The Fire Keeper (The Storm Runner 2)

“It’s a mythical place the Mexica believe is their homeland,” she said. “And those that wear this bracelet worship the goddess….” Ixtab rolled her eyes. “If you want to call Tlaltecuhtli that. I mean, let’s be real. The Mexica came hundreds of years after the Maya, and we are clearly the superior pantheon.”

“Hang on,” I said. “Mexica gods are still around?”

“Not exactly,” she said.

“Then what exactly?”

Ixtab quickly explained how some Spanish explorer named Cortés warred with the Mexica empire and pretty much killed them off. “With no sacrifices to keep the gods strong,” she said, “they died off with their people. Now, where were we?”

“But why would someone worship an extinct god?”

“Pish. Happens all the time.”

Sounded pretty convenient for the Maya, if you ask me.

I watched in stunned silence as image after image appeared in the water. Kids of different sizes and colors, all around my age, going about their lives in places that ranged from city streets to back-country roads, until they were plucked out of them, one by one. By the time Ixtab’s slideshow was over, I’d seen ten godborns in total.

“We have to help them!” I cried. I admit it was a pretty bold declaration, because I had zero idea how.

An inky cloud bloomed and darkened the water.

Ixtab threw her hands up. “I don’t even know where they are now, which is infuriating, and it tells me powerful magic is masking them.”

“Yeah, magic from the devourer Mexica lady!”

“Are your ears broken? I told you, she’s dead,” Ixtab said. “No, there’s another piece we aren’t seeing. It doesn’t make any sense. The only remaining Mexica are a few ghost royals, and they don’t have this kind of power. Plus, they wouldn’t be so foolish as to mess with the Maya gods. After all, it’s due to our generosity that they’re even still walking this earth.”

“Hang on!” A memory bloomed. “When you left me on the island, didn’t you say something about going to see a king?”

“Yes,” said Ixtab. “The council met with the Mexica ghosts several months ago. Mostly to take pity on them. They are souls who couldn’t or wouldn’t meet the challenges of their underworld, Mictlan. With no underworld of their own, and no place here in Xib’alb’a, they are in a state of limbo.”

“I get that my magic made the godborns visible to the Maya gods. But how could the Mexica know about them, too? Especially if they’re just ghosts?” I asked. “Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless some Maya god is a traitor.”

Ixtab studied me. A muscle in her right cheek twitched. “What Maya god would be stupid enough to…?”

“It wouldn’t exactly be the first time,” I said, remembering my dad’s defiance of the Sacred Oath, and Ah-Puch’s plan to end the world. Then there were the hero twins, and probably lots more examples I didn’t even know about.

Ixtab’s eyes roved the rooftop, and I could tell she was playing out limitless scenarios in her mind. “Zane, tell me more about the mud person. There has to be a detail Quinn left out, something you forgot to mention?”

I walked to the edge of the roof and back, worried Ixtab could see my secret plan to escape and save my dad. I thought about the ancestors’ message about all paths leading to angry gods and wasn’t sure if I could trust Ixtab with it. Hadn’t Monster Cab told me the goddess wanted to prevent me from accessing my powers? And what about the blurry images of New Mexico I’d seen? Did those have anything to do with this?

Just then, Quinn showed up on the roof and said, “Forgive my interruption, mi reina, but you have an important message.”

“I’ll take it in the temple,” Ixtab said. “We’re not done here, Zane,” she added before disappearing in a puff of blue smoke.

Quinn rushed to my side. She glanced over her shoulder, clearly worried, then looked back at me. “Something is very wrong.”

“No kidding—”

“Zane!” She frowned and twisted her fingers together anxiously. “You don’t get it. My powers…they’re changing, and—”

“What do you mean?”

“Brooks’s are, too.”