When he took a step closer to them, Fen growled.
“I got it.” Matt stepped in front of Fen and Laurie. “There’s nothing here to see, so—”
“He’s the person we’re looking for,” Laurie interrupted. The pins-and-needles feeling was back, and she suspected now that it meant that she’d found a descendant of the North. She smiled at the boy.
“You’re like a homing pigeon, aren’t you?” Reyna said from behind her.
Laurie looked over her shoulder, but said nothing. The sudden movement made her dizzier, and Fen was starting to look like a dog straining on a leash, ready to attack everyone. He leaned away from the twins and toward the new boy.
As she stood, she reached out for his hand as much for her stability as to keep him restrained.
“Come on.” Reyna pulled her twin farther away from them.
Fen and Matt stayed beside Laurie, but they kept an eye on the twins. Laurie noticed—with a not-insignificant amount of pride—that the twins didn’t move so far away that they couldn’t see the rest of the group. She and the boys had saved them from trolls, and while the twins might not entirely like the situation, they had enough common sense to know that keeping the girl with gate-opening skills and the two warriors in sight was a good idea. That’s what they are, she thought with a smile. Warriors.They might be kids, but they were going to do something amazing.
“Are you sure about this?” Fen prompted her.
She nodded. “I am.”
It felt good that they were all working together, and now that they had found this boy, they were even closer to having the whole monster-fighting team assembled. Everything was working out.
“I’m Laurie. That’s Fen, Matt, Reyna, and Ray.” She pointed at them as she said their names.
“Baldwin.” The boy smiled again. Unlike the twins, he seemed thrilled to see them, more so as he started talking. “This is so cool. I’ve never met anyone with weird powers like me before. I knew there had to be others. It’s like knowing inside that there’s something different about you, and then realizing you can’t be the only one. I mean, my parents took me to doctors, but I just knew that it wasn’t sickness. I just don’t ever feel pain or get injured. What are your powers? Are we like superheroes? I don’t read a lot, but I like comics.”
Everyone stared at him. Even the twins stopped whatever quiet conversation they had been having to look at him. Baldwin was excited, accepting the oddity of their situation with a happiness that was different from any of their reactions.
“Weird powers?” Fen echoed.
Baldwin nodded. “Well, most people can’t open portals… or canyou? Can all of you do that? I bet I could get some epic air on my board if I could go through a portal.”
Laurie laughed. “This is somuch easier than the twins.” She winced and looked over her shoulder. “Sorry.”
Reyna pursed her lips like she was trying not to say anything.
Laurie turned back to Baldwin. “I open portals. They do… other stuff.”
“Cool.” Baldwin kept smiling. “Like what?”
Laurie was half afraid that Fen was going to snarl at Baldwin. Cheery people got on his nerves, but before she could reply to stop Fen from being mean, her cousin said, “We’ll get to that later, but first—”
A noise nearby made Baldwin say, “Hide.”
The descendants, by habit or common sense, all stayed silent until Baldwin popped up from behind a giant fern. “Sorry. I thought it might be a guard. I can usually smile at them and they’ll be cool, but I’m not sure how it would be if there are other people here. I’d hate to get them or you in trouble.”
“A guard? We need to get out of here.” Matt looked around. “Wherever hereis.”
“Reptile Gardens, Rapid City, South Dakota.” Baldwin swept his arms out. “I love it here. I keep hoping they’ll let me see the venomous snakes up close, but every time I get near someone freaks out.” He paused, and for the first time, his cheeriness faded. Then his grin was back. “I thought maybe at night, though, since it’s just a couple of guards here…”
“The snakes aren’t on display?” Laurie frowned. She wasn’t exactly a snake fan, especially right now, when she kept thinking about the Midgard Serpent, but it seemed odd for a place calling itself a “reptile garden” to not have venomous ones on exhibit.
“Oh, no, the snakes are on exhibit, but I want to touchthem, so I stayed after hours tonight.” Baldwin looked at them as if his explanation made sense—which it didn’t.
“Great,” Fen muttered. “He might be nicer than the makeup sisters here”—Fen pointed over his shoulder—“but he’s mental.”
Baldwin laughed. “No. Not at all. I just wanted to experiment with the snakes, but now you’re here. The snakes will wait.”
“It’s like the myth,” Matt said.
They all looked at him, and Matt continued, “He’s Balder. The god couldn’t be hurt by anything except mistletoe… and he was really nice. Always happy.”
“Huh?” Ray and his grumpy twin sister rejoined them.
“You mean he’s impervious to injury?” Reyna pointed at Baldwin. “From everything?”
“Except mistletoe,” Matt repeated.
“I’m a god? Cool… Huh. I’ve never seen real mistletoe.” Baldwin looked dangerously interested. “So, if I poked myself with it, it would hurt?”
They stared at him. Fen’s mouth opened to say something, but then he closed it and shook his head. After a moment, he walked away. The twins followed him.
“No, really,” Baldwin said as he caught up to Fen. “Do you snowboard? Skate? I have a ramp.” His words never seemed to end, but instead of Fen growling, he had slowed down so Baldwin could keep pace with him.
Matt looked at Laurie questioningly, and she shrugged. She could find the descendants of the North well enough, but that didn’t mean they were going to make a lot of sense to her. The twins were still keeping some sort of secret; she was sure of it. Baldwin apparently wanted to poke himself with a stick to experience pain. All she really wanted was to hide away somewhere, get a shower, and maybe put on some clean clothes—or at least wash hers.
After they left Reptile Gardens, they walked to Baldwin’s house. Along the way, Matt filled him in on the coming of Ragnarök and what it meant that Baldwin was a descendant of the god Balder. Maybe it was because of his inability to feel pain, like Fen’s wolf thing and Matt’s Hammer power, but he had already known there was something special about himself, so he accepted their explanation with the good-natured ease that Laurie suspected was his response to most everything. If anything, he was too eager. He wanted to fight, loved the idea that his invulnerability was because of an upcoming battle, and—perversely, in Laurie’s opinion—was crazy excited at getting to see a giant snake.
“It’s even better than the little ones at the Reptile Gardens,” Baldwin was saying as he opened his house door. “And unless the snake is made out of mistletoe—which would be weird, right?—it’ll be just like everything else. No pain. No injury. This is just too epic.”
As they followed him inside, Laurie was secretly glad it wasn’t like the oversized place where the twins lived. She was pretty sure that neither she nor Fen would be comfortable somewhere like that. This was just a regular-sized place surrounded by other normal houses.
Fen flopped down on the sofa. The twins sank gracefully to the floor in movements that mirrored each other. Matt paced the room, looking out windows and locating exits.
“You could all stay here if you want tonight. My parents are away for the weekend. I’m supposed to sleep at the neighbors’ house, but they don’t ever make me. People are always weird like that, letting me have what I want. Is that a descendant thing too? Do you all get treated like that?” Baldwin went into the kitchen as he was speaking, his words all hyperfast. “You’re probably hungry, too.”
“No, but yes, hungry,” Fen said, but Baldwin was already gone. Fen rubbed his face and then called out to Matt, “Thorsen? What’s the myth on him?”