The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner 1)

This guy was a bully. A stupid rotten bully. I clenched my jaw and leaned closer. “It’s poison.” I should’ve stopped there. Should’ve kept my mouth shut, but oh no, I had to keep going. “Want some?”

Brooks said, “Come on, guys. Let’s play some ball.”

Jordan let me go and laughed as he twisted off the cap and took a whiff. “Smells like a new blend. Hints of cherry?”

Bird came over and sniffed it, too.

“You really shouldn’t drink any,” I said as the panic started to settle in. “It really is poison.” These jerks were about to drink my backup plan!

“I’ve got a nose for poison,” Jordan said. “And this drink is clean. Besides, what part of godborn don’t you get?” Then he tilted his head back and guzzled it down. I held my breath. I think we all did.

“Didn’t save a drop for me?” Bird smirked.

With a shrug, Jordan tossed the bottle on the floor, shattering the glass. “Wasn’t that good anyway.”

I still wasn’t breathing, expecting him to go all mannequin-stiff on me. But nothing happened. How come he wasn’t freezing up? He’d just drunk La Muerte!

Jordan snatched the obsidian from my hand. “See you on the court, human.” Then he looked at Hondo and said, “You probably won’t make it that far.”

And they walked out of the tent.

Hondo lunged, but I held him back. “Hey, save it for the court.”

A minute later, a voice boomed over a loudspeaker: “Ladies, gentlemen, giants, and monsters. Come watch the twins kill a couple of pathetic humans in a game for the ages—Slam!”

A huge roar erupted followed by what sounded like an elephant stampede.

“Kill the humans?” I asked Brooks.

A weird sound came from Hondo, like a growl.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked him. “You look…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, because what I wanted to say is he looked like a deranged murderer. His eyes had gone black and his cheeks were super rojas.

“Oh God!” Brooks said. “Did you… did you eat anything in here?” she asked Hondo, looking around frantically. “I told you not to!”

“A meatball that tasted like slimy raw fish,” he answered in a slurred voice. “Actually, I think there were some bones in it. Totally wanted to spit it out, but…”

Brooks hurried over to the tray. “These aren’t meatballs.”

Her tone told us this wasn’t going to be good.

“They…um…”

“Just say it,” Hondo spat.

“They’re sort of like human steroids. They enhance the twins’ strength, but they’re actually… They’re poisonous to humans.”

“What do you mean, poisonous?” My voice rose.

“It’s nothing— I mean it’s…it’s…”

“Tell us!” I said.

She took a deep breath. “Hondo will get super mad, like hit rage-level, then, um… he’ll sort of see things that aren’t there. Then…” She twisted her mouth to the side.

“Then what?” Hondo said.

“You’ll puff up like a blowfish, then go into a deep sleep.”