“There’s my email to Ares, right there.” Jack’s eyebrows scrunched together. “You’re saying that this cyber crime expert guy is—was—your shady hacker guy, too?” They both looked down at Bent. “Not my shady hacker guy,” Zoe said. “Nico’s shady hacker guy.” Zoe flinched at the sound of shattering glass as shards flew across the room. Something glowing and on fire thudded to the floor in front of the desk. A bottle stuffed with a wad of burning fabric rolled across a pile of papers and bumped into a stack of magazines. Orange and gold flames licked up the stack of magazines, raced along the leg of a near-by chair, and exploded into a column of fire as it consumed the mounds of papers in the seat of the chair. Tendrils of flame shot out across the floor, snaking up and down the piles of paper, igniting them as it spread. Embers flickered in the air of the small room. It all happened so quickly. One moment Zoe and Jack were talking about email and the next, fire was everywhere.
