Trent shot me an apologetic look, and I noticed his knuckles were white on the steering wheel, “I’ll try to explain everything once I get you somewhere safe.”

                I nodded, fingers gripping the edge of my seat tightly as we whipped down the street at alarming speeds, “Where are we going?”

                “Safe house,” he glanced down into his side view mirror and his shoulders seemed to relax a little, “I have someone that I suspect you’ll really want to meet.”

                I stared at him, completely puzzled, “I don’t…who are you? What do you want?”

                Trent smiled, “I want to help you. I’ve been sent by someone who has a vested interest in making sure you don’t come to any harm.”

                “The person you want me to meet,” I said slowly, “who?”

                Trent said, “How much do you know about your mother?”

                A pang of shock went through me, “I don’t…she left when I was a kid. What are you saying?”

                Trent’s face was sympathetic, “she left you for a very very good reason.”

                I glared at him, suddenly feeling irrationally angry, “how would you know anything about it? Who the hell are you?”

                “I work for her,” he said simply, “your mother.”

                It felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. All the air left me and I couldn’t speak, even though I had a million questions crowding up, one after the other.

                Trent seemed to understand what I was feeling, because he said, “I’m sorry to spring that on you like that. I wasn’t sure of a better way to say it. Please don’t be angry with me, or your mother. She’s regretted leaving you behind with that human every day since that day.”

                The way he said “human” shocked me. Like it was dirty, and worse, like a human was some kind of alien life form. Like he wasn’t human. But I didn’t even dwell on this for very long, my mind was in turmoil. All I could think about was…my mother.

                “Why did she?” I said, fury trembling at the edges of my voice, “what was her awesome reason for leaving me behind with him?”

                Trent frowned, “your mother…lived on the edge. Leaving her people behind and marrying your father left her open to danger, but she did it anyways. She did love him…” he paused, “at one time. But eventually the danger became too great. She had to go face it, and she couldn’t drag you into all of it with her. You would have been killed, you would have been hunted.”

                “By who?”

                He sighed, “I was hoping to save this until you’d met my people, until your mother could talk to you, but I understand if you need answers right away,” his long index finger tapped the steering wheel, he seemed to be considering how to say something, “that boy that chased you back there, did he tell you who he was?”

                “He said his name was Asher,” I folded my arms over my chest, trying to ignore the goosebumps crawling over my arms, “he said…he said I wasn’t human.”

                Trent grimaced, “he’s a total moron.”

                The expression, and the word “moron” coming from him were somehow funny in spite of how serious everything was. I muffled a hysterical giggled behind the sleeve of my sweatshirt. Luckily Trent didn’t seem to notice.

                He said, “Asher is part of the group that have been hunting your mother since day one,” his face was grim, “and they would very much like to get their hands on you.”

                “Why?” I said, “what do they want with me? And why do they want…my mother?” The words felt stiff and unnatural on my tongue. I didn’t have a mother, I never had one.

                Trent said, “I’ll try to explain…let’s see. I come from an ancient line of people. Sort of like…” his eyes lit up, “the Aztecs, you know…?”

                I nodded to show I knew about the Aztecs. Was he saying he was a descendant or something?

                Trent continued, “well my people had an ancient enemy, a people that committed terrible atrocities against us, slaughtered our women and children, painted the snow red with our blood,” his face had grown dark, “and then, because my people were so scared of them, our king forced his son to marry one of their horrible princesses, so that our two kingdoms would unite.” His fingers were white again, clutching the steering wheel in a strangle-hold, “but we’re a proud people, and we won’t be crushed under the heel of the tyrannical new queen and her puppet king. Your mother, a descendant of royal blood, began a rebellion years ago, even before you were born. The Queen’s soldiers have been chasing her for ages, and they finally caught up with her, when you were about two years old. She had to run, she didn’t have a choice,” he shook his head, “and if she had taken you with her, it would have put you in grave danger.”

                I was floundering, trying to keep up with all of this. This was sounding like a lesson in history class. Kings and Queens? What the heck was he talking about? A terrible thought struck me. Maybe he was with the police, and this was all just a big trick to keep me off guard and confused while he took me to the police station. But no, when I looked out the window we were on the highway driving back towards Victoria. There was a station in Sidney if he’d really wanted to take me in.

                “And everything….” I stammered, “the stuff that’s been happening….”
                “The fire?” Trent looked at me with serious brown eyes and my stomach felt sour.

                “Jessica,” he said gently, “I know this all seems ridiculous, unbelievable even, but I have more to tell you, and it’s going to sound even more unbelievable.”

                There were only so many explanations for someone being able to produce fire from their hands, right? “Is it….magic?” I felt stupid even asking that.

                A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, “well…not exactly. It’s more what you would call mythology.”

                I frowned, trying to figure out what he was talking about, “mythology, as in greek gods and stuff?” I hadn’t paid very much attention when we were studying that in English class, “like…Zeus and Aphrodite?”

                He grinned, “sort of like them. But you know when I was talking about that ancient race of people? You’re mother, and you of course, are descendants of an ancient Norse race called “jotun” and through your genes you’ve inherited certain abilities.”

                I was still struggling to keep up, “like…the fire you mean.”

                He nodded, “yes, our people have been nick-named “fire giants” even.”

                “Oh,” now my brain was catching up, “wait…giants? Like magical giants and trolls and stuff?” I couldn’t help feeling a bit indignant, “I’m not that tall!”

                Trent grinned at me again, “I tell you you’re a fire giant and all you can do is protest that you’re not that tall?”
                Now I was thinking about it. All the times I’d felt out of place in a crowd. The cheerleader barbies telling me I was a freak. Looking at women in high heels with a mixture of envy and disgust.

                “Alright, “ I admitted, “I’m tall for a girl.”

                “You’re tall for a human,” Trent said.

                “So,” I said slowly, “I’m not human? That Asher guy was right?”

                “You’re half human,” he corrected me, “and Asher is still an idiot. Not one for tact,” he shook his head, “he’s brutish and clumsy, I’ve fought him a few times now.”

                “So he’s on the opposite side,” I said, “like, with the Queen and stuff.”

                “He’s head of a task force sent to collect you,” Trent said grimly, ‘they want you in order to get at your mother.”

                My chest felt tight. He’d come so close in the field, he’d chased me and almost caught up. If Trent hadn’t rescued me when he did…

                “Would they…kill me?” my mouth was dry and I had to force the words out.

                “I’m not sure,” he said, “but there isn’t much they wouldn’t do,” his frown turned into a fierce smile, “but we’ve got you now, there’s no way your mother will let you out of her sight. You’re safe with us.”

                I settled back into the seat and watched the houses speed by for a few minutes, trying to sort out my muddled thoughts. Trent seemed to realize this, and kept quiet.

                The thought that kept rising above all others was that I was actually on my way to see my mother. Never mind that I was some kind of giant hybrid, who cares if I could shoot fire out of my fingers, I was going to see my mother. Excitement and fear were battling one another, and underneath that I knew I should be angry. I shouldn’t want to meet her, or if I did, I should only want to meet her in order to give her a piece of my mind. She abandoned me as a child, left me with a broken man, a man who took out his grief on me.

                That hardened my resolve. I would meet her, but I would tell her what she had done to me. What she had left me with. Maybe she had no idea what my father, her husband, would turn into when she’d left him, but that was no excuse. She knew where I was, she’d obviously been keeping an eye on me, she should have done something about it. She should have stopped it.