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office across town. Most of the furniture was in place, and the large boxes had been moved into the proper rooms. Now all Kara had to do was sort through the small things and make the space her own. She had been elbow-deep in packing peanuts when Daniel called, demanding that she come into the main office for an emergency. An emergency! She was a therapist, for goodness sakes. The only thing close to an emergency she’d ever seen was a dragon that couldn’t shift, and that was more of an inconvenience. In those cases, the dragon king was called in directly to suppress the out-of-control dragon and help them shift back to human. She dealt with the individuals afterwards to help them work through their issues. She couldn’t think of anything she could do that couldn’t wait until Monday. When she’d told Daniel this, he threated to throw her in the brig for insubordination and have her court-martialed! That had gotten Kara up and moving fast. Never in the years she’d worked in Eternity had anyone ever pulled rank on her.
    After checking for traffic, Kara loped across the road, hoping to make it into the main building before the weather completely drenched her lovely, new suit. The call from Daniel had her so flustered that she hadn’t even considered a rain jacket when she’d left home. She glanced up at the sky as she reached the curb. The clouds looked horrible, but the rain was starting to let up. Dropping her case to her side, she hurried along the sidewalk. She could move faster if she weren’t supporting that thing on her head.
    Kara’s flight was interrupted just feet from her goal when her foot came down and her heel sunk in further than it should have. The unexpected drop, coupled with her speed, was a fatal combination. She threw her arms out to catch her balance but failed. With a loud crack, gravity won out, and she ended up sprawled across the sidewalk in a puddle. Kara lay on the sidewalk for a moment, breathing past the pain in her knee and resisting the growing urge to scream. It was so tempting to thrash about and let out the tantrum building inside her, but she took several deep breaths before pulling herself up to inspect the damage she’d done.
    Her physical injuries weren’t bad. The heels of both her hands were a little raw, but not really cut up. She did have a bit of road rash on her knee, but that was nominal compared to the damage she had done to her outfit. She might be able to save the light blue pencil skirt and matching jacket from the dirty water she had fallen into, but her shoes were a total loss. The spindly heel had come down in the soft caulking in the sidewalk and had broken clean off the body of the shoe. Kara glared at the damaged heel sticking out of the sidewalk mocking her.
    “Are you all right, Miss Rose?”
    Kara looked up as the light rain stopped. A large man dressed in a black Eternity uniform stood over her with an umbrella. It took her a moment to register the man’s words. He had used her name. She had no idea who he was, but he had obviously been told to watch out for her. There was no other reason he would know her name. She hadn’t been to the main office in a while. And of course she would make the most embarrassing entrance possible. She ran her hand down her skirt, hoping it hadn’t slipped up far enough to show anything off.
    Letting out a deep sigh, she shook her head in disbelief. Could this day get any worse? “I’m fine,” she answered, taking the hand the man offered to get up. “It’s just been one of those days.”
    The man chuckled softly as he reached down and picked up her briefcase. “I know what you mean.” He held the bag out to her.
    Bending at the waist, Kara ripped what was left of her heel from the sidewalk and kicked out of her shoes. At this point, there was no reason to even try to be professional. Hopefully, someone inside would have an extra uniform she could borrow for a while. Grabbing up her ruined shoes, she turned to the