“Whoa! How do you know my name? Who sent you?” I gripped my spear tighter, because even though she was small and looked pretty harmless, demons were masters of disguise.
Rosie rolled on the ground, stretching her legs all casual like. Whatever. The girl reached out a skinny finger and poked my arm. “Increíble.”
I stepped back. “What’s your deal?”
“Just making sure you’re real and not one of my dreams.” She reached down and scratched Rosie’s belly like they were long-lost friends.
“Look,” I said, “you can’t just show up in the middle of the night and tell me you know me and Rosie…and…you better start talking.”
She wiped her hair out of her eyes. “I knew magic was real, but this?”
“Magic. Right. How about we start with your name and why you’re in your pajamas. In a rowboat. In the middle of the night.”
She ran over to the boat, reached in, and pulled something out. A book?
“What is that?” I asked.
She lifted her icy gaze. “Your story…” Her voice dropped to an excited whisper. “The one the gods made you write.”
How had this girl gotten her hands on my story?
The gods had made it available to all the Maya sobrenaturals, of course. As for the “real” world, Jazz had promised to print and spread around the copies with my secret message so it could reach any possible godborns. But as time went on and I didn’t hear from anyone, a part of me believed what Ixtab had told me: No godborns had survived.
“How did you get that?” I asked the girl. My heart was thumping frantically between excitement and fear.
She stood and said, “The library. Duh.”
So Jazz had come through. I never should’ve doubted the giant.
The girl came closer. Her pajama pants were tucked into her boots. “Is this the island”—she flipped through the book until she found what she was looking for—“Holbox?” She pronounced it like most people do, Hole-Box.
“It’s ohl-bosch,” I said. “It’s Mayan for Black Hole and…never mind. Who are you?”
With a quick nod, she blurted, “Renata. Ren Santiago.”
I was hoping for more than her name, but it was a start. “Okay, Ren…why are you here?”
She studied the book—my book—still gripped in her small hands. She looked up at me. “You called me here.”
“Uh, I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
She turned to the last page of the book and recited: “‘If you can read this, you’ve got magic in your blood. Only another godborn would be able to see the words on these last few pages. Which is why I took the risk to write down the whole truth.’”
My mind flew in a gazillion directions as she continued. “‘I was hoping to find you,’” she read more forcefully this time. “‘Take it from me—someday, when you least expect it, the magic will call to you.’” She closed the book and gave me a smirk. “You called me.”
In that moment, I had no words other than Brooks’s “HOLY K!” The shout echoed over the crashing waves. And that was only the beginning. I pretty much word-vomited after that: “How’d you get here? How’d the magic call? Where are you from? Tell me everything, and start at the beginning.”
Ren didn’t answer. Not at first. Instead, she studied me carefully. “You’re the son of—”
“Right,” I interrupted. “Now, back to my questions?”
“So, I’m a godborn, too.” She shook her head in disbelief. “That’s what the book said. Only another godborn could read…” Her voice trailed off.
“Yeah, I wrote it. I know what it says. Let’s start over. How’d you get here?” Maybe she was like Hondo and could only answer one question at a time.
“If you’re being literal,” she said, “the magic called me. The boat brought me.”
That’s when I noticed the boat had no oars, no motor. And if she had the blood of a god, how had she gotten through Ixtab’s shadow magic? Or were only full-blooded gods locked out?
Rosie rolled onto her belly and began licking her paws. Maybe I wasn’t asking the right questions. I tried again, my pulse racing. “Okay, so you read the book, the hidden words, and then what happened?”
Ren looked around with wide eyes. “This is amazing. I can’t believe I’m here!”
I pushed my hair back, trying not to look totally impatient. This is how Brooks must’ve felt when she dropped into my boring life to try to explain that I was in the middle of some ancient prophecy. Except she was way better at this than I was. “Ren!”
She held her hands up. “Cálmate. I heard music. My dad’s viola.”
Then a terrible thought occurred to me. What if Ren was lying? What if she was just trying to infiltrate the island? I couldn’t help it. It was too good to be true that another godborn had survived. I mean, it had been six whole months and nothing. Now, the night before I was going to leave on my quest to save Hurakan, she shows up? It didn’t matter that she looked nice enough. If being part of the Prophecy of Fire—the one that destined me to release the god of death, darkness, and destruction—had taught me anything, it was that, in the Maya world, what you see is not what you get. Remember that.
“Take my hand,” I said, stretching it toward Ren. “If you’re a true godborn, then…”
“Telepathy,” she said quietly as she placed her palm on mine. I opened my mind to her. If you’re a godborn, hop on one leg.
She jerked free and frowned. “I’m not a circus animal!”
Rosie groaned, hiding her eyes behind her massive paws.
“Oh crap!” I hollered. “You really are a godborn. Or at least some kind of supernatural! It’s the only way you could—”
“Read your mind.”
“I let you. Big difference.”
Ren tugged off her boots and wet socks and started to pace around barefoot. “Am I the first godborn to show up?”
“So far.” First? Oh man, how many were out there?
Ren said, “That means, if there are others, then they haven’t heard the call yet, or maybe…”
Wasn’t this supposed to be my interrogation? “Let’s just stick to you. Tell me everything, and don’t leave out any details.”
She cleared her throat and said, “After I finished the book—which was really good, by the way—I closed it and waited. I mean, not that I believe everything I read, but I totally know magic when I see it. Except nothing happened. I thought it was all a joke, and that was super depressing. But then tonight…I opened the book again and reread the last page—out loud this time—and within like five minutes, this song started to play. My dad’s favorite.” She sounded a little sad. “The music was far away, but then it got closer and closer. I could feel it pulling me like invisible hands. That’s when I heard little feet scratching on my roof. At first I thought it was some cats or birds or something, but to be honest, the screeching freaked me out. I was going to wake my abuelo, but I thought, what could he do? So, I put on my boots and went to check things out. That’s when the sky cracked open and these things…”
“Things?”
“Some kind of little flying creatures. I think they were hairy, but it was pretty dark.” She said this so matter-of-factly you’d think she was used to bizarre happenings.
My mouth went dry. If some supernatural creatures had found her, then did the gods know about her? But how could they?
Ren went on. “I thought I was having another one of my nightmares, but these dudes were definitely real, because…they didn’t leave when I told them to.”
“Yeah,” I grunted. “Monsters don’t usually leave just because you ask.”
She studied me for a second, then went on. “That’s when my abuelo woke up and told me ‘It’s happening, and those beasts want to stop you.’”
“What…what was happening?”
“My destiny.”
“Destiny.”
“Are you going to let me tell this or not?”
“Right. Go on.”
“We got in the car and raced through town, following the music,” she said. “I didn’t know my abuelo could drive like that. I kept asking him what I was supposed to do, and all he said was ‘Follow the magic and don’t look back.’ So, I told him which way to drive. That’s when we got to Sievers Cove.”
“Where’s that?”
“In Galveston.” Her words came in a rush. “I got to the water, and an empty boat was waiting there. My abuelo gave me a blessing and told me to hurry. It was awful. I didn’t want to leave him—I was scared those things would hurt him, but he said they weren’t there for him. They were there for my magic. So, I got in the boat and promised I’d call when I got to wherever.” She waved her hand through the air. “But then there were no oars and no way to get moving and those things were coming, and they had glowing eyes, and all I could think was, I do not want to die in my pajamas.”
“That’s what you were worried about?”
She rolled her eyes. “Thankfully, that didn’t happen, because the boat started to move all by itself. And when I looked back to wave at my grandfather, a thick fog surrounded me, and I couldn’t see anything. I was thinking this could be bad, but the music—my dad’s music—calmed me. That’s when I…” She hesitated for the first time. “I had an episode.” Before I could even ask, she added, “The docs call them ‘absence seizures,’ but none of their medicine works. I totally zone out, lose all track of time, and I don’t know what’s going on around me. I’ve had them ever since I can remember. They don’t hurt or anything. But they usually happen when I’m super stressed.”
So that was her version of my bum leg—her supposed “weakness,” which was really the key to her godborn power.
Rosie got to her feet and shook her massive body, sending flecks of sand flying everywhere. Then she took off down the beach like she’d spotted something to eat. I called after her, but she didn’t listen. Typical.
I wanted to make sure I was following Ren’s story. “You said your grandpa believes in magic, and he helped you get to the water, where the music was leading you, and—”
“He doesn’t just believe it—he says our family is magic. That it’s part of our heritage.”
“Because of the Maya gods?”
“No, my dad’s side is magic as in brujo. I had no idea my mom was a goddess!” Her face fell. “What…what do you think that makes me?”
“A witchy godborn?” Was there such a thing?
Ren tapped her knees with her fingers and let out a swish of air. “My abuelo used to tell me stories about my parents. How my dad fell in love with the ‘wrong’ woman.” She made air quotes around the word wrong. “He called her some bad names. And said that someday I’d understand who I was and what kind of power was in me.”
“Did he ever say anything about the Maya gods?”
“Nothing.”
“What else did he say about your mom?”
“Just that she left us. She broke my dad’s heart.” She folded her arms over her chest. “He didn’t like to talk about her.”
Didn’t? “What about your dad?” I asked. “What does he say?”
She scooped some sand into a small hill. “He died,” she said softly. “A few years ago.”
I felt bad for asking, but I had to know as much about her as possible if I was going to help her. Except I had no idea how to help her. I mean, when I put out the godborn call, I hadn’t exactly thought about what I’d do if a godborn answered. “Hey, I’m sorry.”
With a shrug, she added, “My dad used to tell me to ignore my abuelo and all the magic talk. He didn’t like it. I think he was just trying to protect me. Him and Abuelo used to fight about it all the time. But I knew…” Her cool eyes zeroed in on me. “I knew I had magic in me, even if I couldn’t do any cool tricks. And then I found your book and…”
Rosie lumbered back with a stack of driftwood in her mouth. Dropping the bundle onto the sand, she ignited it with her eyes.
“Thanks, Rosie,” Ren said, warming her hands by the flames.
“Okay.” I paced, trying to piece a godborn timeline together. “How old are you?”
“I turned thirteen a couple weeks ago.”
I’d turned fourteen in December—she was younger than me by almost a year. That meant some goddess broke the Sacred Oath after Hurakan had.
“So you were never in hiding?” I asked. “Like a witness protection program or anything like that?”
Ren laughed. “I don’t think Ixtab told you the truth about that. I’ve never been in hiding.”
I had to remember that Ren had read the book. She knew everything there was to know about the Prophecy of Fire and my whole adventure. It was nice not having to explain the madness. I sat next to the fire. Even though I couldn’t control my fire skills, something about a blaze always drew me in. Without thinking, I pulled a flame to me and began tossing it between my hands like a baseball.
“That’s pretty awesome”—Ren’s eyes were locked on my hands—“how you can use fire like that.”
It was weird that Ren knew so much about me—practically my whole life story—and yet I knew hardly anything about her, except that she had a magic-believing abuelo. I threw the fireball down the beach, and Rosie tore after it, bringing it back to me a second later.
The flames’ flickering shadows played across the sand. Ren got to her feet. The shadows froze.
Then they leaned closer to her.
“Ren?”
“Yeah?”
“Uh…can you sit back down?”
“Why?”
I kept my eyes on the sombras that didn’t follow her movement but instead seemed to loom over her. My pulse quickened. Maybe it was Ixtab’s shadow magic? “I just need to test something.”
The second Ren plunked onto the sand, the shapeless shadows wrapped around her. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
I hesitated to say anything out loud. Who knew who might be listening, and we obviously weren’t alone. “Do you see them?” I whispered.
Ren peered at me across the fire. “You mean the shadows? You can see them?”
I could barely nod. A giant lump throbbed in my throat. Who was this girl?
“They come and go,” she said casually. “Abuelo calls them part of my magic. Sometimes they listen to me, sometimes they don’t. Wanna see?” She closed her eyes. The shapeless shadows rose higher and higher until they looked like tall poles, wings sprouting from each of them. Then they collapsed just as quickly and disappeared. Ren opened her eyes. “See? Not very magical or useful, if you ask me.”
“Can your grandpa do stuff with shadows?”
Ren shook her head. “Supposedly, magic doesn’t run consistently through my family. And my dad hated the whole idea of it, so he wouldn’t teach me. But I don’t even know if the shadows are part of the magic, or being a godborn, or…” She let out a long sigh. “It’s super frustrating not knowing who you really are.”
It reminded me how I couldn’t control fire very well. “So, you go into trances when you’re stressed, shadows sometimes follow you, and you can sometimes make shapes out of them. Do they talk to you or anything?”
“I wish,” Ren said.
Ren was right. We needed to know who her godly parent was, except I wasn’t sure where to even begin looking. We couldn’t exactly take out a want ad or put up a billboard. The gods had made it clear they wanted to be rid of godborns. (Like I said, jerks, right?)
So even if we found Ren’s mom, it wasn’t like we could throw a reunion party. Plus, I was leaving to go on my quest in just a few hours. Ren’s problems were going to have to be put on hold. We’d call her abuelo, and then she’d have to wait here until I got back from this quest to figure out next steps.
Ren yawned loudly, and her eyelids drooped. “Now what?”
I tossed a broken shell into the water, thinking I could hardly wait to tell Brooks about Ren. She was going to flip. What would she think of this girl?
“The gods want to k
ill godborns, so…for now, you have to stay on this island. We should figure out what those little flying creatures were and how they knew about you…or…No, we should definitely try to find out if you were followed.”
“I should tell you…” She yawned again and laid her head on the sand. “The shadows…they can come out of…”
“Out of what?” But when I turned, the girl was fast asleep. “Ren?”
Then came an eeekscritch. From inside the boat.
Rosie and I launched to our feet simultaneously.
Eeekscritch.
I changed Fuego back into the spear as black smoke curled from Rosie’s nose.
Crap!
Ren had definitely been followed.
Swirls of red fire burned at the center of Rosie’s eyes, which meant that whatever was inside that boat wasn’t here for surfing lessons. And with my luck, it was probably gigantic and murderous and bloodthirsty.
Clouds of black smoke trailed from Rosie’s nose, and her ears were standing at attention as I gripped my spear and stalked toward the rowboat. The shallow waves tipped it back and forth. My palms were slick with sweat.
The warm water soaked my sneakers as a west wind raced toward us. Craning my neck, I peered inside the dinghy just so I wouldn’t have to get any closer than I had to. But there was nothing inside. Cero.
I’d have thought I was hearing things, except Rosie’s killer senses told me something was here. Was the something invisible? I didn’t know if that was better or worse.
“What do you sense, Rosie?” I whispered. Her hackles stood on end, and a low, deadly growl sounded from deep in her throat.
Then that horrible eekscritch sound, like metallic branches scraping glass, ricocheted across the beach, and I couldn’t be sure where it was coming from. But Rosie kept her laser focus on the boat. Which, by the terrible way, was still swaying like an invisible hand was rocking it.
That’s when a small shadow, no bigger than a fist, slid over the boat’s edge and began to grow into a tall column.
Before I could blink twice, three shadow monsters emerged from the column, spreading their colossal wings. Long insect-like arms and legs sprouted from their swollen, pulsing bodies.
The Fire Keeper Page 3
