Alana sat behind me with her arms at her sides. She blew out a long breath and traced her fingers through the cool water. “All this…it’s so hard to believe. How is it even happening?”
“I remember when I first got introduced to the Maya world,” I said. “It was pretty freaky, and I couldn’t believe a lot of stuff, even when I was looking right at it. But you get used to it.”
“I hope not,” she said.
The tortugas paddled through the water as the sky continued to shift colors. Purple clouds floated above the iridescent ocean.
“By the way,” Alana went on, “Adrik and I stayed up all night reading your story. Well, he read it super fast. I actually think he skipped a lot. Typical. But I read every line, like, twice. It explains a lot. Man, oh man. Those hero twins are pretty awful.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” I explained how Jordan, Bird, and their mom, Ixkik’, sided with Camazotz as part of a revenge scheme. The brothers had pretty much sold their souls and become part bat in the deal. I wondered with a shudder if they were all bat by now. Then I told her how Ah-Puch had sacrificed himself to save us and how I brought him back to life with the magic jade.
“The gods seem pretty unpredictable,” she said. “My dad says unpredictable is the most dangerous.”
“They keep a lot of secrets, too. Secrets that ruin everything.”
“But some secrets are for good,” she said. “My dad has to keep lots of them because of his job, and because”—she hesitated—“his secrets would be bad for me to know.”
I knew from firsthand experience that secrets could be lethal for certain people—and gods. But that for sure wasn’t the case with whatever Adrik was carrying in his pocket. And this was the perfect opportunity to find out more. Alana had one arm wrapped around my waist now, which meant I could open my mind to her.
Secrets like whatever you took from the antiques shop?
Alana stiffened. After a few moments, she said, It belongs to our dad.
What is IT?
It’s just a stone, okay? Our wicked aunt sold it to that store. We just took it back. End of story.
It’s not just a stone, I said, or Zotz and Ixkik’ wouldn’t want it so bad. Which means it’s part of some bigger, more evil scheme. So what does it do?
I swear, Zane, I don’t see how it could help Zotz and Ixkik’.
That’s because you don’t think up vile things like they do, I thought but didn’t communicate.
Ixtab’s words circled back to me: Whatever absolute truth our enemies are after, it isn’t going to be obvious. It is going to be cunning, shrewd, and so unexpected it will have your head spinning.
I felt a sudden heat in my bones, similar to the night in Hell’s Kitchen right before Ik betrayed me.
Maybe you just don’t know its power, Alana. What if it matters more than you think?
She faltered. If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Especially Adrik. Our dad made us swear to protect it. But if you for real think it could help—
I swear!
All it does is—
Just then, Adrik shouted, “Ren! Hey! What’s wrong with her?”
I snapped my gaze to the right and saw that Ren was in one of her trances, her back leaning against Adrik’s chest. He threw his hands high in the air and shouted, “I didn’t do anything!”
A long, dark shape glided beneath the water, right past my leg, like a giant stingray.
Please don’t grow a face, I thought. I never knew what kind of shadows Ren was going to conjure, but man, I hoped this wasn’t going to be a repeat of the skeleton in a top hat.
“What is that?” Alana whimpered, gripping my waist so tight I could hardly breathe.
“One of Ren’s shadows.” I didn’t take my eyes off the spreading darkness. “They come from her dreams.”
Brooks screeched, her claws drawn like she was ready to go in for the kill. But here’s the thing about shadows: You can’t kill them. You can’t even touch them.
“Ren!” I shouted as dense fog rose from the water.
Hondo yelled, “Adrik! Wake Ren!”
“I’m trying!” Adrik splashed Ren, but no matter how much he soaked her, she stayed unconscious.
“ZANE!” Alana lifted her feet to avoid some black ooze in the sea, bubbling up like hot tar.
“Shadows don’t bubble!” Hondo frowned. “Do they?”
“How should I know?” I stared at the dark churning not-water that was getting thicker by the second.
The turtles came to a halt, and before any of us could say another word, they swiftly joined themselves together, the sides of their shells connecting like Legos with a loud click.
“What are they doing?!”
“Maybe they’re turning into turbo turtles,” Alana said.
“Or ninja turtles,” Hondo added, nodding frantically.
Or how about a speedboat to race us away from the creepy dark stuff circling us like toxic waste? I thought.
The tortugas’ backs began to glow turquoise. One by one, glyphs emerged from their scutes and slid onto the surface of the sea, creating a trail of neon words I couldn’t read. The images sped away as fast as shooting stars.
Were they reporting back to Ah-Puch? I wondered. Couldn’t he have sent us a mode of transportation more effective than slowpoke unarmed turtles that knew how to spell?
I threw my gaze at Ren, who still looked lifeless as she slumped against Adrik. “Don’t let her fall!” I warned. He gave me a no-duh look.
The dark waters gurgled.
“Go faster!” Alana cried as the fog tightened around us.
But even though our turtle’s legs were kicking furiously, it wasn’t moving an inch.
Hondo and I exchanged a look. “Ren isn’t doing this,” I said, terror settling into my bones.
“We are not going down like this!” My uncle swung his backpack onto his lap and rifled through it. Did he have a weapon for fighting evil sludge that I didn’t know about?
I summoned Fuego and scrambled to my feet, balancing carefully, as if the turtle’s shell were a surfboard. Not knowing what I was aiming for, I hurled my spear into the thickening ocean.
Alana began to cough violently, like she was hacking up a lung. I whipped around, crouching. Her nose was bleeding black.
“Alana!” Adrik screamed, reaching through the fog for his sister. His face was red with anger and fear. “Move it!” he shouted to his turtle, but it just kept paddling uselessly and churning out neon glyphs.
“I’m okay,” Alana cried, wiping her nose, but she didn’t mean it. It was just something to say, a hope that we would all survive this. She clutched my shoulders, her fingers digging into my skin. Are we going to die? she asked telepathically. Then, Never mind. Don’t answer that.
Everything was chaos and shouting.
“What is it?”
“Kill it!”
“Blast it with fire!”
Oh yeah. Good idea. I launched three massive fireballs into the sea. They detonated on impact and did nothing to stop the bubbling ooze.
That’s when I realized Fuego hadn’t come back yet.
My eyes darted everywhere, desperately searching, waiting for my spear to zip out of the muck.
“The black stuff is spreading!” Adrik hollered, trying to keep Ren upright. “Alana, I…You’re the best sister. I don’t even mind you most of the time.”
“Don’t!” she screamed. “Don’t you dare do that, Adrik!”
“I’m just saying…”
“Well, don’t,” she commanded, trembling so hard I started to tremble, too.
Brooks zoomed in, flying close enough to the water that the tip of her right wing touched the bubbling surface. She released a warning cry so loud I bet it was heard halfway across the world. I could tell she didn’t know what to do, who to save, how to help all of us. She had to choose.
“Take Ren!” I shouted.
Brooks’s eyes blazed copper. She shook h
er head, screeching as if to say You’re not the boss, Zane! But I could tell she knew that sleeping Ren was the most vulnerable of us all at that moment.
She swept in, gripped Ren by the shoulders, and lifted her away. Brooks’s right wing, the one that had touched the darkness, quivered, and bits of feather fell into the sea.
The water. THE WATER! “Don’t touch—” I began to shout, when two slimy tentacles writhed out of the black ocean like they were looking for something. I launched a wave of fire, and they exploded with a horrific shriek.
Hondo was on his feet now on his turtle, gripping something in his hand, but before I could make out what it was, the fog thickened, instantly blocking all sight and sound. The world went still.
“Hondo!” I shouted. “Brooks!”
There was no answer.
The fog made my eyes burn and pressed on me so heavily I fell to my knees. Alana caught me. I clutched the turtle’s shell with one hand while I tried desperately to swipe the mist away with the other.
My heart pounded. Think. Think. How do you fight a faceless monster that is everywhere?
To my horror, the edge of shell I was holding suddenly broke off in my hand. And just like that, the entire turtle beneath us began to fall apart.
NO!
In half a blink, it disintegrated like soggy paper.
Alana and I slipped into the black ooze.
I had to think fast.
No way was I going to let this sludge be the last thing my friends and I ever saw.
As I treaded the black gunk, wondering why it wasn’t eating me alive, I shouted, “Alana! Adrik! Hondo!” Where were they?!
A terrible chill spread through me as something wrapped itself around my ankles and climbed slowly up my thighs. My storm runner leg vibrated with what felt like a million volts of electricity. Whatever was gripping it let go with a hiss.
YES!
I reached for more fire power, for any ounce of strength I had left, but there was nada, not even a spark. And the more I struggled, the farther the freezing muck pulled me under.
I was shivering uncontrollably. I sucked in huge gulps of air as I struggled to keep my head above the living darkness.
An image of my mom came into my head as the sludge crept up to my chin. She stood on the beach, throwing a stick for Rosie and smiling. The black liquid rose to my mouth. My eyes teared up as reality slammed against my heart and mind.
But right before I was about to take my last breath, a shape beneath my feet rose from the depths, lifting me out of the freezing sea. My legs trembled as I tried to find my balance on top of the moving form.
I drew in a lungful of air and looked around wildly.
“Hondo! Brooks!” I gasped for breath between each name. “Ren!”
The fog was still too thick to see through. Where was everyone? Were they okay?
A familiar heartless laugh filled the air.
I froze.
Ixkik’! Blood Moon. The wicked underworld mom to even wickeder twins.
I spun in a circle. My heart thrashed like it was on a mission to punch a hole in my chest. Then, slowly, the fog lifted like a stage curtain. Except I didn’t want to see this stage. A sick feeling roiled through me.
“It was so tempting to just watch you drown,” Ixkik’ said with a sigh.
I was now standing on a fifteen-foot-long platform that was floating in the air at least five feet above the black sea. At the far end, a sludge-covered Alana was crab-walking toward her brother. Adrik sat up, shivering with a panicked look in his eyes as his sister pulled him to her, rubbing his arms to warm him up. Hondo stood over both of them, looking like he’d just taken a mud bath. His chest heaved as he gripped a stone ax that had to have come from the open pack near his feet. Around his neck, a plain jade face mask hung by a thin string.
What the heck? Where did he get that? And why was it perfectly clean? Had he just put it on?
The moment my uncle saw me, he let go of the ax, raced over, and tugged me into a near-smothering hug. His voice came out in an exhale of relief. “Zane, you’re okay. You’re okay.”
“How did you survive?” I held him tight, not wanting to let go. “Where are Brooks and Ren?” I searched the sky, but it was empty. Had Brooks gotten away? Had they…? No! I refused to think about them falling into the dark sea.
“Ixkik’!” I shouted.
“What a sweet reunion,” her voice echoed. “Now, how about we get down to business.”
Before Hondo released me, he whispered in my ear, “Protect the stone!”
What?! I blinked back the shock of his words. How did he know about the stone? Was this an in-the-know teacher thing? Forget about the stone! I wanted to shout. We need to keep our heads and get out of here alive. Heck, I didn’t even know where here was. Or how Blood Moon had found us. And how we were supposed to fight an invisible enemy.
“Enough with the theatrics!” Camazotz’s gravelly Dark Knight voice soared toward us on a gust. Then, within a ring of ash and shadow, the bat god materialized. All ten feet of him—a semi-human body with huge, hairy wings, slimy claws, and slitted reptilian eyes that blazed yellowish-green.
My chest seized. How had they found us? I thought water was supposed to throw gods off. And then I realized—they must have tracked Brooks, the hawk flying over the water.
Alana and Adrik, still clinging to each other, gasped as he loomed over them, his wings spread wide.
I’d hoped (dumb, I know) that I’d never have to see the bat god again. I stepped forward, slipping on the wet surface. “Let them go!” I yelled. “They have nothing to do with this!”
Hondo’s gaze flicked down to the ax he had dropped, and to his pack, as if he was trying to send me a message.
“Where’s your fire now?” Ixkik’ laughed lightly. “Did the darkness steal it from you?”
So that’s why I’d felt so cold inside and Fuego hadn’t flown back to my hand.
Zotz turned to face me and smiled wickedly, showing all his fangs. The tiny bat mouths on the undersides of his leathery wings snapped hungrily. My stomach turned in on itself.
“It’s been a while, Zane,” he said, stroking his chin with curled claws.
Adrik kept his eyes on Zotz, never blinking. Okay, so if I managed to get out of this alive, Ixtab was going to gut me, because the hairs on Adrik’s and Alana’s heads had definitely been touched.
Ixkik’ sighed, and I cocked my head, trying to figure out where the sound had come from. What was her deal with always hidey-holing? She’d done the same thing back at the Pyramid of the Magician. She could pass me on the street or bump into me at the mall and I would have zero idea it was her. And that made her more dangerous than Zotz.
“I’d like to be forthcoming, Zane,” said the bat god. “Can we be forthcoming?”
I braced myself, knowing I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. I waited, my senses on high alert for any weakness, any opening to escape this madness. “Okay,” I said. As long as he was talking, he wasn’t clawing out my heart.
“Good,” he said. “Ixkik’ is quite impatient. I agree it would have been so satisfying to watch the darkness devour you. Especially after you sidestepped Iktan and managed to thwart my plans for a second time.” His eyes flashed as he clapped his wings. “Bravo. I really do applaud the effort. I had hoped our next meeting would be different…. No, not different—excruciating. But I must play the hand I have been dealt. So, without further ado, I am going to ask you a question. I want you to be very careful in how you answer. Do you understand?”
I nodded, swallowing the burning lump in my throat. I glanced up at the sky and saw a faint glimmer of silvery blue. Brooks?
“Good,” the bat god said gleefully. “Let’s begin. Where is the stone?”
No one said a word. It was like that moment in math class when your teacher asks for a volunteer to go up to the chalkboard to work out a problem. And even if you know the answer, no way are you going to raise your hand, because who wa
nts to be a show-off and solve an equation in front of everyone?
Adrik stood shakily. “I have it.”
Zotz jerked his attention back to Adrik. “Ah, finally someone with a speck of sense.” He uncurled a claw slowly. “Hand it over.”
Hondo stepped forward. “I have the stone.”
“No!” I shouted, unsure of what Hondo and Adrik were up to. “I have it!”
Alana stood, tears making tracks down her black-streaked face. Her sunglasses hung crookedly around her neck. “It’s my stone. I have it.”
Zotz dropped his head, shaking it. “I really wanted to save this for later, but you give me no choice.”
I for sure thought he would spread his wings and let all those creepy mini bats scratch out our eyes for an afternoon snack, but instead, the sea boiled and bubbled, splashing over the sides of the platform and making the surface even slicker and shinier.
Zotz floated above the mess as if he was afraid to get dirty. A thick tentacle whipped out of the sea and lashed through the air. Before we could react, the thing seized Adrik, spun him off his feet, and turned him upside down, shaking him like a piggy bank.
Alana screamed, “Leave him alone!”
I had to give Adrik credit. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even close his eyes. And no amount of acting videos can teach you that kind of control.
“I sense he doesn’t have it, and I don’t want to hear him speak another lie,” Ixkik’ said. The tentacle slid up to Adrik’s mouth and covered it (gross!) so no words (or lies) could escape. “Let’s get on with this!” she commanded.
“Patience,” Zotz argued, eyeing Alana. Another tentacle whipped over the platform’s edge, gripping her around the waist so quickly I barely registered the motion before the slimy thing began to drag her toward the sea nice and slow, like it wanted to make sure we didn’t miss one heart-stopping second of her demise.
I sprang forward and tried to grab hold of her, but I slipped and crashed down on my knees. Hondo also made a lunge, only to slide across the platform’s surface and collide with me. His mask was now tucked beneath his shirt. Was he hiding it from the gods?
The Shadow Crosser Page 7
