I threw my spear and, with flawless accuracy, it zipped right through the center monster’s bulbous gut, causing a giant hole that closed before Fuego could circle back to me. There was no blood, no guts, and the thing kept growing!
Then it started to laugh. This deep chain-smoker-about-to-hack-up-his-lungs laugh.
I glanced over my shoulder at Ren. She was still curled up on the sand. How was she sleeping through all this? She was so helpless like that—I had to protect her.
The monsters rose to at least twenty feet. Pointed reptilian-like tails thrashed through the sea, causing massive waves.
Eeeeeek. Eeeeeek.
I covered my ears. Their high-frequency cries pierced my brain like an ice pick. Rosie launched herself at one of the beasts, bouncing off it and into a huge swell.
“Rosie!”
The monsters lunged at me.
At the same moment, Brooks in hawk form swooped down from the dark sky. Her enormous wings (which, by the way, I know for a fact can crush boulders) did nothing to stop the shadows. How was it that the forms could create massive waves and attack us, but we couldn’t manage to even touch them?
One monster swiped Brooks away, sending her crashing into the violent black sea.
Clutching Fuego tightly, I dove beneath the waves, panic choking every breath. Brooks had gotten better at swimming after all my lessons, but she still hated the water and, in this kind of freak-out mode, she could drown.
I thrust my arms and legs through the water. Something smashed into me, sending me spiraling under. When I came up for air, Brooks was in human form, flailing, her head barely above the surface.
“Something’s got my leg!” she screamed.
“Hang on!” I plunged beneath the dark sea and saw that vines of seaweed were wrapped around Brooks’s thigh. Using my spear, I sliced through the slick ropes, and when I came up, she clung to me. “Get on my shoulders,” I hollered.
For once, she didn’t argue. She climbed up, and with one thrust, I hurled her into the air, where she changed back into hawk form. She circled high above the shadow monsters, which had raised their massive tails like they were getting ready to pound me.
Instinctively, I lifted my spear, ready to launch it, when…
“NO!” Ren’s voice carried through the dark. I spun to see her standing on the shore, arms outstretched. Her ragged hair blew in the wind.
As if time had stopped, the sea stilled.
The shadows’ tails froze in mid-strike.
Then they broke into a million pieces. Bit by bit they fluttered into the sea like ash.
Rosie was right behind me as I rushed back to Ren, snatching up Fuego.
“Are…are you okay? How…did you stop them?”
Brooks landed with a rush of air and changed into her human form. “What the holy Xib’alb’a, Zane? Who is this? And what were those things?” Her eyes blazed. Yup, she was furious. And scared.
Ren gawked at Brooks. “You’re…you’re Brooks. The nawal.”
Brooks shot me a glare. “Spill it, Obispo.”
I told her everything. I sort of expected her to gasp or something when she found out Ren was a godborn, but she just kept her poker face and asked the girl, “Where did those shadow things come from?”
Okay, no time for Nice to meet you.
“Did they follow you here?” I asked. “Or were they the shadows from earlier?” But hadn’t Ren said those were harmless?
Ren chewed her bottom lip. “They didn’t follow me.”
“How can you be sure?” I said.