The doors to the courtroom banged open. Not because someone opened them fast, but because I lifted my leg and kicked it harshly. The old, grand doors had been replaced with new ones. Still wood, but it had none of the older carvings or runes. And I felt like kicking it for fun.

   The Council grew quiet as I shook off the hand on my arm and walked in, already in a foul mood. The Enforcers hadn't treated me all that kindly. Granted, they hadn't been able to lay a finger on me, but it was still frustrating to be treated like a criminal.

   "An arrest warrant? Really?" I demanded, my voice echoing through the room.

   The courtroom itself was messy, with papers and laptops strewn across the long desk. The members looked unkempt and exhausted.

   A shifter snorted. "What else were we supposed to do? You fled."

   "Oh, hell no I didn't. If you wanted to talk, you didn't have to send a squad of bloody Enforcers after me. A polite question would've sufficed."

   "Would you have even come?"

   I raised an eyebrow. The shifter shook her head, annoyed, until Mark cleared his throat. I was relieved to see he was okay, but I was still annoyed. "You have a lot to explain. I give you the chance to help us, and you broke that trust. You took the team we gathered from hours of research and used them. You got people killed."

   My teeth ground as I folded my arms. "And what was your plan, exactly? Oh, yeah. Send Dani Darhk's niece after her to get attacked and quite possibly die. Then what were you going to do? Announce Dani was officially crazy?"

   The Council members ruffled slightly, bristling at my tone. "We had a plan," snapped one witch. "It was highly confidential. And it would have worked."

   "Would it? Because you had no idea Dani was marching with a hundred dark magicks to kill you. You would have been massacred if I hadn't intervened."

   "You don't know that," said someone vehemently. "You know nothing. You're a child."

   My fists clenched. "If that's the case, then a child just ended your worst enemy in several decades. I did you a favor, as far as I'm concerned. Ended the threat and you get to use me as a scapegoat. Blame all your problems on me. Fine. I don't care. But I came here to make one thing clear. If you so much as try to touch me, or anyone that helped me, I'll come back here and make you regret it. I'll expose everything you didn't do to stop Dani. I'll make all of you look like fools. It'd be pretty hard to get re-elected, wouldn't it?"

   My words had the desired effect. The majority of the members shot their feet with cries of anger. I stared at all of them, darkly satisfied, as they squabbled. One finally jammed the butt of his staff against the ground and quieted the crowd. "Enforcers, arrest her. Now."

   A scoff left my lips as I glanced at the two Enforcers in the room. One neutral, one shifter. Both hesitated at my look. 

   "Do it, or both of you will be removed from Anchorage," barked the Councilman.

   The neutral gritted his teeth. He drew his staff and readied his feet. The shifter took a step forward in threat. 

   "You can listen to them," I warned. "Or you can stop there. Your choice."

   "We don't have a choice," gritted the shifter. "You're under arrest."

   I shrugged. "Alright. Duck." The Enforcers' eyes widened as I lifted my arm to the door behind them. My mental reach stretched for the barrier. Crimson magic darkened into existence, but it got thicker and denser until it crackled. Red electricity exploded to life across my arm. It blasted toward the door and slammed into it. The door blew off of its hinges. There was a resounding crash as they hit the opposite wall and broke apart. Debris settled until there was deafening silence.

   Smoke drifted where it had been. I pulled my arm back and the electricity faded into fog before the magic disappeared completely. I shot a glare up at the Council. All of them looked pale. Mark himself stared where the door had stood, aghast. Besides the fact that they'd never seen that kind of magic -- hell, even I still had no idea how that electricity worked -- I didn't even have a staff. The two Enforcers had gotten out of the way, but I wasn't aiming for them. The look in their eyes said they knew it, too.

   "Remove the arrest warrant," I said. "And leave me alone."

   As I walked out of the room, no one moved to stop me.