The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner 1)

Brooks and I didn’t argue.

“Sturdiest legs in the rear,” Jazz said. “They’re the anchor. We don’t need anyone flying off this thing.”

“Go on.” Brooks nudged me. “You ride the back.”

Did you catch that? I was the anchor!

Hondo stepped onto the wide platform and pressed a button and the thing vibrated silently. Without an engine I didn’t understand how we were going to blaze, but by now I’d seen how peculiar magic could be.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Jazz said to Brooks. His gray eye softened when he looked at her.

With a sigh, she said, “I got this.”

Jazz said we could leave our things at his place until we came back. And let me tell you, leaving my cane behind? That was the best part.

23

The Super Turbo Jazz went from zero to eighty in like four seconds. The jolt was so sudden I thought I might fly off the back, but I rooted my legs onto the platform, willing them not to let us down. Feeling their strength was incredible. I felt bigger, the sky looked clearer, and the air smelled fresher.

Hondo laughed. “Man, this thing flies.”

He was right. We had to be doing eighty, maybe ninety, barreling down Pacific Avenue, weaving between cars.

“Are you steering?” I shouted over Brooks’s shoulder, hoping Hondo had control of this thing.

He took his hands of the wheel and said, “Look, Ma. No hands.”

“Not funny!” I hollered.

The dark ocean whizzed by. Could Pacific see me? Could Hurakan? I imagined what we must’ve looked like: three overdressed musketeers, flying through the night on an illegal scooter. Car horns blared as we zoomed by. People screamed some choice words, but the Turbo Jazz raced along like it had a mind of its own. And the best part?

Brooks leaned against me and I kept one arm wrapped tightly around her.

A second later, she was in my head.

Where’d you go? When you spirit-jumped?

I was…

How could I explain the Empty? And hadn’t Hurakan said he’d created it? That made it feel like a secret. Did all the gods create their own hideouts?

“I met my dad,” I said out loud, because right then I was feeling powerful and I didn’t care if wicked ears were listening.

The Turbo made a sharp right down a busy street lined with small shops, cafés, and yoga studios. A stoplight was coming up, but the Turbo zoomed right through it. A couple of pedestrians jumped out of the way.

“Sorry!” Hondo shouted to them.

They shook their fists at us. Someone might’ve thrown their coffee in our direction. Hondo hooted and howled like he was having the time of this life.

“Did you say you met your dad?” Hondo shouted over his shoulder.

“Who is he?” Brooks asked.

I tilted my head back and watched the first stars zip by. “Hurakan,” I said.

Brooks tried to face me, but she couldn’t turn around. “One Leg?”

Hondo let out a light laugh. “He’s a one-legged god?”