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Chapter Seventeen

“This is really boring.” I knew I wasn’t helping, that my whining wasn’t making anything better, but that didn’t stop me from doing it.

Anything that kept me at least mildly entertained.

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Ruben asked.

“Porter got me all ready for us to be avoiding danger at every turn and shit like that. I was ready for action. This is more boring than when my mom makes us take walks after Thanksgiving dinner because she read it was good for people.”

“I said to be cautious. We’ve been here for two hours. Are you really this impatient for chaos?”

I turned around to look at Porter, amazed as ever at how natural he could look out here. “Do you recall what clan I belong to? Come on, what’s it called?”

He sighed but repeated it as though he knew I wouldn’t shut up until he did. “Chaos Clan.”

“There you go. So no, I can’t help it, and yes, I am that impatient. This is terrible—it’s just waiting for something to happen.” I looked forward, toward Galen who walked at the front. “Are you sure we’re going the right way still?”

“Yes. I can feel it,” Galen said without turning. “It’s up that way, toward that mountain.”

“That one?” I pointed at what had to be ten miles away. “Why couldn’t we open the fucking portal a little closer?”

“It’s not that far,” Ruben said. “We’ll reach the base by tonight.” He looked over at me. “Well, by tomorrow at least.”

“Wow.Rude much? I’ll have you know that I’m not that useless.”

“Yes, you fought a weretiger—I heard.”

“She what?” Porter asked.

“Oh, you didn’t hear?” Kelvin perked up as though amused. “Yes, apparently she fought a weretigerwhile naked. Our little bird right here is quite the live wire. You’re still new to this entire scene, but I can assure you, no matter how ridiculous something she does seems, she can make it worse.”

“I didn’t mention I was naked! Who told you?” As soon as I asked, I got my answer. There was only one person who was there, only one person who could have told him about that little detail.

I glared at Galen’s back. “You snitch. I had no idea you all were so close.”

“We’re best buddies. We spend hours on the phone every night,” Kelvin said while Galen ignored me.

The conversation was good for one thing, at least, which was distracting me. It didn’t seem so bad when we had this banter going back and forth, after all. In fact, it almost felt like a family outing.

A weird family, sure, and a super incestuous one, but still a family of some sort. I wasn’t sure if the bantering was natural or if they did it to help me out, to keep me distracted, but I appreciated it all the same.

“What was I supposed to do?Notfight the tiger? Because that option led to death and I wasn’t aware you all wanted me dead that much.”

“You know the real problem?” Ruben pointed out. “Most people don’t have to make decisions like that. They don’t live their lives in such a way where fighting a weretiger naked is even an option they have to choose between.”

I didn’t argue back that time because what was the point? The fact I washereat all proved that my life was a little fucked up, a little messy, and they sure didn’t mind when they benefited from it. That meant I thought it was crazy for them to get so upset when it went a little sideways.

Our back and forth went on, however, as we walked. It relaxed me, helped the time to pass.

Much of the greenery around us seemed the same as when we’d first gotten inside this place. Each time I glanced around, however, the fact we weren’t home became more painfully obvious.

The smells were wrong, the sounds off. It was like that uncanny valley thing, where things that were almost human but weren’t freaked us out the most.

And, yes, ignore the terrifying idea that there was something that lookedalmosthuman that posed a big enough threat that that shit got hardwired into our DNA.

The fact was that this place was close but not right. The trees were here, but different. The breeze existed, but seemed to switch direction so much that it was impossible to follow. Light covered the space, but it had no source, no sun, nothing that created it.

It all told me that I didnotbelong here.