As long as I'm surrounded by people who don't believe in magic, I'm no danger to anybody, El thinks bitterly ... even though she's always hated her affinity and never wanted to hurt anyone. (Another feeling to unpack on another day.)

Still, this whole thing seems weird to her. Her mom had taken her to one or two Star Trek movies in the past, when the cheap theater was running old Next Generation films, and they didn't seem like the type of universe where a random teenager would be viewed as a potential civilizational threat. That kind of paranoia was the domain of right-wing media and Tory politicians.

"I'm seventeen," she says dryly. "What do they think I'll do, graffiti a building?"