Valkyrie made herself smile. “Hey, the pair of you, snap out of it. Alice slept through the whole thing and I’m fine.”

A nurse came over. “Excuse me? I just have to bandage up your arm.”

“Bandage away,” Valkyrie said.

The nurse smiled, started working. “I heard what happened,” she said. “They’re all talking about it. I thought you might like to know that the man who attacked you is being treated in a secure room, surrounded by three very angry-looking Guards. You broke four of his ribs, his nose, his jaw, cracked three fingers, knocked out three teeth, and gave him a concussion. He was seeing two of you, do you know that?”

Valkyrie’s mother blinked. “Stephanie did all that?”

“She sure did,” said the nurse. She secured the bandage in place. “I’ll be right back with the paperwork.”

The nurse walked off. Valkyrie’s parents stared at her.

“What?” Valkyrie asked as innocently as she could. “I’ve been taking self-defence lessons at the gym. Hard Target Krav Maga type stuff. Combatives, things like that. It’s really not a big deal.”

“But he was a grown man,” her mother said.

“There’s not really a lot of point to self-defence if you can’t use it against just that type of person. Oh, Mum, your vase got broken. The one in the hall. Sorry.”

Her mum blinked. “That’s… quite all right. It was an ugly vase and I never liked it anyway.”

“See?” Valkyrie beamed. “It’s worked out well for everybody.”

“Are you sure you’re not in shock?”

“Honestly, I’m good. I’m just glad Dad wasn’t there or he’d have thrown him through another window.”

Her mum smiled, and hugged her husband. “I have a family of fighters,” she said. “Alice, it looks like it’s up to you and me to be the reasonable ones.”

Alice gurgled.

Her parents drove her home. It was weird, sitting in the back seat of a car. She almost felt like a kid. Music was playing and she started singing softly to Alison. Alison smiled, and Valkyrie laughed.

They got home and spent the evening cleaning up the mess. There was a knock on the door and her dad went to answer it. He came back in, paused, then spoke. “Fletcher’s here,” he said. “I told him if he’s here to argue with you, he should just walk away. But he said he’s not. Maybe you should talk to him.”

Her mum nodded. “He’s a nice boy. He deserves it.”

“Yeah,” Valkyrie said. “I know.” She took a breath, then walked into the hall. Fletcher stood in the doorway. She stuffed her hands in her jeans. “Hi,” she said.

He looked at her. “Go for a walk?”

“Sure.”

He turned, started walking down the path. She followed him out, closing the door behind her. They walked towards the park.