For the time being, I only walked, out in the general direction of the water. Streetlights lit up in advance of imminent cars and as I stepped onto the streets, turning off otherwise. Here and there they would turn on for wildlife, illuminating a lost deer or raccoon mid-scurry down the road. We’d set ourselves up so abruptly that the animals were still confused.

It was getting cooler. I wore my skirt, my clothes from earlier. My forcefield shielded against the wind, which kept it from lowering the temperature even further, but it didn’t do a lot to shield me from the ambient heat or lack thereof.

I tensed as I heard running footsteps behind me. I stopped in my tracks.

Not Crystal. She would have flown, and she would have set down well in front of me. She wouldn’t have chased, maybe.

Her, then.

I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to speak to her.

I pushed out with my aura, instead.

Another footstep, closer.

Our mother’s daughter.

I threw my arm back and to the side, a backhand swipe. I tore through lawn, through slabs of sidewalk, and the edge of the road. Dirt flew across the street alongside clumps of grass and chunks of sidewalk.

A long pause, and then I heard the footsteps again, running. This time the other way.

⊙

Gilpatrick jumped as I appeared in the doorway of his office, nearly knocking over a paper container of noodles in red sauce that rested on a stack of paper. Paperwork I would have been helping him with, had the day gone differently.

“Victoria? What’s wrong?” he asked.

So it was that obvious something was wrong.

“I need to call in a favor,” I said.

Okay, hearing my voice, I could get why he’d known. I sounded like another person entirely.

“If it’s okay,” I said.

“Of course it’s okay,” he said. “What’s wrong? Are you cold? The temperature dropped steeply tonight. What can I get you? Sit.”

He stood, circling around his desk. I backed away a little as he did, which was his cue to stop.

I wasn’t sure how to respond, how to ask.

“By the way,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s no need to count. I consider you a friend, and I feel like a piece of shit for setting you up to fail like that.”

“It’s not that,” I said. “I just need a place to stay tonight. While I figure some things out. I’ll be gone before the students arrive first thing.”

I noted the hesitation before he responded.

“Sure,” he said.

“You paused.”

“Only because it’s not really a great place for staying overnight. You could come to my apartment, but that’s—”

“I kind of want space to think,” I said. “Offer’s appreciated.”