“WILL YOU STOP THAT?” I SAID AS I SHOVELED IN MY fourth helping of baklava.

“Stop what?” asked Belet.

“Staring at me like…like you’ve seen a ghost.” Wow, the fourth piece was as good as the first. I wondered how a fifth might taste? Only one way to find out.…

There had been a hug, albeit a pretty awkward one. It was hard to know what to say in this kind of situation. Then Belet had taken me straight to a discreet boutique hotel called Nineveh, whose manager had been great friends with Ishtar. We went up to the penthouse suite, no questions asked. It was decorated in the goddess’s flawless style, with elegant furniture, tables from Versailles, linens from Egypt, lacquered cabinets out of Beijing, and masterpieces covering the lapis-lazuli-tiled walls, including a portrait of Ishtar by a guy named Matisse. Kasusu had been thrust halfway into the wall and Belet’s jacket was hanging off the hilt. She had rustled up some clothes for me, so now I was less “off the slab” and more “off the runway” with a T-shirt from Dior that went on like a second skin, a sleek black quilted jacket, dark gray jeans, and the most comfy kicks I’d ever worn.

She passed me the whole plate. “Tell me again, what’s the last thing you remember?”

I picked the top slice of the sticky treat. “Staring at a huge bright light.”

Her eyes widened. “It wasn’t…heaven?”

“Nope. The train’s headlights.” I licked the honey off my fingers. “These are really good. Are they from the Izmir Canteen?”

“Never mind that,” said Belet. “And afterward?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Not really. Not until I woke up in the morgue.”

“You were dead, Sik.”

“People get declared dead by accident all the time,” I replied, helping myself to the last of the baklava.

“Not those flattened by trains.”

Couldn’t argue with that. Somehow, my body had not only survived but been rejuvenated. My cuts and bruises had almost disappeared. How? Had Ishtar put some kind of spell on me? It hurt my head to think about, so I concentrated on a more pressing concern. I looked at the empty plate. “Got anything else to eat? I’m starving.”

Belet slid over a bowl of fruit. “Probably because you’ve not eaten in three days.” She peered closer at me. “Are you sure you’re not part—”

“Wait. I’ve been”—I couldn’t bring myself to use the d-word—“resting for three days?!”

“A lot has happened. We’ve got poxies loose in the city.”

“Poxies? What’re those? They sound cute.”

Belet shook her head. “They’re anything but. Poxies is the nickname they’re giving those who’ve come down with a new disease. The luckier ones ride it out. They get sick for just a short while. They’ll be feverish, have terrible nightmares and hallucinations.”

“They’re the lucky ones?” I said.

“The worst cases cause mutation. Some might grow boils or develop black lumps, but others suffer from warped bones and muscles—even their skulls change shape, and new limbs grow where they shouldn’t.” Belet grimaced. “Eventually the buzzing begins. It sounds like a thousand flies are breeding in your ear canals. It drives the victim insane—insane and consumed with an unquenchable rage. Some can resist it, but not many.”

I thought of the dockworkers, and Nergal’s plague dogs. He’d promised something worse than them. The baklava roiled in my stomach. “My parents…Do you think they…?”

Belet put her hand on mine. “Stable, but it’s impossible to go see them. Manhattan General is overwhelmed, as is every hospital in the city. People are trying to get off the island before the mayor declares a lockdown tonight. After last time, he’s not taking any chances.”

I pushed aside the fruit. “I’m starting to wish I’d stayed in that drawer.”

“That’s not all.” Belet grimaced. “You’ll want to know about the swarms.”

“I probably won’t, but tell me anyway.”

“Gigantic clouds of flies,” she said, showing me a video clip on her phone. A shifting black mass hung low over Manhattan. “Wall Street is infested with them.”

Just then one of the bedroom doors opened and Daoud came out, yawning and wearing a full cucumber face mask, so it had to be Thursday. “Will you keep it down? I’m trying to sleep. The nutrients need three solid hours to soak in.”

Okay, I have to admit I was happy to see him. “Salaam, Daoud.”

Cucumber slices fell off his eyes and rolled on the floor. “Alhamdulillah! Sik!” Daoud leaped over the sofa and attacked me. He got green paste all over my cheek and hair as he wrapped me in those big arms of his until I couldn’t breathe. “I knew it wasn’t you!”

“Knew…who…wasn’t me?” I gasped for air in his embrace. Those muscles weren’t just for show after all.

He let go eventually and shed a few real tears. “The police got my number from your school—I’m an emergency contact, I guess. They called to say they’d found…a body. I met them at the morgue, but I couldn’t bear to do the identification, so I called Belet. She did it instead.”

Belet looked at me. “I guess I made a mistake. Seems you’re hard to kill.”

“You made Belet do that?” I asked Daoud. The warm and fuzzy effect of his hug had already worn off. “And then I suppose you wormed your way into this penthouse?”

Daoud started to protest. “She offered—”

Belet cut him off with a wave of her hand. “It’s okay. He didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Somehow, Daoud, you always manage to avoid getting your hands dirty,” I said. “You leave the hard work to everybody else, just like at the deli.”

Daoud hung his head. “I’m sorry I left you back on Venus Street,” he said. “I didn’t know Ishtar was going to…”

“Die?” I blurted angrily. “Sorry, Belet,” I added when I saw her wince. “But Daoud needs to face facts. She’s gone, and now Nergal is stronger than ever.”

“I’m not stupid!” he snapped. “I want to help. Help you, your parents, Ishtar, and—”

His phone rang.

I ignored it. “Nergal isn’t just some steroid-pumped thug. He’s much more. In fact, he’s—”

“Can you hold that thought just a minute?” Daoud interrupted me, checking his screen. “It’s my agent.”

“Daoud, this is important!”

“So’s this!” He waved the phone in front of me. “Look! That’s a Hollywood area code!”

“So, what terrorist role do they have for you?” I snapped. Every time I hoped Daoud might finally rise to the challenge, something like this happened. “Iranian? Another Afghan? Or are Pakistanis the bad guys of the month?”

“I’m not taking any more of those roles,” said Daoud. Then he took the call. “Claire! How’s life on the West Coast? What have you got for me?”

Forget him, I thought. I turned back to Belet. We didn’t need him.

“Oh,” said Daoud. “Yes, I can do a Mexican accent. Why?” His shoulders slumped as he continued. “Okay. Audition at four. I’ll be there. Bye.”

He gazed sadly at the screen. For once he didn’t seem to be checking his reflection in it. “I’ve got to go. New gig. Isn’t that great?” He looked anything but excited.

“What is it?”

“Oh, drug dealer.” He pushed his lips into a broad, fake smile. “But, hey, that’s how Benicio del Toro started out, and now look at him!”

“Mabrook, I guess?” Despite my anger, I felt a twinge of pity for the guy. “Maybe you’ll be the hero in the next one?”

“Heroes don’t come in this shade, Sik.” He retreated into his bedroom to get ready.

Sure, Daoud and I had history, but none of it had been great. He’d been closer to Mo in age, so they’d spent a lot of time together. In fact, everyone had assumed they were brothers. I’m not above admitting that had made me jealous sometimes.…

But that was my problem, not his. I couldn’t blame Daoud for the mess we were in, especially as Ishtar had used him as bait. Though he could be incredibly annoying, he wasn’t a bad person. It was just that everyone else came second to his dreams of fame and fortune.

I met Belet’s gaze. “I’m sorry about your mom.”

“She threw her sword away,” said Belet. She stared somewhere beyond me, as if reliving the moment.

“To save me,” I reminded her.

Belet’s eyes snapped back to mine. “Let’s hope it was worth it.”

“Belet, you’re in a low place—the lowest. I know how it feels, I really do.”

“You really don’t. My mother was an immortal goddess. You cannot compare her life to your brother’s. No offense.”

I took a deep, deep breath. “Okay, I’ll give you a pass on that, but only this once. If you ever say anything about my brother again, you’ll be left with absolutely zero friends in the universe.”

Belet didn’t know how to react to that. She didn’t know how to process any of this. Ishtar had gone to great lengths to protect her adopted daughter. And Belet had grown up trying to be perfect for Ishtar. Belet had never had to learn how to pick herself up, because she’d never fallen down.

Somehow I needed to get her back on her feet, back to being badass, with her talent for extreme violence fully functioning. So I spoke to the one who knew her best. “Do you have anything to say, Kasusu?”

The steel hummed. Its edge reflected light, spraying the wall with a rainbow. “Yes, I do. Now listen to me, Belet. And sit up straight when I’m talking to you.”

To my amazement, Belet did.

“That’s better. Your mommy’s gone, boo-hoo-hoo.”

Belet blanched, and I was too stunned to say anything.

“So what?” the sword continued. “You want to stay a little girl all your life? Want her to hold your hand while you cross the street and tuck you in at beddy-byes? Ishtar, may Ea bless her, was not that kind of mother. She seized life by the throat and shook it until it rattled. Girl, she lived every moment like it was her last. That’s the kind of goddess she was. And that’s the kind of daughter she raised. Cry now, cry all you want. Then wipe your face and put on some war paint.”

I grinned. “Thanks, Kasusu. Now—”

But the weapon wasn’t finished, unfortunately. “Because let’s be honest, Private Clown here hasn’t got a chance against Nergal. Sik’ll go down like the three hundred Spartans.”

“Hey!” I said, offended. “You’re looking at someone who survived a train wreck.” Though I still didn’t know how.…

Belet reached over to grab Kasusu’s hilt. “You were at Thermopylae?”

“Took Leonidas’s head clean off myself,” the sword boasted.

“Cool,” said Belet. “But have you ever killed a god?”

Kasusu chuckled. “That’s my girl.”

They were genuinely fond of each other. It was genuinely weird.

Belet pulled the sword out of the wall and faced me. “All this talk isn’t moving things forward. We need a plan, no matter how desperate.”

I showed her the gold lion ring Ishtar had given me. “One desperate plan coming right up.”