The explosion came without warning, a thunderclap of noise that rang in her ears even as the fiery force of it tore her house apart and rendered her airborne, arms flailing. She flew twenty feet away, body bouncing like a doll that had been thrown by an angry child. The breath was punched from her chest. Stars twinkled at her as she stared skyward. But then they started to move, dancing before her very eyes like fireflies. Not fireflies or stars, she realized. Sparks and charred debris flung free by the detonation sailed overhead, most of them bitesize chunks of wood or unidentifiable objects. Something loomed larger, spinning end over end. An entire log, still aflame, picked up by the explosion like it weighed nothing.

Bryony could tell from its trajectory that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still unable to pull more than a wheezing gasp through her throat, Bryony tried to move. Everything hurt, even her teeth, which had clacked together violently when she’d landed. She felt like an invisible hand was pinning her to the ground.

The flaming log spiraled closer.

Come on, she growled, though no words spilled from her lips, just a croaky “Urrr…” Come on come on come on you are iron you are iron you are—

She rolled, the pain excruciating. All the way over she went, face jammed in the mud but then rotating free to look into the sky again where—

The fiery log was upon her now, still too close for comfort so, with another groan of pain and determination, she rolled again.

BOOM!

The log landed with the force of a falling tree, showering her with sparks that nipped at her flesh, sharp burning bursts of pain that she didn’t feel, because they were nothing compared to the pain that erupted from her leg. She screamed, immediately blinded by her own tears.

She writhed and howled, trying to drag her leg free of the pressure and the burn and the endless pain. But she was pinned by the log’s weight, its fire licking at her skin.

She screamed and begged and yelled for her father. To come. To help her. To save her. Please oh please oh please oh…

Please.

He never came.

It was another hand that held hers as she cried when her mangled leg and foot were sawed off by the surgeon in order to save her life. It was another voice that soothed her in the night when the pain tore her from her flame-filled nightmares. And it was a family of killers that eventually welcomed her into their fold a few years later.

She never saw him again.