“Or why I saw flashes of New Mexico,” I reminded them.
“Maybe your brain was in shock,” Ren said, “and it was trying to make you feel better with pictures of home?”
Home. Was New Mexico still home? Ren’s guess wasn’t bad, but I knew there was more to it than that. “Then why were those words written in the sand?”
Frowning, Brooks said, “Maybe mapping has something to do with going back to New Mexico? Or maybe the frequency is all jammed up and…”
“We are thinking wrong.” Mr. O rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “When I created my peppers, I wrote down notes, instructions so I could understand how the peppers worked, how they grew. I was not trying to get somewhere in the world. I was trying to get somewhere in my mind. To understand.”
Everyone was silent. The birds pecked at the seed on the ground. A warm breeze rustled through the trees. Then it hit me.
“Someone wants to know how my powers work.” Yeah, well, whoever wanted this Zane map was going to be way disappointed when they found out I couldn’t do anything more than make fire lemons.
“Uh, Zane…” Brooks began like she had something awful to tell me.
Ms. Cab said, “Dios mío.”
“Someone wants my powers, don’t they?”
Ren pushed her bangs out of her face and frowned. “Rotten thieves.”
“Muy rotten,” Mr. O echoed.
“But they failed,” I said. “I mean, I can still touch fire. When I went to extinguish the flames, they didn’t burn me—they actually healed me.”
Brooks twisted her mouth and folded her arms. She looked up at me. “You know what this means, right?”
“What?” I wanted to know, but I didn’t want to know. “What does it mean?”
“Whoever did this is going to come back to finish the job.”
Why did Brooks always have to be so fatalistic?
Rosie growled and bared her massive fangs. I swear, it was like she was itching for a fight. Man, she had really changed from the skinny fraidy-cat dog I once knew.
Ms. Cab ran her hands over her disheveled hair. “I need my eyes. My powers!”
Since we’d been on the island, she hadn’t taken out her box of creepy moving eyeballs that let her see the future. There was no point, because they didn’t work with Ixtab’s shadow magic (more like prison magic).
Brooks grunted in frustration. “I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of looking at this stupid mud thing!” The air shimmered green and blue as she shifted into a hawk, spread her wings, and crushed the statue to dust with her sharp talons. It was a magnificent sight.
Ren gasped. “Whoa! That’s way more awesome in person!”
Stooping, Ms. Cab ran her fingers slowly through the pile of dirt that remained. “Do you…do you hear the voices?”
Voices in the dirt? I guess that was no weirder than the voice I’d heard in the fire. But I heard nothing this time.
Mr. O and Ren stepped closer. Brooks shifted back to human and exchanged a what-now? glance with me as Ms. Cab grabbed a handful of mud, closed her eyes, and hummed a weird tune. When all the bits of clay had sifted through her fingers, she opened her eyes.
“Did you see something, amor?” Mr. O asked.
Ms. Cab’s mouth fell open as she stepped back. The birds went crazy. A startling wind blew across the patio, sending dirt swirling into the air. Rosie threw her head back and howled. Yup, Ms. Cab had definitely seen something. But how?
“What…what’s wrong?” Ren asked softly.
Ms. Cab’s gaze met mine. “I heard a message from…the ancestors.”
“Ancestors?” I asked.