Sophie shook her head. “I believe the Sorceress,” she said firmly, and before her brother could respond, she folded her arms and turned away, looking around the room. “Where are we, anyway?” she asked, deliberately changing the subject.

Josh took a deep breath and thought about trying to continue the conversation, but he knew from experience that once Sophie folded her arms and turned her back on him, she’d made a decision. If he pushed, they’d fight, and that was the last thing he wanted right now. All he could hope was that she’d think a little more carefully about everything the Sorceress told her.

“Prometheus’s house in Point Reyes. I caught a glimpse of it earlier. We’re really isolated. There’s a main house and about a dozen small cabins scattered around it. We’re in one of the cabins, and I have to tell you-it’s a dump.” He started looking through drawers. One held a mismatched assortment of knives, forks and spoons, but they were all dull and tarnished, as if they hadn’t been touched in years. Another drawer was stuffed with linen tea towels. Josh pulled out a handful: they were all gray and stiff with age, and showed tourist scenes from cities across Europe: Buckingham Palace in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Royal Palace in Madrid, the Acropolis in Greece and finally, at the bottom of the pile, the pyramids in Egypt. Josh opened one and a fine cloud of dust filled the air. “I wonder when the last time anyone actually stayed here was,” he said. A blast of chill air made him turn. Sophie had pushed open the kitchen door and stepped out into the damp night. The lights of San Francisco filled the sky to the south with an orange glow.

“Where is the Elder?” she asked quietly, without looking around.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him-I haven’t seen anyone-since you fainted or collapsed, or whatever you did earlier. The car was dead, so Prometheus carried you up here. Then, when we got here, all he said was ‘Let her sleep. She’ll be fine when she wakes,’ and he left.” Josh shrugged. “I’ve been sitting here for the past four hours waiting for you to wake up.” He paused and added, “I’m starving.”

“You’re always hungry.”

“Well, aren’t you?”

Sophie took a moment to consider. “No,” she said, “not really.” She knew she should be hungrier-the only food she’d had all day was the fruit she’d eaten with Aoife on the houseboat-but for some reason she felt fine. “We don’t have to stay here,” she said. “We could go looking for them.”

“This is a Shadowrealm,” Josh reminded her. “And the mud people are out there. I’ll bet there are other guardians too.”