I was twelve the first time I set my clothes on fire. I was happy I was home because I was wearing them at the time and what twelve-year-old girl wants to be naked at school. I didn’t do it on purpose, they burst into flames without any warning.

 

I wasn’t hurt, there wasn’t a blemish on my body and my long Irish red hair still shone like a new penny. I opened the bathroom window to air out the room and scooped up the ashes and flushed them down the toilet. There were lots of ashes.

 

I put on my pajamas. I was cleaning the tile floor with a wet washcloth when my Aunt Ciara opened the bathroom door without knocking.

 

“I thought I locked the door,” I complained.

 

“You did, but I smelled smoke. Aren’t you a bit young to take up tobacco?”

 

“No, I mean yes. I locked the door.”

 

“Of course you did, Enya O’Sullivan, but you know your sweet old Auntie Fiona is a cailleach and not just any cailleach, I’m the finest Irish witch who doesn’t live in the old country. What’s a locked door to a witch like me? I know you weren’t smoking. Your clothes just burned off your back, didn’t they?”

 

I blushed and my pajamas burned off my body like they’d been soaked with gasoline. First my clothes and then my pajamas. I admit that I cried a little. I wrapped a towel around myself, but it smoldered and then burned away in a few seconds. Actually, I cried a lot. I blubbered some nonsense about having to live in the bathroom. I couldn’t play soccer anymore, like as not I’d burn off my uniform and I didn’t know of any teams with a naked goalie. 

 

My Aunt said, “Calm down, colleen. When you get excited or cry, you’ll just go all firefly. I didn’t only come to America to take care of you when your parents died, I came here to watch over you until your powers manifested themselves, so to speak, and then to teach you how to deal with them.”

 

I melted the toilet seat and it didn’t hurt at all. “What I am, auntie? Am I a cailleach, like you?”

“Not a bit of it, dear girl. Calm down. Control’s the key. You aren’t a cailleach and you can’t control the weather or the seasons. No, child, you’re the very image of Bridgit, the goddess of fire, herself reincarnated in the flesh of her descendant, and here you are, using your powers for nothing more important than to melt a plastic toilet seat. The rest of Bridgit’s family, the Children of the Goddess Danu, the Tuatha-de-Danann, would be ashamed.”

 

When Auntie invoked the displeasure of the entire pantheon of Celtic deities, I broke down again. This time the shower curtains vanished faster than flash paper in a magician’s act and my feet melted the linoleum floor. I wiped my eyes. “I don’t feel like a goddess!”

 

“Aye, and you hardly look the part. You aren’t a goddess. Truth be told, neither was Bridgit or any of the other Tuatha-de-Danann. They were all humans, special humans, but humans nonetheless. I knew you were special when you burned your crib and swaddling clothes three times before you could walk. I bespelled you to conceal your powers until you were old enough to use them properly. We can’t wait any longer because your powers are needed now. A descendant of Morrigan, the Irish goddess of war, is here with pookas, hellhounds, and who knows what else. She plans to reestablish the Wild Hunt with your help, or after your death, should you deny her.”

 

“I don’t know anyone named Morrigan.”

 

“Ay, but you’re knowing a teacher named Miss Anann. Her first name is Morrigan, sure enough. Both are names for the war goddess. She’s been watching you since the second grade and she’ll be for making her move tomorrow while you’re at school.”

 

“I just want to clean up from soccer practice, have some yogurt, and watch music videos. I don’t want to fight any war queens or pookas, whatever a pooka is. I like Miss Anann. She’s nice.”

 

“Pookas are shapeshifters. The ones with Miss Anann are disguised as the gerbils in her classroom. Miss Anann is not a nice lady. I see I’ve erred by not training you early, but there’s still time.”

 

“How is there time if she and the yucky gerbils are coming for me tomorrow?”

 

“Am I not a cailleach and do I not control the seasons? I’ll spell up a time barrier and stop the seasons from moving forward on our farm until you’re trained. A year may pass on this farm while but an hour passes outside. Beginning now, except for when we’re actively training, I’ll keep you bespelled so as not to have you burn the house down.”

 

I nodded as if I understood, but I didn’t. Pookas and witches and war goddesses and cailleaches. I supposed zombie banshees and vampire leprechauns were in my future. I went to my room and cried myself to sleep, but at least I didn’t burn up my bed.

 

The training was as hard as it was repetitive. Control was the key and control meant not intentionally raising my body temperature whenever I was emotional. The hardest thing to learn was what Aunt Ciara called fireflinging, the art of letting the flames rise within me but redirecting them at a target rather than holding them inside. Sounds easy, but it wasn’t. Control was hard. I could aim to light a candle and melt it into a puddle. Once I targeted a loose nail on a fence post and set the entire post ablaze and I can’t count the times I burned up my clothes because I held the flame inside me too long.

 

Every single day, Aunt Ciara said, “Self-control is strength, focus is accuracy, and calmness is control. Train your mind to be stronger than your emotions. Before you can conquer Morrigan, you must first conquer yourself.”

 

I wasn’t sure I wanted to conquer anything other than cursive writing or world history, but when your aunt controls time and weather, you kinda do what she says, besides it sounded kinda cool to be a fireflinger.

 

Yep, it sounded cool, but like learning fractions it was hard work. Fire practice every morning. Auntie designed an obstacle course on the farm. Run, jump, and run some more. Target dummies and flying rocks. After that, two more hours inside the barn focused on control. “Enya, light the fourth candle without igniting the third or the fifth. Enya, boil the water in the red pan. Enya, make the littlest fork so hot that it sets the tablecloth on fire without heating the other dinnerware.”

 

I got a short break for lunch, which I had to heat myself, and then I’d study all afternoon. That seemed stupid to me. If time wasn’t passing outside our twenty-acre farm, why did I have to study literature, math, and science? It wasn’t like I was falling behind anyone.

 

Aunt Ciara said, “Everyone is born uneducated, but it’s their own fault if they stay that way. That won’t be happening to you on my watch.”

 

The last hour of training was always the same. “It’s not enough to burn things up. You don’t want to turn everyone you meet into Joan of Arc. Fire powers can be used in three ways, protect, contain, and destroy. Destruction is the last option.”

 

Protection wasn’t easy. I’d spin a small circle of fire above my index finger and gradually make the ring-shaped flame larger and larger. Once it was big enough, I’d throw it like I was playing ring toss and encircle my target. The ring of fire had to be large enough to protect whatever was inside from attack, but small enough to keep from burning it up. Aunt Ciara scattered my stuffed animals and dolls about my obstacle course and whenever I encountered one, I had to spin a ring of protection about it. I got better, but I had a lot fewer toys when I finished training than when I started and like I said, I had a lot less clothing too.

 

Containment was much the same, except I wasn’t as worried about burning up a baddie as I was about singeing my teddy bear’s fur. The hardest part was maintaining multiple rings, but I learned to keep them burning almost unconsciously while I raced through the obstacle course roasting and encircling whichever pretend baddies Aunt Ciara put in my path.

 

Once in a while, she’d dump a quick rain squall on me. Weather witches can do that. “Wet don’t matter, Enya. It’s not you that we want to burn, it’s them who you’re fighting. Don’t internalize the fire. Fling it. Protect, contain, and destroy!”

 

One nice morning, of course, it was a nice morning since all mornings were the same morning, I dunked myself in the horse trough, climbed a ladder onto the barn’s roof, slid down the other side, somersaulted into a pile of hay, and all the while flung rings of protection around dolls, and bears, and even one plastic unicorn with wings. I blasted a dozen straw men into flame and spun containment rings around a tractor and the entire horse stable.

 

Aunt Ciara threw a pitchfork at me and I melted it out of the air. She said, “I think you’ll do. Tomorrow you’ll face a live test. If you pass, we’ll return to the time stream.”

 

“What kind of live test?”

 

“Now, Enya, that would be telling, would it not?”

 

“I never found out what a live test would be like because just then the edges of the time barrier flickered like the first hint of a power failure. My Aunt dropped to her knees and raised both hands. The barrier wavered like heat waves above the hot pavement, but my aunt regained control and the barrier settled firmly in place. “Morrigan has recruited cailleaches. I sense three of them. I’ve been able to hold the time barrier so far, but they know you’re inside, and they’re trying to break through. I don’t know how long I can hold it in place. We need to be ready. Actually, you need to be ready, I could be so drained of strength when the barrier drops that I’ll be of no help at all.”

 

I waved one hand and all the fire rings went out. I aimlessly spun a pattern of five concentric rings in the air. “I don’t want to fight anyone. I’m twelve years old.”

 

“Dearie, no one in their right mind wants to fight anyone. When it comes to it, do the best you can. Think of people as toys to be protected. Morrigan has probably recruited some of the Wild Hunt to her side. Think of them as potential future allies and seek to contain them if possible. As for Morrigan, kill her if you can.”

 

“I don’t want to kill Miss Anann.”

 

“Aye, I know you don’t and she doesn’t want you dead. She wants you as a servant, a slave to do her bidding and help her rule the children descended from the Tuatha-de-Danann, for she who rules the children of the gods, rules the world, or so goes the legends. Use that to your advantage. She wants you alive and under her control.”

 

“That’s good to know. What’s the wild hunt?”

 

“The legends say that the Wild Hunt is the Tuatha-de-Danann and the like, phantom horsemen and horsewomen who ride through the sky at night accompanied by all manner of demon hounds. In the old days, the Hunt sought bad people, but before it vanished a few hundred years ago, the Hunt sought whoever the leader told it to seek.”

 

“So the spirits fly through the night sky and kill anyone who Morrigan says to kill.”

 

“That’s the size of it, but to reactivate the Hunt and control it, she has to control earth, wind, and fire. Morrigan controls earth and she has a strong cailleach and she’s every bit my equal, to control the wind. That leaves her needing you to control fire for her.”

 

“I won’t do it.”

 

“Easy to say when she isn’t torturing your friends and classmates. She might even put a noose around your sweet auntie’s neck to get her way,” said my aunt and she gasped for breath. The time ward pulsated through a rainbow of colors.

 

She held her arms above her head and chanted, but the pulses slowly flickered down to nothing. She collapsed “Enya, girl, it’s sorry I am, but I can’t hold the time barrier any longer. Do your best, girl.”

 

I’d like to say that I stood up inside a ring of fire and blasted Morrigan, her pookas, and her hellhounds out of the sky, but I didn’t. I held my aunt and cried.

 

Miss Anann, I mean Morrigan, walked slowly toward me with her hands held up like a bad guy caught by the police on a television show. I wiped my face on my sleeve and formed a small circle of fire in my right hand. I was terrified, but I tried to look brave and I spun the ring larger.

Miss Anann smiled and gently spoke, “Peace between us, Enya. I’m not sure what you’re aunt’s told you, but I’m not here to do harm to you or to her. I’m here because I need your help. Everyone needs your help.”

 

I blubbered, “I’ll not be helping you recreate that Wild Hunt or any other such evil things. Leave me be.”

 

“Wild Hunt, indeed. The Wild Hunt is just a legend concocted hundreds of years ago by Irish vigilantes who took matters into their own hands when the crown wouldn’t do what was necessary. There is no Wild Hunt. There never was.”

 

I spun the ring of fire until it was ten feet across and dropped it in a protective circle around me and my aunt. I kept it waist-high so I could keep an eye on Morrigan. “Why would my aunt say such a thing if it isn’t true.”

 

“Tis true that I need your help, and your aunt’s as well, if she’s a mind to join us. As for why she’d say such a thing, she’s a witch. Witches are by nature, mistrustful folk. Especially since that unfortunate business in Salem a couple centuries ago. Demons are coming. They’ll be opening a Demonsgate at the school in a few hours. We have to stop them.”

 

I raised my flaming circle a bit higher. “Demonsgate? Do you mean like a hell mouth? I saw a television show where this vampire slayer had to close the hell mouth. Hell is filled with fire, what good will I be fighting creatures that live in fire. It’d be like trying to drown fish.”

 

Miss Anann looked really serious. “Real demons don’t come from some fiery hell. Hell is a place created by priests and shamans to further their religious nonsense. Non-believers are given the choice of eternal happiness or eternal torture. Marketing, my dear, marketing. Real demons do live underground, true enough, but in caves, grottos, and tunnels. They live in the cool darkness, not in flames.”

 

This was confusing. I was supposed to believe that the Wild Hunt wasn’t real. I’d never heard of it before my aunt started training me, but even so, it was hard to accept that Aunt Ciara was wrong. And the whole hell thing was pretty hard to swallow, but it had a grain of truth. I thought about it. It seemed to me that only a poor god would threaten eternal damnation to non-believers. I thought about it a little more. ‘Love and worship me or I’ll roast you in fire for all eternity’ seemed a little over the top.

 

“Miss Anann, this is a lot to understand. I don’t want to fight you. I want to believe you, but it’s hard. My aunt taught me to be ready to stand against you, and I’d be a poor fireflinger if I let you beat me with words.”

 

“Fair enough, Enya O’Sullivan, but you are a poor fireflinger. You’re only twelve years old. A couple of days ago you burned off your own clothes!”

 

I’ve been practicing.”

 

“Even so, I won’t fight you. Might I suggest that you and your aunt come along to the school with me? If what you see convinces you to help me so be it. I swear you’ll come to no harm on the account of me or mine, but I can’t speak for the demons.”

 

“Why are the demons coming?”

 

Annan put her hands on her hips. “Well, they’re demons. Perhaps they’re tired of living in the dark and the cold. Perhaps they remember that mankind and our kind drove them into hiding thousands of years ago and they want to reclaim their place in the sun. Maybe they’re just evil. Maybe they want to order pizza. It doesn’t matter. They’re coming and it’s up to us to stand against them.”

 

“Won’t the regular people help us?”

 

“Eventually, but even if they believe us, it’ll take humans a month or two of meetings, proclamations, posturing, and politics to make a decision. By that time, the demons will have whatever they want. Enya, it’s up to us. I’ve a few pookas, some weather witches like your aunt, and several descendants of the Goddess Danu, the Tuatha-de-Danann reborn, so to speak. We’re probably enough to stop them and more than enough to die if we can’t.”

 

Aunt Ciara awakened and heard what Morrigan said. “War goddess, indeed! I don’t believe a word you say. Let me talk to one of the weather witches who you claim fights with you. If I determine that you don’t hold her in thrall and I believe what she says, then the child and I are with you. If not, it’s to the death between us.”

 

Morrigan nodded. “I’ll send one to talk to you. She’s your second cousin, Agatha. I’ll hope to be seeing you in the schoolyard. Sooner, rather than later.”

 

Morrigan left quickly and I dropped the ring of fire. A few minutes later a small dust devil spun across the field. It slowed to a stop and revealed a woman dressed in purple spandex. Aunt Ciara snapped, “Agatha, really.”

 

“Yes, Ciara, really. I was at my yoga class when Morrigan messaged me.”

 

“Messaged you.”

 

“Welcome to the modern world. Everyone has a cell phone. Morrigan says that you’ve raised this child to believe too many of the old legends, most of which were only created to keep common folks from interfering in our business. Enya, I can call you Enya, can’t I? We’re related somehow, I’m told. Enya, there is no Wild Hunt. We aren’t goddesses, gods, or demigods. We’re just people with special powers. Once you and your auntie join us, we’ll all be on the same side, the human side, that is.”

 

It was so confusing. Everything I’d believed my whole life was wrong. Well, not exactly, most of my life I thought I was just a girl, not a fireflinger, and I hadn’t a clue about the Wild Hunt or the Tuatha-de-Danann. I’d only found out those yesterday in the regular time line, even though my aunt had kept me in a time wrinkle or something like that for almost a year. “Well, Aunt Ciara, what do you think?”

 

“I think it’s a crock of cow flop, but safety first. Won’t do the two of us any harm to go to the school. If demons from wherever come through the Demonsgate, we could give these folks a hand. If it turns out they’ve lied to us, you can play Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and burn the whole shebang down around their lying eyes.”

 

I asked, “Will I get to ride in a whirlwind?”

 

Agatha laughed. “It’s a spot of fun, I’ll grant you that, but I’m not up to carrying passengers. We’ll walk.”

 

I stayed a little behind Aunt Ciara and Agatha and let the two of them catch up on things. Seemed strange to overhear them talking about grandparents, Christmas parties, and boys they’d known years ago when the world was facing a demon invasion, but I guess adults try to pretend that things are normal as long as they can.

 

We reached the schoolyard and I asked. “Exactly what do demons look like?”

 

Aunt Ciara and Agatha looked at each other. Agatha shrugged her shoulders. They both broke into laughter and my aunt said, “Can’t say that we have any idea, neither of us having ever seen a demon. Guess we should be ready for everything from puppies to dinosaurs.”

 

“Well,” I said. “Don’t be expecting me to burn puppies!”

Morrigan, her pookas, warriors, and the other descendants of the Tuatha-de-Danann were waiting at the school when we arrived. She greeted us. “Glad you decided to join us. Here’s the plan. We’ve four cailleaches counting Fiona and I’d like them to place themselves at the cardinal points around the softball diamond on the playground. That’s the epicenter of the Demonsgate. Ladies, as soon as you’re in position, call up a thunderstorm and then put a time barrier around the area. That will keep the regular citizens from being involved. I’ve three Dagdas, druid priests with me. They’ll be working with you, Enya. I want you to encircle the Demonsgate in a big ring of fire. Enclose the entire softball infield. The demons can’t make their gate bigger than that. It’s a long way from their home and the energy requirements are cubed with the inverse reciprocal of the distance squared.”

 

“Ms. Anann, will I need to understand the math.”

 

“Heavens no, sorry. Please call me Morrigan in front of my army. I want you to shrink the ring of fire little by little. The Dagdas will circle the fiery ring and bless the ground exposed as the ring tightens. The land what’s been blessed will no longer serve as part of the gate. You just keep shrinking the ring, they’ll keep praying over the dirt, and eventually, the gate will be closed.”

 

“I’m confused. If the gods aren’t real, what good will praying over the dirt do?”

 

“I’m a war goddess, not a theologian. I don’t know. I only know it works.”

 

“Fine! Exactly what’ll you be doing, Mistress War Goddess, Morrigan?”

 

“Don’t be snide, child. It doesn’t become you. My warriors and I will encircle your ring of fire and kill any demon who manages to break out. If any of the wee beasties can fly, the weather witches will blast ‘em with lightning.”

 

“Ready, dear?” she asked and then lifted her sword overhead and shouted. “Places everyone. It’s show time!”

 

The air wavered and the time barrier closed beneath dark roiling clouds filled with lightning flashes. The druids ran into position and Morrigan and her warriors encircled the infield. She nodded at me. I took a deep breath.

 

Maybe thirty of us, all told, and me but twelve, to save the world. Best not to dwell on that. I pointed both hands at the infield and threw fire. The flames curved and spun around the infield. I raised my hands like a conductor and the flames rose higher.

 

The ground exploded open like a demented volcano and spewed out a smorgasbord of demons. Big demons, little demons, fat ones, thin ones, tall ones, short ones, and they came in as many colors as a big box of crayons. There were winged demons, demons with six legs, and even demons that looked just like people. I didn’t have time to appreciate the variations because things got busy really quickly.

 

Like the world’s biggest bug zapper, lightning strikes blasted flying demons out of the air. Most of the grounded demons stayed trapped inside my fiery ring, but a few broke through. Morrigan and her helpers met them and cut them down as fast as they appeared. Whenever a demon threatened to kill one of the warriors or priests, the other Tuatha-de-Danann hurried to help. Morrigan’s warriors fought as a team, but the demons fought like a horde of locusts. They swarmed aimlessly and it was everyone for themselves.

 

I can’t tell you much more about the battle. I just focused on my job. I used my right hand to control my fire ring. I’d bring my index finger and thumb closer together and the ring got smaller. I’d wait until the druids blessed the new ground and then, I’d shrink it again. As the ring shrank, the demons were forced closer together. Some retreated into the Demonsgate and some were shoved into the fire. A few staggered in flames to the outside of my fiery ring only to be dispatched by the warriors and pookas.

 

Morrigan made it her personal responsibility to protect the druids. She dashed like a mad woman around the shrinking circle keeping demons away from the priests.

 

I got really busy then. Dozens of flying demons broke free into the skies. The cailleaches called the lightning constantly, but they couldn’t hit them all. A dozen or more targeted me. I’m so right-handed it’s embarrassing, and my right hand was busy closing the Demonsgate. I put that side of my mind on automatic and pointed with my left hand at a demon who could have been a pterodactyl. A spurt of fire and he was fried pterodactyl nuggets. Extra crispy.

 

The rest of the attack flock spread out and came at me. I targeted them one at a time, but there were too many and one got too close before I burned it. Its dead body crashed into me. I fell and my ring of fire vanished.

 

Morrigan ran to me. She shouted, “Up, girl, reestablish the ring. Hurry.”

 

With my containment ring gone, lumbering, crawling, walking, and slithering creatures fled in every direction. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I opened them and lifted my arms. Before I could command a new ring to appear, another demon came straight for me. I flinched.

Morrigan chopped the beastie in half. “I got you. You take care of the fire, Enya, I’ll take care of you.”

 

I gulped. Teamwork means trusting your team, but trust is hard when it’s your life what’s the one at stake. I spread my arms above my head and spun a new ring of fire in the air above the gate and the playground. I made it large enough to enclose the escaping demons before I dropped it to the ground.

 

I squeezed it closed. No time or need for blessings and I closed it quickly. The fleeing demons tried to retreat from the flames, but I tightened the ring several feet a second and when my ring moved on, the ground outside it was littered with charred and smoking corpses.

 

I was worried that I’d roast the good guys. Morrigan’s warriors took up positions alongside the priests on the thin ring of consecrated ground. Half faced outward and half faced in. They struck down anything coming out of the gate and anything trying to retreat into it.

 

I stopped tightening the ring before I roasted my teammates. Morrigan spoke calmly. “Quickly, Enya. Put out the ring and spin a new one inside the blessed area. Make sure the new ring is inside where the warriors and priests stand.”

 

I had tears in my eyes from the smoke or maybe because I was still a little bit afraid, but I did it. I extinguished the outer ring with my left hand and spun another smaller one with my right.

 

“Now close it, Enya. Close it.”

 

And I did. I tightened the ring while the druids dashed madly around in ever-decreasing circles. Ten feet, eight feet, and five feet. Finally, the circle was small enough that the priests didn’t need to move to bless the ground.

 

No demons were left above ground. They’d retreated because it was too hot inside my small ring of fire. I snuffed it out and the druids finished their work. We’d done it, the gate was closed.

It took about an hour for the warriors to clear the playground of dead demons. I burned the pile to ashes.

 

Aunt Ciara brought me a bottle of water. I asked, “I know you’ll release the time barrier soon. The playground is black with ashes and I burned up the softball bases. Home plate is a lump of shapeless plastic. People aren’t going to like this.”

 

“It won’t be a problem. Agatha and I saved a few lightning bolts. People will see lightning strike the playground. When they investigate, they’ll just be happy the school building is still standing. No one will care about some blackened earth. The fight is over and it’s time for the Tuatha-de-Danann to leave and for the rest of us to be getting back to our normal lives.”

 

I turned to the war goddess, but she was looking more and more like Miss Anann and less and less like Morrigan every second. I felt something crawling on my leg. It was a big spider. I brushed it off and it scuttled across the scorched playground. I pointed my finger to fling fire at it, but nothing happened. I tried again with the same result.

 

Miss Anann said, “Your powers are gone. So are mine. Unlike the cailleaches, those of us descended from the Tuatha-de-Danann only have powers in times of need. It’s a blessing and a curse, but that’s how it works.”

 

I didn’t cry but I might have sniffled a bit. “I was kinda enjoying being a fireflinger. Are you saying my powers are gone?”

 

“The world is safe right now. Our powers aren’t gone, they’re sleeping. The world isn’t ready for war goddesses and fireflingers to be wandering about. Our powers will return when they’re needed, but not before. We’ll just get on with our lives until then.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“I stink of smoke and demon blood. I’m going home to bathe and grade last week’s history test. Your Aunt Ciara says that you haven’t done your math homework. There’s a spelling test on Monday. If I were you, I’d have a hot meal, a shower, and do some vocabulary review. I’ll see you in class.”

 

My aunt put her hand on my shoulder. “Enya, I was proud of you today. So, school on Monday?”

 

“Sure, school sounds good, but I’m gonna need new clothes!”