The Fire Keeper (The Storm Runner 2)

I heard Ixkik’ whisper in my ear, so close I was sure she was standing right next to me. “Someday, when you least expect it, you’ll pay with your blood for this. My sons will show no mercy. Nor will I.” And then she was gone.

The air cleared instantly.

A commotion of godly voices and growls rose up behind us.

It’s a trap! Brooks shouted.

“Stop him!” someone shouted. “Stop Zane!” It sounded a whole lot like Nakon.

Really? Stop me? How about the loser twins who had duped the gods yet again?

Just as Brooks took off with me still on board, a giant net dropped out of nowhere, stopping us in our tracks. I tried to incinerate the thing, but the stupid nonflammable trap only tightened around us more. Brooks flapped her wings wildly, to no avail. She shifted into human form.

Together we turned and saw some seriously angry gods glaring at us.

I remembered what Fausto had said about the death magic making me undetectable to the gods unless I walked right up to them.

I’d planned for this moment, what I was going to say, how I was going to get them to hear me out. It was pretty masterful. It went something like this:

“You guys suck!”

Okay, that wasn’t the plan. But let’s be real. For all-powerful beings, they do tend to fail miserably. How could they have let Jordan and Bird escape from prison? And again, tonight, when the twins were right under their stupid noses?

I glanced down the pyramid steps. The crowd stirred restlessly, like they had no idea what was happening.

Nakon tugged off his robe (he had on his cliché leather biker outfit underneath). “I told you all this was a bad strategy, a bad plan. Bad outfits. Bad everything.”

Chaac shook his head with disgust. “You’ve made us look like fools, boy.”

“Let’s all remain calm, shall we?” Itzamna said. “After the fog lifted, I ran a feedback loop on the screens so no one saw what really happened. They all still think they’re waiting for an execution.”

“Then let’s give them one,” Ixkakaw said, looking at me with a catlike sneer. I was definitely going to give up chocolate. Forever.

Struggling against the net, I said, “Before you kill me, you should listen to what I have to say….”

“Or you’re all going to die,” Brooks added.

“Are you threatening us?” Alom said.

Brooks looked like she was about to nod yes when I grabbed her hand and said, We need to be calm. No fights with the gods.

Since when?

But I didn’t answer, because Nakon had narrowed his already beady eyes and stepped closer. I could tell something was dawning on him. “If you’re alive, that means…” He turned to glare at Ixtab.

“I escaped Xib’alb’a!” I shouted. “I’m just a ghost…still dead.” I pointed to my face. “See?”

“Who gave you this death magic?” Chaac asked.

Ixtab looked at her watch and smirked. “Six minutes,” she muttered casually like those minutes weren’t the last of my life.

I didn’t have much time to convince the gods to let me go, tell them about the evil plan, find Hurakan, and…“Where’s my dad?” I demanded.

The gods looked at each other like they were only now noticing he was missing. A flurry of accusations started: “I thought you had him.” “You were supposed to be watching him.” “You idiot!”

“Should have been paying attention,” Brooks muttered in a singsong voice.

Ixtab raised her hands and stepped next to me. She winked before turning to face the gods. She tilted her eyes to Nakon and, with a single touch, vanished the net. “Zane didn’t escape Xib’alb’a,” she said. “Because he didn’t die all those months ago in the Old World.” Her red painted lips parted into a smile, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think she had been waiting for this moment for a long time. “I shielded him,” she continued. “I defied you all. And do you want to know why? How? Because you have become complacent, lazy, so absorbed with yourselves you cannot see the truth. You cannot see what’s coming.”