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  “Good. Hand it over please,” Chelsa said.

  “Why?”

  “Just do it.”

  Troop hesitantly forked over his slate to Chelsa.

  “Thanks. I’ll be in my room. Don’t disturb me unless it’s an emergency.”

  Chelsa left the living room and headed into her bedroom, locking the door behind her.

  “What is she doing with my slate?” Troop asked.

  “Probably removing the tracker from it,” Jaiden said.

  “There’s a tracker in my slate?” Troop sounded surprised.

  You would’ve thought he already knew that, considering he was raised in a spy-community. After all, his mom, Tiffany, works for the Revealers, Kristi thought.

  “I need some space.” She abruptly stood up and left.

  chapter twenty-five

  [ Troop ]

  Troop watched Kristi storm out. “Guess we’re off to a rough start.”

  “Give her some time,” Jaiden said. “She’ll eventually come around.”

  “I hope Chelsa’s not going to destroy my electro-slate.” Troop switched the topic.

  Jaiden snorted. “You have no idea.” He proceeded to tell Troop about Chelsa crushing his slate. “Don’t worry, though. She’s good at what she does. Your slate should be safe,” Jaiden reassured Troop.

  “So, how long have you guys known each other?” He tossed a pretzel from hand to hand.

  “I met Chelsa a few weeks ago. As for Kristi, I’ve known her my whole life; she’s my sister.”

  Troop appraised Jaiden. He couldn’t spot any resemblance between the two siblings. He was just about to comment about this when Jaiden suddenly narrowed his eyes and pinned him with an acute stare. “I’m warning you right now, if I see you harm Chelsa or Kristi, you are no longer with us. Do you understand me?”

  In a serious tone, Troop replied, “Yes. I swear I won’t purposely harm anyone. The Troop you saw earlier today is a different person from the one you see now.” He didn’t elucidate any further and Jaiden left it at that.

  To be honest, Troop wanted to bury all traces of the past behind him.

  “So, how did you meet Chelsa?” he asked.

  “In jail.”

  Troop raised a questioning eyebrow and Jaiden told him how Chelsa had busted him out of jail and taken him and Kristi into her hidden living quarters. The revolving bricks leading into Chelsa’s old home reminded Troop of something familiar.

  “Was there a smaller room leading into the main room at Chelsa’s place?” he asked Jaiden.

  Jaiden nodded.

  “I think I know the place you’re talking about. Lawrence, a senior Revealers member, used to stash his illegal library in there. He relocated his cache a few years ago though, when he ran out of room.”

  Jaiden checked the time and said, “Go grab some sleep; it’s already past midnight and we’re heading out early tomorrow.”

  “I will in a minute. I’ll just wait until Chelsa returns my electro-slate.”

  “Alright.” Jaiden exited the living room, leaving Troop to his own thoughts.

  He popped a pretzel into his mouth, savoring its crunch and saltiness. Feeling bored, he counted the ceiling tiles to pass time. One, two, three, four…

  “Here you go.”

  Troop jerked awake. I must’ve fallen asleep. He turned his head to locate the speaker.

  “There wasn’t a tracker in your slate. Sorry it took so long.” Chelsa pitched him his electro-slate.

  “Thanks. See you in the morning.”

  “Goodnight.”

  Troop walked down the short hallway leading to a bedroom. The lights lining the bottom edges of the wall lit up when he passed by the motion sensors, illuminating his path. He passed by a door and heard a thud. Troop paused for a second, and then continued on his way.

  “Ah!”

  Not sure if someone had gotten hurt, he knocked on the door. “Everything okay?”

  There was an incomprehensible reply.

  Troop started to turn the doorknob when Kristi’s voice said, “I’m alright.”

  Shrugging, he left.

  chapter twenty-six

  [ Kristi ]

  Stevey hunched over an empty whiskey bottle. His eyes wandered aimlessly all over the place. Kristi approached him with trepidation. She had no idea how she had arrived back at Stevey’s shack in the woods. For some reason, she was all by herself.

  “Who is it?” Stevey grunted.

  “It’s me, Kristi.”

  “Stevey doesn’t want to see Kristi.”

  “I have some questions for you.”

  Stevey threw the whiskey bottle at her head. He had a startlingly good aim and arm; he would’ve nailed her if she hadn’t been on her guard.

  “Why did you throw the bottle at me?”

  “Stevey doesn’t want to see you. Go away,” Stevey replied with a hint of whining in his voice.

  Something vicious inside Kristi erupted and she marched over to Stevey and roughly shook him by the shoulders.

  “Answer my questions or else,” she snarled.

  Stevey cowered in fear and tried to writhe out of her grip, bringing Kristi back to her senses. What came over me? Kristi wondered. She dropped her hands and took a step back. Stevey ran away from her and hid behind a tree.

  “Stevey, I’m sorry,” she called out. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Please come out.”

  Stevey didn’t emerge from behind the huge elm tree. “Stevey doesn’t like the questions you ask,” he said.

  “You don’t even know what I was going to ask you.”

  “Kristi gives Stevey bad memories,” Stevey stuttered from behind the tree.

  An uncomfortable silence blossomed in the air. The silence grew and strangled the space like a weed. It was Stevey who timidly broke it.

  “Stevey has something to show you.” His voice was steady now, something that Kristi wasn’t expecting considering he had been trembling with fear just minutes ago.

  “Okay. What do you want to show me?”

  “Come here. Stevey has a secret to show you.”

  Her sixth sense tugged at her gut, warning her to run away from this place as fast as possible. On the other hand, Kristi was curious about what Stevey wanted to show her. She squashed her fears down deep inside and walked over to Stevey.

  His back was turned to her when she inched over to him.

  “What is it that you wanted to show me?” Kristi asked.

  Stevey spun around and lunged at her. His eyes glowed red and razor-sharp claws erupted from his fingers. Kristi ducked to the right and felt the air hiss where Stevey attempted to swipe at her.

  “What are you?” she gasped.

  Stevey let loose a string of cackles and swiped his claws at her shoulders again. She dodged half a second too late and his ragged nails raked down her left shoulder. Blood welled out from the three gashes. At the sight of her blood, Stevey seemed to be hyped into a feverous state.

  “Help!” Kristi yelled into the emptiness.

  “No one can hear you,” Stevey grinned a malevolent grin.

  He tackled her to the ground. His breath stunk of stale liquor. Flames danced in his eyes.

  “Die,” he growled into Kristi’s ear and lazily dragged a single talon across her throat.

  She screamed.

  Thud!

  Kristi bolted upright in bed, banging her head against the headboard. She checked herself for any injuries and then threw a glance at the clock on the bed stand.

  “That was just a nightmare,” she reassured herself.

  She patted the bed to make sure it was solid and not an illusion while her heart hammered uncontrollably against her chest. There was no point in trying to fall back asleep; she was too disturbed by the nightmare, so she decided to make some French toast for breakfast. Kristi snatched some clothes and tiptoed into the bathroom. Once she had tidied up, she flicked on the kitchen lights and got to work.

  Let’s see, she thought, I n
eed milk, eggs, bread and butter. She hummed the theme song of The Phantom of the Opera while gathering all the ingredients and started whisking the milk and eggs together. Then she heated up the pan and greased it with a stick of butter. When she dipped the bread into the egg-milk mixture, she accidently knocked over the bowl of pretzels that had been sitting on the counter, leftover from the night before.

  “I’ll clean that up after I make this piece of French toast,” she said to herself.

  The pan sizzled and hissed as breakfast cooked on the stove. After she was satisfied that particular piece of French toast was done, she flipped it onto a plate and turned around to clean up the pretzels.

  The pretzels were already swept from the floor. She stopped humming and frowned.

  Then Kristi looked up and saw Troop observing her from the far side of the kitchen. She knew at once that it was he who had cleaned up the spilt pretzels.

  “Thanks,” she said curtly and returned to making breakfast.

  “I see you still haven’t forgiven me.”

  Kristi dropped another piece of bread into the egg-milk mixture, watching it soak up the liquid. “You best better believe that.”

  “Why up so early?” Troop asked. “From what Jaiden told me last night, you’re not a morning person.”

  “That is none of your business,” she said, feeling displeased that Jaiden was talking to Troop about her when she wasn’t around.

  “Is there any chance that you’ll forgive me? I really don’t want to be traveling with someone who’s going to be giving me the death-eye every five minutes for the next few weeks.” Troop ran his fingers through his hair.

  Kristi pretended to think about his question with exaggerated gestures then said, “Let’s see…No.”

  The smell of burning French toast brought her attention back to making breakfast. She flipped the burnt piece into the trash and started on the next slice.

  Troop said no more and just watched. Kristi pretended she didn’t feel bothered by his presence. Her pretending didn’t last long.

  “That’s kind of creepy,” she commented a few minutes later.

  “What?”

  “You just standing there and watching.” Kristi picked up the dirty whisks, bowls and the pan she had used to make breakfast and rinsed them off. “Don’t you have something better to do?”

  “Not really.”

  A bleary-eyed Chelsa stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes and giving the impression that she had just woken up. She stopped walking and looked from Kristi to Troop then from Troop back to Kristi.

  “Were you two actually having a conversation?”

  “Surprisingly, yes,” Troop said.

  At the same time Kristi said, “Only something resembling a conversation.”

  “We need new ID cards,” Kristi said.

  They were packing up their belongings and preparing to leave the Rex Hotel. She was going to miss this plush lodging.

  “Already thought of that,” Chelsa replied. “I ordered new cards for you and Jaiden last night. They should have already arrived. We’ll pick them up when we head out.”

  They hoisted up their backpacks and took the elevator down to the lobby. Chelsa spoke with the receptionist and returned clutching a slim package. After making sure there weren’t any prying eyes around, Chelsa discreetly handed Jaiden and Kristi their new ID cards.

  Kristi’s card name was still Kelly Harrison, but the girl’s picture resembled her this time. They shared the same red-brown hair color, at any rate.

  “Let’s go get the droid-horses,” Jaiden said.

  The stable, like the rest of the hotel, was grand and extravagant. The stable walls were made out of marble bricks and livery dressed stable-hands patrolled the grounds. They entered through the stable doors, which could’ve fit twenty horses abreast with no problem. Rows upon rows of droid-horses peered at them over their stall doors.

  Kristi scanned the horses until she found the one she was looking for. White fur gleaming and intelligent eyes gazing back at her stood Flurry. A little bubble of happiness rose inside her. Tiffany had kept her word and tracked down Flurry.

  Kristi walked as fast as she could without looking conspicuous to Flurry’s stall. Flurry nickered affectionately at Kristi and she buried her face into Flurry’s mane, stroking her powerful shoulders.

  “I missed you so much.”

  Flurry’s warm, chocolate-brown eyes appraised Kristi as if to say, “And I you.”

  Tiffany was even nice enough to purchase quality tack for Flurry.

  “Troop, you can ride Mist,” said Jaiden. “Mist is the gray droid-horse beside the appaloosa.”

  Kristi felt bad for Mist for having to be ridden by a jerk. Troop seemed like the type of person who yanked on the reins too hard or dug his heels into the horse too sharply. She finished tacking up Flurry and waited for Jaiden, Troop and Chelsa to meet her outside.

  Oppidum, the town that Finn should be in, was roughly four hundred miles from Charleston if they took Route 56. However, they couldn’t take Route 56 due to landslides. They had to detour around the stretch of Route 56 buried underneath tons of earth and rock. As a result, traveling on South Lane—which added a good fifty miles—was the fastest route to Oppidum.

  Jaiden and Chelsa rode in the front, side by side. Troop and Kristi trailed behind them, an awkward wall of silence between them.

  Kristi concealed her astonishment; Troop was actually a good rider. He had a gentle but firm hand—not that it would’ve mattered since Mist was a droid and didn’t have feelings. Nevertheless, Kristi always acted as if droid-horses were real horses.

  Despite the fact that three days had passed by uneventfully, there was still tangible tension taut between Troop and Kristi. Not that Troop didn’t attempt to relieve some of the tension. Several times. All in vain.

  “How did Chelsa get a hold of a real leopard?” Troop asked.

  Another attempt to stir up some conversation.

  “A friend gave it to her.”

  The only travelers they ever saw on the road were merchants with their truckloads of goods, and they always traveled in groups of five or more. Bandit activity was skyrocketing and most people chose to travel by train or plane rather than risk their lives; taking the roads was becoming riskier every day.

  So far, their luck had held and they hadn’t encountered any more bandits. Still, that didn’t mean they allowed their guard to drop.

  The sun started to sink below the horizon. Within an hour, it would be dark.

  “We should stop soon,” Kristi said, projecting her voice loud enough for Chelsa and Jaiden to hear.

  “Let’s set the camp at the next patch of clearing we find,” replied Chelsa.

  In less than ten minutes, a small field overgrown with prairie grass came into view. It was the ideal place to spend the night. They had a clear view from all four sides of the camp so bandits couldn’t sneak up on them. Of course, that also meant they could be spotted from the road, but they would have enough time to mount the droid-horses and escape if the need came.

  Kristi dismounted and allowed Flurry to charge her solar cells with what little sunlight was left in the day.

  “Jaiden, want to come with me to find water for tonight’s instant noodle?” Chelsa asked.

  He nodded and the two of them left in search of the stream they had passed earlier.

  “Do you want to start the fire or put up the tent?” Troop asked Kristi.

  “Don’t care.”

  He started to gather sticks and stones to make a campfire, so Kristi unceremoniously dumped the tent out from its bag. She had never set up the tent by herself before; either Jaiden or Chelsa had always been beside her to help with the assembling. She now regretted not paying more attention to how to assemble the tent.

  The jumbled mess of metal poles and fabric lay on the ground dauntingly.

  “Here goes nothing,” Kristi mumbled.

  She picked up the longest metal pole she could find a
nd pushed it into a connecter. It locked in with a click. Maybe this isn’t so hard after all. Kristi attached the rest of the tent parts in no particular order.

  She surveyed the tent she had put together. To be honest, it wasn’t so much a tent as it was a compilation of metal and fabric. So maybe the tent was harder to put together than I thought. With a groan, Kristi started to disassemble everything. Troop noticed her plight and made a move to take apart the “tent” without a word.

  She checked the time. Fifteen minutes had passed and Jaiden and Chelsa still hadn’t returned. A sliver of worry embedded itself in her, but she decided to wait for another ten minutes before looking for them. All of the parts of the tent lay neatly on the ground, sorted into different piles.

  “Thanks,” Kristi said to Troop when he began to put together the tent. “But I can do this myself.”

  He ignored her and went right on constructing the tent skillfully. She snatched the pole he was sliding through the sleeve of a piece of fabric out of desperation. She wanted to prove she was perfectly capable of completing this task on her own,

  “I don’t need or want your help with this. Anyways, aren’t you supposed to be making the fire?”

  “I already did.”

  A quick look to where Troop gestured towards showed a good-sized campfire blazing away with a pile of twigs and branches to fuel the fire as needed. Kristi watched the flames dance up and down, twisting and writhing. Even though she had seen many campfires ever since she started traveling with Chelsa, she was still mesmerized by the dance of the flames. When Kristi finally tore her gaze away from the fire, Troop was almost done with setting up the tent.

  She was ticked off. “I already told you I don’t want help from a jerk.”

  “Oh, really?” Troop pounded in the last peg anchoring the tent to the ground and arched an eyebrow. “It sure didn’t seem like it.”

  “Don’t always believe what your eyes see.”

  “Speak for yourself. You saw me do something I wouldn’t normally do and you decide to judge me by that one action,” he retorted.