The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner 1)

“You know—creepy demons, angry gods, that sort of thing,” I said.

“The kind that ride motorcycles,” Hondo added.

I watched Jazz carefully. There was something about him… the way his face twitched and his eyes shifted. It looked like he was uncomfortable in his own skin—like he was wearing a mask.

“Well,” Jazz said, “if you’re talking about Loser of the Underworld, no. We haven’t seen him. Word on the street is he’s out for revenge. All sorts of theories are flying around: he’s aligning with his brothers, searching for his underlords, looking to free every enemy of the gods. No one knows for sure. But we’ve got eyes everywhere. The whole boardwalk is filled with our guys: jugglers, acrobats—”

“They work for you?” Hondo asked.

“Every vendor out there works for the twins,” Jazz said.

“But?

?” Hondo began.

“I know,” Jazz said. “They’re meant to look like regular humans. Can’t wear a sign around our necks, now, can we?”

So the tarot reader was a gatekeeper. I wondered how many other people I’d met were part of this Maya mayhem, hiding in plain sight.

“You need to protect more than the boardwalk,” Brooks said to Jazz.

He nodded. “We’ve got them posted at each of the cosmic roads, too.”

I was about to ask what the heck a cosmic road was when Brooks explained. “Magic roads the gods travel.”

That wasn’t in my book.

“Don’t worry, Little Hawk,” Jazz said. “We used extra magic to guard the place. The twins even shut down their lair, moved uptown.”

“What do you mean moved?” Brooks said. “They’ve been here… for, like, ever.”

“Security’s orders. But their new crib? Man, it’s incredible. The view…” He sighed.

“How far is it?” I asked. I mean, what if they’d relocated to Nebraska?

But Jazz didn’t answer. He merely shook his head, then pounded his fist into his palm. “Believe me, when I catch the idiot bonehead who let Ah-Puch out, I’m going to send him spinning into the center of the Milky Way.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Yeah,” I muttered, “bonehead.” Great! Not only would the gods be after me when they found out I was a godborn, but pretty much everyone would want me dead once they found out I was the bonehead who had freed Ah-Puch.

Hondo cleared his throat. “Maybe the bonehead had a good reason.”

“Like what?” Jazz’s face went stone still.

“Like maybe it was an accident,” Hondo said. “Or maybe one of his demon runner things let him out.”

“That’s a lot of maybes….What did you say your name was? Hondo?” Jazz opened his mouth and tilted a can of Red Bull over it. Once the can was empty, he collapsed it with one hand. “Only problem is, the gods put him away, so a god had to let him out. And no god would break the Sacred Oath, so that tells me there are some dark secrets swirling around, and wherever there are secrets, there’s a teller. Give it time—someone’s going to squeal.”

My knees felt weak, and for the first time I had a terrible sense I was leading Hondo and Brooks off the edge of a high cliff.

“So all the gods know?” Brooks said, twisting her mouth.

Man, news sure traveled fast! I thought.

“Yep,” Jazz said. “But now they’re pointing fingers, fighting among themselves.” He tossed his crushed can into a trash can. “All the seers went dark.” He spoke to Brooks as if Hondo and I weren’t even there. “This is serious, Little Hawk. Very serious.”

I stuffed my hands in my pockets and gripped the jade. “So then… why don’t the gods come up with a way to recapture Ah-Puch?”

“Can’t find him, kid. Even if they could, it would start a huge war. Alliances would crack, deals would be struck, and we’d all end up dead anyway.” Then, with a shrug, he added, “I guess we’ve had peace for too long.”