The Fire Keeper (The Storm Runner 2)

By the time you read this, I will have claimed you in front of the council, giving you access to your full powers. I will have been imprisoned. And hopefully you will have destroyed Ah-Puch as we know him.

I looked up. As we know him? Hurakan had written this before the battle at the Old World.

I continued reading as ash sprinkled onto the page.

With the hope that my plan worked, you survived, and you are now living under Ixtab’s protection, I write this message. I fear the future is a bleak one.

The Empty trembled and I felt a strong tug back to the underworld.

No! Not yet! I scanned the note faster.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but the Prophecy of Fire was only the beginning.

“Why do people keep saying that?”

I wrote this letter unsure if I’d ever have the chance to tell you in person.

My throat began to close up.

I know it is in your nature to want to rescue me. Don’t. You will only be wasting your time, for it has been written. And so it shall be.

“Written? What’s been written? What does that even mean?” I was so sick of half-truths and unclear messages. Why couldn’t one stinking, lousy god give it to me straight?

“Give up this pursuit to save me, to save anyone but yourself.” Hurakan’s image once again flickered in front of me. “Do you understand?”

“No!” I shouted. “I need you to understand. I have to save the godborns. It’s my fault they’re in this mess. But I don’t know where they are, and…” I hesitated, thinking it might not be a good idea to tell him about the whole death-magic deal with Ixtab. “How am I supposed to rescue them if I can’t even control fire, and all the sobrenaturals’ powers are fading, and—”

“What did you say?” Hurakan looked stricken. “About powers fading?”

“The sobrenaturals’ powers…they’re being drained.”

“The Fire Keeper,” he whispered.

“The what?” My mind churned in dangerous circles, making me suddenly light-headed.

A defeated expression swept across his face. “He tends the eternal flame. His whereabouts are known only to Itzam-yée’, the deity bird that nests in the great World Tree.”

“So, this fire-keeper person just watches a flame all day?” I asked. “What does he have to do with any of this?”

“He makes sure the flame never goes out. It’s the source of tremendous power.” Hurakan hesitated. “Most think he is a myth. If the gods or other malos were aware of his existence, the Fire Keeper would know no peace. He’d be hunted for all eternidad.”

“Is he like a seer?” I asked.

“The Fire Keeper can read each lick of the flame, each glimmer in the embers. He sees what no one else can—places, people, events—with perfect clarity. Choices and outcomes. He can even manipulate the future.”

“Manipulate it like change it?”

“At great cost, but it can be done.”

My pulse raced. Maybe the Fire Keeper could tell me where the godborns were, and who was holding them…. Maybe he could tell me a lot of stuff that would help my quest. He might even be able to change my dad’s future. “What does he have to do with the sobrenaturals?” I asked.

“How did I not see it?” Hurakan muttered to himself. “The Fire Keeper is the key. He…” Gripping the temple wall with both hands, he drew a heaving breath like he’d just been punched in the gut.

“He what?”

Hurakan vanished yet again.

“Hurakan?” The echo of my voice was only met by silence. “Hurakan!” Frustration rose up inside me with so much pressure I thought I’d combust. A sudden gust of wind ripped through the jungle.