The Shadow Crosser (The Storm Runner 3)

“You’re offering cruises in the underworld now?” Ah-Puch popped out from behind a wall. He eyed Ixtab and covered his mouth like he might start laughing.

“Another word,” she said, “and I will rip out your spine one vertebra at a time.”

Ah-Puch held up his hands in surrender, a corner of his mouth curled up in a sly smile. “I was just going to say it’s time for a serious party!”

Turns out the god of death meant it when he said serious party. It took two weeks to organize. The good news was that Itzamna postponed his vacation in order to attend, and in the meantime, he healed the scorched jungle. The bad news was tha

t Ah-Puch was constantly hollering at the air spirits, whose “party standards were appalling at best.” But once he told me he hadn’t been invited to a fiesta in over a thousand years, I kind of understood why it was such a big deal for the guy.

When Ah-Puch wasn’t party-planning, he and Hondo were prison-planning for Bird and Zotz. Let’s just say they made a deal with Sipacna and the Four Hundred Boys. Yeah, the giant and ghosts were more than happy to take the villains off our hands, and something told me it was going to be pretty hellish for Bird and the teen bat god.

The godborns returned from Montana, except the rogue bunch that I really hoped someone else found waaay before Ixtab did. Blood River is pretty creepy—take it from someone who knows. Anyhow, they made us tell them the story of how we rescued the gods so many times I decided to write it all down. It only took a single night, thanks to magic paper and my having the power of the dragon. Ixkik’ had lied about the paper being destroyed. At first, we couldn’t find it, but then Itzamna discovered that the monkeys had stolen the stash during all the chaos. I felt kind of bad for the rascals when he reclaimed it, so I let them keep a few sheets. Sorry, Itzamna.

I also began rewriting true history, which should have taken a thousand years, but with the aid of Itzamna’s magic, I would be done in a year, tops. To be honest, it wasn’t half bad.

I had collected all the ashes from the bonfire and stuck them in a dozen huge stone vases. Whenever I sat down to write, the ashes would float into the air and whisper their stories to me. Rosie lazed about the biblioteca while I worked, perking her ears over every whisper. I guess hellhounds don’t like ghosts too much.

The day of the party, Rosie seemed more restless than usual. She sniffed around all the library’s corners and then lay down next to me with a sigh. She turned over and kicked her legs in the air, demanding a belly rub.

“I’m almost done,” I said, writing the last sentence from the ash whisper: and the great land formed from the belly of the sea, glittering with gold. I set down my pen and scratched my dog as her eyes rolled back with pleasure.

“She’s a fine hellhound,” Ixtab said as she walked into the temple.

I blinked. “You’re…you’re you again!” I said excitedly. “Are all the gods back to normal?”

With a groan, Rosie jumped to her feet and went over to Ixtab, nudging the goddess with her nose.

“Only a few of us,” Ixtab said, patting Rosie’s chest.

“Is my dad—”

“No,” she said. “He’s still an annoying teen, as is Ah-Puch. I really hope they return to godly status soon, because I’m tired of looking at a bunch of kids.”

Rosie pawed Ixtab gently like she was trying to tell her something. My heart sank. What if she wanted to go back to Xib’alb’a with Ixtab? The goddess nodded at my dog, then zeroed in on me. “Are you going to the fiesta dressed like that?”

I glanced down at my SHIHOM uniform. “Isn’t everyone?”

“Didn’t you get the memo?” Ixtab said. “The air spirits are giving everyone a makeover. Well, as much as they can, given that you all are disgustingly part human.”

“I’m good with how I look.”

Ixtab smirked. “I came to say good-bye.”

“You’re not coming to the party?”

“I have an underworld to repair and demons to punish,” she said. “And then there are the sobrenaturales who never got Itzamna’s message. So I’m the only one capable of improving emergency response systems.” She shook her head regretfully.

“But Adrik and Alana—”

“Will be just fine without me,” she said, shifting her gold bracelets up and down her arm. “Besides, I already spoke to them, not that it’s any of your business. They told me how brave you were, how…Well, it doesn’t matter. You were there for them. So I have a parting gift for you.”

“A gift?”

Just then, a circle of light surrounded Rosie—pink and gold with flecks of deep green. Oh no. What was Ixtab doing to her this time?

In a flash, Rosie was transformed.

My heart leaped into my throat.