The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner 1)

“She tried, but you were dead to the world.”

I rubbed my head. It must’ve been the tea Ms. Cab gave me.

“Iron Skull’s wrestling,” Hondo said. “Want to watch?”

“What about Brooks? Is she still here?”

“Think I saw her out back. Why she’d want to be in this nasty wind, I have no idea.” He rocketed off the couch when Iron Skull body-slammed his opponent. “Did you see that?”

Something felt off. Where would Mom go that would take more than a day? Maybe it was a good thing she wouldn’t be here for the eclipse. My stomach turned when I remembered what I had to face. Ms. Cab better get here soon with Rosie, I thought.

I started for the back door, then realized I was in yesterday’s clothes and probably smelled like Hondo’s gym bag. So I took a record-breaking thirty-second shower and brushed my teeth. As I was pulling a T-shirt over my head, I heard a long howl in the tangled wind. I froze, not sure it was real.

There it was again.

“Rosie?”

I’d know that cry anywhere.

It was Rosie! Ms. Cab had brought her back!

With my cane in hand, I lumbered outside and looked around the yard. No Rosie. I was about to head to Ms. Cab’s when I realized which direction the cries were coming from.

The volcano.

12

A voice in my head was screaming, Don’t do it! But this was Rosie. My Rosie!

I hobbled past Nana’s headstone and across the desert, zigzagging between the mesquite and ocotillo. A jackrabbit skirted out from a bush, and I nearly stumbled over it.

Huge black clouds formed, so thick they blocked out the sun. The wind kicked and screamed, doing its best to knock me off my feet, but I pressed on toward the Beast, still hearing Rosie’s cries, and keeping an eye out for Brooks the whole time. When I got to the secret entrance, Rosie’s cries sounded even more desperate.

I scurried inside, crawling through the narrow passage and then balancing carefully down the steep slope to the bottom. There was nothing but heart-stopping silence. Even the wind had stopped howling.

“Rosie?” My voice squeaked.

The place still reeked of vomit and rot, which reminded me of the demon runner, and just thinking about that stinking monster made me want to punch something. Suddenly, my blood ran hot—so hot, I felt like I might burn from the inside out. That’s when I looked down at my throbbing hand. It was covered in yellow ooze. The demon runner must have left slimy residue on the wall I had touched.

Panic rose fast and furious. The poison! It pulsed and stung. My skin began to puff up with big purple welts. Sweat trickled down my neck, and when I wiped it away with my clean hand, I saw that my perspiration was yellow.

I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.

I heard the rustle of wings behind me. When I opened my eyes I saw Brooks the hawk swoop into the chamber. She changed into her human form right before my eyes. I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of seeing that kind of magic—the way the air shimmered around her in blues and golds and greens.

Brooks’s eyes searched my face, then landed on my neck. “The poison. We have to get it out.”

“I’ll be fine.” My blood would protect me, Ms. Cab had said. But without her tea as a pain suppressant, how bad would it hurt? On a scale of one to ten, I was shooting for a one.

Brooks shook her head. “The poison’s had time to ferment since yesterday,” she said. “It’s more toxic now.”

I snapped. Maybe it was the poison talking, but when your blood’s boiling, and venom is in your bloodstream, and you have no idea if you’re half monster, you do and say things that are completely whacked. “Why’d you really come here? If this Ah-Puch is so wicked and can really destroy the whole world, then why send some random girl to find him?”

Brooks clenched her jaw. I could tell she was trying to decide if she should let me have it with words or with a punch to the gut. She did neither. “I can help you.”

“I don’t need your help!”

Brooks ignored me. “It’s going to hurt.”