I barely had time to catch my breath as Frankie, Eli, and I ducked another attack. We fought back-to-back-to-back, just like old times. In the middle of the fight, I realized that Zeran was nowhere in sight. I glanced up and down the hallway, but he was gone. I tried to swallow my doubt as a darkbringer with three tails attempted to take off my head. I ducked, but one of the tails raked against my shoulder. RayShawn, a godling in eighth grade, sent a jet stream of water from the fountain, which hurtled the three-tailed darkbringer through the air.

“Thanks,” I yelled, but I was still thinking about how Zeran had disappeared as soon as we left the classroom.

“Where are the celestials?” Frankie lassoed two darkbringers together with an energy rope. “We could really use some help.”

She was right. Shangó, Ogun, and Principal Ollie protected the school. If they weren’t here, that meant more trouble.

“That’s a perfectly reasonable question,” I shouted.

Three dozen ghosts swept into the hallway, and Eli clapped his hands. “Ah, finally, my backup is here.”

The ghosts advanced on the darkbringers, but a girl with bright-blue skin and white wings floated up from the floor. She had neon-pink hair that flowed around her shoulders. One by one, Eli’s ghosts stopped. They were suddenly frozen in place like the rest of the humans. “They belong to me now,” the girl said.

“Oh, heck naw.” Eli cracked his knuckles. “Who do you think you are . . . snatching control of my army?”

“You must be the ghost boy I’ve heard so much about,” the girl said, her voice low yet easily carrying over the chaos of the hall. “I am Carran, your self-proclaimed sworn enemy.”

Eli grinned, looking proud of himself. “Too bad I’ve never heard of you.”

Carran glared at him, her eyes blazing with fury. The ghosts grabbed godlings by their collars and jacked them up against lockers. “You have now,” Carran spat.

“Help a fellow out, Eli,” one of the ghosts begged in a paper-thin wisp of a voice.

“Are you going to let her show you up, man?” said another ghost.

“Come on, Eli,” demanded a third. “Show this blue chick who’s boss.”

Eli scoffed with his fists on his hips, a trickle of sweat gliding down his forehead. “Well, Car-ran, you officially have an archnemesis.” Blue magic swiveled around him and threaded through the ghosts’ semitransparent forms. They suddenly went limp at that, and the godlings slipped out of their grasps.

“Nice try, E-li,” Carran drawled. The ghosts all turned on him at once, their faces morphing into bloody eyes and sharp fangs. “I am the true master of the dead; you are only an amateur.”

Eli took a step back. “Let’s not be too hasty here.”