she said, punching my shoulder and then bounding up four stairs in one leap.
“Napoleon Dynamite? You’re quoting Napoleon Dynamite? Who are you?” I asked, chasing after her but falling behind despite my longer legs.
Chapter 5
We dropped off the collar in Caeco’s room, which was three rooms down the hall from mine. Aunt Ash and Dr. Jensen had both raised eyebrows when we discovered how close our rooms were, but oddly, neither said a word.
We agreed that she should have first chance to inspect the collar and see what she could read off it before I did the same. I had a few ideas, as I’m sure she did.
“I wonder where the others are?” I asked.
She locked her door with one hand while the other pushed her highlighted brown hair away from her ear to listen. After a second, she pointed further down the long hallway and we began to walk.
“We don’t have to hang out with them, you know? They’re gonna ask a lot of questions,” I said.
“If I learned anything from my short high school experience, it’s that making friends is important. Also, a social hierarchy is already forming as we speak and we need to have our own place in it, with allies.”
“Wow, again, who are you and what have you done with the independent combat operator that I first met?” I asked.
“Silly warlock, the history of warfare and conflict has always favored those with allies. This I have known since my first war game. Plus we promised Chris,” she said, stopping in front of a door with the names Ashley and Ariel on it.
Ashley opened it at my knock. “About time. We were wondering what was keeping you,” she said, gesturing us into the room.
It was immediately clear whose side was whose. One half was decorated in soft pastels with an inordinate number of stuffed animals—at least for a college dorm. Posters depicting polar bears and fair trade expos were artistically displayed on the bare walls. It seemed very Ariel.
The other side favored primary colors, mostly blues and greens, with pictures of both the men’s and women’s Olympic soccer teams and an eye-catching poster of a beautifully forged folded-steel bowie knife crossed over a one-piece metal tomahawk under the title Bear Mountain Blades. Ashley’s space.
“Whoa, nice craftsmanship,” Caeco said, drawn instantly to the poster.
“Ashley’s dad makes them,” Jetta said from her position in the big puffy pink beanbag chair at the end of Ariel’s bed. Mack was sitting next to her cross-legged on the floor with a MacBook open on his lap, and Ariel was lying back across her bed.
“Does he take commissions?” Caeco asked Ashley, not taking her eyes off the poster.
“I’m first… when I can get the money together,” Jetta said.
“He hasn’t made anything in a while, but I think he’s gonna crank up the forge again, at least while I’m at college. My home is only a couple of hours from here,” Ashley said. “We can ask him tomorrow. He’s staying overnight at the Marriott downtown and he was going to take Ariel and I up the hill tomorrow to get our books and find our classrooms.”
“He does beautiful work,” Caeco said, maybe a touch awestruck. Jetta jumped up and joined her in examining the poster.
“Look—is that silver folded in or nickel, do you think?” Jetta asked Caeco.
“Hard to tell,” Caeco answered, leaning close. Yup, these two were gonna get along fine.
“So you’re hunters?” I asked Mack, which caused Jetta to spin around.
“So you’re a warlock?” she fired back before her brother could answer.
“Perhaps we can all have a seat and maybe explain our backgrounds,” Mack said, more to his volatile sister than to me. Ashley and Ariel were nodding, watching Jetta warily.
“Sure,” I said, dropping down next to Mack, sitting cross-legged.
“All four of you… no all five of you have met Chris Gordon before,” Ashley said, making it a statement. “And he just met with the two of you, didn’t he?”
“Yeah. He’s staying with Gina Velasquez. Her daughter is his goddaughter,” I said.
“The one he bombed New Hampshire over?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah,” I said. They all waited for me to go on. I glanced at Caeco and got a small nod to go ahead, but her narrowed eyes told me to be judicious.
“So the people that kidnapped Toni had also taken the two of us into custody,” I began.
“Why?” Jetta interjected.
“Because Caeco’s mom used to work for them and because I was helping her try to stay away from them,” I said, thinking it