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Chapter Sixteen: Not Nearly Done

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I often struggled to summon flame at will, because once I had, it was difficult to control. But the day I returned from Asgard, I decided the risk was worth it.

Mae and Gale had looked at me like I was crazy when I showed up dressed in Asgardian clothing. And they looked at me like I was certifiably insane when I explained what happened. I'd never told either of them anything. Not about my powers, not about my mother. And I didn't blame them for not believing me. I remembered not believing Loki about Asgard when it was right in front of me.

But when I kindled flames at my fingertips that washed their faces in a warm orange glow, they were more inclined to accept my story. It took the both of them a long time to stop looking at me as though I had three heads. But there was no other way I could think of covering up a three month long disappearance. And I didn't want to cover it up. I wanted my friends to know who I was. What I was. Because I knew that being deprived of the unrelenting support that Sigrid and Bodil had shown me would tear me apart piece by piece.

It was the beginning of 2011 when I arrived back in Midgard. Three months had passed since my sudden disappearance, and my friends slowly walked me through the events that followed. The gas station had, in fact, blown up when the fire had spread to the tankards. However, there had been no casualties. Alivia Byrd, the cashier working that night, was not discovered at the scene. It was all written off as a robbery gone bad.

A month passed, and I took up a job at a small internet café. I fell into an easy routine. The same I'd had before. I had no connection to the accident at the station, the Asgardians hadn't come after me, and I had a home, a job, and friends. I rested easy, comfortable that I was in the clear.

But a single phone call would change that.

It came one day while I was at work, from a woman named Hill. She explained that she worked for an agency by the name of S.H.I.E.L.D. According to her, they'd been the ones to cover my tracks at the gas station when they'd observed through a street camera the events of that night.

"What do you want?" I asked into the phone, my throat tight with fear.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is an agency comprised of special skills agents tasked with international peacekeeping. When a potential candidate with unique abilities catches our interest, we reach out and recruit them," she told me.

"So, you're asking me if I'd like a job?" I asked slowly, "What if I say no?"

"We don't hire people against their will," she responded, "The choice is yours."

"Then I'll have to decline," I answered, going to hang up, "I'm sorry."

"If you change your mind, you know how to reach me." I caught her parting words just before the dial tone sounded.

I recorded the number on a slip of paper, and made a mental note to put it somewhere safe. Then, I spared a glance out the window. I looked up to the sky, wondering what Loki was doing, worlds away. Was he thinking of me too?

I shook my head and got back to work.

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A year could pass like an eternity when you spent it missing something. Wanting and waiting. But word never came from Loki or Thor regarding what had happened after I'd left. And eventually, it all faded into memory, like some crazy dream. My life returned to the mundane, and I moved on.

Across the room, Mae's alarm clock sounded, the same as every morning. But I was already wide awake, waiting with Gale.

Mae's eyes flickered open.