The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner 1)

Brooks went to the man, kneeled next to him, and said, “Don’t do it. Please.”

Jordan watched Brooks as he passed the meatballs to my uncle. Hondo took one and bit it off the toothpick. Then he grimaced like he’d just sucked on a lemon. His eyes met mine and he shook his head and mouthed Nasty!

The man looked up for the first time. “My daughter is very beautiful. You can have her beauty.”

“No way!” Hondo blurted. “What’s wrong with you?”

This poor hombre had nothing to lose and everything to lose, and I knew how he felt. The only difference between him and me was that he was willing to trade someone else’s future instead of his own.

“Guys,” I said to the twins, “just give this man a break.” If I were king, I’d outlaw every bully on the planet! I thought.

“Done!” Jordan said. But he was talking to the “applicant,” not to me.

The man bowed again and again as he backed up. “Thank you, my lords. Thank you.”

“Do you see?” Bird said to us, brandishing his arm in front of him. “Does it look like we steal? No, they give willingly.” He motioned for the giant to take the man away.

So that was it? No contract? No handshake? No blood for the gods? Rage burned inside my skull. Brooks was wrong. These guys weren’t selfish, obnoxious jerks. They were pure evil. Maybe even worse than Ah-Puch himself. Oh God, had I wasted a moon on them?

“So, where were we?” Bird asked.

Hondo balled his fists. “How about I smash you

r face in?”

I agreed with Hondo, but one of us had to stay sane. “You were going to prove we’re has-beens,” I said.

“What’re you offering?” Bird asked me with a stupid twisted grin, like he knew I was the one who had something to trade.

“Play us in a game,” I said. “Prove we’re pathetic humans. If we win, you give us your secret to defeating Ah-Puch.”

Jordan stretched his arms over his head and sighed. “You think we’d share our title? Is he serious?” he asked Bird.

If they only knew I was a godborn, too. And not just related to any god, but Hurakan, the creator and destroyer! A part of me wanted to tell them I was the Storm Runner, to wipe those smug looks off their perfectly chiseled faces, but I couldn’t. I might as well put up a billboard, advertising myself to the gods. A strange emptiness filled me as I thought about the second consequence. If anyone found out who I was, they’d know it was my dad who broke the Sacred Oath. Why the heck should I care what happened to him, anyway? I didn’t even know the guy.

“And if you lose?” Bird asked.

“If we lose, you can have this.” I took the jaguar jade from my pocket. I could’ve easily traded the stone straight out, but it was worth fighting for. I had to give myself a chance at keeping the one thing that connected me to answers, to Hurakan.

“Where’d you get that?” Jordan closed the distance.

Bird eyed it greedily. “Ancient magic,” he whispered. “Who gave this to you?”

“We all have our secrets,” I said, avoiding Brooks’s glare.

Bird didn’t take his eyes off it. “This… this can be infused with the desire of the giver.”

“Say what?” Hondo said.

“A conduit of pure magic,” Bird said, and there was a tremor in his voice. “Whoever gives the jade away can give it any power….I haven’t seen a magic stone like this in…centuries.”

I closed my hand over the jade, relieved it was as valuable as I thought. But why hadn’t Hurakan told me how powerful it was? Maybe I could give it to Hondo or Brooks and tell it to make us indestructible, or maybe I could give Brooks back her shape-shifting ability. All of a sudden I didn’t want the twins to have a chance at it.

Bird snapped his attention back to me. “You win, you get our secret. We win, we get this. Deal?”

“I’m in the game, too,” Brooks said, tilting her chin proudly.

Jordan tried to hide his smile. “You, halcón-mitad?”