Head still reeling, Alex took a moment to assess his surroundings. The museum setting calmed his frayed nerves slightly as he leaned forward to read a small silver-gray information plaque. He knew the language well enough. His father was Egyptian, but his mother’s family … “It’s German,” he whispered.

“Are we in Germany?” said Ren.

“I don’t know,” said Alex. His head was swimming with too many questions to list, much less answer. He gazed out a tall window at the placid night beyond, where sleek, modern streetlights glowed softly. “Maybe,” he added.

“How is that possible?” said Ren.

He shook his head. He felt like a small boat bobbing up and down on waves of disbelief. “No idea.”

But Ren kept at it. “Did we just travel through …”

“I think so,” Alex said, admitting it as much to himself as to her. “We just traveled through the afterlife.”

A look of horror dawned on Ren’s face, and she looked down at her own hand as if expecting to find a skeleton there. “It’s okay,” said Alex. “I think the false doors, and the amulets — your amulet …” He smiled at her.

But as he took a step toward her, his foot broke an invisible beam, and the museum’s state-of-the-art laser security system lit up the room with a fireworks show of flashing light and blaring noise.

They didn’t know what they were doing — or where they were going — but they’d had plenty of experience running at this point. They followed the glowing arrows of the exit signs as the sounds of shouts and footsteps joined the cacophony.

Ren spotted the front doors first and arrived a few seconds ahead of Alex. He looked back over his shoulder and saw a pair of guards rushing down a grand marble staircase. He turned back to the doors and reached for his amulet to try to unlock them.

But Ren was already holding her amulet. Before he could even take hold of his, he saw a white glow flash from her closed fist and heard a loud click!

“Got it!” she said.

Alex looked over at her, a strange mix of surprise and pride washing through him. “That’s new,” he managed.

“Just push!” she said.

The friends shouldered through the door and bolted like racehorses into the night. Alex felt both freedom and frustration, triumph and sorrow. They’d failed to recover the Lost Spells and lost a friend, but they’d banished a Death Walker. He’d picked up his mom’s trail but was left with nothing more than a name from the past. Angela Felini had taken care of him — and moved away. Was this his mom’s way of saying that she was moving on, too? It was a terrifying thought, but he had no way to know for sure.

What he did know: There was still work to do, and the time for babysitters was over. Was he on his own, then? He looked over at the boot-chopping, amulet-wielding best friend running beside him. Far from it.

Luke’s arm was bent uncomfortably behind his back, held there by one of The Order’s thugs. Peshwar stood in front of him outside the tomb.

“Listen, Peshwawa, or whatever — I did what you wanted,” he said.

“You have failed us,” she said in her harsh, sandpaper voice. “Again.”

“What?” he said. “I … I mean, sure, I had to do a few things to ‘gain their trust’ — just like you said — but I still … I mean, that dude on the train was unconscious when I got there.”

“I am not talking about that, though of course you are lying,” she said, her English just as proficient, and emotionless, as her Arabic. “Your shout was badly timed. It gave them time to get back into the tomb and escape … for now.”

“Hey,” said Luke. “My job was to give you information — or give you Alex. I tried. It’s not my fault if you dropped the ball.”

She slapped him hard across the face. The surprise was more jarring than the pain — though that was no picnic. He tried to shake free, but the thug tightened his grip. That hurt, too.

“Let him go,” said Peshwar.

“Yeah!” said Luke, shaking out his arm dramatically once the man released it. “That’s more like it.” He turned to Peshwar. “So, what’s next?”

She considered him silently and then said: “You run, little boy. That’s what’s next.”

Luke looked into the black skull sockets that hid her eyes, and suddenly he understood. It took him a little longer than it would have taken most people, maybe, but now he got it. The others were gone. He was no use to The Order anymore. And with his cover blown, he never would be.

“This is your pay,” said the lioness. “The chance to save yourself.”

Without another word or another look, Luke spun around and sprinted across the valley floor. He’d had years of training and he did everything right: perfect posture, optimal stride length …

It didn’t matter.

The valley floor in front of him lit up rose-red.

He lengthened his stride, leaning forward as if lunging for the finish line — and he was finished, all right. The energy dagger sank into his back with a dull crackling sound and a pain more intense than he’d ever imagined possible.

He fell to the hard desert ground, full-speed and face-first, like a gazelle gunned down midstride.

Evil thoughts flitted around Todtman, murderous urges so intense they almost seemed to have physical form. He fended them off as best he could, his hand on his amulet and the rubber tip of his cane punching the concrete floor of the warehouse as he moved briskly along one wall.

Somewhere beneath this massive building was The Order’s headquarters. He was sure of it, but as he made his way through the shadowy space, he stopped short.

It wasn’t a doorway or a guard that had caught his attention.

It was five massive blocks of stone, each nearly twice as tall as him and weighing tons. He examined the first of them. The surface was carved but weathered, thousands of years of sandy desert winds rounding the edges. And then, in one corner, he saw a more deliberate incursion.

The stone had been chipped away — sculpted. The shape emerging was unmistakable. A massive, muscular arm, as thick as a tree trunk, and at the end …

A hand, thought Todtman. But such a hand. A stone hand so large and strong that it looked as if it could control an entire world.

An evil thought slipped into his mind, whether from without or within, it was impossible to say: That is exactly what this monstrous thing is being built to do.