Ophelia didn't say anything until they got home, Claire huddled in the seat next to her. Finally, when they got inside, her mother just seemed to boil over. "I cannot believe you brought weapons to school!" Ophelia sounded furious. Furious and terrified. "Do you know what would have happened if Senor Uhl had not lied, if he hadn't gone to the mat for us, if Detective Scott hadn't pretended to believe a lie a five-year-old would see through? You would be in jail! I know the DA and he would have charged you, no matter what excuse! Charged you as an adult!"

"I need to be able to defend myself!" Claire shouted back. Not screamed. Shouted. She wasn't crying. She wasn't. That was just sweat trickling down her cheeks.

"Like you defended yourself against Eli? Against Steve? You almost killed him!"

"I wouldn't—I didn't"—coming back to herself just in time to divert the deadly spike from embedding itself into Steve's throat—"I stopped!"—Mary's look of horror, the way she cried. Mary never cried, but you made her cry—"I was, they startled me!"

"They won't startle you again, because you're not allowed back to school for the rest of the week!" Ophelia said. "And what happens if someone startles you on the sidewalk?"

"I—"

"Give me those knives and spikes. All of them. We're going to store them where they're safe. Where you can't get them." Ophelia's voice was tense.

"No!" Claire shouted back.

"No?" Ophelia's voice was quiet. "Claire Maria Nunez, you will—"

"I won't! I won't let you make me helpless! They stole Enrique out of our house! They sent goblins against Jim and I only had stones! I don't have Magic armor, I don't have a magic sword, and it won't matter, because they still come after me!" Claire's voice was going faster and faster because Mama didn't understand, she never understood no matter what Claire had said to her. "They took everyone's mind at school. Angor could have sliced my head off while I was looking for an imaginary baby! He did it in the daylight when we should have been safe!"

"And now you're a bigger threat to yourself!" Ophelia's shout matched Claire's. "Young lady, you will give me those weapons and give them to me right now…" Then she looked at Claire's backpack. "And the staff! You need to be watched to make certain you're safe, and not by Jim or the trolls. You will stay here where I, Javier or Barbara can watch you and you will not go shadowing off!"

My shadow staff? No. I won it, I took it. It's saved my life… Suddenly it was in her hands, and she was retreating from her mother. Claire had fought trolls too big to get into the house, but now she was backing away as her mother advanced on her, somehow looming over her. She frantically looked from side to side. There was no place to go! "No… You can't have it! I need it. I won't be trapped—"

"Claire, give me the staff!"

"Woah, everyone!" NotEnrique had appeared from upstairs. "The runt is crying and you all screaming your heads off ain't helping. Sis, put the staff down. Let's sit down and talk about this like reasonable fleshbags!"

"Stay out of this!" Ophelia snapped. "This is between me and my daughter!"

"Don't shout at him! He helped us!"

"He's part of the reason this happened to you!" Now her mother's hand was outstretched. "Give me that staff. Now, Claire."

"No." Claire was starting to hyperventilate. I won't let her. I won't be trapped again. Not ever… Her ribs ached, remembering the feel of Gunmar's great foot, pressing down on her, his rumbling, mocking voice filling the air. How your consort must be ashamed of how easily I broke you… "No! I'm not giving it to you. Not ever!"

"Clai—"

"Stop talking to me like I'm some little girl! I'm not broken! I'm not!" Claire didn't care that she was screaming, that everything was wavering through her tears, that snot was coming out of her nose. "Where were you when Enrique was gone!?"

"I was trusting my daughter not to lie to my face!"

"Than why don't you trust me now!"

"Because we can't! Because you're sick and you need help! I understan—"

"Understand? Understand?" Claire's voice scaled up, cracking as she screamed back at her mother, spittle flying from her lips. "You don't understand! You can't understand! If you did… If you did, you wouldn't want us back!" Suddenly the staff spun around and a portal opened behind Claire.

"Claire! Don't you leave. Don't you dare leave!" Ophelia shouted and made a lunge for her daughter. Claire jumped back, easily avoiding her mother. As the portal closed, NotEnrique and Ophelia heard Claire's last words.

"It would have been better if I'd never come back…"

"No… Claire…" Ophelia stared at the place where her daughter had been. "I never—I didn't… I just wanted to keep you safe."

"Good job with that, 'Mom'," NotEnrique said sarcastically. "I've never seen a politician be as smooth as you just were."

"Where is she?"

"Hopefully? With Jim. You know, they say teens say stupid things, but you managed to out-stupid Jim's entire life in—" the changeling looked at the clock. "Wow, two minutes. I'll calm the kid down, you call Dr. Lake and…" Suddenly the changeling hoped up on the couch and was staring at her, making Ophelia very much aware that whatever his size, he was far from an infant. "Hope that we can find Claire before something bad happens. I'd really be angry if my big sis got hurt because of something her family did. Sort of a sore spot with us changelings."

Then he was gone and Ophelia sat down, missing the couch, hitting the nice, plush rug they'd installed. "I… didn't mean it… I just wanted to keep you safe," she said forlornly, before she got the phone out.

But it was already ringing.