“Just about everything I could learn about you,” he said.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Sisterportation

Emily had expected that getting home after heading out that late afternoon might . . . just not happen. She’d been worried about ambushes and potentially running into Heroes waiting to grab her and Teddy. Worse would have been running into Villains. The common media portrayal of what Villains were, of what they did, was . . . not pleasant.

She and Teddy were, of course, the exception.

A flick of her phone next to her dorm room door unlocked it, and Teddy squeezed past her and into the room.

Emily followed, pausing to take in the room. There were still some unpacked boxes stacked off to one side. They would have taken up a lot of room if she had any proper furniture other than her bed, her desk, her favorite chair, and a blow-up mattress sticking halfway out from under the bed.

Teddy was quick to slither out of her hoodie and crash onto the mattress the moment it was tugged out.

“Going to sleep already?” Emily asked.

It didn’t take a genius to see that Teddy, even in her human form, had some bear in her. Including a love for sleeping long hours.

“Nah,” Teddy said as she rooted around under Emily’s bed and pulled out some bear-paw-covered pj’s and a little red book. “Gonna read a bit, then I’m going to sleep.”

“Oh, okay,” Emily said.

She didn’t have any homework to do or anything of the sort. She could have gone to sleep herself, but a glance at her phone showed that it was still only six. Far too early. And while she was mentally exhausted and her social batteries were utterly depleted, she was physically still full of energy.

Pacing didn’t feel right, though, so Emily walked over to her bed, picked up a small blanket she’d bought at the thrift store, then curled up on her chair with the cover over her entire body, like a warm, little, depressed cocoon.

“What are we going to do?” Emily asked. She had two numbers on her phone now. Handshake’s, and that Melanie woman’s. The former had told her to call if she needed more information on . . . anything, really. The latter had told her to give her a heads-up if she planned on doing anything about Homie.

“I don’t know,” Teddy said as she rolled onto her back with her book held above her. “We could beat that Homie guy up and take the drive things back.”

“Do you think we could actually do that?” Emily asked.

She truly doubted they’d be able to pull it off.

“Can’t think of anything else,” Teddy said. “What will happen if they, uh, open the drive things?”