She wasn’t sure why, but she had sort of expected them to be like Matt or like Fen, but they weren’t. From here, they seemed tall, and she thought they might be almost as tall as Matt. They both had shoulder-length, straight, pale blond hair. She wasn’t entirely sure which of the twins was the girl and which was the boy because they were dressed almost identically in black pants with straps and zippers, big black boots, and jewelry flashing in their ears and on their fingers.

“Do we have a plan?” Fen asked.

Matt said nothing, but he shifted his path to walk toward the twins.

The twins, however, seemed completely unconcerned with the attention that they were getting. Maybe they were used to being watched, because they weren’t uncomfortable about it. Then again, they hadn’t faced wolves, Valkyries, or trolls. Laurie reminded herself that she probably ought not to mention any of those details just yet. The twins continued their studious not-paying-attention while Laurie and the boys continued walking through the hilly cemetery toward them.

She wanted to hurry. The cemetery bothered her more than she’d expected; as they passed graves of people long dead, she shivered. Maybe it was just the cold, or it was that she just now realized that they could die. Fen almost did die—and according to the mythology, Matt would die. The thought of either of them dying made her feel sick. She hadn’t known Matt that well before the tornado, and what she thought she knew about him wasn’t entirely accurate. After facing a few monsters at his side, they were becoming friends. They can’t die. They won’t.She was going to do everything possible to keep that from happening.

And that started with convincing the twins to cooperate.

She walked faster.

Matt sped up to keep pace with her. His voice was a low whisper as he asked, “What are you doing?”

“Talking to them,” she said resolutely.

“You’re just going to go up and tell them they need to help us fight a big snake and stop the end of the world?” Matt asked incredulously. He wasn’t whispering this time, but he was still too quiet for the twins to hear. “This isn’t Blackwell. They might not even know who Thor and Loki are.”

“So we ask what they do know,” Laurie said.

Matt looked at Fen for help, but Fen just shrugged. Her cousin might not like her plan, but she knew he’d side with her. Fen always took her side. Okay, almostalways. He would side with Matt if he thought it would keep her safe. She knew that. She also knew he’d pound anyone who was rude to her. He’d made that pretty obvious as far back as kindergarten. And maybe it made her a little braver knowing that, she admitted.

In another few moments, they reached the gravestone where the twins were and stopped. This close, Laurie could see that they both had short black fingernails and both wore black eyeliner. The twins still acted like Laurie and the boys weren’t there. They didn’t even glance at any of the three of them.

“Hi,” Laurie said.

Neither twin replied.

“My cousin is talking to you,” Fen said.

“And my brother and I aren’t interested in talking to her… or you,” said the standing twin, who, now that she’d spoken, Laurie could tell was the sister.

Fen growled.

The twin on the ground stood and moved so he was shoulder-to-shoulder with his sister. He said nothing, just glanced at her, a little uncertain.

“Look,” the girl continued. “We don’t know you, don’t want to know you, and really don’t care about whatever you want. Ray and I are busy.” She turned her back on them and flicked her hand at her side as if to shoo them away. “Now go away.”

Fen growled again.

“Fen,” Matt started.

“I got strangled by a trollto find Goth Ken and Barbie here, so I’m not going to ‘go away’ so they can play with chalk or go do each other’s makeup.” Fen’s eyes actually flashed yellow, and Laurie wondered briefly if he’d hidden a lot more of himself from her than she’d realized or if he was just exhausted.

“Excuse me?” the girl said in a tone that made it sound more like a challenge than a question.

“Reyna…” her brother said under his breath.

She ignored him and turned back around to face Fen. “Don’t think our eyeliner means we can’t kick your scrawny butt. Ask anyone in town. And trolls? Seriously. Go back to your video games.”

“Whoa! Both of you, stop. We’re not here to fight.” Matt stepped between Ray and Fen. “We just want to talk to you. We’re tired, and some of us”—he glanced at Fen—“have had a rough trip. We don’t care about the, ummm, makeup.”

“Really? He’s wearing nail polish and guyliner,” Fen grumbled.

“Stop it, Fen.” Laurie put her hand flat on Fen’s chest, and then she looked at Reyna and Ray. “Please? Just let us explain.”

They all stood in an awkward standoff for several moments until Reyna said, “Fine. Say whatever you need to say and then leave.” She linked her arm through her twin’s at the elbow.

A strange tickle crept over Laurie, as if she had pins and needles all over. Whatever god powers these two had, they were stronger when they were connected. Apparently, Matt could feel monsters, and she could sense descendants? And what? Trouble? Threats?She wasn’t sure, but there was something going on here and it increased when the twins touched.

“Right,” Laurie started. “Do you want to sit down or walk or—”

“No. We don’t,” Reyna said. Apparently, she spoke for both of them. Ray stood silently at her side, more like an extension of her than an actual person.

“Fine.” Laurie took a deep breath, but she didn’t know how to start. She looked at Matt. “Ummm?”

He stepped in and said, “The end of the world is coming. We need your help to stop it.”

Reyna took a step backward, pulling Ray with her.

Matt hurried on. “There’s more, of course. That’s the short version. I can tell you the rest if you just give us a few—”

“Come on, Ray.” Reyna crouched down and started gathering up their stuff with one hand. Her other hand was still holding Ray’s elbow. Ray stood staring at Matt.

“There’s something different about you, something you can do that most people can’t,” Laurie blurted out. “It’s because you’re like us.”

“We’re nothing like you.” Reyna released her hold on her brother and folded her arms over her chest. “We’re—”

“Descendants of the Norse gods. You have some sort of power. I know you do,” Matt said evenly.

“Or you will soon,” Laurie added.

The twins exchanged a look, and then Ray murmured, “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

In the next minute, the twins had scooped up their art supplies and they all but ran away from the three of them. They were walking so quickly that if they went a single step faster, they would be jogging.

“That went well,” Fen deadpanned.

After the walk to Deadwood from Lead and then up the hill to the cemetery—and after their failure with the twins—the walk into downtown Deadwood felt like punishment. It had been an awfully long couple of days, and Laurie was tired. She wanted a bath, her own bed, and to curl up on her own living room sofa with a book—or maybe to watch a movie with Fen and Matt. What she didn’t want was to try to figure out how to convince the twins, who were obviously hiding something, to join them in a fight to save the world. In all honestly, she didn’t want to sign up to save the world, either, but it didn’t seem right to know that there was something that important at stake and not help out. Sure, she wasn’t one of the people destined to be in the fight, but her cousin was and her friend was, and she was helping them get there. She hadtricked the troll, and she knewshe was right about the twins—at least that’s what she told herself.