I could give Brooks the ability to cancel Ixtab’s shadow magic. But what if Hurakan’s totem wasn’t as strong as Ixtab’s spell and we blew our one chance to use the jade’s power?
That night my dreams were foggy, filled with faces and places I didn’t know. Everything so out of reach. Until I heard a man’s voice:
Time for the story to escalate.
I bolted upright, wide-awake. I peered through the dark. “Hello?”
There was no answer.
It must have been a dream, I told myself as I punched my pillow, ready to lie back down.
She’s here.
Okay, that was definitely not a dream.
Throwing back the covers, I looked around. I could hear the waves crashing in the distance. That’s when I felt a tug down in my gut, like the tide was pulling me closer.
I headed out to the beach.
Alone. (Unless you counted Fuego.)
Just a few months ago, Rosie would’ve been trotting happily beside me like on many restless nights back in New Mexico. But ever since she’d become a hellhound, she preferred sleeping inside the Beast. By the gateway. Near Ixtab. Maybe Rosie just wasn’t meant to be with me anymore. Had we both changed that much? It was too painful to even think about.
Outside, the air was cool, and the moon was a milky half circle of gloom. The Caribbean glowed as if millions of blue stars burned under the water, thanks to bioluminescent phytoplankton—or what Brooks calls sea sparkle. It’s a pretty awesome sight.
I rubbed the goose bumps off my arms as I dropped onto my butt on the empty shore, unable to shake the whispers. Time for the story to escalate. She’s here. What was that supposed to mean?
Waves lapped within a few feet, and the horizon was black. I wondered if Pacific, the exiled goddess of time, was still out there. Was she okay? I knew she’d had to go deeper into hiding after delivering messages to me from Hurakan, but I wasn’t exactly sure what “deeper” meant. I gripped the jade tooth she’d given me from my dad. I hadn’t spirit-jumped back to the Empty since I’d demolished Ah-Puch, and even though I sort of wanted to check the place out again, I admit I was scared. Scared of what or who I might find there.
Shivering, I fished a matchbook from my pocket. My time was up. I had to master my fire skills—now. No way did I want to be the weak link in our rescue crew.
I struck a match, but a sea breeze blew out the flame. I tried again, cupping my hand around it. Playing with fire wasn’t the hard part. It was pulling its energy inside and making it bigger, more useful.
A spark flew onto my jeans but left no mark. Thankfully, fire didn’t incinerate my clothes. Ixtab had told me that my skin and anything touching it was nonflammable. Yeah, that was handy.
The tiny flame danced in the center of my palm. I tugged its energy into my hand, connecting to the power within my serpent leg while I willed the flame to grow bigger and bigger until it was the size of a lemon. That seemed to be my range—lemons!
With a deep breath, I expanded the fire another inch and then another. Strength pulsed in my back and arms as smoke streamed from my nose and eyes. My skin glowed as though lava were running through my veins. Heat seared my bones, growing so hot I thought I’d combust any second. And let me just say for the record that igniting into a blazing one-man bonfire is not my idea of a fun Friday night.
I panicked and quickly launched the mini meteor out over the water. I watched it sail across the endless dark and…caught a glimpse of something.
What the…?
I blinked and got to my feet. The fireball floated for a split second, like someone had caught it. Then it fell into the sea.
Using the night vision I’d been born with, I could spot a rowboat just beyond the breakers. The vessel rode the waves closer and closer until I saw that there was something in the boat. A hunched figure, wearing a hood. I peered closer. Was it a fisherman?
When the boat rode up onto the sand, the hood dropped away to reveal a mop of short dark hair. A girl.
Breath hitched in my throat.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Wait. That didn’t sound right. I mean, it was not like when I first met Brooks and saw her hundred-watt smile. This was different.
The girl (she looked close to my age) just sat there, staring absently like a mannequin. Pale moonbeams cast dark shadows across her thin face and wide catlike eyes. The boat rocked as the waves hit it.
That’s when Rosie came thundering down the beach, snarling and growling like a maniac.