“Now, now," Bast said. "It's not so bad.""Right," I said. "We're stuck in Washington, D.C. We have two days to make it to Arizona and stop a god we don't know how to stop. And if we can't, we'll never see our dad or Amos again, and the world might end.""That's the spirit!" Bast said brightly. "Now, let's have a picnic.”

“I held out my dad’s magic box and let it o, sure it would smash to the floor. Instead, the box disappeared.“Cool,” I said. “Sure you I can get it back?”“No,” Bast said. “Now come on!”

“I stared at the river far below. "Why did you park us on the mountain? Why not closer?"Bast shrugged, as if this hadn't occurred to her. "Cats like to get as high up as possible. In case we have to pounce on something.""Great," I said. "So if we have to pounce, we're all set.”

“Rowww!” Bast wailed. The wrecking ball rolled straight over her, but she didn’t appear hurt. She leaped off and pounced aain. Her knives sliced through the metal like wet clay. Within seconds, the wrecking ball was reduced to a mound of scraps.Bast sheathed her blades. “Safe now.”“You saved us from a metal ball,” Sadie said.“You never know,” Bast said. “It could’ve been hostile.”

“Zia," I said, "that's a goddess. She defeated Bast. What chance do you have?"Zia held up her staff and the carved lion's head burst into flames - a small red fireball so bright, it lit the entire room. "I am a scribe in the House of Life, Sadie Kane. I am trained to fight gods.”

“Calm down, Horus said."Don't tell me to calm down!"Bast frowned. "I didn't.""Talking to him!" I pointed at my forehead.”

“Anything your father said. People he might have mentioned.”“Amos,” I blurted out, just to see his reaction. “He met a man named Amos.”Inspector Williams sighed. “Sadie, he couldn’t have done. Surely you know that. We spoke with Amos not one hour ago, on the phone from his home in New York.”“He isn’t in New York!” I insisted. “He’s right—”I glanced out the window and Amos was gone. Bloody typical.”