Blazing Serious by Viola Grace Page B

to keep Tiska safe. It was hard. I had to pull the fire in and keep it from her at the same time. I haven’t done that before.” Jimra blinked slowly, like she was shocked at her own growing abilities.
    “You did what was necessary. You always do. Did Huraka know that you left?”
    Jimra bit her lip. “No. I didn’t tell her; I just ran out. I don’t even know if I put shoes on.”
    “Jimra, you know you are supposed to tell her so that she can let me know where you are going.”
    “I had to go.”
    “I know. And I know you are going to have to go to dozens of occasions that I can’t be there for, more lives to save, more fires to stop. I have known that you were not going to be mine alone from the moment I knew I carried you.”
    Jimra smiled. “You always tell me that. You also tell me that my father didn’t ask, so you didn’t tell him. It was your one snarky act in your entire life. The rest of it has been a pure and noble pursuit for the betterment of our species.”
    Orden laughed and pinched Jimra’s slightly pointed ear. “That is correct. I bear the duty of you with joy and love.”
    “And lots of tolerance.” Jimra giggled.
    “That too.” She hugged her child. “I am so glad you are safe. Stop scaring me. My hearts pound out of my chest every time I hear Jimra and fire in the same sentence.”
    Jimra nodded and squirmed against her. “Are we going to do the tests?”
    “You bet. You are almost at a normal temperature. This is a red-letter day.”
    Orden ran the scans on her daughter and was only filled with relief when everything came back normal, well, Jimra normal. It was as good as she was going to get.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Jimra stood in the front yard and called the blaze. She contained it all and rolled it inside her.
    Her stepfather stood next to her. “What do you think, Provisional Fire Officer Artu?”
    “I think it was started in the kitchen. A plain old accident.” She tasted the fire inside her, finding the most mature flames. “Wait. Electric. Faulty cooker. It spread to food and then the walls caught fire.”
    He nodded. “Right. We will send the investigators for the workup, but if they agree with you, this with be the thirty-seventh confirmed identification to your credit.”
    She grinned at Graftic. “Well, your credit. I am still volunteering.”
    He chuckled and checked in with his teams. They were moving through the house in an organised manner and recording the damage. Lives had been saved that day, but it was the removal of the flame that let the identification of the source become easy.
    “You make our job too easy, Jimra.”
    She began to feel the burn of the fire inside her. “I need to let off some steam, Graftic.”
    “Go ahead, we have things here.” He nodded. “Call your mother if you are going to be late.”
    “She is making nine-layered salad tonight. I can’t miss that.” Jimra stepped back into the centre of the street, and she used the heat that she generated to lift her off the ground. She wasn’t sure how it worked, but she enjoyed the freedom of finally being an adult and flying up and into the air.
    She soared straight up and let the blast loose in the atmosphere. The flames flared out, and the air caught fire around her before the tendrils faded away. She kept enough heat to support her as she fell back to the spot that she lifted off from.
    News vids were being filmed while she dropped back to the cordoned-off space around the house.
    “Better?”
    She smiled at Graftic. “Better.”
    “Have you given any thought to your birthday party?”
    “Nope. Turning twenty-three isn’t a big deal.”
    “It is a very big deal; it will mean you are finally a full citizen.”
    She sighed. “I just want to be able to actually work at this job full time, instead of on a volunteer basis.”
    “Your appointment with the hiring board is next week, right?”
    Jimra nodded. “It is. The day after my birthday, so I am not too keen on going