“I have to get out of here,” Luc said, hands shaking as she ran them down her sides. Metal rattled as Tobias rolled the barn doors closed, pausing to look at her as he locked it in place.

  “You sure about that? You’re not looking great, Luc. Or, sorry, Gadget?” He offered her an apologetic smile.

  She waved him off. “Luc is fine.” Gadget might have officially been her magical girl name, but nobody actually called her by it. She was too small time for stuff like that.

  “All right, Luc. Come back to the house so you can get patched up.”

  “I’m fine,” Luc said. She needed to get back to the commission, get paid for her job, and lodge an official complaint against the new magical girl. For poaching her kill, and for being a bitch.

  I’m not sure they’ll accept being a bitch as a complaint.

  “No offense, but you only have one shoe, and you’re bleeding. You’re not exactly in good condition.”

  Luc looked down at herself, heat spreading across her cheeks. He was right, she didn’t exactly look her best. A piece of wood had sliced open her side, ruining her top and staining her skirt along with it. The blue was now a deep, almost brown color along the side. She grimaced at the thought of trying to get it out, but what else was she supposed to do? She didn’t exactly have a backup.

  “Fine,” Luc said with a sigh. “I’ll get patched up before I leave.”

  “Good plan.” Tobias grabbed his rifle and hopped the fence, leading the way back to the farmhouse.

  “Sorry about all the damage,” Luc said, peering down the fence as she climbed over it. Now, without adrenaline pumping through her body, she had no idea how she’d managed to leap over it.

  He shrugged. “It’s not like it’s your fault. You were just trying to help. Sorry it didn’t go well for you.”

  “It’s fine.” Luc had absolutely nothing nice to say, and didn’t want to say anything terrible in case Tobias was right and the new magical girl really was the commissioner’s daughter. That had to be some sort of ethical violation. The commission was meant to regulate the use of magic and provide competent and certified magical girls and boys for tasks. Having a nepo baby in the mix was just wrong.

  “How do you know she’s the commissioner’s daughter?” Luc asked. She hadn’t even known the commissioner had a daughter, and if he did, she absolutely wouldn’t go to their school.

  “I’ve seen her at some of our games against Mercy West,” Tobias said as they reached the front porch. The front door opened before he could, Mama Barnes stepping out, face pale. “Hi, Ma.”

  “Oh, Tobias, were you out there too? And Luc, are you okay?” Mama Barnes grabbed onto Tobias’s arm, seeming intent on inspecting him for injuries before her eyes landed on Luc and all the blood drained from her face. “Get inside, now,” she ordered. “I’ll grab the first aid kit.”

  “It really is fine,” Luc said, pressing one hand to her side to hide the wound. It was still bleeding, but at a touch, she could tell it wasn’t deep. It probably wasn’t going to need anything like stitches, just some bandages and antiseptic.

  “She won’t hear it,” Tobias muttered. He kicked off his shoes, leaving them in the entryway. Luc did the same, then debated taking off her socks. One of them was completely filthy, covered in mud. She needed to go back out there and look for her other shoe, too. “Just roll with it.”

  He led the way into the kitchen, sitting down at the kitchen table just as Mama Barnes came rushing back out with the first aid kit. She opened it up as if she was going to use it on Luc.

  “It’s okay,” Luc said, pulling the first aid kit over to herself. “I can clean it up myself. This isn’t my first scrape.”

  It wasn’t a lie, or strictly true either. She’d gotten a few scrapes and bruises over her past few months as a magical girl, but they were all little things that bandaids could manage. Still, she didn’t want someone else patching her up. Even sitting here was strange, and felt too much like charity for her liking.

  Mama Barnes looked like she wanted to protest, but Tobias jumped in before she could. “Hey, didn’t Tally put a pair of tennis shoes in the donation bin the other day? Luc here needs a new pair of shoes.”

  Heat sprung to Luc’s face. “No, that’s not necessary,” she said. “I just have to find my shoe, that’s all.”

  Mama Barnes waved her off. “Oh, it’s no problem. Let me go dig them out.”

  Luc glared at Tobias as Mama Barnes ran off. “I don’t need charity.”

  “Don’t be all high and mighty about it,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You need new shoes, and it keeps her from going full helicopter mom on us.”

  Protests still on her lips, Luc shut her mouth and swallowed them, alongside her pride. She didn’t want anyone’s charity. Her mom would hate her if she accepted anyone’s charity. She was supposed to be able to provide for herself.

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  “You said the commissioner’s daughter goes to Mercy West?” Luc asked, changing the topic. She’d rather know more about the magical girl who’d cheated than have to talk about shoes anymore.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen her at some of the games. She’s a cheerleader. Didn’t know she was a magical girl, though.”

  “She has to be new,” Luc said. “I’ve never seen her before.”

  “Really? So what’s with the rivalry thing?”

  Luc rolled her eyes. Rivalry. They weren’t exactly uncommon, but Luc just didn’t have the time for them. Magical girls would sometimes form rivalries with each other just as a way to get attention. Views often helped move people up through the ranks, and nothing brought in more views than drama. But you didn’t get paid for drama. Luc barely had time for any of this with school and work, she definitely didn’t have time for some stupid rivalry.

  She’d better take no for an answer, Luc thought. She absolutely wasn’t going to be part of a one sided rivalry.

  “It’s something magical girls who don’t actually have to work do,” Luc said, finally answering Tobias’s question. “I’m not getting involved.”

  “Kinda already looks like you are involved.”

  She groaned and dropped her head against the table, abandoning her work on her side for a moment.

  “Dramatic, much?”

  Mama Barnes chose that moment to walk back into the room. “Oh, Luc, are you okay?”

  Luc lifted her head from the table, forehead gently throbbing, and smiled weakly. “Yeah, I’m okay. I have to get going, though.”

  “Oh, you really don’t have to,” Mama Barnes said. “You could stay for dinner. I’m making chicken pot pie.”

  Luc paused for a moment, chicken pot pie did sound delicious, before shaking her head. She didn’t need any more charity. “No, I need to get back to the commission before they close for the night.”

  “Oh, all right,” Mama Barnes sighed. “Here are the shoes, though.”

  Luc hesitated, Tobias staring at her intently from behind his mother’s back, before accepting the shoes and offering a thank you. Turning the shoes down now would just be rude, and the Barnes had all been so nice, even if Tobias was a little judgy.

  On the front step, she put on the new shoes, determined to come back to search for her other shoe later, and took off. She drove back to the commission in silence, occasionally glancing down at her damaged magical monitor. Hopefully they’d still pay her for everything. They couldn’t charge her for breaking the device, could they? It wasn’t like she’d done it on purpose.

  Pulling into the parking lot of the commission building, Luc parked right out front and hopped out almost without turning the car off.

  Mrs. Oscar was still at the front desk when Luc slammed through the front doors. Her head snapped up, eyes narrowing into slits.

  “Watch the doors,” she snapped.

  Luc ignored her, marching up to the desk. Mrs. Oscar’s eyes grew wide as they took Luc in, noticing the blood and bandages around her side. She probably looked like total shit right now, and she didn’t even care.

  “Finished the job,” Luc said, crossing her arms over her chest. “And I would have taken out another threat if you hadn’t sent someone out to deal with it.”

  “I did no such thing,” Mrs. Oscar said. “And I’ve received no new data from your monitor since its last synchronization. Can I see your device?”

  The woman held out a hand over the top of the desk. Luc hesitated before reaching down and taking off the device, handing it over and bracing herself for the worse.

  Mrs. Oscar’s face twisted into a frown the moment it hit her palm. “You broke it.”

  “I didn’t break it. The monster I was fighting broke it,” Luc said and motioned down at her side. “You see these wounds? Do they look self-inflicted to you? No!”

  Mrs. Oscar’s eyes flicked upward skeptically before going back down to the device. “I’ll send it down to tech and maintenance, see if they can salvage any information from it. Until then, I won’t be able to offer any payment.”

  “What?” Luc grabbed the edge of the desk, grinding it beneath her nails to keep from launching herself over it. “No, I have to get paid.”

  “You’ll have to wait until we can retrieve the information.”

  “And if you can’t get anything off of it?”

  Mrs. Oscar pursed her lips.

  Luc’s heart skipped a beat. “No, no, you know I completed that job. I’ve done a dozen jobs just like it!”

  “You’re going to have to wait and see,” Mrs. Oscar said. “We’ll contact you with results.”

  “Can I at least have another monitor in the meantime? Take on some other jobs?”

  “I’ll have to talk to requisitions.”

  Her heart dropped the rest of the way down to her feet, splattering against the floor. They weren’t going to issue her another monitoring device, they weren’t going to pay her. They were essentially blocking her from doing any work with her magic. Only people with commission certification were sanctioned to do any sort of magic; without that, Luc could get herself arrested and locked up.

  That couldn’t happen.

  That couldn’t happen.

  “Mrs. Oscar, please.”

  “We’ll contact you,” she said again, then paused, staring at her screen. “Hm. Someone has requested you as their rival.”

  “No.” Luc slapped the desk, unable to contain herself anymore. “I just want to work! Let me work! How many people do you have that are begging you for jobs?”

  “Go home, Miss Gadget,” Mrs. Oscar said, looking back down at her desktop. “We’ll contact you if we recover anything from your monitoring device.”

  It built up inside Luc. The urge to fight. To race past Mrs. Oscar, break through one of the back doors, find someone with power to beat some sense into, or drop to her knees and beg.

  She released it with a breath, tears springing to her eyes.

  Feet dragging, she turned around and walked back out to the car. She made it inside before she started to scream.

  Panting, hot tears dripping down her face, Luc rested her head against the steering wheel, trying to pull herself back together before driving home.

  A knock sounded against her window and she jumped, jerking her head around to see who would dare bother her.

  Her mouth went dry as her eyes landed on the tall, dark suited older man waiting patiently outside her car. “Commissioner Blanchet…?”

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  The Glass Knight.