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Chapter Six

“ D id you see it? Did you smell it? Did you hear…?”

“Yes, E,” Tveir sighed, literally biting the tip of her tongue to keep from screaming at her twin.

“There was a pleasant aroma. I could hear their conversation. I also saw two Omnipotent Beings getting drunk off their collective asses on that horrible hooch Dionysus makes for the second time in as many human months.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Jumping up and down, clapping and wiggling her hips, Einn cheered.

“That’s what I mean. We saw it all. We heard it all!

Not to mention the way the scent of the fruity tang of the Greek god of Wine and Ecstasy’s favorite brew made my mouth water, or how the spicy burn of the peppers in that cheesy dip Hopper whipped up made my eyes water.

Oh! And I really wanted to taste the salty bite of those wonderfully crispy chips.

It was all there! It was fantastic! It was wonderful! It was…”

“It was not enough! We had all that precisely twenty-hours, twenty-four minutes and forty-eight seconds ago!” Tveir’s roar bounced off the walls, rebounded off the ceiling and reverberated through the airwaves with the fiery heat of her growing impatience and frustration.

“It is taking too long! This is about more than spying on them, more than watching them make fools of themselves, more than…”

“I know,” Einn scowled. “I know what you want.”

“What I want? What I want?!” Tveir stalked forward.

Slowly closing the distance, her right hand clenched at her side while the index finger of the other poked her own chest with every syllable that she seethed.

“This is not only what I want, Einn.” She added an extra punch of harsh Sorcery to the name and was rewarded when her sister flinched.

“This is what we have been dreaming of and working for. Dammit! We have bled for this project. Not to mention, we have literally killed for it since the day we were banished to this God with a capital G forsaken Rift in Time and Space. It is…”

“You know I prefer to call it Twinlandia.”

Ignoring her sister, refusing to get pulled off track, needing to let out at least a small bit of the rage before she throttled her twin and wanting the person with whom she shared everything, even the exact same DNA and toe prints, to understand how very much she needed to escape the living hell her existence had always been, Tveir stopped when she was eye-to-eye and toe-to-toe with her twin.

Waiting for precisely two beats of their syncopated hearts, and for the tremors in Einn’s hand to grow to a visible shake, she slowly and precisely enunciated every word.

“I. Don’t. Care. If. We. Call. It. Motherfucking. Ditzneyland.”

“Oh, I like that. I really….”

Turning the tip of her index finger toward her twin, she poked the very center of Einn’s chest with every word she pushed through her gritted teeth.

“I. Want. Out.” Holding the digit still, she pushed harder, not to hurt her sister, because that would be hurting herself since she would also feel it, but to make sure she had E’s full and undivided attention.

“And by the clock on the wall, you have precisely twenty-five hours, thirty-six minutes, and twenty-nine seconds.”

Stepping back, completely unfazed and just as happy-go-lucky as always, Einn shrugged, made one of her trademark goofy faces, stuck out her lavender tongue and spun back toward her workstation.

Over her shoulder, she explained, “It’s all part of the process, T.

Come on, get with the program. You know we have to experience all five senses through the Twinometer before we can even attempt to send something… ”

“Someone.”

“Noooooooo,” Einn objected, drawing out the word as she slowly turned. “Some thing . I may be a mad scientist, but even I will not…”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Tveir agreed. “We’ll do it your way.

We’ll do all the proper testing.” Reaching out, she held Einn’s upturned and pointed chin between her twisted fingers with her thick, knobby knuckles, and sternly reminded, “But only if you get it done in time. If you are so much as two seconds late, we will throw all caution to the wind, and I will shove you into wherever opens up and hope for the best.”

Shaking her head, Einn dislodged her chin and turned back around. “Fine. Then go away and let me work. But you know…”

“I know that if in twenty-two hours twenty-four minutes and seventeen seconds the device…”

“Twinometer.”

“… device…” she stressed the word with another punch of harsh Magic. “…is not ready for testing, there will be grave consequences.”

“Grave consequences,” Einn childishly mocked.

“Oh, puhlease , T. Grave consequences. Chill out with the comic book villain speak, okay? You look nothing like Two Face neither do you look anything like Harley Quinn.” She snorted with derisive laughter.

“Seriously, you need to get a cup of coffee with that cotton candy creamer and blueberry drops. You know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout. That wonderful brown liquid we swiped from Earth when I proved that the Twinometer works.”

“Stepping into Earth was child’s play. To accomplish our goal, we must…”

“I know what we have to do,” Einn griped. Head snapping to the side, her eyes slid as far to the side as they would go before narrowing. “Now, get outta the lab and let me work, or I’ll push you through the Twinometer Fissure and laugh when you bump your booty on the Asgard Bifrost.”

Mirroring the expression, she added a menacing smile. “As you wish, big sister. As you wish…”