The wind shifted. My hair danced in my face, obscuring my vision. Beyond the now-tangled locks, a blue glow appeared.
I pushed my hair back and watched the blue glow crackle through the air before me. In the center of the glow, an outline formed.
Human-shaped.
Details sketched themselves in blue light as if they had to be conjured from memory. A jacket. Trousers. A full head of hair. A neatly trimmed beard.
A hand holding a cane.
A curse slipped out before I could even think about whether my mother would be offended.
The whispery voice firmed into the buzz on an electric fence. “Zelda…”
I swallowed, finding my own voice had gone into hiding somewhere in my shoes. “Prospero.” I stepped one foot back, making myself a smaller target, and I ignited silver flames in both palms. “You’re dead.”
His hand rose, reaching for me.
All of a sudden, a screech erupted behind me. The sound ricocheted off the walls like a silver bullet, accompanied by the clatter of high-heeled footsteps over uneven ground.
“Mom! Stay back!”
She barrelled past me, a compact whirl of bouncing hair and flapping jacket and wildly waving hands. “You leave my Zelda alone, youmonster!”
“Mom, no!” But before I could say another word, she flung the cupcake box through the air.
It hurtled end over end, catching the moonlight before bursting open with a plasticky pop—and then, all twelve bite-sized cupcakes showered down on Prospero and exploded like icing-covered grenades.
Fire rolled up the sides of the buildings. My arms went up instinctively, covering myself as the smoke of burned sugar filled the air. Heat warmed my bones and fiery afterimages blinded me. Despite the panic that surged through me, I was already trying to feel my way forward. To find my poor mother, who had run straight into danger.
To protectme.
Guilt surged along with the panic. “Mom? Are you okay? Where are you?” My eyes stung from sugared smoke and tears. Finally, I stopped where I stood and scrubbed my face with Poppy’s scarf.
When I looked up, a cloud of smoke veiled the moon.
In the blackness of the alley itself, I could see nothing—
Until I saw a hunched figure, heaving with breath.
The figure straightened. Coughed. And displayed tiny flames, like pilot lights, in both palms.
Another attacker? I raised my hands, ready to fight fire with fire.Where was Mom?
“Where’d it go?” said a very familiar voice. “Did I get it?”
“Mom?” I said, unable to stop looking at her lit-up hands.
“I didn’t expect all that smoke,” she said. “Is it always like that?”
My brain slowed to a stop like rush hour traffic.
Mymother.Fire magic.
“Hello?” She waved a flaming hand at me. “Are you all right?”
“Fire magic,” I said. “How long have you—” I paused, thoughts falling into place like ham cubes falling into a skillet. “You wouldn’t hug me when you got here. You said you weresick. You weren’t sick. You didn’t want me toknow.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you—”
