Kingdom of Heroes by Jay Phillips Page B

you. And poor Adam, I don’t know how I’m going to break that to Emily. I haven’t even tried to tell her yet, and I know she’s going to feel it off of me before I do. Oh God, then there’s Billy and Anthony. Are you all right?” she asked again, double checking Ice for injuries. “If anything happened to you---I just couldn’t bear it.” She grabbed Ice again, pulling her in for another tight hug. “Do you know who did it? Were there any clues? What did The Agent say? How close was the bullet that almost hit you? How many times have I told you, you have to start taking better care of yourself? It doesn‘t matter; all that matters is that you’re okay.”
    The Detective chuckled. He had never heard someone say so much without breathing.
    Ice stepped back a couple of feet. “Fire,” she said, “I’m fine. I’m fine. Nothing broken, no bullet holes, barely even scraped.”
    The blonde turned towards The Detective. “And you,” she cried out, lunging towards him and wrapping her arms tightly around his ribcage. “Thank you, thank you so much for saving her from being killed. I know she hasn’t said a word to you about it, so I’m going to do it for both of us. Thank you so much.”
    “I didn’t do anything,” he said, holding his arms awkwardly above the blonde’s body, unsure whether to hug her back or just keep them in the air. “I just---”
    “You just saved her life,” the blonde said, squeezing him tighter. “She told me how you pushed her out of the way of the bullets, and she said that if you had not been there, she would be dead now. And how you got shot in the process.”
    A grin grew across his face. “She did?” He turned his gaze toward Ice. She rolled her eyes at him and looked in the other direction.
    The blonde pulled away from him. She was a pretty woman, a woman he could tell was once gorgeous, but had now redesigned herself as a mother and a wife, with beauty becoming less of a priority. She was slim, not well endowed, with shoulder length blond hair, and she smelled like baby powder. But she had a face that was almost perfect, a face that had probably made more than her fair share of men melt, which seemed fitting for a woman people called Fire. “I am so sorry. Here I am hugging you without properly introducing myself. My name is Pamela Blaze,” she said, holding out her hand for a shake. He went to take her hand, only for her to grab his arm instead, pulling him in for another hug.
    Ice laughed. “I should have warned you that Fire Maiden is a hugger.”
    “Blaze?” The Detective asked. He decided not hugging back was a fight he wasn’t going to win, so he put his arms around the blonde and returned her squeeze.
    “My maiden name was McAllister,” she answered, releasing him from her grip and pulling back. “But wouldn’t you know it that a woman who can cover herself in flames and shoot fire from her hands would marry a man named Richard Blaze. He can turn invisible, which is really annoying, especially since he only does it when I need him to do something.”
    “Where are the kids?” Ice asked, coming to The Detective’s rescue.
    Fire turned towards her old partner. “They’re at the house with Emily.” She seemed to tear up a little. “Oh God, Gabby, how am I going to tell her about Adam? It’ll break her heart.”
    “Just wait,” Ice replied, “after we stop this guy, I’ll come over, and we’ll tell her together. I won’t let you do this alone. I promise.” Ice reached over and gave her a hug, revealing a side of The Ice Queen he had never seen before: a side that had feelings.
    “Do you think you can stop this guy, Gabby?” Fire asked.
    Ice pulled away from the hug and held her old partner by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “I don’t want you to worry about it. I want you to worry about you, those two babies, and Emily. Where’s Richard right now?”
    “He’s in Shore City for business. Why?”
    “I want you, the babies, and