don’t want you here when they arrive.’ The principal turned to Archie. ‘Would you take Greta inside and see that she’s OK? Then get her home.’
‘Sure,’ Archie agreed. ‘Come on, Gee, let’s get you inside and see the damage.’
‘I’ll come too,’ Tamika offered.
Everyone was staring at Freya as she stormed down the school’s hall. Word of the big fight was spreading faster than a wildfire and all the students wanted to see her. Stopping at the girls’ bathroom, Archie shoved open the door. ‘Is anyone in here?’
When no one answered, they walked in.
‘Stay at the door,’ Archie instructed Tamika. ‘Don’t let anyone in, including teachers.’
Freya was already pulling off her coat when Archie came up to her.
‘Nice and easy,’ he said gently, helping her.
‘Stand back,’ Freya warned as she reached for the slip-cover. When it came away, she put both hands on the edge of the sink and leaned forward as she slowly opened her wings. The pain was intense. Freya started to tremble as she carefully extended them fully. She sucked in her breath as the pain soared.
‘Gee, you’re bleeding!’ Archie cried as blood dripped to the floor. ‘JP broke your wing!’
‘Let Orus look,’ Freya said.
The raven flew down to Archie’s arm and inspected Freya’s wing. He leaned forward and carefully went through all the feathers until he found the problem.
‘Here it is. It’s a ruptured blood feather,’ Orus explained. ‘It needs to come out now.’
Freya explained, ‘My wings aren’t broken. Orus says it’s a ruptured blood feather. That’s a new feather that’s just emerging. The feather shaft is full of blood when they’re new. I’ve got to pull it out or the bleeding might not stop.’
She looked back at Archie. ‘Move further away from me – this could be messy.’
When Archie was standing next to Tamika, Orus directed Freya’s hand back to the broken feather. It hurt to even touch it. She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and caught hold of the shaft. Fighting to keep in the cries of pain, Freya wrenched the feather out.
Her hands were shaking as she inspected the damaged black feather. ‘It takes ages to grow primary flight feathers.’
Archie peered at the broken feather shaft. ‘Wow, no wonder it hurt. That’s thicker than my finger!’
‘Let me see,’ Tamika called. She came forward and looked at the damaged feather. ‘Yuck, that’s gross.’ She pulled paper towels from the dispenser. ‘We’d better clean up that blood before someone sees it.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Freya said quickly. ‘My blood is as deadly as I am – you can’t touch it.’
‘Are you going to be all right?’ Archie asked.
Freya nodded as she started to clean the floor. ‘My wings are bruised and I won’t be flying for a bit. But other than that, I’m fine.’
Tamika shook her head. ‘I was so scared when I saw JP hit you with the bat. But I was even more scared when you took off your glove.’
Freya looked down. ‘I shouldn’t have done that. If Archie hadn’t stopped me, I’m sure I would have killed him.’
‘JP in Asgard?’ Archie said. ‘I wonder what Thor would do to him.’
‘Thanks to you, we’ll never have to find out.’
When the floor was clean, Freya put the soiled tissues in her pocket. ‘We’d better get out of here before the police arrive.’
As she started to draw on her coat, Archie held up the slip-cover. ‘What about this?’
Freya caught hold of the silky fabric cover. ‘I’ll carry that for now. I don’t want too much touching my wings at the moment. My coat is bad enough.’
Out in the hall, they found the Geek Squad waiting. Leo Max had a swollen lip and a bruise on his cheek, but he was grinning from ear to ear. It appeared everyone in the Geek Squad had some kind of injury. But they were all happy.
‘We did it!’ Leo Max cheered. ‘We showed them! They won’t bother the Geek Squad ever again!’
Despite the pain in her wings, Freya chuckled. ‘You sure did. I am so proud of all of you.’
Elizabeth came up to her and shyly tapped her on the arm. ‘I’m not afraid any more, Greta.’
Freya wanted desperately to hug the little girl. She could feel the great change in her. ‘I saw what you did for Connie. You were very brave!’
Elizabeth blushed at the compliment.
‘What about you?’ Leo Max asked. ‘JP hit you with the bat. Are you OK?’
Freya nodded. ‘I’ll live. But what happened to the other members of his gang?’
‘They ran away,’ Kevin cheered. ‘We actually