Alex and Ren met across the street from the museum the next morning and waited for Todtman. “Hey, did you bring that Death Walkers book?” said Ren.

“Couldn’t find it,” said Alex. “I could’ve sworn I had it by the window, but it wasn’t there.”

“You ask your aunt and uncle?”

“Said they hadn’t seen it.”

“What about your cousin?”

“Luke’s not much of a reader.”

“Oh, wait, here comes Todtman.”

He walked up carrying an extremely large coffee in one hand and a newspaper under one arm. “Good morning,” he said. “Let’s walk.”

He headed toward Central Park, and Alex and Ren tagged along on either side.

“We should, uh, watch our step in here,” said Alex, eyeing the ground as they entered the park.

“Indeed,” said Todtman. “There’s something I want to show you. You both have strong stomachs, I hope.”

Alex and Ren glanced over at each other: strong stomachs?

“And you’ve both seen the news?”

Todtman flashed the front page at them. The headline: “Stung Man Sprung from Cursed Exhibit.”

“They didn’t mention us by name,” said Ren. “But they mentioned you.”

“Did you get in trouble?” asked Alex.

“Not exactly,” Todtman said cryptically, dropping the paper in a trash can without breaking stride.

They hooked a right and headed deeper into the park.

Ren tested the water with a softball question. “So what’s your deal anyway?” she asked Todtman. “Why Egypt? Why not …”

“Please don’t say World War II,” he said, not unkindly. Alex looked around to see if anyone was following them or listening in. Todtman continued: “Egypt has been a passion of mine since I was young — younger than you two. I took a trip when I was eight.”

“It’s not as far from Germany,” volunteered Ren.

“True, but still far. My family was neither rich nor poor, and the trip was a big event. My father had gotten a bonus, I believe. In any case, eight years old. I’d never seen anything more impressive than a well-made cuckoo clock, and here were pyramids as high as skyscrapers. We floated down the Nile and our guides took us down into a tomb. The sarcophagus was still inside. I was done for. Hooked.”

Alex knew the feeling, but they hadn’t come here to talk about vacations. “Shouldn’t we go someplace private?” he said, waving his hand at the park’s famous scenery.

“But this is very private today, isn’t it?” said Todtman.

Alex looked again. The park should’ve been packed on a summer day like this, but the trails were mostly empty. He didn’t see a single jogger. He remembered the scene last night, the face twisted in pain. He could understand that. But what about the tourists, the dog-walkers …

He heard a rustling just off the path and jumped away.

“There are scorpions here,” he said.

It sounded silly in the daylight, but he knew what he’d seen. And the others weren’t exactly laughing.

“They’re all over the city,” said Ren. “Didn’t you read any of the other stories?”

Alex shook his head. Ren gave him a disapproving look and turned toward Todtman. “The news says it’s because of people releasing ‘exotic pets’ and climate change.”

Todtman considered that for a moment as they walked. “When faced with the impossible, people will always cling to what they know,” he said.

This time Alex gave Ren a look. She ignored it.

“Was that a real mummy?” she asked. No more softball questions.

“Quite real,” said Todtman.

“He didn’t look like one,” she countered.

“True, his life force has returned to his body.”

A flash of recognition nearly stopped Alex in his tracks.

“How is that possible?” said Ren, but Alex could hear the fight leaving her voice. She’d seen the same thing he had, and it wasn’t some nut job in gauze.

“No, my turn,” said Alex. “What are, um, what about the amulets?”

Todtman had been expecting that one: “We only know of a handful with these kinds of powers, though there could be more. Mine is in the shape of a falcon, the symbol of the watcher.”

“Because of their eyesight,” said Ren.

“Yes,” said Todtman, “and their range.”

“Mine, well, my mom’s, it’s a scarab,” said Alex.

“Yes, the returner, a symbol of rebirth and regeneration.”

Another flash of recognition. Ren snuck in a question as Alex began to put the pieces together. “How did you find them?”

Todtman cocked his head to consider. “We think they found us. Alex’s mother was the first. She found the scarab on a dig near Sudan. I found mine in a market bazaar.”

“So anyone could have …”

“I don’t think so. They only seem to work for one person — one person at a time, at least. It’s like they put themselves in our path. Hundreds of people must have picked mine up and felt nothing, no spark of recognition. And I felt none with the scarab.”

“And they each do different things, don’t they?” Alex asked.

Todtman fixed Alex with his bugged-out eyes and smiled. “You understand, then. I thought you might, once I saw you use the scarab. Yes, all of them can do certain things. Move small objects, and so on, but mine, well, I can see things quite clearly sometimes. When the power went out, I knew to go straight to the sarcophagus. I can also control people to an extent. A watcher can also be a boss, of course, an overseer. But the scarab, it’s much more powerful.”

“I can do, like, a wind thing,” said Alex.

“The wind that comes before the rain,” said Todtman. “Another kind of rebirth — but the scarab can do much more than that. It’s the reason we’re all here, isn’t it?”

“Wait, what do you mean?” said Ren.

Alex turned the words over. The next piece of the puzzle clicked into place, and everything in him went cold. “The reason I’m still here …” he said.

Ren looked from Todtman to Alex and back. “Tell me!” she said as they took another turn, heading deeper into the park. They were far from the street now, and the trees seemed to close in around them.

“In the hospital, my mom …” He turned to Todtman. “I thought I dreamed that, but …” He almost couldn’t say it. “She used the amulet, didn’t she?”

“She used the Lost Spells,” he said. “I warned her not to — no offense to you, Alex — but she was desperate. It seems the scarab can activate the Book of the Dead. I believe we saw that last night, too. I think that’s what spooked the Stung Man. It can give the old spells their power back. And the Book of the Dead is very powerful, whether it’s moving someone toward the afterlife — or, in the case of the Lost Spells, bringing them out of it.”

Alex remembered the ancient text, glowing faintly. His head reeled at the implications. “Mom brought me back,” he whispered. “Reattached my life force.”

“The returner,” said Todtman.

“But not just me …”

A new possibility opened up for Alex. He felt like he was falling down a well, waiting to hit bottom.

“The door to the afterlife was opened.” Todtman paused and looked down. “I told her there was a risk.”

“So now there’s a door to the afterlife?” said Ren, exasperated.

Todtman turned to her, his eyebrows high with surprise. “Yes, of course. There are many.”

“And what got out?” asked Alex. “Of the doors?”

“Whatever was waiting, it seems. That includes the Stung Man, of course. We don’t know who else … The Death Walkers were waiting — how many of them got out, though? It could be any of them; it could be all of them. They are certainly all quite dangerous. Men and women whose hearts were heavy with evil thousands of years ago — well, I doubt they’ve gotten nicer with time.”

Alex had one last flash of recognition, but this one was more like a lightning bolt. He reached the bottom of the well. He crashed down. “This is all my fault …”

He looked up at Todtman, hoping he would say something reassuring, tell Alex he’d completely misunderstood.

But Todtman said nothing, just kept walking.

Alex struggled to find words — sorry, maybe, though sorry didn’t remotely cut it — but his throat was clamped shut. All this because of him. All this so he could live. The Stung Man with his wet, malevolent eyes, the little mummy who couldn’t sleep. His mom, missing. And all because of him.

Ren looked from Alex to Todtman and opened her mouth, but seemed to think better of it. Instead, she took a step closer to Alex and simply walked next to him. Emotional Support Position.

The group took one final turn. They were near the center of the park now. They were alone in a park that was too empty, too quiet. They stuck to the center of the path.

“So why do they need Alex’s mom?” Ren finally said, a few steps later. “I mean, if all this is true.”

“Perhaps because they know she knows how to use the Spells,” said Todtman. “Though she would need the amulet. I’m not sure they’ve made that connection yet.”

Alex looked at him. Did that put her in less danger, or more? Todtman’s expression gave nothing away.

“I’m grounded, you know?” said Ren. “My parents just think it was a robbery last night, but still.”

Alex realized she was talking just to talk now, that she needed to hear the sound of a human voice in this empty place.

“I mean, I know I don’t seem grounded, but they don’t really check …”

“We’re almost there,” interrupted Todtman. “You can smell it now.”

Alex breathed in through his nose. It was a rank smell, not overpowering yet, but not good.

They were walking up a small hill, approaching the top.

“Smells like wet dog,” said Ren.

They reached the top of the little hill and looked down.

“No,” said Todtman. “It smells like death.”

They gazed down on the park’s main sanitation substation. Workers in green coveralls and white masks were standing on a platform and shoveling dead animals into a massive metal shipping container. Alex saw squirrels and pigeons by the shovelful, along with some stray cats and even ducks and geese.

So many of them, tossed onto the pile like heavy, wet pillows.

The scorpions, Alex thought.

“I have to include you in this now, Alex,” said Todtman softly. “I didn’t want to, but I cannot use the scarab and I think it is the key. I need you both to see how big this is. And how dangerous. This” — he gestured to the gruesome scene in front of them — “is just the beginning. The Order has always been powerful, but now the Death Walkers are returning, as the cult had long hoped they would. They are working together, and that is a very dangerous combination.”

Dangerous, thought Alex. There’s that word again.

But it didn’t matter.

“It’s my mom,” he said with a sharp nod of his head. “And my fault. I’m in.”

Todtman regarded Ren solemnly. “Ren, you are a smart girl, and I suppose you can make up your own mind, but I would prefer it if you were not involved.”

They were all quiet for a while, the scrape of shovels the only thing to break the silence.

Ren spoke first.

“You don’t want me ‘involved’?” she asked. Her voice was quiet, but Alex recognized the fierce look on her face.

“No.”

“Well, tough,” she said. “Alex is my best friend. And his mom is my third-favorite parent.”

Todtman’s expression remained flat, unmoved.

“Just the same,” he said, “I see no reason to endanger your life, too.”

“Friends stick together,” Ren said. “It’s nonnegotiable.”

Alex felt a huge rush of gratitude. He didn’t want Ren mixed up in this mess, but he didn’t know how he could do this without her.

“And anyway,” she said, “I know where the Stung Man and Al-Dab’u went.”

Now Todtman’s expression changed. It was pure surprise.

“Where they went?” said Todtman.

“Yeah, how they got away from you at the museum, with the Stung Man still moving so slowly …”

“How?” said Todtman.

“I’ll tell you,” she said as they turned and began the walk back to Fifth Avenue. “But it smells even worse than this place.”

Alex didn’t care what it smelled like. He wasn’t the logical list maker that Ren was, but he’d figured something out in his little bedroom office the night before, a pure logic equation that kept running through his mind:

The Order has Mom. If I find Al-Dab’u and the Stung Man, I find Mom.

He looked over at Ren, but she didn’t notice. Her hands were balled into fists, and he knew her mind was grinding away at all this.

Their mission had changed, but he still had exactly the right partner.