A Human’s Guide to Surviving Magical Mishaps by Kit Bryan
Rule 30- If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.

We decide to start off with the explosion crime scene and go from there. Ashton is hoping he will be able to tell if there was magic involved or not, I have no idea how. It's about a thirty minute drive away and I decide to take the chance to let Ashton experience the joys of playing D.J. for the driver. I set him up with my phone and spotify playlist.

"Each name on that list is a song that I like. If you select it then we can listen to it. I mean, using that app we could find nearly any song, but you would need to know what it's called to look for it so I thought my playlist might be enough for now to avoid being completely overwhelming. Pick something for us to listen to. If you don't like it, just change it to something else." I encourage him. Ashton spends the entire drive changing the song every thirty seconds. He insists that he likes all the songs playing but he's having too much fun testing them all out to listen to an entire song. I don't mind, it's kind of like a medley of my liked songs. The air conditioner is blasting and keeping the heat at bay and all in all, it's a pretty pleasant trip, despite our less than cheerful destination.

We are almost at the explosion site when Ashton pauses the music and frowns.

"It took longer to arrive here than I thought. Is it an unreasonable distance from the park?" He questions.

"Our goal is actually not too far away from the park where you arrived, it's just in the opposite direction to the station so it takes a little longer to get there. I suppose if the fae did cause the explosion, it's not unreasonable that he or she could have made it this far. Even if they had to walk. If they arrived at night when it wasn't busy I bet they could have avoided most people and traffic. It wouldn't be too bad." I decide. Something occurs to me.

"Do you think the assassins stayed together or would they have split up? Are we expecting to find all of them at once?” I ask.

“I am unsure, I do not know if they have any friendships or affection between them. They might choose to stay together, to protect each other. But I believe it is more likely they will split up and try to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Assassins do not seem like a group that would have a lot of trust between them." he decides.

“Ah, right. Is that better or worse for us?" I follow up.

"It is frustrating if they have gone their own ways as it will take longer to locate them, however they will likely be easier to apprehend individually." Ashton looks like he can't decide what is better.

"Oh, well in that case I hope they split up. It might take us longer, but if it's safer for you then I prefer it." I declare. Ashton smiles at me and nods. "Thankyou." He says.

"For what?" I ask, a little confused. Is he thanking me for having an opinion? Or maybe for agreeing with him. Although he never actually said which option he prefers... "Never mind." he responds unhelpfully.

The street where the explosion took place is still all roped off so I end up parking down the road. I turn off the engine and unbuckle my seatbelt. I'm reaching for my car door when Ashton leans over and grabs my hand gently to stop me. "I would like to discuss something before we investigate.” His tone is serious and he is looking me straight in the eye. I angle myself to face him properly and give him my full attention. "Sure. go ahead." I prompt him.

“We did talk about this already, but I would like us to be clear. If we should find one or more of the assassins that I am seeking, you are to stay out of the way. Do not draw their attention and should the situation become dangerous you should run away. Return to your car and drive home if it becomes necessary.” His words are an order, although he still seems to be waiting for a response from me, some indication that I understand and intend to obey. I frown at him, not happy with everything that he said, or one part in particular at least.

"I understand that I need to stay out of the way, and running I get. But I couldn't just drive away and leave you behind. What if you get hurt and you need help? Plus, even if you are successful, what would you do? Walk back to my place? Do you even know the way?" I object. Ashton glares at me stubbornly. This might be the first time he's ever shown any sign of displeasure with me and to be honest I don't really like it. I much prefer when he's smiling at me. The part of me that wants to please him is cringing, but I could never just abandon him here.

"I promised to keep you safe. I can take care of myself. Probably." His slight hesitation at the end is enough to assure me I'm making the right choice. I straighten up, tug my hand away from him and cross my arms over my chest.

"If things get dangerous I will come back to the car but I won't leave you behind. If for some reason it isn't safe, I'll go, but not far. Just enough that I'm safe. Also I want to write my phone number on your arm again. Just in case. If we do end up separated you can get someone to call me, and if somehow you ended up unconscious and got taken away to a hospital or something, hopefully someone will call the number on your arm since they wouldn't know what to do with a fae anyway." I keep my tone firm. This is my compromise. I will keep myself safe, but I refuse to just completely abandon him for my own sake. Ashton still looks unhappy, but he can see the logic in my argument. After a moment he sighs and give in.

"Very well." He offers me his arm to write on and I reward him with a bright smile.

After all the drama in the car, exploring the scene of the explosion is very uneventful. We wander through the rubble of what I assume used to be a house and Ashton pokes around. He's looking for signs of magic. What those signs might be I still have no clue.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" I figure I might as well try to be helpful. Ashton frowns.

"I do not know. I should be able to feel if magic was used here, but there is just so much destruction. The explosion and resulting natural fire may have burned away any traces of magic after it was used. It is also possible that I cannot sense magic use here because there was none." He explains.

"So you're telling me that either there was or was not magic used here and all you can really say for sure is that this place is absolutely completely and totally destroyed?" I clarify, maybe a little sarcastically Ashton looks a little embarrassed and I regret my sass.

"Yes." he sighs. He looks very down, clearly he was hoping to find something useful here. Cue cheerful Kat to try and make him feel better.

"No need to look so sad. We have all those fires to check out still. From what dad and George told us, they were way smaller and I assume did a lot less damage. Maybe we can find signs of magic at one of them. There's no point giving up when we've only just started. We don't know for sure that magic WASN'T used here, which means we might still be on the right track." I encourage him. I'm a little surprised when Ashton takes my hand and does that bowing thing over it again.

"Thank you. You are right. We will continue our search.” I'm relieved to hear that he no longer sounds so sad, just determined. Much better.