“It was outside, maybe a plow,” Hudson repeated.

“That was no plow hitting a curb. Sounded like the old dynamite explosions over at the gravel pit.” Ledger’s eyebrows rose.

The three males ran to the back door. Smoke poured from the school building, and Flint ran toward it. But Ledger and Hudson disappeared back inside, and moments later, the siren wailed, crying out into the morning sky.

Flint ran, his bare feet gripping the snow, clumps of ice splattering up at him with each long stride. He reached the building. To him it had taken hours, but he was at the dark side door within a minute. The hallway was dark. He pulled on the locked door. Unlike the chief, he didn’t have keys to this old building. Flint pivoted and fought his way through the snowbank alongside the building. The smoke thickened.

“Help, please, at the old school.” A woman was talking fast and loudly. It wasn’t Emma. He shouldn’t have felt joy in the fact it wasn’t Emma, so he pushed it down.

When he leaped over the last snowbank, his heart imploded. Emma lay on the ground next to a female dressed in purple. The woman had taken off her coat and draped it over Emma.

“I’ve got fire and rescue on their way,” one of the county dispatchers answered from the woman’s cell phone.

Flint dropped to his knees next to Emma. He had to put his emotions away and do the job they’d trained him to do. Smoke poured out of the front doors, and while he couldn’t be sure, it seemed localized, knowing the building as well as he did. He didn’t want to move Emma. The mechanicals weren’t near the front entrance. Nothing should explode. The cinderblock building was smoking with no flames, and the front office addition was entirely brick and glass. 1960s kind of ugly.

“Hundsburg company, Firefighter Larsen,” he said into the phone, putting it on speaker and laying it on the ground.

The purple-clad female across from him blinked up. “You’re barefoot.”

“Yes.” Flint ignored the woman. Under the white puffy coat and Emma’s oversized woolen one, he found her pulse—weak, but there. “Pulse is fifty,” he said to the dispatcher, leaning over Emma to do so. “Second-degree burns on her right arm.” Flint laid his hand on Emma’s chest and felt it rise and lower. The burns were severe but contained to her forearm on her right side.

His own heart was taking off like a bullet. Never in his ten years of being at first a volunteer and then a professional firefighter had he ever been so nervous. Not even on his first call.

“Okay. Engine Two and EMT are on their way now,” the dispatcher said.

Flint heard the trucks pull out, even though he couldn’t see them behind the building.

“How are you?” Flint glanced up at the purple-clad woman. He’d scented her at Emma’s.

“I’m not hurt. Emma shielded me from the blast. She held it back. She . . .”

“It’s okay. Emma’s a . . .” He cocked his head at the phone. If he could keep from outing Emma and save her, he would. “We’ve met.”

“You’re Flint?”

“Yes,” he said, not looking up at the girl. He rested the backside of his hand on Emma’s cheek, and his magic seeped out of him.

“Mia,” said the girl, pointing to herself.

Emma took a deeper breath. That was it. She didn’t have internal injuries, at least not the car crash kind. The burn was bad, but he’d seen worse. She’d depleted all of her power. Flint put his other hand on Emma and let the power sink in. The sirens of the EMT truck were getting closer within seconds. He pushed the white coat to her feet and undid the buttons on her navy pea coat. Beneath it she wore a tight gold sweater. Where was the woman going later? Not his problem. He needed more skin, so he pulled her shirt up.

Her friend was watching, but he didn’t care.

Flint put both of his hands on her stomach and, for the first time, tried to forcibly move his power. He pushed it out of his core.

“Her eyes moved under her lids,” said Mia.

Flint nodded and closed his eyes. He centered himself and pushed out as much power as he could. None of his coworkers or friends knew he had power, no one but his immediate family and his cousins. He shouldn’t have power. When a witch mated with a shifter, the offspring were always shifters. His siblings and cousins were oddities of existence, brought on by the witches’ oracle. The female who had always been his favorite aunt, even now, and he had other nice aunts. Until he revealed he had power, no one would know.

“Sounds like the truck is there. Anything else you need from me?” the dispatcher asked.

“No, I’m good,” said Mia. “I’m going to call her friends.”

Flint didn’t have much more power to give her. His own head was feeling light. She hadn’t woken up. “Come on, Emma. You can do it.” The last of his power was trickling from him. If he gave her any more, he would pass out. He pushed a little more.

“Are you okay?” Mia asked him. “Your color is worse than hers now.”

He leaned back on his heels as Hudson ran up beside Emma, bag in hand. He tossed Flint a jacket, and Flint stood and tried to step back, letting Hudson and the other EMT do their job.

His head spun, and Chief Ledger caught his arm. “You okay, son?”

“A little lightheaded.” Flint caught his balance and crossed his arms over his chest. “Her pulse was 50 when I took it a minute ago.”

“Got it,” Hudson said to Flint, then turned to Mia. “What happened?”

“Emma unlocked the door, and I started to go in . . .” Mia paused and looked at Flint.

He nodded. “Emma’s a witch.” He didn’t want to out Emma, but Hudson was no fool. Emma and Mia would have been horribly burned without her protection.

Hudson didn’t show any emotion.

“Emma told me not to go in. She jumped in front of me, and then fire filled the hallway and rumbled out of the building. She saved me. She saved me! You have to save her. Please.” It was catching up to Mia. Her hand shook over her mouth.

“Flint, take Mia to the truck and get her warm.” Hudson focused on Emma.

The other EMT had a blood pressure cuff on Emma. “Her other vitals are improving. And I can’t find any trauma point.”

He didn’t want to leave Emma, but an upset friend hovering over the patient didn’t help either of them. And Hudson was the trained EMT. He was helping the best way he could right now.

Flint opened the side door of the truck, glancing back at the building. They were spraying water over the side of the school, but by the way the chief was talking, there wasn’t any immediate danger.

Flint reached over and turned the heater all the way up. “You okay?”

Mia nodded. “I’m texting with our boss and her friends right now.” Her phone rang.

Flint closed the door, giving her some privacy. In the back of the engine, he found the box of clothes, pulled out a pair of boots, and slipped them on. From a bin, he grabbed a lavender stick to help with Mia’s anxiety.

He knocked on the side door and opened the stick. He put it on the dashboard. “You doing okay?”

“Hold on a second, Daphne. There’s a fireman here.” Mia nodded. “I’m talking to her best friend now. Jack, the owner of the woodworking business, and Shiori, her good friend are on their way. And so is Carter, our boss.”

Flint nodded. “Are either of them a witch?”

“Who’s that?” came from the phone.

“He’s the fireman who Emma . . .” Mia’s eyes widened at Flint. He stood closer, afraid she might fall.

“Oh, Goddess. What the heck is she getting herself into now?”