Page 11 of Avelina

I finished my rant and then, not wanting to be a complete Marti-level bitch, I said, “Thanks for your concern, though. Now, please stop pointing that little toy at me and tell me which way the road is so I can get home.” I probably failed on the not-being-a-bitch thing, but I had just spent a whole day searching for Rogue, and I wasn’t about to relinquish custody.

Bear Guy stared at me for a long moment, then down at Rogue, then back at me again. He didn’t lower his weapon. “Avelina Silva?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, taken aback that he knew my name. He must have gotten it from the dog tag, but it still unsettled me. “You wanna see a driver’s license?” The man knit his eyebrows together but didn’t respond.

I rolled my eyes, slid Rogue’s paws off my shoulders, and turned to walk away. It was a calculated risk. I wasn’t going to overcome his ranged weapon with my bear spray, and if this man wanted to assault me, there was very little I could do about it.

“Come on, Rogue,” I said, hiking down the hill away from Bear Guy. Rogue followed on my heels. I wanted to get his leash out, but I was afraid that Bear Guy might get spooked and shoot me out of an abundance of caution.

“Stop!” he commanded. I almost stopped just from the sheer force of his authority but overcame it just in time. I had a point to make, and if he was gonna shoot me, then he was gonna shoot me. Talking to him while I was in Marti mode wasn’t going to help my case. After the intense emotional roller coaster I’d been on for the last twenty-four hours, I wasn’t taking any shit from some random dude with a toy crossbow.

“Bite me,” I said over my shoulder and kept walking.

He sighed. “Wait. Please.”

I stopped, turning to give him side-eye. He still had his weapon up. I gestured to it with an open hand, giving him my famous What the hell? look. He pressed his lips into a flat line, but he put it down.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“Um, I’m Avelina. We just covered that. Like, twenty seconds ago.” Okay, Evilina, seriously. Rein it in. I squeezed my eyes shut to banish my evil twin, then I clenched my fists, took a deep breath, and opened my eyes to face Bear Guy squarely.

“Let me start over. I’m Lina. I live over there.” I pointed up at the mountain, then I stopped, glancing around. “Or maybe it’s that way,” I said, pointing in the exact opposite direction, down the hill. “Um, which way is the road again?”

Bear Guy wrinkled his brow, ticking up one corner of his mouth. I wasn’t sure if it was a small smile or utter contempt. He pointed down the hill and said with feigned patience, “Well, no one lives in that direction for about fifty kilometers.” He turned to point up at the mountain. “And no one lives in that direction for at least a thousand kilometers, which is good because they would be eaten by ridge wolves. Or mountain bears, I suppose.”

My stomach dropped. I ignored, for the moment, his strange use of metric units and focused on the fact that if what he said were true, then I was nowhere near home.

Because you went through a portal, idiot.

“Wait, did you just say wolves?” I asked. He nodded. “And are these wolves white, by any chance?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said, giving me his own version of the What the hell? look. “What other color would a wolf be?” He dropped his eyes to my muddy clothes as if trying to decide if I were crazy. By the expression on his face, his conclusion was not in my favor.

“Oh, okay,” I said, growing irritated. “You’re right. I’m the strange one here, but let me ask you a question. If you had to choose, would you rather fight Medusa or release the Kraken?”

Rogue coughed. I looked down at him, smirking. “I know, right? Who is this guy?”

“I don’t know who the Kraken is,” said Bear Guy, “but if we don’t get out of this clearing soon, we’ll both be fighting. The wolves have likely smelled us already.” He turned toward the mountain, then said under his breath, “Especially you.”

I fingered the cap on my bear spray. Bear Guy obviously wasn’t my biggest fan. But how did he even know I would be here? He knew Rogue well enough to have seen my name on his collar. Did he really just follow Rogue, not knowing where the dog would lead him? That seemed unlikely.

Maybe he knows about portals. Find out what he knows.

“Where did you come from?” he asked.

Well, that was convenient.

“Over there,” I said, pointing to the X stone. “I just sort of fell out of the sky, I guess.” I laughed nervously. He narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

He knows something. Pry it out of him. Evilina’s demands were more insistent than usual. In fact, that didn’t even sound like something she would say.

My own confusing thoughts distracted me just long enough for Bear Guy to sigh and march away. His ponytail whipped up behind him as he moved through the tall grass. Rogue gave me his best What’s for dinner? look, then trotted off behind him. Bear Guy didn’t even ask us to follow. He just expected it.

“Well, can you at least tell me your name?” I called after him.

“Aaron,” he shouted over his shoulder. He didn’t turn back. I sighed and hurried after him. At least I still had my running shoes on.

Chapter Five

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