"I think I can see his apartment from here," Hailey joked. Jessica leaned against her and gazed out over the city. "Sorry that took so long." She tapped the watch on her wrist, then put a hand on her heart, trying to look apologetic.

Jessica rolled her eyes. She made a motion with her hands with a knowing smirk, which pulsed Hailey's cheeks bright red. It took a lot to embarrass her, but Jessica was more than capable.

She put a hand to her ear, then pointed at Jessica, tilting her head to the side slightly.

Jessica shrugged, smiling innocently.

Hailey shook her head in amusement, settling back into the blanket they'd wrapped up in.

Night had fallen completely and the city was a pool of light from atop the Space Needle. The place was still open, and tourists bustled about below them in the restaurant, or above them on the observation deck. Hailey and Jessica sat below the top deck on the disk itself, up against the wall, enjoying the view and the cool night air.

Hailey tried to resist the chill of the wind, but she shivered as it rolled through. Immediately, Jessica began to warm up the area around them.

"You don't have to do that, Jess," she said, adding a flip-flop hand motion with her hand. Hailey was more than happy with the balance between the cold air and the warm body next to her. Jessica shrugged, and the heat dissipated back into the air.

Jessica pulled out her phone, unlocking it with a pattern and tapping through to her photos. After a few moments' scrolling, she came up with a photo of Dan, prompting Hailey.

Hailey shrugged. "I haven't heard anything." She covered her ears for a moment, then drew an X in midair. She pulled out her own phone and a map of the Northwest, and drew a vague circle over the forests in B.C.

Jessica frowned. She mimed a gun with her finger, making quick shooting motions at Dan's picture.

Hailey made a cutting motion with her hand, then pointed at her own brain. "As far as I know."

Jessica made as if she were reading a newspaper, widening her eyes in shock for a moment.

Hailey nodded. She pulled up a recent news story that showed Dan and Boris' international wanted pictures.

Jessica shook her head in dismay and put away her phone, snuggling back up to Hailey's side. She made another gesture, which Hailey didn't quite understand. Something with waving clenched fists in midair.

"Jess?"

She frowned, and raised her hands again. An image appeared in midair—a crude likeness, but it was enough to make out the drummer from that afternoon.

Hailey raised her eyebrows. Oh. So she… don't jump to conclusions, Hales. She turned to Jessica, questioning.

Jessica nodded. She pointed at the image, then herself. Her face grew pink, and she looked away again, dismissing the magic in a puff of light.

Hailey grinned and hugged her tight, wrapping the blanket around them both. Message received, Jess. As soon as she figured out how to go about it, Jessica would definitely get another chance to meet her.

She relaxed, laying back against the wall, watching the city move about and wondering what to do for the rest of the night—and something caught her eye, much further way. She doubted anyone else could see it, but Hailey had gotten used to switching in and out of enhancing her eyes on a whim. She'd had so much practice that it had become instinctive to murmur the spell whenever she spotted something she couldn't make out.

Far to the south in the suburban sprawl, a window had lit up. Not with the steady even light of a bulb, or even the flicker of a candle. No, this was something more deep red and intense.

It was growing quickly.

Hailey scanned the area from their high perch. Come on, someone respond.

An emergency light almost blinded her, forcing her eyes shut for a split-second. A fire truck speeding down the road.

It was going the wrong way. Some other emergency.

Hailey bounded to her feet. Jessica spluttered awake, apparently having dozed off. She tugged Hailey's hand to get her attention.

Hailey pointed at the growing orange glow out in the distance. Jessica had invented the spell they both used to see such distances, and as soon as she'd cast it, she understood what Hailey was asking. She hesitated, while the fire began to spread through the whole complex.

What is she waiting for? Hailey thought, dismayed. "Come on, Jess. We have to do something." She mimed a diving motion, then gathering something up with both arms and holding it close. Jessica frowned. She looked nervous, brushing back her brown-and-blue hair with a trembling finger. After a moment, she nodded.

Hailey nodded back confidently. Before they could take off, Jessica conjured a tiny flame in midair. She choked it away, but immediately shook her head. Hailey wasn't sure what she meant, and tilted her head to the side.

Jessica repeated it, then pointed at the fire and shook her head again.

"We can't put it out," Hailey realized aloud. "We can't explain that." She nodded again to show she understood.

Jessica threw her arms around Hailey and they took off, flying out at breakneck speed before anyone on the observation deck might see them. In what seemed like no time at all, Hailey was already flaring out her wings to slow them down as they approached the apartment building.

The fire was spreading quickly. Hailey had read about it once, how modern homes tended to burn very quickly with all the cluttered fast-burning fuel filling every room of the place. There were screams issuing from some of the higher rooms, and smoke billowing out of the top.

Hailey glanced around again in midair, but she still didn't see a fire truck in sight. Jessica clung to her, her eyes shut tight. Hailey took a deep breath and dove for the top floor window. At the last second, she sent a burst of magic into window frame, shoving it wide open.

They landed easily on the top floor hallway, just as one of the apartment doors opened. A bleary-eyed man in a nightshirt rubbed his eyes, staring at the duo.

"...the hell are you?" he muttered.

"Housekeeping." Hailey reached forward and pulled him roughly into the hall. "You need to get moving. There's a fire downstairs. Go to the fire escape."

"Fire?" The man's eyes lit up. His adrenaline was finally kicking in at the perceived danger. He turned back to his apartment. "But I—"

"Your stuff or your life, dude," Hailey said firmly. She yanked him back and shoved him toward the fire escape, a bit more roughly than she intended. "Get going."

As she did, a small explosion rumbled through the building. They all winced. A shower of dust fell from the ceiling.

The danger finally processed through the guy's skull. "Yeah. Okay."

"Does anyone else live on this floor?"

"Last two doors on the right." He turned and bolted for the fire escape at the other end. The alarm finally started to shriek as he plowed through the door.

"Come on, Jess," Hailey called. Jessica had been watching the staircase uneasily. They could both feel the growing heat from below as the inferno started to consume the whole building.

They repeated a similar conversation with both occupants, though it was a great deal easier to convince them with the shrieking alarm and the building shuddering beneath them. Hailey was shocked at how much it took to wake some of these people, until she noticed the second person had earplugs in the whole time. Lousy neighbors.

"None of these people screamed though," she said to Jessica, who was helping the woman from the third apartment out to the fire escape. "Who was that?"

Jessica just stared back at her, not understanding. Hailey motioned to the staircase. She looked uneasy, but she nodded. Hailey took her by the hand and started down the steps, two at a time.

The heat increased exponentially as they descended. The fire had started low, but was climbing up the building fast. Hailey finally heard a siren far in the distance, but she still couldn't be sure if it was even meant for them. She had to keep going. What if someone else is in here? Someone screamed downstairs. We have to help them.

Another explosion rippled through the building, accompanied by a shower of glass outside. Hailey and Jessica tumbled out of the staircase onto the next floor down. They faced another line up of closed doors.

"Why aren't these people leaving?" Hailey cried. Jessica closed her eyes and flung her hands out, muttering a quick spell.

Every door burst open with a bang. Behind the nearest one, Hailey spotted a man lugging a large desktop computer under his arm.

"Goddammit, get out of here!" Hailey shouted. She didn't have any more time to waste. The smoke was filling up their floor. She ripped the desktop from his arms with magic and slammed it against the wall. He gawked at the suddenly levitating computer for a split-second, before Hailey grabbed him bodily and shoved him toward the fire escape.

Seeing Hailey throw caution to the winds and use magic openly, Jessica started to blow the smoke away from them. A burning in Hailey's throat she hadn't even noticed began to fade, but the fire was stubborn. It kept advancing. Jessica shot a look at Hailey, tilting her head to indicate a question. She made a quick tiny flame in her hand and snuffed it out just as fast.

Hailey shook her head vigorously. "We can't!" Even if a couple people see us in here, no one's gonna believe them. But if a whole fire goes out for no apparent reason? That's too big to ignore.

Jessica nodded. She ran to the staircase where the flames were erupting forth, snagging on any fuel they could find as they rampaged up through the building. Instead of choking them out, she made a wall of force in front of them, blocking their advance. It wobbled for a few seconds as she figured out exactly how to set it up so the flames couldn't catch on anything else, but it held firm.

Hailey quickly cleared the rest of the rooms, as fast as she could. It was slow going with how obstinate some of the occupants were.

This was their home, they couldn't just abandon everything!

It's just stuff. Their lives are more important!

She dealt with a few stubborn pets too, but those were much easier since she could just lift them into mid-air with magic and send them out along with their dumbstruck owners.

"I think that's everyone, Jess!" she shouted as the last man finally climbed out onto the fire escape. As she turned, Hailey's heart stopped.

Jessica was on the floor, crawling away from a churning inferno.

The smoke was so thick that Hailey was struggling to breathe. She dug deep for the air, any air she could find, but the smoke resisted her. Trying to shove oxygen and normal air into the thick plume of smoke was practically impossible.

Hailey sprinted to Jessica, forcing away every lick of flame near them as she did. The angry demon refused to back down from such paltry resistance, gathering up behind them as it threatened to devour the whole building around them. Hailey picked her up off the ground and bolted for the window at the end of the hall.

Oh god, please let her be okay.

Hailey didn't have the time or the presence of mind for subtlety anymore. She shattered the window with a blunt spear of force, just before diving through it.

They were falling fast. She couldn't stop coughing. Hailey tried to feel for her wings, but they were so far away. They'd burned up with the rest of the crumbling building.

They aren't real wings, you idiot!

With a painful thump, Hailey managed to flare them out as they plummeted to the ground. Even with the sudden brake and as much air as she could muster, they still made a painful landing on the grass outside the complex.

It took a few seconds for Hailey to come to. She vaguely heard her own voice in her mind, telling Natalie about how to handle unconscious people only a week earlier. Who could've seen this coming? she mused.

Jessica started coughing in her grip, to her immense relief. Coughing's better than silent. Hailey released her, letting her work through the smoke left in her system while she struggled to her feet.

The residents of the apartment were surrounding her in a loose semi-circle, dressed in a colorful variety of nightshirts and pajamas. Hailey winced as the building continued to burn away behind them. A fire truck was only just pulling up on the other side, deploying men and women to fight the growing conflagration.

Hailey was about to say something when she spotted a horrifying sight out of the corner of her eye. A tiny flash of light, almost imperceptible, but the telltale sign of a camera lens.

They were being filmed.

Hailey didn't have a choice. Jessica wasn't in any shape to make them invisible, but they absolutely could not be seen.

She picked up her best friend, still struggling to force clean air through her lungs, and flapped her great wings as hard as she could. Annihilating a few gemstones on her necklace to fuel their furious ascent, Hailey and Jessica rocketed back into the sky, through the pillar of smoke illuminated against the black night. They vanished into the clouds, while the tiny crowd of onlookers watched their would-be heroes perform yet another impossible feat.