“I don’t.” Zeran’s face changed shape before my eyes. His skin turned from blue to brown, and he shrank by several inches. His hair grew into long locs. “How do I look?” he asked, grinning at me.

I gawked at him in disbelief. His shifting his appearance never got old, but it was eerie to look at a copy of myself, down to my clothes. I thought about Tisha’s vision and connected the dots. “So you were going to pretend to be me and deliver yourself to the darkbringers?”

“Pretty good plan, right?” Zeran said in a voice that sounded exactly like mine. “Admittedly, it is going to be hard to pull off being in two places at once, but I’m resourceful.”

Tisha Thomas had said she saw Zeran meeting with darkbringers in an old factory. Then she had a vision of me unconscious in said factory. Zeran had met with the darkbringers. So her vision hadn’t been wrong. She’d just misinterpreted what she saw. I put my hands on my hips and smiled. “I’m going with you. You don’t need to pretend to be me if I’m a willing accomplice.”

Zeran shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. If these people get their hands on you, they’ll turn you over to the Lord of Shadows.”

“Let me worry about that,” I said. “You helped rescue my sister, so now let me help you get your brother back.”

Zeran nodded slowly, like he was reluctant to agree, then he stepped closer to me. “You’re all right for a human.”

“And you’re pretty okay for a darkbringer,” I said, glancing at the floor.

“Maya, if . . . if the celestials can’t stop the Lord of Shadows, I want you to know . . .” Zeran paused, and his voice got low. “I want you to know that I’m glad to call you my friend.”

Eleni cleared her throat, and Zeran and I jumped apart. She flounced into my room with a tray of steaming soup, animal crackers, and a glass of orange juice. “Should I come back later?”

“No,” I said much too loudly. “We were just . . . um . . . talking.”

“Uh-huh,” Eleni said. “You two are planning to rescue Billu without the rest of us.”

I pursed my lips, annoyed. “How long were you eavesdropping?”

Eleni put the tray on my desk. “I wasn’t; I just happen to have really good hearing.”

“I can’t risk bringing more people,” Zeran said. “If my contacts suspect a trap, they’ll leave without telling me where to find my brother.”

Eleni crossed her arms. “I don’t like the idea of you two going alone. What if something goes wrong?”

“Then we’ll deal with it,” I told her. “Look, if I’m not home in time for dinner, tell Papa and Mama everything.”

“Fine,” Eleni said, throwing up her arms in defeat, “but you better come back unharmed.”