for the car and our weapons.

 

A sense of something, anyway. Maybe it was just paranoia from things being so quiet, but I wasn’t about to count on that.

 

So, I stayed awake, lying on my back and thinking. New York probably didn’t need us. Well, maybe “Callisto” did, but the help she needed was more mundane than anything.

 

DC did.

 

Or had I brought…I couldn’t help but think that anywhere I went would end up needing my protection from what would follow me. Which wasn’t fair. I was the one who had earned exile, not the people I met every day, not Kanesha.

 

And it wasn’t even supposed to be a punishment for me. But what could I do? I didn’t know, and when she finally got up, we checked out then went to get breakfast.

 

The same diner. The same weird tension, and I would be glad to be out of here. I had waffles and bacon, munching on them slowly. “I’m not comfortable.”

 

Kanesha nodded. “This place is creepy.”

 

“No, I think it’s something else. Spider sense activated or whatever.”

 

“Well, I parked close to the door.”

 

I was glad of that. “I’ll take the morning driving shift this time,” I offered.

 

“Thanks.” She glanced at the door.

 

So did I. A man came in, six feet tall and almost the same broad. I did not like the look of him for a moment, then I noticed the slender woman behind him.

 

Not him. Her. She moved like she was trained to fight, and from Kanesha’s tension I knew she was picking up on it too. She was a pretty good hand to hand combatant herself, after all.

 

“I think we should pay and leave.”

 

It was, of course, too late.

 

“Only if you don’t keep us too long, we have to get back to a motel in New Jersey before the last train.” The subway ran all night, but not everything did.

 

She frowned, then nodded. “You’re a superhero.”

 

My eyes widened.

 

“I mean, like me.”

 

I glanced at Kanesha. She looked like she was thoughtful. “Let’s talk somewhere we aren’t scaring civilians.”

 

She ducked into a maintenance tunnel. I followed, wishing I’d changed my shoes. This wasn’t a fun place for high heels.

 

“I have superpowers. And I’ve been using them to…protect people who don’t quite fit in. Well, mostly…mostly abused kids.”

 

“You’re a witch,” Kanesha said, firmly. “There’s no such thing as superpowers. You’ve just kind of…made your magic work that way instead of spells.”

 

That made sense. “I think she’s right. You look like a witch to me.”

 

“Does…does it matter? Maybe I’m like Wanda Maximoff.”

 

I grinned. “Maybe. Anyway. Look. I’m from out of town. And I’m leaving again. There’s not much I can do to help you…right now.”

 

“What do you need?” Kanesha asked.

 

“Money,” she admitted. “Money would be helpful. A cop we could trust…” She must have seen me flinch, because she trailed off.

 

“Money I can’t do right now, but might be able to in the future.” A pause. “All of my good contacts are in DC.”

 

“No wonder you don’t have money,” the girl quipped, weakly. “I hear it’s even worse than Manhattan.”

 

“It’s close to the same, really. But yeah, that’s why we don’t have money.”

 

She brushed back her dirty blonde hair – she was very pale, perhaps she only came out at night. “I just. I felt you were like me or something like me and I panicked.”

 

“I’ll see what I can do for you and your people,” I promised. Maybe it was a foolish promise, maybe it wasn’t one I should be making. But it felt right to make it, and I worded it in a way that wouldn’t make me an oathbreaker if I failed.

 

“People always say that.”

 

“I mean it. I can’t promise, because I don’t know what will happen. But…if you’re taking in abused kids, well, I doubt foster care is any better here than there.”

 

“They send them back to their parents. I mean, the only kind of abuse those people count is a belt.”

 

Which meant other, more subtle kinds of abuse. “I know what you mean.”

 

I frowned. But I didn’t ask to be shown her refuge. I did wonder if Kara might be interested in helping them, though, if it really was her I’d so briefly sensed. “I’ll talk to some people.”

 

“And I apologize for shooting you.”

 

“At least you shot me, not…”

 

“It would only have knocked you out.”

 

So she could tie me up or something, I supposed. I was just as glad it hadn’t worked.

 

We changed into something more suited to dinner and theater in a public toilet, which wasn’t ideal, but it was better than going all the way back to the motel.

 

And anything that wasn’t perfect I would make look perfect. There were advantages to being what I was. Three course pre-dinner menu. Then the show, which really was good. I had started to relax. Nothing was going to happen.

 

And if it did, I suspected Kieran would help us out. Depending. If it was one of his friends mistaking me for a bad guy, of course, that would be a problem. But I rather thought he’d put out the word.

 

Something would have happened otherwise. Or maybe it was just waiting until we left the theater, with a long trip back on the late night subway. I wasn’t about to change back, either.

 

So, if anyone tried to mug us, they’d get a nasty surprise.

 

Of course, that wasn’t what happened. Nothing that mundane. I had decided that I really was on vacation and off duty and was not going to interfere with anything. I was going to leave it to the locals.

 

We were changing trains, a quiet subway station, when I felt something hit me in the back. “Down!” I yelled.

 

Kanesha…and the few people in the station…obeyed. I turned. I hadn’t been shot, I’d been hit by some kind of a spell.

 

Whatever it was, I’d shaken it off. It probably wasn’t potent enough to affect an Asgardian. My eyes scanned the platform for anyone who hadn’t hit the deck. Kanesha was murmuring something which included “stay” and “down.”

 

There they were, a woman, at the far end. I moved towards her. She looked startled.

 

“Lesson one, I’m not a demon.”

 

“You’re on my turf,” she snarled.

 

“What, everything under New York?” I was being sardonic.

 

“Exactly. So, get out.”

 

Presumably she hadn’t bothered us earlier because it was daytime. “As soon as I get to my destination. You really expect us to take a cab?”

 

She looked…a little startled. “I’m…” Drawing herself up.

 

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re a very talented young lady.” She was maybe a year older than I appeared, tops, but waiflike. “But you’re out of your weight class, as you may already have noticed.”

 

She scowled. Having failed to do whatever she’d planned with the spell and failed to intimidate me, she wasn’t sure what to do.

 

“Oh, relax. I’m on vacation, and only mildly irritated.”

 

“You’ll hurt people.”

 

“If I was going to hurt anyone, it would be you, and you fired first.” I kept my eyes on her. “I don’t care what you’re doing down here, as long as you aren’t killing people. Even then, I really am on vacation.”

 

“What are you?”

 

“Something, like I said, out of your weight class.” I almost felt sorry for her.

 

A pause, then, a sheepish, “Can we…talk?”

 

I still felt as if we were being watched as we got lunch, followed by ice cream, at a small cafe in Central Park. Then we went to the Met.

 

“We’re being watched, aren’t we.”

 

I nodded. “That Kieran guy and his coven, I suspect. They aren’t sure of us, and I don’t blame them. Especially if he knows who I am.”

 

“Fathers,” Kanesha grumbled. “Although I’d rather have yours than mine.”

 

She had a point.

 

Loki hadn’t abandoned me. Even when he was supposed to, even when I didn’t know who I was, he had still been there, in the background.

 

Still watching me. He wasn’t a bad father, I thought. And he hadn’t been to the others either.

 

Except for my full brothers. But had that been his failure?

 

What had he done, I wondered suddenly, to ensure my safety. Had my exile been in part his choice? A way of keeping me from their fate?

 

“I have a surprise,” I said, finally. “You know how I made sure we had nice clothes in my bag?”

 

“What is it?”

 

I pulled out the tickets.

 

“Oh! You…I’d say you didn’t have to, but I know you.”

 

I grinned. “And we have dinner reservations too. Why do you think I cheaped out on the hotel?”

 

Because, well, I’d rather spend the money on food and entertainment than a larger room we only intended to sleep in.

 

She laughed. “I was expecting you to choose Wicked.”

 

“Nah. I figured you’d like this better.”

 

And if it got ruined, then whoever was responsible was dead.

 

She threw her arms around me, not caring about the PDA. Of course, anyone who recognized us would be witches or the like and from what I’d seen, far less likely to care than the general population.

 

Anyone else would see, yes, a pair of lesbians, but they wouldn’t know who we were. Or maybe nobody noticed, because she planted a kiss on my lips and nobody challenged us to get a room.

 

Maybe people in New York really minded their own business as much as their reputation said. I grinned and tucked the Hamilton tickets back into my pocket before we headed out of the museum.

 

Before I ended up dropping them.

 

We could not quite get public transport from the motel, so we drove a few blocks. I thought of checking out, but knew we’d be back.

 

Part of me didn’t like the idea of leaving our stuff there, though, for no rational reason. Well, no rational reason other than my enemies having burned me out before. So, yeah, I had a rational reason.

 

But anything irreplaceable was in the car. I wasn’t about to take weapons into a motel, if nothing else.

 

Of course, then we had to leave the car locked. I contemplated – I’d managed to hide a sword on the Metro before, but I wasn’t as comfortable with this. Eventually, I decided to take the risk.

 

And we rode the subway into New York. I could feel that same sense of presence. So many people.

 

Some of them were bound to be different. Witches, vampires, angels, demons. I was pretty sure I sensed the edge of the aura of at least one Valkyrie. Maybe Kara.

 

I wasn’t sure, but if it was her, maybe we should swing by. No, I was on vacation. “Central Park first?” I suggested.

 

Kanesha grinned. “Before it gets hot.”

 

It wouldn’t be quite as hot as DC, but she had a point. And then, as a surprise for her, I had Broadway tickets. It might not have been the show I would have picked for myself, but it was for her.

 

We got off in Central Park, walking through it. It was easy to pretend there was not a huge city around us, except for the slight peeking vision of the skyscrapers above the trees.

 

And, of course, the people. It was a weekday morning, but there were still plenty of them. Of course, school was still out, so a lot of them were teenagers.

 

“I like this place.”

 

I nodded to her. “It…isn’t as tense as the Mall, is it.”

 

“The Mall always seems to be people taking brief lunch breaks and checking their watches, or trying to get in every Smithsonian museum in a day.”

 

I laughed at that. “A week, maybe. Two would be better.”

 

“They don’t seem to understand, do they.”

 

“Do I understand what to do in New York?” I asked her.

 

“Do you?” came a voice from nearby. A figure in a trenchcoat. “What are you doing in town?”

 

“Vacation,” I said even as I turned to face the figure, narrowing my eyes. Local witch. Male, for a change.

 

“Ah.”

 

“I’m not here for trouble, although I’ll deal with it if it finds me anyway.” I smiled at him.

 

He nodded. “You know I have to check.”

 

“Oh, I’d do the same thing. Call me Jane for now…and this is Kanesha.”

 

“Kieran,” he introduced, offering a hand. “I doubt I need to tell you what I am.” His eyes flicked over Kanesha, but he didn’t seem bothered.

 

“I already know I don’t need to tell you.” I laughed a bit. “But we really are on vacation.”

 

I hoped he’d believe me.