Stephanie pouted her bottom lip. “I wish I could argue with you on that, but I have no data to back myself up.”

  Elizabeth chuckled and glanced around uneasily. You sound like Burt.

  They both laughed for a minute and the sound trickled around the steady beeping of Frog’s monitors. She put her cup down and looked at Stephanie. “You are Stephanie Morgana, the Federation’s first human witch. Like it or not, you will always be important. And you can fight it all you want to, scream, claw, but in the end, you will need to learn to lead people because they will follow you. You won’t have a say in that. And you may try to push them off and convince them not to, but they will still be there.”

  The girl’s fixed and serious expression didn’t change. Her eyes were locked on the foot of Frog’s bed, her thoughts almost visible. Elizabeth curled the left side of her mouth and turned to retrieve her coffee. “It’s important to remember that, Stephanie. You will be a leader, like it or not. Some of the people following will do it for good reasons, and some…well, simply because they are bat-shit crazy.”

  Stephanie shook her head. “Those bat-shit crazy ones will simply write me hate mail or stab voodoo dolls. They are the ones who will be capable of really big and really scary things. Scary as in putting my name out there so gang members hunt me down. And because of that—because of me—innocent people will be hurt.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “You need to realize that bad things will happen, whether to you, to people close to you, or to people you don’t even know. You need to accept that here and now because otherwise, it will always hold you back. Be thankful that he isn’t dead. That is something to hold onto and celebrate. We are sitting here waiting for him to wake up, not sending him to the Federation burial services to expel his ashes out into space.”

  She knew Elizabeth was right although she didn’t say anything. Frog was really lucky to be alive but it still made her sick to her stomach to see him like that. The other woman finished her coffee and tossed the cup in the bin. “I am personally glad, no matter what, that you didn’t kill anyone or get anyone killed. That could have a profound effect on someone, and I need you to stay open and receptive so that you can continue to grow stronger and wiser.”

  She slapped the girl’s leg to catch her attention. “Do you hear what I’m saying? We have an opportunity here to see the danger and attack it head-on. We get to help you figure out how to be Stephanie Morgana, Earth’s first human witch, and do it with the knowledge and know how to protect the people you care about. The people who are the most important to you. Death looming over you when you are desperately trying to learn and grow can be something incredibly hard to do. Especially with you being so young and so withdrawn for so long from the things in this world.”

  Stephanie shrugged. “Not all of it, but my parents tried hard to give me as normal a childhood as possible. Now that I see what is ahead—or could be—I am glad they did that. A few years where I can remember being worried about nothing but classes, tests, friends, and exams.”

  Elizabeth could see the sadness in the girl’s eyes. She put her arm out and pulled her into a side hug. “Come here. Believe it or not, I know how you feel. I may not be a witch, but I know what it’s like to have other’s lives in your hands and to have someone go down. It is hard, but I also understand how important it is to not allow yourself to brood about it.”

  The door to the room opened and both Stephanie and Elizabeth stood. The doctor, in his early sixties with white hair, a white Federation lab coat, and clipboard in his hands, glanced at them. He pressed his lips together and greeted them kindly. They watched as he looked at the different stats on his vitals, flipped through his file, and made a couple of notes. When he was done, he turned to them and closed the chart.

  “He will be fine,” the doctor said. “There were a couple of severe wounds, which we did some repair on. He’ll have a nasty scar and nerve damage in his shoulder from but with some physical therapy, he should be able to go back to what he was doing before this incident. Take it easy on him.”

  “Yeah,” Frog groaned, and his hand groped at nothing.

  They hurried over and Stephanie took his hand. “How are you feeling?”

  He sniffed and grimaced as he shifted a little on his back. “Like fried frog legs, but alive. And amused at your conversation. Stephanie, get over it. Shit happens. Move on and stop having a pity party.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “I…you jerk. You were awake that whole time?”

  Her companions laughed and Frog rubbed her shoulder. “Seriously, though, you were like Chuck Norris crazy out there. You should be proud. And Elizabeth?” She raised her eyebrows. “Take her back so she can’t sit here and stare at me like this and drive herself crazy while she watches my pee drain into a bag hanging on the bed.”

  Elizabeth smirked and hauled Stephanie away with a firm hand on her arm. As they reached the door, the girl turned back for a moment. “Thanks, Frog.”

  He put his thumb up. “Send me a hot nurse. I think a sponge bath is in order.”

  They walked into the hallway where Lars waited with a bruise on his cheek, a skinned elbow, and a small scrape on his forehead. “Are you gals ready to get back? I could use some coffee and a good chill session.”

  Stephanie nodded and Elizabeth slipped him a wink and gestured with her eyes toward Steph. They stopped at the nurse’s station and Lars walked to one of the nurses, a nondescript woman in her fifties or so wearing orthopedic shoes. “Ma’am, I wanted to let you know that the guy in room 765, Frog, he has requested a bath. He happened to hint that he hoped you would be the one to give it to him.”

  She giggled, nodded, and snatched up a rubber glove. “We’ll get him nice and clean.”

  Lars hurried to catch up with the women. “Everything is right in the world now.”

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes and pulled them both in the elevator. “It won’t be when he figures out what you did.”

  As the elevator doors began to close, they heard Frog’s furious protest. “Lars! You asshole!”

  Even Stephanie couldn’t hold back the laughter as the elevator moved to the docking bay where the car was parked. Despite his injuries, Lars remained vigilant. He moved so that the women were behind him and stood with his feet slightly apart and his hands loose and close to his pockets. He turned slightly to look at them and his gaze flashed to Elizabeth and then to Stephanie. “I know this is all really hard to understand right now.”

  Stephanie’s gaze lifted to meet his when she realized he was talking to her. “I feel better now that we know he’ll be okay.”

  Lars shook his head. “I’m talking about trying to figure out life now that you are destined for something way bigger than yourself.”

  Her eyes glistened as she held his gaze for a moment and then folded her arms in front of her and stared at the floor again. “I think I was naïve to think that being special would be all candy and rainbows—or in my case, blue flames and cleansing spells. I guess in a way, I didn’t think I would actually ever become someone special to others. So why think about the negative, right? A daydream.”

  The elevator opened and they followed Elizabeth down the walkway to the car. Stephanie and Lars got in the back and the older woman took the driver’s seat. They headed out in silence and eased into the lines of traffic to head out of the city.

  Elizabeth glanced in the rearview mirror and adjusted it slightly to see Stephanie’s eyes. “We want you to understand that there will be a whole lot of really cool things that come along with a life for someone who is destined to rise above.”

  Lars nodded. “That’s right. A whole lot of cool stuff. But at the same time, with the good comes the bad. That fight won’t be the last. Frog’s injury won’t be the last. What’s important here is that you decide how you want to use your gifts. What path you want to take.”

  Elizabeth took the exit out of the downtown area. “Exactly, and then we can all follow that path because we believe in you. But you have to be ready for days like today. Even days ten times worse than this. You have to take this seriously. You have the talent to kick major ass, make huge differences, and sweep the Federation, but you have to believe in it.”

  Stephanie twisted her hands back and forth in her lap before her gaze met Elizabeth’s in the mirror. “I got it. I…won’t forget it either. Tomorrow, we start over.”

  Lars clapped his hands with a smile. “Whoop. That’s damn right. And we get bragging rights ʼcause we kicked some gang members’ butts while the slackers were standing around the base twiddling their cheeky bits.”

  Stephanie looked at Lars and chuckled as she shook her head. “You guys have some issues.”

  Lars nodded. “Yep. And that’s what makes us a really good team.”

  When they reached the compound, he headed to his quarters and Stephanie shuffled off to hers, obviously exhausted and with a lot of things to think about. Elizabeth checked the security logs and reported to the others that they were back. As she walked past the kitchen on her way to her room, she grabbed a glass and a bottle of red wine from the cabinet.

  She hurried into her room and kicked her heels off, untucked her shirt, and sighed as she sank into her large fluffy armchair. As she drew the cork from the bottle, she inhaled a deep breath. “Oh, hello there, relaxation.”

  “I don’t know how relaxing I will be,” Burt said through the comms over her head.

  Elizabeth winced and almost spilled the wine. “Good Lord. Didn’t anyone ever teach you to not be a nasty creepy stalker?”

  He paused but didn’t answer the question. “I thought we might want to discuss providing a protection detail for her parents.”

  She took a big swig of her wine before she retrieved her tablet and clicked it on. In a moment, she’d selected an email and forwarded it to his email address. “I already took care of it—I had some buddies in Chicago looking for work. Her parents have a detail, but they won’t know it. I also placed two guards in line for hiring with the company to keep an eye out when they are working there at night. That way, they can be right there in case of anything unexpected.”

  Burt scanned the email. “Good work. I knew my data was right when it said to hire you.”

  Elizabeth raised her glass and took a sip as she rolled her eyes. “Lucky me.”

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  The ambassador sat in the study of his hotel suite and leaned back at the large mahogany desk. A vintage Tiffany lamp glowed softly as the sound of melodic tones played from the virtual tuner disk placed in the center of the workspace. Seemingly floating to his right was the next page of the most recent negotiation with different sections highlighted.

  He read another line and reviewed both the Meligorn and English translations of it while a small holographic Meligorn dancer cascaded across the wooden surface doing a traditional Meligornian gambol. A frame sat to the right, a small girl with a similar complexion and hair color to the dancer, and she giggled and danced on a continuous loop of a small stored memory.

  Ambassador V’ritan swiped the page away and brought the next up. The song changed and he tilted his head to focus on the dancer as she glided across the surface in front of him. The memory in the frame changed as well. The little girl was now a woman, the same as the hologram dancing on the desk. The movements were identical, the swing of the arms fluid, and the smile bright and shining. As he watched, his eyelids lowered slightly, and a small tear built in the corner of his eye.

  A sudden and loud knock on the door made V’ritan jump and he swiped the hologram away. He leaned across and snatched up the frame as he called out, “Just a moment.”

  His gazed fixed on the picture for a moment before he drew his hand across it. A thin line of purple energy streamed from the center up to his temple. The air hissed through his nose as his body tightened and then relaxed. The frame now looked like nothing abnormal, a picture of his daughter with the words, “Ritutius Hartstrom Tia Shaerium.” It meant, “Rest Easy, Little Star.”

  The ambassador replaced the frame on his desk, wiped the tear from the corner of his eye, and leaned his head on his fist, his elbow propped on the desk. He focused his sight on the papers in front of him. “Come in.”

  Brilgus opened the door, hurried in, and closed it behind him. He held a tablet in his hand and set it down carefully before he slid it across to him. The ambassador raised an eyebrow and looked at the device. “I thought I said that I wanted to not be disturbed today with inconsequential things, Brilgus.”

  The bodyguard lowered his head, his hands behind his back. “Of course, Ambassador. Although I thought you would want to read this update sent over only a few minutes ago.”

  The ambassador pursed his lips, sighed, and swiped his hand over the tablet. An email rose in holographic form and hovered in front of him. As he read, his muscles tensed and his face shifted from irritation to worry. He looked quickly at Brilgus. “And she is all right?”

  His guard nodded. “We had no one from our camp with her. It was only her and two of her bodyguards. They all, except her, sustained injuries. One is in the hospital and the other has been discharged.”

  V’ritan shook his head and pressed his finger to the attachments. Brilgus placed his fingers on the top and bottom corners and pulled out to make the video screen larger. “This was footage caught by Federation cameras that are placed throughout the city. It does not have audio, but I think it’s self-explanatory.”

  The ambassador nodded and played the footage. He watched the battle rage on the screen and winced and turned his head several times as Stephanie used the pipe to beat the assailants. She grasped one of the men by the top of his head and turned hers toward the camera for barely a moment. He paused the video quickly and tilted his head to focus on the screen.

  Brilgus followed suit and both reveled in her appearance. “Are her eyes completely black?”

  The ambassador nodded his head but didn’t speak. He pressed play again as an uneasiness stirred in his chest. When the battle was over, he leaned back and rubbed his chin. Brilgus pressed fast forward and then paused it. “That isn’t it. There is something else on this video that perplexes me greatly.”

  V’ritan waved his hand and the other man pressed play. The emergency medics carried the guard away on a stretcher, his shoulder bloody and arm limp. That view of the street then remained empty for around twenty seconds before Stephanie walked into view again. She seemed to be perplexed and paced for a moment before she stopped and turned to face them. Very slowly, she withdrew her battery from her pocket and gazed at it. Suddenly, her head jerked up and she stared directly at the camera. A wisp of purple energy flickered in her pupils and then dissipated.

  The guard paused it. “There. The battery.”

  The ambassador straightened and pressed the image to enhance the item she held in her hand. “Definitely a battery, but—wait.”

  Brilgus bit the inside of his cheek. “I thought there was another one too, but you would be able to see it outlined in her pockets. They now seem to be completely empty. So that had to have been her only source.”

  V’ritan pushed quickly from his chair and walked around the desk. He paced back and forth for several moments before he stopped and pointed at the frozen image. “That battery is full…that cannot be possible. How in the world did she have that much power to use? Assuming it was of high quality and full strength, that stone would be no more than a third full after that battle. And if it weren’t high-end, it would practically be empty.”

  The other man wrinkled his nose and leaned forward toward the screen. “But it’s not. It’s full like she never touched it.”

  The ambassador shook his hand and his head simultaneously. “That is not possible. She has never even been to Meligorn other than during her pod simulations. She wouldn’t have a way to store the energy, even if she could accomplish that without blowing herself to pieces. But then again, the proof is right there. She did do it, regardless of what science or common sense has to say about it.”

  Brilgus smirked at the screen. “I have to admit, I don’t know how she does any of this. But she definitely has the form and technique down and is way more powerful than I thought she would be. She is possibly the strongest Earth witch that I have ever seen or read about. I am perplexed.”

  The Meligorn sighed, scratched his chin, and his eyes glazed over. “Me too, Brilgus. Me too.”

  Todd tapped his hands on the edge of the recruiter’s desk as he waited for her to come out of her meeting. He had been picked up at home that morning by one of the recruiter cars and brought to the navy station to take his tests. For the first time in his life, he actually did some research, took a couple of practice exams online, and even combed his hair. It was a whole new world for him, but he wanted to make a good impression.

  “Toddster,” one of the other recruiters said and patted him on the shoulder as he passed. “Did you take your tests yet?”

  He pointed downward. “That’s what I’m here for. I’m gonna knock them out of the water.”

  The recruiter smiled with enthusiasm. “Yes, you are. Good luck, man. I’m off to pick up some new recruits and take them to the TRAM to catch their ride to boot camp.”

  Todd nodded enthusiastically as the man left. He immediately jumped to his feet as his recruiter approached. She gave him a kind smile and stuck her hand out. “Todd. Sorry that took so long. I wanted to make sure that everything was set up for you correctly.”

  He gestured airily. “Hey, no problem. I never care about waiting for friends.”

  She glanced at him and chuckled breathlessly. Hannah was really good at her job, crossed all her t’s, and dotted all her i’s. She was always friendly to the recruits because she knew that there would be a very large portion of them that would go in and not come back. At the same time, she had to be businesslike. It was what landed her that duty station, made her second highest recruiter in the office, and allowed her to cross through the military ranks without really raising any concerns or ruffling any feathers. But Todd was a teenage boy. He had raging hormones and weird ideas about what constituted a friend. He also stared at her ass on a regular basis like he somehow believed she wouldn’t notice.