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Frankie looked down at her boots and did not answer, so Jazz took her chin. “Don’t you think you can trust me with this?”
Frankie still did not answer, but Jazz tenaciously prodded. “Come on, Frankie. You told me you want to stay with me, so I guess that means you trust me, right?”
“I trust you with m’life, Miss Jazz,” Frankie said solemnly.
“I know your mom probably told you never to speak about what you are, but you and I … we are well past that, so, tell me, show me.” Jazz looked right into the girl’s sad hazel eyes.
“I be that afraid … not of ye, but of it …”
“Show me, and I’ll help you learn how to control whatever it is you are afraid of. Okay?”
She smiled at Jazz and used the word she had adopted days before. “Okay. This thing I can do … doesn’t work against people, only Fae, and m’mum said that I must never use it unless it was a last resort … something to help me escape, and she said if humans saw me do it, they would burn me as a witch.”
Jazz put an arm around her. “You know that is never going to happen. We are well past that, and no one can see you use this ‘thing’ of yours, as we are on warded and concealed ground. Humans and Dark Fae can’t see us here, so trust me.”
“Okay,” Frankie said and smiled.
“First, tell me, have you ever used this against a Fae?”
Frankie shook her head. “Never had to. Always pretended not to see them.”
“But if one was coming at you, and you needed to escape, this would be something that would buy you time?”
“Yes,” Frankie said gravely. “I call it my fireball.”
“Show me.” Excitement infiltrated Jazz’s system.
Frankie concentrated with her eyes closed and held her hands out, palms up. Sparks began to fly in a circular motion around both her palms. The sparks attached to one another in quick order and within moments formed a ball the size of a baseball.
Jazz clapped her hands and said, “Throw it at an imaginary Fae. Think … there it is, right in front of you … twenty feet.”
“I’ve never tried to throw it,” Frankie said tentatively. “I was always afraid someone would see.”
“No one will see. Throw it, sweetie, with all your might!”
Frankie threw the ball, and it went well past the distance of twenty feet and landed in the tall grass. It ignited a small fire, and Frankie again surprised Jazz by closing her eyes, blowing softly, and extinguishing the blaze. She said solemnly, “Don’t want to burn the field.”
Jazz hugged her. “That was superb! Frankie, I am going to work with you and teach you to control your fireballs so that you can perfect your skills.”
“M’mum said that the fireball once thrown will attach itself to a Fae and then remove their magic from them long enough for me to run and hide,” Frankie said in that lilting Irish as though she were reciting a poem. “But I don’t know if it would really work, as I never used it.”
“I wonder …” Jazz said, formulating an idea.
Frankie now began to chatter as she shook her head and shrugged. “M’mum didn’t have the fireball magic in her. She said she had speed and the sight … little more, but that she thought I might grow up to be the most powerful of all Fios. Said it was in our blood.”
“Speed? How fast can you run, Frankie?” Jazz asked excitedly.
“Well, now, Miss Jazz, I can run … very fast.” Frankie beamed, but then her smile vanished. “I used to run from Farmer Higgens when he first brought me to his farm. He would drink and call me lazy and raise a hand to me, and I used to run, but it only made it worse for me the next time.”
Jazz hugged her again and thought of going back to visit Higgens to teach him a lesson he would never forget. “Never mind that, because he will never hurt you again.”
“There is something else—I heal … very quickly. M’mum said it only proved I was meant to do great things.” Frankie shuffled her feet. “He noticed it … Farmer Higgens, he noticed that I healed quickly, and it would make him angry … and he would hit me again.” She sighed. “I heal, but I do feel the hurt, ye know.”
Jazz held Frankie’s shoulders. “When you are done, you will be a proficient little fighter, and you will have all your Fios skills lined up and ready to use. You will be the greatest Fios ever born. I can feel it, Frankie.”
“But …”
“You will be a force, Frankie. Right now, we have a Dark Fae Prince by the name of Hordly, and he means us harm. He is here in the past by mistake, and we are going to have to find a way to send him back to where he came from before he does something in the past to terribly alter the future.”
