Page 20 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

I snorted. “Since when do you use the word ‘glowering’?”

“I’m making a point to expand my vocabulary,” she said with a grin. “Earlier today, I called someone a buttmunch.”

I laughed. “Wow. You’re showing real growth.”

“I know,” she returned, her eyes crinkling with mirth. “You missed my colorful words for Lester.”

At the mention of Lester, I curled my lip. “Tell me it involved a long string of words unsuited for young ears.”

Mina nodded gleefully. “For sure.”

We high-fived.

I then went back to glaring at her.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Mina said with a huff as she dug around in a black backpack she’d grabbed from our room while I hastily put on shoes to avoid being outside in my socks (however mismatched they might be). She pulled a hair tie from a side pouch of the bag and glanced at me. “What?”

I glared more at her.

She pulled her long dark hair back in a ponytail that was sure to give her a migraine later because of how tight it was. A little part of me hoped the headache would last a day at least. It would serve her right.

I was about to give her a piece of my mind when an insect buzzed past me. The exterior lighting wasn’t bright enough to illuminate much with the dense tree coverage, so I couldn’t be sure what kind of bug it was. It didn’t matter. They were all public enemy number one to me. I spun around, flapping my arms wildly, hoping to knock it away. “Is it on me? Oh God, it is, isn’t it?”

Mina grabbed my arm, which seriously impeded my swatting at what I was sure was a swarm of killer flying bugs. Her long, rather deep breath told me what she thought of my insect phobia. “It’snoton you.”

I locked gazes with her. “Are you sure?”

She glanced me up and down fast, a placid expression on her face. “Yeah. You’re bug-free. You can relax now.”

My gaze darted from side to side as I tried to inspect myself for signs of anything crawling on me. My mind said there was an army of bugs on me, probably flying centipedes, which my brain also said were real, but my eyes had yet to confirm as much.

While I didn’t have visual confirmation on either the existence of centipedes that could fly or that they were on me, I was pretty sure Mina was lying. One was about to slither over my shoulder at any given moment.

Mina rolled her eyes. “Willa, you’re being ridiculous. You know that, right? I didn’t realize bringing you out here meant you’d start going nuts.”

My attention snapped back to her. “Hey, I was in bed, asleep, having a fantastic dream when you woke me up and dragged me out here looking like Rambo’s lost love child.”

She laughed softly. “Sweet. I’m fine being his lost love child.”

“You would be,” I returned with a grunt.

Mina thrust the backpack forward, the weight of it pulling her arm down. I already knew the bag was full of weapons one might use if the end of the world was upon them, and they were prepared to face off against a horde of zombies or something. She’d been wanting to go out and hunt demons since we’d gotten to Romania. She was sure it was crawling with them. “Come on,” she said, her voice hushed with anticipation. “Pick something.”

“If we do this and actually run into something evil, I’m planning to disarm them with witty banter,” I returned, meaning every word. I held my book to my chest and resisted taking the backpack of doom from her.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure that will workperfectly.”

I raked my gaze down my sister, and for a moment, I thought I’d seen wrong. Sure enough, there was a wooden stake strapped to her leg.

Awe and delight lit up her face as she unsheathed the weapon, twirling it around her fingers like an expert. “Want one? I have more in my bag. Plus knives, a leg strap, and a sweet arm strap. Want to wear it?” she asked enthusiastically.

“I really worry about you sometimes,” I stated evenly. “How do you plan to explain away a stake strapped to your leg or the bag full of what I’m starting to think might be a small arsenal if the authorities come across us?”

“Hey, there is the go-to hiking stuff in the bag too. It’s not just weapons. I have rope. A few carabiners. Some chalk to mark our path. Flashlights and batteries. Water,” she said, seeming proud of herself. “I’d have packed food, but I swear everything the innkeeper makes has been smothered in garlic. I have not stopped burping since we got here.”

I stared blankly at her. “You’re serious about doing this, aren’t you?”

“I am,” she said. “I want to go hunting.”

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