After being out in the cold for so long, stepping into the warmth of the lodge was like being placed in an open oven. Her fingers tingled as she slipped off a pair of soaked gloves, leaving them on a table near the door to dry. Snot ran from her nose. Damn nose, always making her look so unsexy.

  And damn Khione, immune to the effects of the cold. Completely and smugly unaffected as Pip was forced to duck into the bathroom to blow her nose.

  When she emerged from the bathroom, everyone was gone from the entryway. Of course they wouldn’t wait for her.

  She jogged through the entryway into the main room of the lodge, a huge Christmas tree filling the space with the scent of pine and freshly sawed wood. It reached up past the second floor terrace. Leaning against the balcony railing, Dyionia reached out for a branch, trying to snag an ornament from it.

  Before Pip could call out for her to stop, a tendril of glitter reached up from the ground floor and gently smacked her across the wrist, pushing her back. Aunt Artemis was so cool.

  The scent of fresh food caught Pip’s attention and she angled toward it, stomach rumbling. Khione stood near the end of the table with a paper plate in hand, looking across the buffet laid out in front of her.

  “What are you getting?” Pip asked, tipping up on her toes in an attempt to peer over Khione’s shoulder. “I’m thinking of getting dessert first.”

  “Oh, you would,” Khione said with a roll of her eyes. She set her plate down, glancing around the room full of familiar faces. “There are so many heroes here.”

  “Well, they’re family,” Pip said, following her gaze. “Most of them.”

  Vast majority of the people in the room were people she was related to, or basically related to. Grandparents. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Her parents and siblings of course. People who she’d grown up seeing as often as Artemis and Orion. Odysseus, or Paul, since that was his actual name, Athena’s long time hero-partner. Recompense, who was basically her uncle.

  “So you know all of these people.” Khione shook her head, eyes falling from one person to another.

  “Not all of them,” Pip admitted. “Grandma Thalia decided to invite a bunch of people this time, but I’ll know all of them by the end of the day!”

  “Why did you grandma invite all these people?” Khione asked. As they talked, Pip grabbed a plate and began to load it up with food. Normally, any sort of family meal involved Chinese food, since Mai loved to cook. However, since Grandma Thalia organized this party, that meant it was primarily Greek food. Thalia was serious about her heritage, as a Greek-American from New York City. It wouldn’t surprise Pip if her grandma had catered the food from the city.

  Pip wanted to try and say the food in New Denver was just as good, but it really wasn’t. It didn’t even compare. Perhaps going to New York for school was the best option. There’d be guaranteed good food there, plus family and friends.

  “Why does your grandma know so many teenagers?”

  “It’s more that she knows their families,” Pip said, thinking of Florence. His parents weren’t quite Thalia’s age, but they’d worked beside her for decades before finally stepping back from active heroing, and finally decided to have kids. She wasn’t certain about Harper or Raesha, only that Florence knew and was friends with them. Perhaps Thalia had asked him to invite people, like a weirdo. There were others she wasn’t certain about, though her older cousins did seem to know them, considering Apollo and Diana were sitting at the bar drinking with a tall blonde and a flamboyant looking black man.

  Perhaps they were friends, and that’s why they were here. But what about the dark girl, the one who looked all willowy and gaunt and still had a mark on her head from where Pip had struck her with the snowball.

  Did that mean she wasn’t a super, then? Most supers their age had gotten a minor healing skill or at the very least, were advanced enough with their core to speed up their body’s natural healing process. Khione didn’t know, of course, but she wasn’t the advanced type of super Grandma Thalia would invite to challenge and inspire Pip.

  So who exactly was she?

  “Who are you staring at?” Khione asked, interrupting Pip’s musing. She turned around, following Pip’s gaze. Something in her stance shifted as she spotted the stranger. “Are you staring at her again?”

  “I was just wondering who she is,” Pip said quickly, hoping to head off the patented Khione glare she knew was coming. Instead, Khione turned around, eyes ablaze with furious jealousy.

  “Right.”

  “Yes!” Pip exclaimed. She wanted to throw up her hands but the plate was in the way, full of delicious food quickly growing cold as Khione stared at her. Was Khione doing this on purpose? “I have no idea who she is and I don’t know why my grandma invited her. That’s all I’m thinking.”

  “Mhmm.” Khione hummed and turned around, putting her back to Pip. Behind it, Pip cast another glance at the girl. She hadn’t really noticed before, too focused on the headwound and her curious presence, but she was cute. That was probably why Khione was acting all jealous, not that she had a reason to be. Pip liked Khione. Other girls were still cute, but this one was all gloomy and frowny and didn’t want to accept any of Pip’s help earlier. Why on earth would Khione be jealous?

  Before Pip could say all that, Khione stalked off, up the stairs and out of view on the balcony above.

  Why do you have to be so difficult? Pip thought, staring after her. They’d just been having a great time, playing around and flirting, and now Khione was angry over a stranger who’d rejected every kind word Pip had said to her. Being a girlfriend was unfairly hard.

  Pip didn’t follow her, however. With a full plate in hand and too many desserts waiting to be eaten, including her birthday cake, she really wanted to stay down here with all the food and people.

  She walked cautiously through the room, dreading spilling a single piece of food on the plate. Rapidly losing structural integrity, she beelined for the nearest table, placing the plate on the chest high tabletop before it could all spill off.

  By some luck of the draw, she ended up at a table with Grandma Thalia and Uncle Charles. Their conversation ended the moment she dropped her plate beside theirs, Thalia twisting around to look down at her.

  “Haven’t seen you all day,” she said, sweeping a piece of food off Pip’s plate. “Where have you been?”

  “On the roof,” Pip said with a shrug. “Having a snowball war.”

  “I see. Did you win?”

  “No,” Pip said, without malice. It wasn’t like they’d ever had a chance of winning against Khione, not with her power. Besides, it was just a game. Not a competition. “I did have a question though.”

  “Shoot,” Thalia said.

  “Who’s that girl?” Pip asked, trying to point as discreetly as possible. She didn’t want to look rude, pointing at someone for no reason, though luckily the girl’s back was turned. “I know you invited other supers who will be going into the program at the same time as me. Is she one?”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Oh, Vivainne,” Thalia said. “Yeah, she’s one of Charles’s strays.”

  Pip glanced across the table at Uncle Charles. “Strays?”

  Charles let out a long sigh, placing his glass on the table. “My kids,” he said, motioning to the group sitting at the bar. Not Diane and Apollo, obviously, but the other ones. “Darcy, Jordan, and Vivainne. And Vanya is around here somewhere.”

  Pip’s eyes bulged. It had been a while since she’d seen Uncle Charles—superheroes were busy people, after all—but she absolutely did not remember him having kids. Much less four of them, at least three looking fully grown. “Since when?” she exclaimed.

  Charles let out a small chuckle and shook his head. “I’ve only been caring for Vivainne and Vanya for the past few weeks. Darcy and Jordan have been with me for years though.”

  “How did I not know about this?”

  “Well, it wasn’t going to be a long term thing at first,” Charles said. “But…”

  “Now you have four kids,” Pip said with a nod. It wasn’t that absurd, really, just caught her off guard at first. It’s what happened with her grandparents and Charles. They’d taken him in as a kid and raised him. Something about Grant wanted to prevent him from becoming a supervillain, and if he was going to be a supervillain, Thalia wanted him on her side?

  “Vivainne is your age,” Thalia added. “She’ll likely be going into the program at the same time as you. She’s an interesting one.”

  “How so?” Pip asked, glancing over at the girl again. She really didn’t look all that interesting, although that didn’t say much. Plenty of supers were entirely unassuming people. Like Grandpa Grant. He was just a guy.

  Thalia and Charles exchanged a curious look Pip only barely caught, her curiosity sparking. What was so interesting about this girl? Pip needed to find out.

  “She has been involved in an interesting set of circumstances and events,” Thalia said vaguely. “And we’re taking her along with us when we go tour different program locations.”

  “Wait, what?” Pip blinked up at her grandma. “Why?”

  “Because we can,” Thalia said. “And partially to keep her out of trouble.”

  Pip nearly took a step back. “Since when do you try to keep people out of trouble?”

  “The circumstances demand it,” Thalia said dryly. “Charles, why don’t you bring her over here so we can introduce the girls?”

  “Oh!” Charles walked off before Pip could say anything else, leaving her alone with her grandma. Before she could decide to stay silent or not, Thalia’s flat gaze demanded her to continue. “Technically we did meet,” she said. “I hit her in the head with a snowball.”

  “Ah, so that was you,” Thalia said, raising an eyebrow. “Well, not the worst first impression you could make, believe me.”

  Charles made his way across the room, speaking a few words to Diane, Apollo, and two of his children before stopping in front of Vivainne. Pip desperately wished she had superhearing so she could make out their conversation, even though that would probably be a terrible power to have usually. She’d at least like to know if Vivainne said anything about her. The snowball really was entirely an accident.

  After exchanging a few words, the girl slipped off the stool and the two made their way over. For the first time, Pip got a good look at the girl, now that she wasn’t collapsed in the snow and bundled up in a jacket.

  She wore a dark suit, the jacket unbuttoned over a nice black dress shirt. She was very slim, and not entirely in a healthy way, though it was hard to tell considering she was still wearing two layers. Her black hair was straight as a pin, falling past her shoulders almost to her elbows, tucked neatly behind her ears. Her irises were pure black, no difference between her pupils. A super feature, perhaps?

  Her lips pressed into a thin line as they approached the table with Thalia and Pip, though otherwise she didn’t react.

  Wishing she’d grabbed a napkin along with her plate, Pip quickly wiped off her palms on the sides of her pants before stretching out a hand to Vivainne.

  “Hi,” she said, hand filling the space between them as Vivainne joined Charles on the other side of the table. “I’m Pip.”

  Her eyes flitted briefly to Charles before she stretched out her hand, annoyance clear in the movement. “Vivainne.”

  “I hear you’re supposed to be really interesting,” Pip blurted out. “Is it your power?”

  “What?” she frowned, first at Pip then at Charles. “What did you tell her?”

  “Just that you’re interesting,” Thalia replied, speaking over her adoptive son. “And you’ll be joining us on our tour of the hero program.”

  “I’ll be doing what?” So, she hadn’t been warned about this either. True Thalia fashion. Making plans without informing anyone about them.

  “I won’t be able to leave the tower at that time,” Charles said, meeting her eyes. “And you won’t want to be there next week.”

  Something passed between them, silent and entirely unable for Pip to dissect. What were they talking about, and why was Pip the only one at the table to not know? Was this what made Vivainne so interesting? What sort of secret did they have?

  Whatever it was, she didn’t look happy about it, but she went along with it anyway. “Okay.”

  “So…” Pip drummed her fingers against the tabletop. “You’re from Los Angeles?”

  Vivainne nodded once. “Yes,” she said, the word clipped. She really didn’t want to be a part of this conversation, did she?

  “That’s nice,” Pip said. “What’s the program like there?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Right. Of course. I’m sorry for hitting you in the head, you know.”

  She blinked. “You said that already.”

  “Well, I’m saying it again because it clearly didn’t take,” Pip said, growing frustrated despite herself. Why couldn’t she see that it was clearly an accident and let them have a normal conversation? Would she get like this any time she fought someone while in training? That wasn’t very heroic.

  “It’s fine,” Vivainne said.

  Charles cleared his throat. “Why don’t you tell Pip a little bit about your power? She'd be an excellent opponent to train with.”

  “I have a glass creation and kinesis power,” Pip said, putting a smile on her face. Thalia expected her to get along with this girl, so she would get along with her, even if she was being difficult.

  Vivainne opened her mouth to speak, seeming to have trouble finding the words to explain her power. “I’m a shadow shifter,” she said finally. “I don’t see why that would go particularly well with glass.”

  “Because Pip is a talented fighter and a well trained super,” Charles said, placing a hand on Pip’s shoulder. “Your mother mentioned you were helping out an after school club for supers, training them and trying to get them into a gym?”

  Heat crept up Pip’s cheeks, ignoring the way Vivainne stared at her as she answered. “I am trying,” she said. “Though we’ll see how it goes.”

  “Community service?” Vivainne asked, catching Pip off guard. “That seems better than what I’m doing.”

  “No, no, not community service,” Pip said, shaking her head and trying to catch Thalia’s eye. “You’re doing community service?”

  Color spread across Vivainne’s face, turning the tips of her ears red. “Uh, well…”

  “I told you this one was interesting,” Thalia said, letting out a loud burst of laughter. “A troublemaker.”

  Vivainne stared down at the table, pointedly not looking at anyone. She certainly didn’t look like a troublemaker. Much less someone who would end up doing Unity ordered community service. What had she done?

  “Why don’t we leave you two to talk?” Thalia suggested, patting Vivainne on the back. “Charles and I still have a lot to discuss.”

  The adult walked off to a nearby table, leaving Pip and Vivainne alone. Pip stared at her across the table, while Vivainne continued to stare at her hands.

  “So… What did you do?” Pip asked. “Because my grandma seems to like you.”

  Vivainne finally looked up, meeting Pip’s eyes with those eerie black irises. “I fought my cyborg sister in my mother’s abandoned lab.”

  Pip burst out laughing. She couldn’t help it. “You’re joking, right?”

  Vivainne pulled back, affronted, and walked away.

  Wait, she wasn’t joking?

  “Oh, wait, hold on!” Abandoning her food, Pip darted around the table after her. She raced around the girl and jumped in front of her, forcing her to pull back on her heel to keep from running into Pip. “I’m sorry.”

  Vivainne rolled her eyes and stepped to the side. Pip followed.

  “We should at least exchange numbers,” Pip said, reaching into her pocket to pull out her phone. “Since we’re going to be going on this tour together.”

  “I think I’m fine,” Vivainne said, pressing her lips into a thin line. “Thank you though.”

  She finally pushed past Pip, speed walking over to the bar where she slipped onto a stool beside the blonde.

  Pip let out a frustrated sigh and retreated back to the table. That didn’t go the way she’d hoped.