‘What guys? What are you talking about?’

They exchange glances. ‘Girl,’ says Dee, ‘even before your latest stunt, you were becoming the most requested fighter of all our events. Butt-kicking girls have always been smokin’ hot, but in the postapocalyptic world we live in, the hottest thing around is a sword-wielding, angel-slaying, foulmouthed—’

‘I’m not foulmouthed.’

‘Yeah, well, nobody’s perfect,’ says Dum.

‘How did you hear about this hypothetical teen girl killing an angel? Not that I’m saying I believe in such a wacky story or anything.’

‘The angels put a bounty on this hypothetical girl’s head. Anyone who turns this angel slayer in to them will get safe passage from them. Even Obi didn’t get that. His bounty is puny compared to this girl’s.’

‘Word is spreading like wildfire,’ says Dum. ‘There are crazy stories about her being able to control angel swords and even commanding demons. Everybody’s excited. Half the people are looking for you – I mean, her – to turn you in for safe passage, and the other half are toasting you with their last beer. A lot of people are doing both.’

‘So watch your back,’ says Dee. ‘Whether it was you or not, people think it was you, and that may be enough to get you killed.’

‘What with your teddy bear sword and history with demons and all.’ Dum raises his brows at me.

‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ asks Dee, squinting at me.

‘Just between us of course,’ says Dum.

‘We’d never tell.’ They’re freakishly identical when they say the same thing together.

A part of me is dying to talk about it. But the smarter part of me says, ‘Oh, sure. Didn’t I tell you I could kill angels and command demons? I can fly too, but don’t tell anyone.’

‘Uh-huh.’ They look at me, watching my face for clues.

I scan my mind for a change of subject. ‘You guys seem to be doing a good job here.’

They keep eyeing me as if not sure whether to let me get away from the topic.

‘I mean, it must be hard to build a refugee camp while running a resistance army at the same time.’

‘Obi’s been trying to do it all, but we finally managed to get a council together to help him run some of the logistics. Oh, man, so many logistics.’

‘And all because you had to go for a little joyride, and then give Obi an excuse to be the hero. Speaking of which, how was your bus ride?’

‘Yeah, the last time we saw you, you were sending us love notes from your little bus jail.’

‘We thought about busting you out, but Obi thought it was more important to get those people off Alcatraz.’

‘We wouldn’t have agreed if we’d known your mom was there.’

‘Pain in the ass, let me tell ya.’