The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner 1)

“Hang on,” Jazz said. “I’ve got one more thing for you guys.” He left and came back holding three garment bags on hangers. “While Zane was out cold, I ran that errand you asked for, Little Hawk. You can’t go to the big birthday bash wearing”—he eyed each of us critically—“those…clothes.”

I looked down at my blood-spattered sweatshirt. Stains aside, this was a cool shirt!

Hondo took a bag and unzipped it. He looked from the clothes to Jazz, to the bag again. “Dude, I’m not going to a funeral.”

Jazz laughed. “You might be.”

Yeah, that was comforting.

Brooks took her bag, looked inside, and rolled her eyes. “A dress, Jazz? Really? You know I hate dresses!” I couldn’t even picture Brooks in a dress—as a matter of fact, I couldn’t even imagine her at a party. She didn’t seem like the kind of girl who mingled easily.

Jazz folded his huge a

rms over his chest. “Only beautiful creatures get the twins’ real attention.”

Hondo laughed. “No threads are going to make me look… er, isn’t beautiful for girls?”

“The clothes are kind of enchanted,” Brooks said to him.

“Enchanted?” I parroted, checking out the crisp white shirt and black suit in my bag. And a tie? Was he kidding?

Brooks took the bag from me, tossed it onto the bed, and sighed. “It means you’ll look perfect, no matter what your true appearance is,” she said. “All our faults will be gone. Everyone will only see us as…” She hesitated and looked away. “Beautiful.”

Jazz stroked his chin. “Sort of like Cinderella. And by the way, that story’s a total rip-off of my family’s history, but that’s another tale for another time. The enchantment has a few rules. First, have any of you worn enchanted clothes in the last year?”

Hondo and I looked at each other, confused, then shook our heads.

“Me neither,” Brooks said.

“Good,” Jazz said. “Now, remember, the magic only lasts two hours. So you’d better get their attention soon.”

“We’ll look perfect? No faults?” Hondo’s grin spread across his whole face. “I am so down with this!”

Brooks rolled her eyes. “Ugh!”

“Hang on,” I said. “Does this mean the twins will give us what we want if we’re wearing these?”

“Not exactly,” Brooks said. “It just means they’ll talk to you. They really have a thing against unbeautiful people. Like I said, they’re jerks.”

Hondo’s grin faded. “These guys sound like they need a good whupping.”

Brooks and Hondo left to change and I stood alone in the sea-blue room, staring at the clothes and wondering, Will they hide my limp? Was I shallow for wishing they would? For wanting to be someone people noticed for something other than what was wrong with me?

I slipped on the clothes, and I had to hand it to Jazz. He had gotten the sizes exactly right. Even the shoes were a perfect fit. The guy was gifted! Which was weird all by itself, given Jazz’s own fashion choices. Now for the tie… How in the heck was I supposed to knot it right?

I went over to a gold-framed full-length mirror in the corner, and when I got there, my heart stopped. Not because of what I saw, but because I suddenly realized I had just walked five feet perfectly. I turned and paced. My short leg moved in perfect rhythm with my other leg.

“Holy crap!” I muttered. I ran to the bed, launched myself onto it, and hopped off. It was amazing! I raced back to the mirror. Maybe it was the encantamiento, but these clothes were seriously cool-looking. Best disguise in the universe.

Disguise…That’s when a crazy idea struck me. I glanced over at the full mug of chocolate on the nightstand. Drink of the gods… Jazz had said the gods couldn’t resist it. I could put Mr. O’s evil chile pepper seed in this stuff and get Ah-Puch to drink it. Once La Muerte did her magic, I’d send him back to Xib’alb’a. It was genius!

I rushed into the bathroom, looking for something to put the chocolate in. But all I found were huge tubes of toothpaste and soaps shaped like shells. Finally, I discovered a cabinet near the sofa with dozens of liquor bottles in it. Behind the tall bottles were a few mini ones. I grabbed one that read jack daniel’s alux blend and emptied it into the bathroom sink. Then I got La Muerte out of my pack. Carefully, I split open the pepper and dropped the seeds into the bottle before pouring the chocolate inside.

“Whoa!” That was Hondo. “Dude, you’re like… seriously sick!”

He startled me so much, I almost dropped the bottle. I stuffed it into my chest coat pocket and spun to face him. I’d never paid any attention to whether Hondo was good-looking or not. I mean, he had plenty of girlfriends, or so he said (they never came to the house). But now he looked like one of those rugged, cool, relaxed guys in the fancy car commercials. He was wearing the same kind of black suit, white shirt, and thin black tie I had on.

I blinked. “You’re taller!”