The Fire Keeper (The Storm Runner 2)

“Open the gateway!” Ren screamed.

Concentrate harder! Ah-Puch said, still managing to grip our hands. It was as if the current that ran through us also tied us together with some kind of invisible rope.

At the same moment, Rosie’s howl echoed. She tumbled through the air toward us.

“Focus!” Ah-Puch shouted.

Ren’s way-too-calm voice broke into my mind. Zane, don’t look down.

Right, easy for her to say. Or maybe not. I mean, she was headed toward Splatsville, too. How was she talking to me telepathically? We weren’t even touching, because Ah-Puch was between us.

Suddenly, a shadow spread beneath us, blocking our view of the ground. Not exactly helpful, since we were still falling toward certain death…Then the air shifted—or maybe thickened is the right word, because it seemed to wrap tightly a

round us, slowing our descent. But how was that possible? It wasn’t enough to land us safely but enough to buy us time before our skulls were crushed.

Ren?

Just imagine the volcano. Her words were rushed but calm. You know it better than anyone.

I forced my eyes closed, bringing up images of the New Mexico mesa with all its trails. We continued to plunge. Then Hondo’s voice broke through my memories: You have to visualize the outcome you want. You have to feel it.

Focus. Focus. Focus.

Warm sun and thick dry air.

A coyote’s distant howl.

The smell of creosote like desert rain.

Bam. We landed with a crash, thunk, and Oof, my back! (That last one was Ah-Puch.)

I opened my eyes and sat up. A sharp pain radiated down my right side. But I smiled anyway. “Woot!” I shouted. “We made it. We’re alive!”

“That was better than the time I bungee-jumped off a bridge,” Ren said while Ah-Puch cursed up a storm about busted spines and broken spirits. Rosie nudged me with her giant paw, like she was saying I know this place. Get up. Let’s explore.

I scanned the area. Silvery brush dotted the desert leading to the base of the Beast. This was the fake one Ixtab had made so people wouldn’t freak and wonder how the heck a whole volcano had disappeared. I had to give Ixtab credit: the volcano was a perfect duplicate, down to the squatty cactus with thorny spines and the zigzagging trail that led to my secret entrance inside.

As I searched the horizon, my heart sank. The houses that used to belong to Mr. Ortiz, Ms. Cab, and my family were nothing but piles of rotted wood, destroyed in the flood Ixtab had sent. Too many emotions battled inside me, and all I was left with was a weird kind of sadness at how fast a life can just disappear.

The sun was halfway across the sky, which told me it was close to noon. I only had part of today and tomorrow before Hurakan was scheduled for execution and I had to get back to the underworld.

Ren swept sand off her back and yanked mesquite twigs from her hair, which was now sticking up in every direction. Her right cheek had a short, jagged cut. Rosie healed it with a slobbery lick that made Ren giggle.

Ah-Puch groaned as he rolled over, sucking wind. Ren was at his side in two seconds, helping him sit up. She asked the question that was on the tip of my tongue: “How did we do that? I mean, the shadow…And, Zane”—her eyes slid to mine—“you opened a gateway!”

“We bound our magic together,” Ah-Puch said with an annoyed tone. “Well, technically, I did it. And the connection made…” He inhaled sharply and winced. “It made our power stronger.” He leveled us with a threatening stare. “It’s an ancient godly secret, and if you ever tell anyone I showed it to you, I will rip out your spines and send you spiraling into the darkest depths of Xib’alb’a.”

Ah-Puch’s threat didn’t even faze Ren. She stared at her open hands, smiling. “I felt, like, electricity between us.”

“Is that how you made the shadows listen to you?” I asked. “They slowed our fall, right?”

“I don’t know. I just focused really hard and I imagined them and there they were.” She shrugged. “Like Hondo taught me.”

“This is so very cruel.” Ah-Puch shook his balding head. “Bitter and cruel, forcing me to return to my four-hundred-year-old prison—with godborns, no less.” He turned his back to the volcano.

“This isn’t the real volcano, A.P.,” Ren said, trying to make him feel better. She wandered a few feet away, checking things out.

“We’ve got to get to the others—now.”