The Fire Keeper (The Storm Runner 2) - Page 43
While Brooks told Ren about the change of plans, I leaned closer to my uncle to do the same.
He cursed a few times, but I barely paid attention, because my entire focus was on Ixtab. She stood at the edge of one of the lower terraces, barking orders at some guy, waving her arms angrily. I couldn’t make out her words until she shouted, “Then find the little beast!”
At the same moment, she glanced at us. Our eyes met, but she didn’t give me a welcome-back smile or even a tiny wave hello. Nope—the newest landlord of hell scowled at me, then disappeared only to materialize in front of us a second later.
Here’s the thing about the goddess of Xib’alb’a: she’s striking. Her eyes are bright sapphires and her face is sculpted perfectly, like a mask. But you somehow know that if you dig deeper there’s another mask and another and another, and you get the creepy sense that you’re never seeing Ixtab’s true face.
“Well, well, well,” she sang. “If it isn’t the willful son of fire. I was wondering how long it would be before you showed up.” A barely there smile tugged at her lips as she took in our outfits. Her gaze swept over us, landing on Rosie. Then came the real smile.
Whatever.
Rosie lowered her eyes and then her chest and head, like she was bowing.
“No need for such formality, Rosie.” Ixtab nodded once and added, “But I, too, am glad you’re back.”
My insides twisted.
The goddess sauntered over in her white silk pants and fitted black tank top. She wore diamond earrings bigger than any rapper’s and a row of at least six gold bracelets. “How about a nice snake head or two?” Ixtab asked Rosie in a syrupy sweet voice.
“Gross!” I cried. “She doesn’t eat snake heads.”
Ixtab said, “All hellhounds eat snakes. It’s one of their favorite treats.” She called a demon over and told her to take Rosie for some “sustenance.” I was about to argue but stopped when I saw how fast Rosie was wagging her nub tail. My heart split into a million pieces. Did I even know her anymore?
As I watched Rosie go, Ixtab’s smile flipped into a frown. “How dare you bring these miscreants into my kingdom, Zane.”
Keep it cool, Zane. Keep it cool. “Er…sorry,” I said, though what I really wanted to shout was How dare I? You lied to me! You locked us up on that isl
and. But if I did that, then she’d know we’d reached the wall, and she might suspect we were trying to escape. Ixtab was the queen of deception, and she’d see right through a lie.
Ixtab eyed each of us, lingering a little longer on Ren. Did she know just by looking that Ren was a godborn, too? Or that maybe she was her daughter? “And who are you?”
Ren’s cool eyes widened. “I’m Renata.”
“She’s a godborn,” Hondo blurted.
Ixtab drew back her shoulders and studied Ren like she could see into her soul or something. Maybe she could.
I socked Hondo in the shoulder. “Dude!”
“Ow…What’d you hit me for?”
“Way to hold back some information in case we needed to, like, negotiate or something.”
“Oh, Zane,” Ixtab said. “I suspected she was a godborn the moment I saw her. Do you think we gods are that stupid?”
Was I supposed to answer that?
“Tell me, Renata,” Ixtab practically purred. “What do you think of the underworld?”
Ren shuffled her feet and looked Ixtab right in the eye like she was checking her out, too. Please don’t say something stupid, I thought.
“Have you noticed how much your demons look like aliens?” Ren said.
I buried my face in my hands and took a deep breath so I wouldn’t strangle her.
Ixtab replied coolly, “I’ll come back to you in a moment.” Then she shifted her gaze to me. “Why are you here?”
“Uh…I, uh, had some questions.”
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