Free Volcanoes by Nicole Hamlett

felt guilty. But I couldn ’ t allow them to dictate where I lived. Then she smiled and I went from feeling smug to feeling very nervous.
    "You're right. However, I can keep Dylan in Olympus. As my grandson, I have every right to make sure he's safe."
    "Only if he wants to stay there," I responded as coolly as I could, but I was certain she could hear my heart pounding. What if Dylan wanted to stay there? What if I lost m y son?
    "Hmm, interesting." She nodded and then disappeared.
    "Fuck my life," I whispered.
    Did this mean I was now on my own? I thought about what being truly alone would mean. I wasn't completely defenseless, was I? I mean I still had some training that I could lean back on. Sure I didn ’ t have the ability to teleport to safety, or any extra strength, orrrr powers – but damn it, I wasn't going to live in fear.
    I stood tall and took a deep breath. Yep. I could do this. Right after I answered my ringing phon e.
    It was Marisol's ringtone and I smiled. Thank God – finally some normalcy in my life. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I was actually looking forward to talking to my agent.
    "Hello, you gorgeous thing," I chirped.
    "Grace?" She sound ed confused.  I grinned.
    "Who else would be answering my phone?"
    "Oh, well normally you're not so happy to hear from me. This is odd. You've been damned cheery lately. It's disconcerting. I can't say that I like it," she ended with a snort.
    "Did you just snort at me, Marisol? Your bestest client ever?"
    "My bestest client who hasn't written a word for me in three months. What happened to that follow up to your first book? Did you start it? Better yet, darling – did you finish it?"
    "You know what? I was just going to start writing today. As I said before, I've been busy taking a break."
    "Heh," she retorted. "Well I'd like to see some progress, missy. We have publishers to please and books to sell."
    "Yes, Ma'am."
    "Good, I'm glad to see that you're on board."
    B efore I had a chance to respond, she ’ d hung up. She never let me say goodbye - it was damned annoying. I set my phone down and picked up the bags from earlier in the day.
    These clothes needed washing and they wouldn't do it themselves. I stopped and reali zed that I hadn't done laundry in months. I had no idea how my clothes ended up getting cleaned in Olympus. If there were magical laundry washing domestic fairies, I wanted to hire one for my house.
     
    ***
     
    Domestic chores – every superhero's kryptonite. I s ighed heavily as I threw the jeans in on the normal cycle, cold water. I didn't want them to shrink. Who knew how long my body would stay this size? If I didn't have nanites and heavy workouts to keep me in shape, it was anyone's guess as to how long it w o uld take for my ass to go pear-shaped.
    Once the washer started its thing I padded to my office and took a look around. My redline stapler was in its place of honor. Actually, even my sticky notes for the book I had planned were still on the walls. It felt so –
    Familiar.
    It felt like coming home.
    Yeah, I know. I was home. But this office had been my sanctuary and I'd forgotten how wonderful it felt to be ensconced within these walls.
    I hopped into the chair and picked up my rubber-band ball, tossing it in the air. Yes! Maybe losing my powers was the best thing that had ever happened to me!
    I cracked the lid on the laptop and pressed the power button. It was time to make some real magic happen. There were heroines in need of their pr ince charming and a second book in the Huntress series needed to be written. It felt too soon, though. I didn't know if I was ready to tell that story yet.
    The first book had been easy. While there were personal aspects to the manuscript, it hadn't been a s emotionally wrecking as what had happened to me in the last few months.
    Maybe when all was said and done, I would just make it up. I didn't need to let the world know that my heart had been crushed – in many ways,