The Fire Keeper (The Storm Runner 2)

Ren tapped her knees with her fingers and let out a swish of air. “My abuelo used to tell me stories about my parents. How my dad fell in love with the ‘wrong’ woman.” She made air quotes around the word wrong. “He called her some bad names. And said that someday I’d understand who I was and what kind of power was in me.”

“Did he ever say anything about the Maya gods?”

“Nothing.”

“What else did he say about your mom?”

“Just that she left us. She broke my dad’s heart.” She folded her arms over her chest. “He didn’t like to talk about her.”

Didn’t? “What about your dad?” I asked. “What does he say?”

She scooped some sand into a small hill. “He died,” she said softly. “A few years ago.”

I felt bad for asking, but I had to know as much about her as possible if I was going to help her. Except I had no idea how to help her. I mean, when I put out the godborn call, I hadn’t exactly thought about what I’d do if a godborn answered. “Hey, I’m sorry.”

With a shrug, she added, “My dad used to tell me to ignore my abuelo and all the magic talk. He didn’t like it. I think he was just trying to protect me. Him and Abuelo used to fight about it all the time. But I knew…” Her cool eyes zeroed in on me. “I knew I had magic in me, even if I couldn’t do any cool tricks. And then I found your book and…”

Rosie lumbered back with a stack of driftwood in her mouth. Dropping the bundle onto the sand, she ignited it with her eyes.

“Thanks, Rosie,” Ren said, warming her hands by the flames.

“Okay.” I paced, trying to piece a godborn timeline together. “How old are you?”

“I turned thirteen a couple weeks ago.”

I’d turned fourteen in December—she was younger than me by almost a year. That meant some goddess broke the Sacred Oath after Hurakan had.

“So you were never in hiding?” I asked. “Like a witness protection program or anything like that?”

Ren laughed. “I don’t think Ixtab told you the truth about that. I’ve never been in hiding.”

I had to remember that Ren had read the book. She knew everything there was to know about the Prophecy of Fire and my whole adventure. It was nice not having to explain the madness. I sat next to the fire. Even though I couldn’t control my fire skills, something about a blaze always drew me in. Without thinking, I pulled a flame to me and began tossing it between my hands like a baseball.

“That’s pretty awesome”—Ren’s eyes were locked on my hands—“how you can use fire like that.”

It was weird that Ren knew so much about me—practically my whole life story—and yet I knew hardly anything about her, except that she had a magic-believing abuelo. I threw the fireball down the beach, and Rosie tore after it, bringing it back to me a second later.

The flames’ flickering shadows played across the sand. Ren got to her feet. The shadows froze.

Then they leaned closer to her.

“Ren?”

“Yeah?”

“Uh…can you sit back down?”

“Why?”

I kept my eyes on the sombras that didn’t follow her movement but instead seemed to loom over her. My pulse quickened. Maybe it was Ixtab’s shadow magic? “I just need to test something.”

The second Ren plunked onto the sand, the shapeless shadows wrapped around her. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I hesitated to say anything out loud. Who knew who might be listening, and we obviously weren’t alone. “Do you see them?” I whispered.

Ren peered at me across the fire. “You mean the shadows? You can see them?”

I could barely nod. A giant lump throbbed in my throat. Who was this girl?