I stared in awe at Shawn for a long moment. Shaking away the reverie, I glanced at Al, then Cara or Jascia or whoever it was, then at all the downed neighbors—then at the growing fire licking the ceiling. A neighbor, leaning against the wall, collected himself enough to also survey the scene. The fire first, then me.

“The truth has been revealed! The great deceiver has come to claim the souls of the innocent! I will not fear your wrath. I am firm in my belief; God will prevail. You will not drag my soul to the fiery pits of hell!” the man yelled as he fled the room.

“Langua—I’m not—” I tried as the man stumbled out the window. “I’m getting really sick of that guy.” I sighed as a couple more people, free of Jascia’s spell followed the crier with pale faces, unwilling to take their eyes off me.

Hoisting Cara-slash-Jascia’s limp form, I ran from the building onto the front lawn. I knew I wouldn’t be able to grab all of the people before the fire consumed the house, but I remembered the couple that insisted on coming along. It was lucky they did.

“Dale!” I shouted as I set the teenager in the grass near the road. “Get off your lazy butt and help!” I ran back to the house to grab Shawn. Rather than pick him up, I dragged him roughly.

Leah ran to the gothic girl’s body while Dale ran toward me with confusion on his face. The fire couldn’t be seen from outside, so the only sign that something was wrong was the delusional man screaming of my blasphemy and me leaving the house with unconscious people.

“What happened?” Dale asked.

“Shawn helped,” I replied.

Dale knowingly grimaced and looked down at the man-boy’s muffed up, grass-filled hair.

“What does that mean, ‘Shawn helped’?” Leah asked. Dale answered for me.

“Shawn helping is a code red. He probably stabbed everyone and started the building on fire.”

“Unholy crap, that’s exactly what happened!” I said. Leah looked between us shaking her head. I tapped Dale on the shoulder and said, “C’mon, there’s a bunch of people that are about to burn to death.” We ran back to the house toward the ring of unconscious minions. I skipped all of the other victims to get to Al.

I rolled her over. I’d never seen her so helpless. Her hair was tied tightly in a ponytail, but some of it had loosened. Strands were stuck to her forehead, so I brushed them away gently. I blinked away my concern, and returned to myself.

“Water powers would sure be handy about now,” I commented derisively to Al’s unconscious form. Dale snorted.

“You’re so petty,” he admonished. “Grow up.”

“Shut up,” I shot back defensively, a little more high-pitched than I would have liked.

“Read the room, man. These people are about to burn to death and you’re cracking jokes. Not cool, man. Not cool.” Dale chided.

“Keep your comments to yourself and grab someone,” I said gruffly.

I gingerly picked up Al and ran toward the door. I tried to heal her while I ran, but physically, she’d only sustained minor wounds. Unfortunately, fixing her didn’t wake her up. Apparently, unconsciousness wasn’t something I could heal. Oh well, I thought; she probably would have blamed me or tried to put out the fire with more fire.

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Gently placing my mentor on the ground near Leah and the other two people in her care, I remembered the danger of Jascia’s power. I pointed at the teenager. “Leah, if she wakes up, knock her out. I really don’t want to fight more of her super minions while trying to save everyone.”

My hulking compatriot charged out of the burning building carrying a person over one shoulder and another like luggage. Glancing between the two, I pouted at him.

“What?” Dale asked. “I’m not going to spare your ego while trying to save people. I’m much stronger than you.” He dropped his payload but didn’t give me a chance to retort before he took off again.

“Why are you just standing here while my husband is risking his life?” Leah asked.

“I hate this,” I said, taking off after him.

Dale made a show of picking up another two people. Not to be outdone, using mage strength, I put a helmeted guard on my left arm, stacked the soccer mom on him, and completed the pile with the spider monkey kid. Finally, I heaved the griller over my other shoulder and lifted the whole pile.

I followed after Dale, and when I made it to the group Leah was tending to, Dale turned to see my smug face.

“So immature.”

The grill-master slumped off my shoulder and we all watched helplessly as he hit the ground face first.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Leah asked like a mother scolding her child.

“Saving people?” I replied with a placating smile while setting down my bundle of people like firewood.

“‘Saving people,’ he says,” Leah mocked, pointing. “You call that saving people?” Dale shook his head in disappointed agreement.

“Yes?” I asked. She tsked. After a moment of standing there, her face grew hot.

“Well?! Go get everyone else!” I noticed she specifically directed her fury at me. Dale’s stupor disappeared quicker than mine and he bolted back into the inferno.

“You’re as bad as Shawn,” he said as he ran.

“Take it back!” I shouted, following close behind.

The light of the flames flickered in the windows and smoke billowed out the second story. We had to take three more trips to get everyone as the fire continued to engulf the house. By the end, Dale and I were both coughing and Leah confirmed that everyone was alright.

Al came to. She sat up holding her head and looked around, then got to her feet and stalked toward me. I watched her questioningly until her fist flew toward my head. I hastily ducked. Before she could punt my face, I put my hands up to defend.

“Wait!” I pleaded. “It wasn’t my fault!”

“Don’t try to lie. Clearly you messed up—again.” She gestured at the house ablaze. “You took too much of my energy and couldn’t control it.”

“You know—that does make a lot more sense,” Dale commented with a nod.

“Shut up, Dale.” I gestured to the grassy-haired pretty boy. “Shawn came in, trying to act the hero, and hit everyone with lightning. It’s his fault everyone’s unconscious and the house started on fire.”

Al’s anger diminished, but I held my defensive stance just in case. “Oh,” she said, then reappraised the fledgling mage. “I’m impressed.”

“Are you kidding me?! You tried to murder me, and he gets praise?” I complained.

“Stop whining. You’re acting like a petulant child.”

“He’s always like that. If you don’t coddle him, he’ll start crying,” Dale said, shaking his head at me. He came over and patted me on the shoulder. Using his best talking-to-a-little-kid voice, he added. “You did a good job, Jesse. I’m proud of you.”

I shrugged his hand away. Al looked around at all the people lying in the grass. She gestured to them and looked at me expectantly.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to heal them?”

“They don’t need healing. Leah said they were all fine.”

“He doesn’t look fine.” Al pointed at the griller that I’d dropped. His nose was bleeding. I didn’t have time to defend myself.

“He did that,” Dale said directing his thumb at me. “The man asked if he could help save people, but Jesse just punched him in the face.”

“I did not!”

Walking over, I casually put a hand on the man’s face, and he was healed in moments. Afterward, I perused the line, assessing each victim to mollify my companions’ disapproving looks. Only a couple had minor scrapes and bruises, so I healed them as well. I accidentally tripped over Shawn as I passed him.

“Let’s go,” Al said cracking her neck. She had an evil grin on her face as she picked up Car-ascia’s limp body. “We have some interrogating to do.” She placed the teenager into her fancy car’s trunk and got into the driver’s seat while I roughly tossed Shawn into the back seat.