The Shadow Crosser (The Storm Runner 3)

“I hope not,” she said.

The tortugas paddled through the water as the sky continued to shift colors. Purple clouds floated above the iridescent ocean.

“By the way,” Alana went on, “Adrik and I stayed up all night reading your story. Well, he read it super fast. I actually think he skipped a lot. Typical. But I read every line, like, twice. It explains a lot. Man, oh man. Those hero twins are pretty awful.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” I explained how Jordan, Bird, and their mom, Ixkik’, sided with Camazotz as part of a revenge scheme. The brothers had pretty much sold their souls and become part bat in the deal. I wondered with a shudder if they were all bat by now. Then I told her how Ah-Puch had sacrificed himself to save us and how I brought him back to life with the magic jade.

“The gods seem pretty unpredictable,” she said. “My dad says unpredictable is the most dangerous.”

“They keep a lot of secrets, too. Secrets that ruin everything.”

“But some secrets are for good,” she said. “My dad has to keep lots of them because of his job, and because”—she hesitated—“his secrets would be bad for me to know.”

I knew from firsthand experience that secrets could be lethal for certain people—and gods. But that for sure wasn’t the case with whatever Adrik was carrying in his pocket. And this was the perfect opportunity to find out more. Alana had one arm wrapped around my waist now, which meant I could open my mind to her.

Secrets like whatever you took from the antiques shop?

Alana stiffened. After a few moments, she said, It belongs to our dad.

What is IT?

It’s just a stone, okay? Our wicked aunt sold it to that store. We just took it back. End of story.

It’s not just a stone, I said, or Zotz and Ixkik’ wouldn’t want it so bad. Which means it’s part of some bigger, more evil scheme. So what does it do?

I swear, Zane, I don’t see how it could help Zotz and Ixkik’.

That’s because you don’t think up vile things like they do, I thought but didn’t communicate.

Ixtab’s words circled back to me: Whatever absolute truth our enemies are after, it isn’t going to be obvious. It is going to be cunning, shrewd, and so unexpected it will have your head spinning.

I felt a sudden heat in my bones, similar to the night in Hell’s Kitchen right before Ik betrayed me.

Maybe you just don’t know its power, Alana. What if it matters more than you think?

She faltered. If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Especially Adrik. Our dad made us swear to protect it. But if you for real think it could help—

I swear!

All it does is—

Just then, Adrik shouted, “Ren! Hey! What’s wrong with her?”

I snapped my gaze to the right and saw that Ren was in one of her trances, her back leaning against Adrik’s chest. He threw his hands high in the air and shouted, “I didn’t do anything!”

A long, dark shape glided beneath the water, right past my leg, like a giant stingray.

Please don’t grow a face, I thought. I never knew what kind of shadows Ren was going to conjure, but man, I hoped this wasn’t going to be a repeat of the skeleton in a top hat.

“What is that?” Alana whimpered, gripping my waist so tight I could hardly breathe.

“One of Ren’s shadows.” I didn’t take my eyes off the spreading darkness. “They come from her dreams.”

Brooks screeched, her claws drawn like she was ready to go in for the kill. But here’s the thing about shadows: You can’t kill them. You can’t even touch them.

“Ren!” I shouted as dense fog rose from the water.

Hondo yelled, “Adrik! Wake Ren!”