I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. THE CITY WAS DOOMED BECAUSE of a parking lot. No! It couldn’t end like this!

I turned away from the fence. “We need to go back to Gilgamesh and persuade him to fight. It’s the only way.”

“He won’t. It’s down to us,” said Belet. Her disappointment had instantly turned to steely determination. “I’m off to kill Nergal.”

“Are you that desperate to follow your mom to the netherworld?”

She clenched her fists. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d looked after the garden.” Belet stood before me, our noses inches apart, so I could register the fury burning in her eyes. “You broke your promise to your brother, and now we’re all going to pay for it.”

“Guess what? I’m about to break another promise right now.” I stepped away. “Good-bye and have a great life.”

“What do you mean?”

I was too mad to stop the words from coming out. “Ishtar made me promise to stick with you. But if you’re going to be—”

“You’re only my friend because you promised Mother?”

“No, it’s not like that.” Why did she always have to be so frustrating? “It’s just…”

Belet gritted her teeth. “Just what? Tell me, Sik.”

“She wanted to make sure you wouldn’t be alone if anything happened to her.”

“News to me,” said Belet, crossing her arms over her chest.

“She was trying to protect you,” I said. “That’s why she kept it a secret.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” said Belet. Then she drew something from her back pocket. “Mother always kept secrets.”

It was the photo of her biological parents. The one thing she’d saved from Venus Street.

“No more,” said Belet. Then she ripped the photo in half.

“Why’d you do that?” I watched, horrified, as she tore it into quarters, then eighths.

“They’re not my parents. It’s just a picture from an old magazine—two actors from a soap opera,” Belet said, her tone cold and flat as she tossed the shreds into the air. “Mother thought I didn’t know. I pretended to believe they were my real parents, to make her happy.”

“Ishtar made it all up? Why?”

“Because she thought she wasn’t a good enough parent. So she gave me two perfect ones. But how could anyone be more perfect than her?”

Up to this point, mostly all I’d seen from Belet was bickering and criticism. But now the wall she’d built to hide behind was crumbling and all her pain was pouring out.

She blinked, but that didn’t hold back her tears. “She was supposed to have always been there for me, Sik. All those other children she adopted, over thousands of years…they got to have her until the end of their lives. And I’m the one to lose her. The only one.”

“I know what it’s like to lose the one person you love more than anything. Mo was my world. Everything I looked up to, everything I wanted to be. Then he was gone, and I was so angry. Angry at him for going, at my parents for letting him, at everyone and everything. Myself most of all, for not making more of every moment we’d shared.”

Belet looked up, eyes wet, and I took her hand. I felt the calluses on her palm and fingers from all the time she’d spent weapons training with her mom.

“But don’t let that anger eat you up,” I said. “It’ll destroy you.”

“Sik…”

“Stick with me, Belet. We’ll figure this out.” I looked into her eyes as sincerely as I could. “I’m your friend, and not because Ishtar asked me to be.”

“Do what you want.” She pulled her hand free. “I’m going after Nergal.”

“Belet!” I shouted as she sprinted across Broadway. “Belet!”

It was no use. A moment later, she ducked into another taxi and was gone.

I ran after her for a couple blocks before stumbling to a stop. Now what? With my face on every screen, I wouldn’t be able to get a cab—not that I could afford one, anyway—and the subway was totally—

Hold that thought. I saw someone heading down the stairs into the Canal Street station.

At last, something was working in the city! If even just one of the lines was open, I could get to Manhattan General and try to learn the latest about my parents. Then I could go back uptown toward Central Park and try really hard to get Gilgamesh to join the fight.

A heavy rain was hitting the streets, making everything gray and slippery. I pulled my hood over my head and started down the steps, passing an old guy clutching the handrail.

I stopped and looked back at him. “Need some help?”

He smiled and held out a hand. Wow, it was just skin and bone. “That’s very kind of you, young man. But should you be here?”

“Not really, but here I am,” I replied.

His cold fingers gripped mine tightly as he steadied himself.

“It’s a tragedy, that’s what it is,” he said, shaking his head. “What’s your name?”

“Everyone calls me Sik.”

“I’m Harry. So, did you get a chance to say anything to your family? That would be something, at least.”

“I’m off to see them now.”

“They went before you? I see.” He met my gaze, and his rheumy eyes sharpened. “I hope you didn’t do anything…rash so you could be with them.”

“Uh…nope?” Poor old guy was senile, I guessed.

“Good, good.” He looked back up the stairs and raised his head, letting the raindrops splash on his pale, wrinkled skin. “It’s time I went.”

“Where are you headed?” I asked as we took the next step down.

“Same place we all go in the end.”

“Okaaay.” We reached the bottom of the steps and shuffled toward the turnstiles. “Do you have a MetroCard?” I asked the man. “If not, I can swipe mine for you.”

“No need,” said Harry. The turnstile allowed him in without payment. Did senior citizens get some kind of special deal?

I swiped myself in, and we walked along the platform. It was crowded—with old folks, mainly. Was there an AARP convention happening nearby or something? As we slipped past, trying to find a good place to wait for the train, I caught snippets of their conversations.

“I was just crossing the street. Looked left when I shoulda looked right…”

“I knew there were nuts in that cake.…”

“I wish I could see their faces when they learn it’s all been left to Mr. Whiskers…”

The air shifted, and a deep, distant roar traveled out of the dark tunnel mouth. The wheels screamed on the steel rails, and wind rushed through the narrow space, hurling dust and loose papers down the platform.

Harry smiled. “It’ll be good to see Betty again.”

The train slowed to a stop. Like some of the older trains in the city, this one was heavily decorated with graffiti. Unlike the rest, the graffiti was cuneiform.

I was getting that bad feeling again.…

A pair of boys pushed past us to get on the train, one shoving the other. “I told you the ice wasn’t thick enough.”

A middle-aged man adjusted his tie as he stepped inside. “Well, the life insurance should cover their tuition.”

I turned slowly to Harry. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, Sik.”

“No offense, but are…are you dead?”

“Of course.” He looked surprised but not shocked, as if I’d asked something stupidly obvious. “Aren’t you?”

Then I was pushed on board.