“Well?” Ik barked.

“Could you be quiet? I’m concentrating.” The signal was weak, but I cut right and headed down West Forty-Sixth Street. Stopping midway down the block, I turned around. “You’re sure this is the right area?”

Ik pressed her lips together like a curse word was wedged in the corner of her mouth. “Listen, Fire Boy, demons have the most sophisticated tracking ability in the universe, and all you godborns have the same stinky blood.” Dozens of three-inch blue spikes popped out of her neck, wiggling like worms on a hook. “We must be getting real close now, ’cause I’m comin’ up empty.”

“Could you not do that whole creepy tentacle thing in public?” Chills ran up my spine.

“Someone sounds jealousss,” she hissed, stretching the last s for way too long.

“Uh-huh. I’ve already done this sixty-three times,” I reminded her, scanning the street.

Ik rubbed her forehead impatiently. “Then be the pro you think you are and find the mutt.”

Long, lean shadows stretched across the asphalt. A cab rolled by slowly. Lights blinked off in the apartments above.

A slow-burn fire began to rise in my blood. “Something isn’t right.”

“I have an idea,” Ik said semi-brightly. “Let’s go over what you’re going to say. Loosen you up.”

“No thanks.” I kept moving.

“Do you just walk up to the godborns and say, ‘Hey, you’re part Maya god. Come with me or else’?”

“Not exactly.”

Up until now, I hadn’t let Ik stick around for any of the encounters. Lowering the godborn boom on the kids was enough of a shock—I didn’t feel like also explaining that I was hanging with a demon in disguise. Plus, two to one always makes a person feel ganged up on.

I focused on the connection that was getting stronger with each step. “I also tell them about the World Tree, where they can learn about their abilities and get trained in how to use them.”

“Okay. Then, after all that, do you tell them that Camazotz wants to feed their hearts to the Mexica gods?”

“Keep your voice down!” For half a second, I imagined burning off Ik’s eyebrows with a single spark from my fingertip. Instead, I whispered, “If you have to know, yes. I tell them about Zotz’s plan to use godborns to resurrect the Mexica gods and how it failed. They deserve to know the truth.”

Ik’s face turned bright red, and I thought smoke might start curling out of her ears. What was her problem? She took a couple of deep calming breaths. “How noble of you.”

More often than not, the truth worked. Most of the kids were pretty psyched to find out they had a godly parent and might have inherited a power of some sort, especially after I showed them my fire-shooting skills. I was always careful to leave the enemies-ripping-out-their-hearts stuff for last. By then, they were usually too distracted by the word power to care about anything else.

But, if I’m being totally honest, not everyone had been pumped about the news. A few godborns had thrown up or passed out. The runners were the worst—I hated chasing them down. In the end, curiosity always won out. So far…

The godborns’ human parents had a different reaction, but more about that later.

My blood ran hotter. Why couldn’t I shake this feeling? I twisted my hands around Fuego and tried to push the sensation away, but it punched me in the chest anyway.

There was no doubt about it: we were being watched. Or maybe I was just being paranoid. I mean, no one could be following us. Ik always released her magical misty whatever to cover our tracks so completely that even if we were ambushed and thrown into an underground cave, no one, not even Xib’alb’a’s best tracking demons or hellhounds, would find our leftovers.

“Uh…” I glanced over my shoulder at the dark and empty sidewalk. “Do you have a feeling something is way off?”

“You’re that guy, huh?”

“That guy?”

“The one in the scary movie that everyone should have listened to before they got murdered.” She rubbed her stomach. “Can you hurry it up so I can eat?”

Just then, my phone rang. Mom had bought it for me, saying that if I was going to hunt with demons, she had to be able to reach me.

“A thousand bucks it isn’t that girl.” Ik leaned closer, nasty breath and all, to get a look at the phone’s screen. “Ha! Told you. Don’t answer it.”

Ik had spent the last three months telling me all the reasons why Brooks hadn’t called. She doesn’t care. She thinks you’re boring. She’s just not that into you. But no way would my best friend, the awesome shape-shifter who had saved my hide more than once, ghost me. Even if Brooks had read all that sappy stuff I wrote about her in my first book, the one Ixtab had forced me to write. Stupid truth paper!

My best guess was that Brooks had joined some undercover network with her sister, Quinn, and couldn’t talk to anyone.

I answered the FaceTime call. “Hey, Hondo.”

My uncle’s smiling face filled the screen. Ren’s silvery-blue eye loomed in the corner. “You’ll get a chance to talk to him,” Hondo said to her with a grunt. “Move over.”

“You don’t need the whole screen,” the godborn argued.

“Hey, guys?” I said. “I’m kinda busy right now.”

My dog, Rosie, whined in the background as Ren grabbed the phone away from Hondo. “My phone tracker says you’re in New York?” She had thought it was a good idea to share locations with each other. Just in case.

Ik tapped her foot. “Tell them you can’t talk. Don’t they know we’re on an important mission?”

“Did you find number sixty-four?” Hondo shouted from the background.

“I’m working on it now.”

“Oh, good.” Ren smiled. “Then you’ll be home tonight?” She flashed what looked like a notecard. “We got another invitation, with the same instructions as before: Don’t pack anything. Don’t bring your phone. Blah, blah, blah.”

“I am not going to wear a SHIHOM uniform,” Hondo chimed in.

He was talking about the Shaman Institute of Higher-Order Magic at the World Tree. All the godborns were supposed to report there next week for summer training. My uncle, a full-blooded human, was going to teach combat and meditation and stuff.

I pressed my face closer to the screen. “Why did we get a second invitation, do you think?”

Ik made a bored face and mouthed, Who cares?

Ren shrugged. “They want everyone to report sooner.”

Iktan’s tentacles popped out. “Sooner?” she whispered.

“As in the day after tomorrow, first thing in the morning,” Hondo said. “And they better have all the equipment I ordered for the kick-butt drills I have planned.”

“Why did they change the date?” I asked as Ik nodded vigorously. How come she was so interested in our schedule all of a sudden? It wasn’t like she was heading to SHIHOM.

Ren said, “Guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

The gods had reasons for everything they did (mostly related to stuff that was best for them), so yeah, I had a bunch of red flags slapping me in the face about then.

Ik snatched the phone away, ended the call, and turned off my phone. Thin trails of black smoke floated from her eyes.

“Hey!” I shouted.

Tossing the phone back to me, she frowned. “You’re letting outside stuff get in the way of this mission. Now get your brain in the game so we can get out of here. You’re not the only one with a schedule to keep.”

I widened the distance between us and took a deep breath, focusing all my energy on the last godborn. The signal grew stronger and stronger. I followed it…then froze in mid-step. “This can’t be right.”

Ik glanced around. “I don’t see any mutts.”

I pointed to a darkened store across the road. “The godborn is inside the antiques store.”

“The one with the Closed sign in the window?”

Right. What was a kid doing in a closed antiques shop at ten thirty on a Wednesday night? Maybe it was a family business or something.

“Are you sure?” Ik asked, and I swear she started drooling.

“One hundred percent.” I threw her a side-glance. “Need a napkin?”

I crossed the avenue, cut between some parked cars, and stalked toward the store window. Ik was right behind me.

“Did I ever tell you why the Statue of Liberty is blue?” she whispered.

“That’s random, and she’s actually green.” I crouched at the edge of the window front, trying not to be seen as I peered into the shop. Two hooded figures lurked inside.

So which one was the godborn? My GPS should have been screaming at me by now, pointing its finger with total accuracy, but it was like…

Whoa!

Was that even possible? They were both godborns?

I wanted to ask Ik why her “superior tracking” had only picked up one, but she was still fixated on the Statue of Liberty.

“Its sculptor was a demon,” Ik offered. “He wanted to pay homage to all demons everywhere.”

My eyes were trained on the taller godborn with square shoulders. The one inspecting something in their palm while the other inched closer to get a better look. And then the something began to glow red. What the holy heck?

“Do you know why he wanted to pay homage?” Ik’s voice turned gravelly.

Why was she still talking about this? I ignored her, pressing my forehead against the window. “I think…they’re stealing something,” I muttered. “It’s glowing.”

“Because the statue is a reminder that demons are the real lords, superior to everyone.”

The taller godborn’s head jerked up. Our eyes met.

I was so focused on what was beyond the glass, I didn’t notice the reflection in the glass until it was too late.

Shining black eyes, a twisted smile, and murderous claws raised and ready.

Just as I snapped back, Ik’s talon slashed my cheek. I cried out. The pain was instant, the venom fast.

“Foolish, foolish boy,” Iktan tutted. “Never trust a demon.”

Fuego slipped from my grasp as my knees buckled. I collapsed and my head slammed into the concrete. The world slanted. Glass shattered. Agony ripped through me.

“Don’t blink, Zane,” Ik whispered in my ear. “The bat god is coming for you.”

And the last thing I saw before my eyelids closed was a shimmer in the air and the rush of familiar dark wings.