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fast. Or to save someone’s life.”
    “But you did both, and I am in your debt. My family has caused you a great deal of harm, through Esther’s malign efforts and my unintentional ones. Know that I will do what I can to settle that debt.”
    The Greenes were not raised to carry debts. We did not owe, we were owed . The Gatekeepers owed us their attention, their power, and through bargains, we were owed by the Bold to a lesser extent. And their nieces and nephews, the Younger Gods, owed us our inheritance.
    To be the debtor put me in an entirely unacceptable position. But while Esther was loose and working to destroy the Eastern Seaboard, there were more pressing matters. I would discharge the debt as rapidly as possible, in good faith.
    Antoinette looked around, pulling down a branch of the felled tree to search the path. “You can start by telling me you know where your sister’s going. Igbe would have tried to keep following her, but he had about as much fight left in him as a tranquilized kitten.”
    I shook my head. “She’ll be gone by now. She learned to walk soft so she could stay up late with rituals and divinations and come back to bed without waking myself or our younger siblings. A lesson she passed on to me, thankfully.”
    “So what now?” Antoinette asked.
    “Would another of your guardian spirits be able to take up the trail?” I asked.
    “Igbe’s the only one who can track, and he’ll need a day or two to recover.”
    “We cannot leave her that much time to collect the artifacts unimpeded. The working I would use to track Esther has little chance of succeeding.”
    “Why?” Antoinette asked.
    “She taught me how to do it. And then she taught me how to beat it. I’d thought that it would keep me safe here, so far from home. But unless she chose this site, this god at random, I fear I was wrong about that as well. Not all of the Gatekeepers serve our family. If she’s opening a path to the Deeps here, it is for a reason.”
    Could it be that the same reason drew me here? Some subconscious call that lured me to the city? If I’d chosen anywhere else in the country, would this be happening? Or would Esther move unopposed, the guardians of the Hearts caught unawares?
    “Let’s at least try to find her,” Antoinette said, throwing one leg over the fallen tree, then the other.
    I followed her, but grudgingly. “We’ll merely be ambushed again. And I don’t have the resources for many more such displays of power.” I held out the opals. Even struck to the ground, I’d kept my grip.
    One of the family lessons I was glad had stuck.
    “Your tools are your life. A Greene is nothing without their tools. To handle power without focus is to eat steak with your bare hands.” We didn’t even eat hearts with our bare hands. Three forks, two knives, and three spoons for high dinner.
    The lessons flowed like a raging river, constant dictates and rules. But they were all tangled up with cruelty and monstrous views of the world I’d only begun to disentangle from the rest of their wisdom.
    We continued down the path. Antoinette lowered her voice and stepped cautiously. I doubted it would do much good, but it was a harmless precaution, one I matched as best I could.

CHAPTER
    SIX
    T o my dismay, though not to my surprise, we could not locate my sister. An hour later, as the sun began to sink behind the Manhattan skyline, we gave up on the search. For the time being, at least.
    I walked with Antoinette back to her store and helped her with some cleaning. Each time I looked at her, I remembered how she had saved me, how I’d failed to be strong enough on my own. I, a child of the Greene clan, the second eldest, able to challenge for the role of scion, if I ever thought I could best my sister Esther in a duel. It was embarrassing. Not to be saved by a woman, or a stranger, but to be saved at all.
    Surprisingly, Antoinette cued up loud and heavy music as we cleaned.
    “What is this?” I asked,