Yes. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, to be exact, according to the sign by the roller coaster. I wondered why the god would be here of all places. Osh had said the North. New England? Since I had no idea where they’d moved her, I had no idea if he was closing in or not, but I was certain of one thing. He was enjoying the hunt.

Still a little astonished I could do it, I picked a spot in an out-of-the-way corner just beyond his line of sight and let my body take shape around me. Like a veil parting. Like a cloak settling around my shoulders and pooling at my feet. I materialized slowly, watching his every move and the moves of the people around me.

Homing in on the strange light, I followed it past the arcade to stop at a cotton candy stand. The human it had taken, the one it had hijacked, was a woman. According to Osh, she died the moment it entered her. Her arms were already discolored with yellow and purple bruises. She was painfully thin with long auburn hair that hung in messy strands down her back. Clearly it wasn’t worried about keeping up appearances since it could only last for so long in that body, anyway.

It sensed me and turned, and time slowed to a stop as the world spun around me. I shook my head, speechless, and almost fell to my knees. A cry of surprise leaped from my throat, and I covered my mouth with both hands. Huge green eyes gazed at me in curiosity. A once pretty mouth, now covered in sores on one side, opened slightly as her head tilted to the side.

I feared I would crumple to the ground. I feared my mortal heart would stop and forget to restart. I feared for the world around me, because once Reyes found out this god had ripped his sister’s soul out of her body so that he could inhabit it, the world would be a dangerous place to be.

“What are you?” Kim asked.

She had the same voice. The same gentle expressions. The same graceful mannerisms. But it wasn’t her. It was the god.

Kim was supposed to be in Mexico. How did she get here? How did the god get to her?

I fought my urge to have a complete meltdown and feigned ignorance.

“Kim?” I asked, stepping closer. “Is that you?”

When I rushed forward, it didn’t move. It didn’t step back and veer away from me. It simply tried to figure out what I was. Without my light, I had no idea what I would look like to a supernatural being, but it clearly wasn’t just like any other human.

“Kim,” I said, throwing my arms around her and hugging. I knew she was just the shell, just the vessel, and that her spirit had probably already crossed, but I couldn’t help it. I held her tight, wanting to apologize for not getting to know her better. I should’ve spent more time with her. We should’ve had coffee and lunch and gone to male revues together.

I pulled back, took her face into my hands, and kissed her mouth.

That’s when the tears broke through. They streamed down my face as I kissed her hard and followed with a dozen tiny pecks.

It watched me, growing more suspicious by the second, so I quickly stepped out of its reach.

Then realization dawned. “Where is your light, little girl?”

“Why her?” I said, my voice breaking. “Why his sister?”

“How else to cripple him? He is almost as indestructible as I.”

“Ah,” I said, wiping my eyes. “Of course. Human life means nothing to you.”

“As a gnat’s life means nothing to you.”

I nodded, beginning to understand him. It reached out and took a cotton candy from an elderly woman. When she began to protest, it turned to her.

“No,” I said, starting toward him.

He chuckled and let her go. “Where is he? Rey’azikeen? I was hoping to see him before this body becomes completely useless.”

“He’s out. Which one are you? Which brother of Uzan?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Brother? We are brothers, are we?”

I frowned at him, and how better to get the answers I needed than to ask? “I don’t understand.”

“What do you think Uzan is?”

“Your home dimension.”

He seemed to become more confused. “I was under the impression you had learned your celestial name, Elle-Ryn.”

“I have.”

He stuffed another mouthful of cotton candy into Kim’s mouth. The movement caused the sores to split. Blood slid down her chin, and I fought the quivering of my lower lip.

“Then why wouldn’t you know … oh, my. Jehovah. He is a sneaky one, is he not?”

“Again, you lost me.”

“Uzan, my dear, is a prison. One is not from there. One is sent there.”