We found carter in his room hunched over the scrying bowl that Zia had given him.

"Hey carter. We need to go to Manhattan, like now, there's blue lighting striking the empire state building!" I tapped him on the shoulder. He didn't respond. "Carter? Carter? Hey, HELLO?" I yell frantically at him.

Carter turns his head slightly and murmurs something like a sad chimpanzee.

Walt stares at him. "Zia is what?"

I'm confused for a second before I realize that Walt is the god of the dead and has certain acuteness to misery. That or he speaks chimpanzee.

"What did Zia do this time, Carter? No wait, don't answer that we're in a hurry and if you start moaning we'll be here until next week."

I'm trying to cheer him up but all he does is make a face.

"Look, just meet us in the lounge in a few minutes. We need you for this one." Walt says gently to Carter.

"Humph."

I grab my magician's kit from my room and dash down to the lounge. Walt and carter are there tapping their feet and crossing their arms. Well, Walt was. Carter was staring into a flower pot.

"What? I had to repack!"

Walt gives me a smile. "To the roof? "He asks.

Carter shakes his head and says in a glum voice. "You can't portal into Manhattan."

That was it. No weird facts, no statistics, no textbook on how everything works, just "you can't portal into Manhattan."

Something is seriously wrong with Carter but we don't have time to waste.

"Come on, we'll take the bus."

The only seats on the bus are right at the back so carter, Walt and I have to barge though everyone to sit down. The bus starts to move again. I keep my hand on my bag at all times. Nothing is every as simple as taking a bus into town.

Nothing happens on the bus, thank gods. There were just too many people that could get hurt.

We were walking down a side alley towards Manhattan when everything goes wrong. A Lady with dark hair that was matted and looked as if it had never been washed pounced from the shadows. Only I realised, she hadn't pounced, she'd slithered. The bottom of her body was two snake legs.

Okay, I admit it. I screamed. Don't worry though, Carter and I have fought so many monsters together it's routine.

We backed up slowly. Carter drew his sword. Good, I thought. Walt braced his hands at chest level like he was about to throw a punch.

I ran behind them and went to work on drawing a death square. I heard the clanging of weapons and shouts but I couldn't look up. This spell had to be perfect otherwise it would destroy everything on the block. I finished drawing the symbol I the middle of the square and let myself smile. It was the perfect example of a death square.

As soon as the monster, whatever it was, stepped into that square Kaboom! Gone. I looked up at carter and Walt. They had formed a protective wall from the snake lady. I Shouted "Ready!" The moved aside as the monster came slithering towards them. She barrelled past them and straight at me. I waited for a millisecond then step back. She entered the square and red lights flared up around her. I was excited. It had worked. Not that I had ever doubted myself or nothing. Except maybe I should have because the smile melted off my face as the snake thing glided through the lasers and continued for me.