Red Phoenix

did they eat?’
    ‘It was catered—big professional firm. None of the kids liked the food. And they had two entertainers. Magicians. But the kids ignored them—they’d all seen the shows before.’
    ‘I’ve seen one of those guys do those tricks three times now,’ Simone said irritably. She took some of the candy and threw it into her little wastepaper basket next to the door. ‘He was boring. Daddy can do much better things than that.’ She had a sudden idea, charged over and threw herself at me. ‘Hey! At my party, can we ask Daddy to do some stuff with water? He can pretend to be a magician! That would be so cool !’
    I gave Simone a huge hug. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, sweetheart.’
    ‘So it was a typical Hong Kong birthday party,’ Leo said as he pulled himself up from the floor.
    ‘Absolutely the most typical one I’ve ever been to,’ I said. ‘They must think it’s some sort of competition or something.’
    ‘What did the birthday girl think?’
    ‘I don’t think she had very much fun at all,’ I said. ‘She spent most of the time crying.’
    ‘How long to my party, Emma?’ Simone said.
    ‘About three weeks, sweetheart,’ I said. I gave her a squeeze. ‘We need to make invitations.’
    Simone jumped up and threw her arms above her head. ‘Yay!’ she squealed. She jumped around the room. ‘Party for me! Friends for me! I love having friends!’ She threw herself at Leo and he hoisted her to sit on his hip. ‘When’s your birthday, Leo?’
    ‘I’m too old to have birthdays,’ Leo said, grinning and holding her close.
    ‘Remember? We had a cake for Leo, and he was all cross with us, and we had to get your dad to order him to stay and blow out the candles?’ I said.‘And then we made him go out with all of his silly friends?’
    ‘Some of your friends are funny, Leo,’ Simone said into Leo’s grinning face, ‘but I liked them.’ She turned to me, still in his arms. ‘When’s your birthday, Emma?’
    ‘Not telling,’ I said.
    ‘October twenty-third,’ Leo said. ‘Next Thursday.’
    ‘Don’t you dare ,’ I said fiercely.
    Leo grinned. ‘No idea what you’re talking about.’
    ‘Leo, can we go into your room and talk for a minute, please?’ Simone said, suddenly serious.
    ‘Don’t either of you dare !’ I shouted at them.
    ‘Still don’t know what you’re talking about, Emma,’ Leo said as he lowered Simone and took her hand. ‘Come on, Simone.’
    Simone glanced over her shoulder at me. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about either, Emma.’ She tugged Leo’s hand. ‘Come on, Leo, we need to talk.’
    I got out of the lift on the eighth floor to go to my energy work class. It was unusually quiet. Normally the first years would be chatting and laughing in the room, but as I walked towards the door the hall was completely silent. I wondered whether I had the time wrong as I opened the door.
    Fortunately they had the brains not to jump out and yell ‘surprise!’ at me; I probably would have taken all of them out with energy without even thinking. They stood around a large table with a monstrous birthday cake on it.
    I spun to leave but Leo was way ahead of me. He grabbed me, lifted me completely off my feet before I had a chance to struggle, turned me around and put me in front of the cake.
    Then they all began to sing goddamn ‘Happy Birthday’ to me.
    Simone ran to me with her arms up. I lifted her and sat her on my hip. ‘Happy birthday, Emma!’ she yelled right into my ear.
    ‘You will thoroughly keep for this, Leo,’ I growled softly.
    ‘You did it to me,’ Leo said with a huge grin.
    ‘Don’t put Simone down,’ John said, and charged over to me, wrapped his arms around both of us, and gave me a huge kiss right on the mouth.
    Damned if they all didn’t cheer and clap. Even Simone squealed with delight.
    I looked around. My energy work students were there. Meredith, Liu, most of the other Celestial Masters and all of the human ones. Most of the demon staff from the top floor. Michael and Rhonda, standing together. The White Tiger, standing behind Rhonda with a huge grin. Jade and Gold, both of them grinning like idiots.
    ‘You will all keep,’ I said loudly.
    ‘ Now who’s over the hill?’ Leo said with delight, gesturing towards the cake with the big ‘30’ on top.
    ‘All of us!’ I shouted, and squeezed Simone tight.
    ‘Put her down, Emma, I have a gift for you,’ John said.
    ‘I have everything I