“I’m trying!” Ahmad panted, trying to steady his grasp on the slippery leather of the snake’s tail. Every animal in this jungle seemed to be a pickpocket. Ahmad struggled to loosen the serpent’s death grip on Winnie, but it took a strategic stomp on its wiggly tail to send it scrambling back into the thicket.

If it wasn’t some wild creature, there were the ghouls. Ahmad couldn’t decide if they would be better if they actually tried to cause harm. Instead, they lurked out of view until they figured out the right moment to pop up, right in your face, and scare you silly.

“They are not going to get me this time,” Winnie said fiercely after the third ghoul had scampered off, leaving them both shaking at the knees. “You hear me? You are not going to—ahhh!”

That wasn’t even the last time.

“Think positive,” Ahmad said to himself firmly. “Think fun. This is a game, right? Games are supposed to be fun!”

“This game didn’t get the message,” Winnie groaned.

He couldn’t argue with her. It was as though Paheli was determined to ruin things that should have been, in theory, quite entertaining. Being chased by ghouls was perfect in a haunted house. Seeking out puzzle pieces wasn’t a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Putting that together with angry birds and zombie monkeys in the middle of the hottest, most tangled jungle ever known to man?

Well, there was really no way to put a good spin on that situation.

A wrong turn here, a twisted pathway there, and more than a few monkey fistfights later, Ahmad and Winnie broke free of the forest’s grasp.

Winnie let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the entrance to the souk. “Oh good. We’re back to civilization,” Winnie said.

“Or as close as we can get right now, anyways,” Ahmad pointed out. He took the puzzle piece from Winnie and turned it in his hand thoughtfully. “I guess our next step is figuring out what we do with these once we have them. That monkey was pretty intent on swiping these.”

“That can be your next step. If I remember correctly from your map, Madame Nasirah is right down this corner. And I’m starving.”

“Really? After all the fuss over the tea last time?” Ahmad asked.

Winnie’s face pinked. “It was actually good tea,” she muttered. “And don’t you want to find out what happened to your uncle?”

Ahmad felt a guilty twinge. With all the battling they’d done to get through their challenge, he had forgotten about Vijay. Winnie was right. Madame Nasirah’s shop was the most likely place for him to wind up, particularly in a world that had changed since the last time he was part of it.

“All right, then,” he agreed. “Let’s go.”