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Whatever it was, she bit the words back and finished, “I know where it is now.”

I blinked, taking a moment to process. “Wait, so you...?”

“Stole the potion because she wouldn’t give it to me. Now I remember.”

I stared at her. “And now you... now you...?”

She pulled her blanket around her tighter. “I know where the portal is, alright? It’s in a cave on the slope of a tall mountain above dense jungle. I can see it as clearly as if it were right in front of me.”

I broke into a grin, all my prior anger forgotten. “Attagirl, Lana!” I leaned over to slap her knee. “Way to step it up. So you know where it is?”

She nodded and sat up straighter, looking proud of herself.

“Okay, so where is it?” I focused on the road again. Thanks to Lana, things were starting to go in our favor.

“I just told you,” she said.

“Yeah, butwhere?”

She looked confused. “Uh... in a cave on the slope of a tall mountain above dense jungle, what I just said.”

I started to sweat. “What... what is that? That could be a description of literally anywhere on Earth, that’s not a location.”

“Well, that’s what I remember,” she snapped, turning defensive. “Once we find the mountain, I’ll know where it is.”

I groaned and tilted my head back. “How are you supposed to find the portal with that? That’s like saying it’s near water, or on land—or on a planet. They didn’t give youanythingelse?”

She crossed her arms. “I’m not going to help you anymore.”

I quelled my frustration and put on my game face. “No, you’re right, you did great... you’re doing great, Lana. Is there anything else you can remember? Anythingspecific?”

“Only that it’s the tallest mountain where we’re going... but I doubt that’ll help you. I doubt anything will help you, you stubborn ox.”

“I can work with that.” I whipped out my smartphone, which thankfully I’d left charging in the Hummer. “Tallest mountain in Mexico... Pico de Orizaba, right here, a dormant volcano. Beautiful.” I showed her a picture of the snowcapped peak. “That it?”

Her eyes lit up. “Yeah, it’s down in a valley on the other side, just over here—” She touched the screen, and the image vanished, replaced with a series of bloody, half-rotted bodies. She flinched back. “What happened? What did I do?”

“You just changed tabs, chill.” I closed out the old search, regarding Azazel—how to dissolve a body in acid—and got back to Pico de Orizaba.

So there it was.

The next portal.

Thank you, Lana.

“Watch the road for me.” I hopped onto a trip-planning website and booked us a villa in the valley she was talking about, deep in the jungle.

“Asher...” she whined, her knuckles turning white on the sides of her seats.

I glanced up to see a semitruck bearing down on us. I swerved back into my lane just in time.

I tossed the phone into her lap and resumed driving, a smile on my face. “It’s ten hours to the border, and then another fourteen hours to our villa. Just a few more days’ driving.”

“I kept up my end of the bargain, now you keep up yours,” she said. “Give me back your blood. The vial you still have.”

“So you can curse me?”

“Only if you misbehave.”