Reyna didn't know where they were going, but Hylla seemed comfortable with the confusing road map in hand. Actually, she did know where they were going. Seattle. She just didn't know how to get there.

After a several hours, Hylla glanced up at a passing sign and said, "We're entering Utah."

Reyna didn't even pretend to know all 50 States and had certainly never heard of Utah.

Stealing Cassidy's car didn't sit well with her. Hylla, as much as Reyna loved (respected, feared, admired) her, was not by any stretch the epitome of truth. Reyna resolved to drag Hylla somewhere they could leave Cass' car so it was brought back to her as soon as they were in Seattle.

"So what are these people in Seattle like?" Reyna asked.

"Amazons."

Reyna frowned. "The warrior women?"

"Exactly."

"How do you know they'll take us in?"

Hylla shrugged. "I was told that they're always looking for recruits."

The infamous passive voice, Reyna thought, remembering her English teacher's favorite phrase. Told by whom?

She tried to find the situation's silver lining. Of course, they were on the road again. They had found people who would probably be willing to take them in, and hopefully they'd be better than Circe. Maybe the Amazons were Roman. Maybe her dream had been referring to them after all.

"Are the Amazons Roman?" Asked Reyna.

Hylla shot her a sideways glance before resuming her dead-eyed staring at the road. "Well, they aren't mortal. Does it matter?"

A large red minivan shot past their driver's side, horn wailing. Hylla didn't even blink.

"I had a dream, back in Washington," Reyna brought up.

"Okay."

"A voice told me to go west. To Rome. I was just wondering if you had the same dream."

Hylla snorted. "Rome? Really? You want to go there?"

"The dream said—"

"It was a dream, Reyna. Something your mind made up while you were asleep. You knew we were in the US and your mind remembered everything Papa told you about Rome and the States, and made a scenario for you."

"The voice said that we couldn't stay in the east, because the east was Greek," Reyna continued to argue. "I didn't know that."

"Papa probably mentioned it once and you forgot it. I remember all sorts of things in dreams." Hylla gave a short and humorous laugh as Reyna opened her mouth to fight her. "After all Papa said about Rome? After all he did to us, how he ended up, what you want to do is follow his advice? Really?"

Reyna shrugged. "He was one person. Rome is an empire."

"Rome was an empire," Hylla corrected. "Now it's part of one legion, stranded in the 'west'."

Hylla was getting her 'I-know-better-so-don't-argue-because-you're-just-wrong' voice again, so Reyna shut up.

"Do you think we should take the plates off?" Hylla asked.

Reyna stared. "What?"

"The license plates. Should we take them off?"
"Wouldn't a car with no plates attract more attention than one with stolen plates?" Reyna pointed out. It was Hylla's turn to shrug. "I think it would mean we would get pulled over. And neither of us has a driver's license."

"I have one."

"Well, not with you."

Another span of impossibly long silence passed. There was nothing to be said or done. The sun was below the horizon when Hylla announced, "We're in Idaho."

"I really don't care," Reyna said, watching the faded road sign bearing the white words, 'Welcome to Idaho!' be briefly illuminated in the car's headlights.

"I'll wake you up when we enter Washington."

"Is that a state, too?"

"Obviously."

Reyna shrugged off the snide remark and climbed into the back seat, rolling to face the back and doing her best to ignore the brief flashes of car headlights as they were passed.

Reyna was indeed awoken when they crossed into Washington, but not by Hylla.

She regained her senses when the sound of squealing tires and shattering glass penetrated her sleep. Glass shards from the window above her head sprayed over her and Hylla yelled from behind the wheel.

Reyna snapped up to a sitting position and saw the massive flat-bed truck that had tried to ram them (and was almost successful) go flying into the metal guardrail on the highway and rebound, spinning a full 360 before backing into position to follow them. Through the windshield Reyna could see three leering faces peering down at her: women with elegant features, but covered in green scales. Their eyes glowed serpentine yellow, and that was all Reyna saw before the truck lurched forward again.

"Drive, drive, drive!" Reyna yelled to Hylla, spinning around in her seat.

Hylla was too preoccupied to even yell back. She slammed down on the gas and the car shot forward, smashing the tail light of the BMW in front of them.

"They're monsters!" Reyna yelled to Hylla, trying to fill her in.

"I know, God damn it, now shut up!" Hylla roared, weaving between the cars that littered the highway, avoiding some with only centimeters to spare. The truck applied somewhat less effort, smashing into the backs of cars and generally causing mass panic. Several shocked drivers careened over to the shoulder to avoid the large black menace.

"That thing is like a tank," Reyna said, watching it pick off cars one by one. Not very speedy, by any standard, but neither were they.

"Shut! Up!" Hylla said from the front seat. "We need to lose them. We need to lose them." Then, after a second, "What's that?"

Reyna turned her attention away from behind the car to in front of it. On the side of the parallel highway, which ferried traffic headed in the other direction, was a plume of black smoke.

"That's a burning car," Reyna said. "There's another truck coming from the other way."

Hylla swore and unfastened her seat belt, struggling to get it off while she dodged between cars. The gap between them and their pursuers was closing on both sides. "Get ready to run."

Reyna was momentarily distracted by a light blue Prius with New York plates spinning wildly into the barrier. Then, "Okay."

Hylla jerked the steering wheel to the right, and the car followed. It smashed into the guard rail and skidded forty feet before finally coming to a stop.

Hylla threw open her door. "Get out!"

Reyna followed. The massive black truck driven by the monster women was barreling down on them, clearly intending to ram them.

"Over the rail! Quick!" Hylla grabbed Reyna's arm and they vaulted the guard rail, sprinting down the slope and into the trees beyond. There was a massive crash! from behind them seconds later and the sound of metal tearing and groaning. The truck had hit the rail, but the flimsy-looking metal strip had done its job; it had bent and folded but the truck hadn't gotten through. Reyna wouldn't have thought it possible.

The door twitched, and Hylla grabbed Reyna's arm, tugging her along through the trees. A thin river ran through the wood, and beyond that, farmland. They waded the river in a panic, horrified at how much the water slowed them down; then Hylla was dragging Reyna along up the bank and away from the crash, adrenaline fueling them past their normal limits.

It felt like ages later when they stopped, not pursued, and sat gasping for breath on the ground. Reyna whistled, and out of nowhere came Aurum and Argentum, who paced around the sisters, growling at the trees.

"Cass' car," Reyna remembered suddenly.

"You couldn't have called those dogs sooner?" Hylla gasped.

"Cass' car," Reyna said again. "How are we going to pay her back?"

Hylla shrugged, and Reyna got the feeling that she hadn't been intending to in the first place.