Brooks grabbed my other arm and pulled me away from the water. I fell back, crashing against the deck. I heard heavy footfalls. Jazz had returned to the boat.
The tunnel walls had stopped closing in.
I gasped, shivered uncontrollably. I was in shock. Terrible, numbing shock. Brooks’s voice was coming at me like she was underwater.
“Zane, what did you do?” Zane this. Zane that. Zane. Zane. Zane.
At the edge of my mind I remembered thrusting my arm into the water. I could still feel the monsters’ sharp teeth.
I looked up at Brooks. Her dark hair spilled around her worried face. “Get me a rag for his arm,” she said.
There was a sudden sound of rushing water, and our poor crunched boat pitched forward with a groan. Soon it felt like we were cruising down a river. The rotten smell had disappeared, which told me we weren’t in the tunnel anymore. But the darkness hadn’t let us go.
My breath evened out. My eyes focused. Terrified of the damage I might see, I squinted at my wound. The skin was raw and bleeding, like the time I’d fallen off the back of Hondo’s truck and scraped my knees against the hot asphalt. From what I could tell, at least some of Ah-Puch’s mark was gone. I hoped those eyes were history.
Jazz shone his flashlight on me while Brooks shoved a rag into my hand for me to hold against my wrist. She cursed under her breath while she prepared a bandage. Jazz had found some gauze in the boat’s first aid kit, but it must’ve been for giants, because it was huge. She tore a strip with her teeth.
“You saved us.” That was Hondo.
Hondo! I turned to see him kneeling next to me, a smirk sliding across his mouth. “You’re one crazy, stupid-brave kid.”
I grabbed hold of him, pulling myself into a sitting position, and hugged him with all the strength I had left. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. Sure, my flesh might have been dinner for some creepy fish, but I couldn’t imagine the pain he had gone through.
Other than the dark shadows under his eyes, he looked okay. But that’s not what worried me most about him. Sometimes the bruising on the inside is what gets you the worst.
Brooks gently took hold of my arm and began wrapping it, first with the gauze then with a strip of silk lining she’d torn from Jazz’s purple vest. It wasn’t exactly a cool bandage, because the fabric had tiny pink flowers printed all over it. “Not so tight!” I flinched. She definitely should never be a nurse.
Then I put my hand over hers and made her look at me. “It was my fault,” I muttered, because I knew she was blaming herself for the lost jade.
She brushed away a tear and opened her mouth but said nothing.
“You’re one helluva hero, running Ah-Puch off like that.” Jazz clapped me on the back and I wondered if he’d meant to put that much muscle into it, or if maybe it was payback for lying to him. “You saved our lives!”
But there wasn’t time to celebrate. The real battle hadn’t even started. And without the jade, I had nothing to help me.
Jazz tried to start up with me. “So, you’re a godborn, eh?”
“Can we talk about that later?” Brooks shot him a glare and helped me to my feet. “You’re okay?”
“Other t
han the pink flowers?”
“Zane!”
“Yeah, I… I’m fine,” I said, forcing a smile.
Satisfied I wasn’t going to bleed out, she snapped, “You could’ve lost your arm, you idiot! What were you thinking?”
“I had to take out his eyes. He could see me, see every move before I made it.”
Hondo gave a short nod of approval. “You attacked his weakness. But seriously, dude… that was pretty gross.”
So I’d found the first soft spot (Puke’s overconfidence, his underestimation of me) and I’d landed a blow. I had to admit, I felt pretty proud of myself, despite the fact that I was going to have a killer scar to remind me of the terrible burning pain from those evil little fish with razor teeth. They had only removed half of Ah-Puch’s mark, and now it looked like a regular eyeless skull. But at least he couldn’t see me anymore.
I went to stand, and that’s when I saw my flattened backpack. I must’ve fallen on top of it. Quickly, I unzipped it and rooted around for Ms. Cab’s eye. I didn’t have to pull the baggie out to know. I could feel the mush. I’d smashed her eyeball! She was definitely going to kill me. If Ah-Puch didn’t do the honors first.
The boat pitched. A dim light flickered up ahead. Inch by inch we floated toward it until the tunnel disappeared entirely. “Whoa!” Hondo turned in slow circles, taking in the gray jungle around us. Brooks drew in a sharp breath, leaning over the boat’s edge.