The Circle of Lies

by Crystal Velasquez

  But suddenly I heard the jingling of gold necklaces and the thud of heavy feet pounding their way toward me. I turned to see Shiva, standing upright and pulsing with bright green light. He raised his palm to me and said something in Hindi, and suddenly my vision exploded in a white-hot light. The next thing I knew, I was flying, helplessly sailing through the air. Time seemed to slow down. Below me I heard one of the Wildcats scream my name. Then the ground raced toward me—or I raced toward it—at a dizzying speed, and I landed with a crash. My vision exploded into white spots as pain twisted through me like burning barbed wire, and then I felt something on my right side break with an audible crunch.

  Ana! Are you all right? Shani’s panicked voice.

  No, I thought—and everything went dark.

  chapter 18

  Shani

  HERE’S SOMETHING I NEVER THOUGHT I’d have to say: An eagle’s feathers are hard to spit out after you tear their wings off. Gross, I thought, hacking up more feathers and pawing at my mouth. But at least the eagles themselves weren’t as foul-tasting as the bats had been. Plus, I had to admit that sinking my teeth into their meaty flesh satisfied me in a way I couldn’t quite explain. It was more than just the fact that I hadn’t eaten much of anything in days. It was the hunter in me; some primal urge to dominate my prey had been fulfilled. I wondered if this was how my old cat used to feel whenever she killed a mouse and brought it to me as if it were a prize. As a vegetarian, I used to think that was disgusting, but now I understood.

  When I lifted my head, I saw that Doli and Lin were finishing off the last two eagles that had dared attack us. Together we watched as ghostly shadows rose from the eagles’ lifeless bodies and fled through the open window. I wished in vain that we had the vase with us to trap them inside, but I didn’t know where Ana had left it.

  That was when it dawned on me that I hadn’t checked on Ana in a few minutes. I looked around and saw Shiva—just as he raised his hand and sent a burst of bright light at something. A jaguar! My heart leaped into my throat as the force of the attack sent her flying into the air.

  Ana! I yowled, running to her side. I asked whether she was all right, but all I felt was the barest whisper of her voice in my mind, as if she were far, far away. No. Her eyes closed and the whisper faded into silence.

  What happened? Doli asked, appearing with Lin on the other side of Ana.

  I don’t know. Shiva attacked her. I . . . don’t think she’s all right. She just—

  Ahhh! A sudden pain in my back exploded like a firework and took my breath away. I turned my head to find Anubis’s staff aimed right at me, red magical residue still shimmering in the air. He was shooting bolts of energy at me! Beside me Lin whined in pain and collapsed. Shiva smiled a peaceful smile that didn’t make any sense and lowered his palm. He had attacked Lin, I realized, feeling sick to my stomach. Even without the eagles, we were no match for the two gods. Maybe if Ixchel were here, we’d have a fighting chance. But we were alone. It’s all over . . . , I thought. This temple was the last thing we would ever see.

  Shiva raised his green hand again and turned to Doli, who cowered over Ana’s body. The pulse of light ballooned out of his palm and arced through the air. But just inches away from Doli’s closed eyes, the throbbing light split apart, running like several streams of water all around Doli, almost as if she had held up a shield. How?

  I looked to see that Vishnu had recovered and was standing behind the fire, chanting something. “Shree Gajanana, Jai Gajanana, Jai Jai Ganesh Morya,” he repeated, over and over, words I recognized from the temple’s sign of instructions near the entrance. The words filled me with hope and calm, but even while he continued chanting, his voice sounded in my mind. I am weakened, the voice said. I cannot protect you for much longer. You must end this. . . .

  I turned to Lin and Doli. We need to do something, now! Any ideas?

  Maybe we could jump out that window, Lin said, nodding weakly toward the broken window through which the Chaos Spirits had escaped.

  We can’t, Doli said. Ana is still unconscious. She nudged Ana’s neck and got no response. There are bound to be weapons somewhere in that temple downstairs. Maybe we can have Vishnu protect us from the fire long enough to get them.

  I shook my head. We can’t risk inviting more eagle spirits into this and getting trapped down there.

  Hurry, Vishnu urged us. I can’t hold on much longer.

  Lin’s eyes suddenly brightened. I got it. Remember what Anubis said about the Brotherhood getting closer and closer to revealing their plan to take over the earth?

  Yeah, I said. So?

  So it sounds to me like he doesn’t want regular humans to find out about his plans. Maybe getting you kicked out of school wasn’t the only reason he disabled the cameras in the gym. Maybe he just didn’t want any witnesses. And he spent weeks pretending to be Dr. Logan while he excavated the temple. Why would he have bothered with all that unless he really wanted to hide what he was doing from the mortal world until the time was right?

  Lin was right! I wonder what Anubis would do if some tourists should happen to poke their heads into this room right now.

  But how are we supposed to get them in here? Doli asked. There’s the gate in the way, and I don’t think anyone can hear us through it.

  And we can’t go into the main temple like this, Lin added. We’ll scare those poor people half to death.

  So we’ll transform first, I answered. And, Vishnu, can you undo the magic holding the gate together without breaking the shield, till I get out?

  He paused, and then nodded.

  I don’t think I can make it, Lin groaned, attempting to haul herself up but failing miserably.

  I’ll stay with her, Doli said firmly. I can protect her and Vishnu when the shield is broken.

  I began to protest, but Doli cut across me. There isn’t time to argue. Come on. You never needed an excuse before to go in, all guns blazing.

  I almost laughed, and Lin raised her head defiantly. Go. Now.

  Let’s do this. I focused my mind, but at first nothing happened. For a few moments I was terrified that I had been in my lion form for so long that I was trapped in feline form forever. But slowly, slowly, my claws receded and became nails. My paws gave way to my hands and sneakered feet. I breathed a sigh of relief. It felt amazing to be human. I would never take it for granted again.

  As I ran forward past Anubis, Vishnu’s protective shield bulged with me like a water bubble just before it pops. As I reached the gate, and the shield touched the enchanted metal, the gate immediately tumbled to the floor into tangled scraps again. The dark magic that had been holding it together had now been neutralized by Vishnu’s glowing protection.

  The bubble of Vishnu’s protective shield then burst into a shower of shimmering raindrops as I cleared the room and ran into the main temple.

  “Help! Help us! Please!” Some men wrapped in orange-and-red cloth gave me astonished looks, but I didn’t think they understood me. Luckily, a group of Australian tourists who had been observing the red-and-gold statue of Ganesh came running right away, asking what was wrong.

  “It’s my friend, she’s hurt,” I said.

  I pointed at the small room and waved for them to hurry. As I turned to lead the way back to the chamber, I heard a plaintive roar echoing through the hall. What’s going on in there? I wondered. Was Anubis standing his ground, putting up a fight, or was our plan about to backfire? If he decided now was the time to reveal the Brotherhood of Chaos to the masses, then all I was doing was leading a bunch of kind strangers to their deaths. It would be a massacre!

  But when I reached the room, everything was eerily quiet. The Shiva statue was back on its pedestal, cross-legged and still, as if he had never come to life. The hole in the floor had disappeared, along with the eagle corpses. And Anubis was gone. The only figures that remained were Lin, Doli, and Vishnu—who once again had only two arms. He had transformed into the kindly old tea seller I had met in the ma
rket. They were all hunched over something I couldn’t see. It had to be Ana.

  My hand flew to my mouth. Ana had passed out as a jaguar. If she was still a Wildcat when these tourists got to her, we would have a lot of explaining to do. But as I got closer, I saw a girl in jeans and a plain long-sleeved red T-shirt—the same one she’d been wearing the very first time I’d met her. It was Ana, and she was human again! I ran to her side, knelt down next to her, and touched her hand. Her eyes fluttered open. There was a big bump swelling on her forehead. “What . . . what’s going on?” she asked. “Where’s Anu—” She broke off when she saw the small crowd of tourists gathering around her, looking at her with concern.

  “What happened?” one of the Australian tourists asked. “Your friend said you got hurt.”

  Ana stared at him. “Uh,” she said after a moment. “I’m . . . so embarrassed. I fell and I, um, hit my head on the statue,” she said.

  “Looks like you banged it pretty good,” the man said, wincing at the knot on her head.

  Ana reached up and rubbed the bruised lump. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

  A slim blond man knelt down and took Ana’s hand in his, pressing his fingers to Ana’s wrist and looking at the watch on his own wrist, as if he were checking her pulse. “I’m a nurse,” the man explained. “Your pulse is all right. I’d tell your mother to take you to the doctor to have your head checked out, though. You may have hit it hard enough to cause a concussion. How are you feeling?”

  Ana looked at him, clearly trying to decide how to answer. But then her gaze shifted to a spot on the floor just past the nurse. She leaned forward, grabbed something at the base of the Shiva statue, and gripped it in her fist. Slowly she stood up and turned her back to the tourists so that only we could see her face. She broke into a huge smile as she opened her hand. “Actually,” she said, “I’m feeling much better now.”

  In her palm was a glittering red gemstone. She’d found one more key that would lock the eagle Chaos Spirits in the vase for good.

  chapter 19

  Ana

  ONCE THE EXCITEMENT WAS OVER and the tourists had gone back to their tours, my friends and I ran to the man who’d given us the tea, and hugged him close. He laughed and hugged us back, but he remained silent. It was as if he knew that even his words contained powerful magic, not to be wasted. Either way, I knew he understood us.

  “Thank you, Vishnu,” I whispered. “You helped save our lives.”

  “How can we ever repay you?” Lin asked.

  Vishnu merely bowed to us and touched his hand to his heart as if to say that our thanks was enough. He stayed behind in the chamber, watching over the statue of Shiva, looking as if he had no plans to leave anytime soon. I realized he might have been doing the same thing Ixchel had done in Cancún with Quetzalcoatl. He was making sure Shiva never got another chance to join Anubis’s all-star team of destructive gods. Our thanks was nowhere near enough.

  As we crossed the street, the black cat came running out of the park and fell in step with us. “You’re back!” I cried. “I was worried about you.”

  “Well, look who decided to grace us with her presence,” Shani deadpanned. “Ever noticed that she always disappears whenever we get attacked by ancient gods?”

  But I didn’t care about that. I was just glad she was safe. I leaned down, picked her up, and draped her over my shoulders. She purred into my ear and nuzzled against my face. “She may not be a fighter, but she’s great at showing us where the action is.”

  Lin and Shani exchanged a look. “You mean she’s really good at showing us the very best place to get ourselves killed,” Shani retorted. “Why are we friends with this cat, again?”

  “Because she’s our mascot,” I reminded her.

  Shani shrugged. “Anything beats Eddie the Eagle, I guess. I swear, I’m so happy I didn’t make the tennis team now. I don’t think I’ll ever wear anything with an eagle on it for the rest of my life.”

  “Me neither,” Doli agreed. “I might have to propose a new mascot to Coach Connolly for the track team T-shirts. Otherwise my track career is over.”

  Lin reached over and scratched the cat between her ears. “I wonder if she knew we were going to get attacked by all those crazy birds, though.”

  “I don’t know,” Doli said, “but it doesn’t really matter. She never leads us into anything that the four of us can’t handle—with a little help. Speaking of which, Ana, are you really okay?”

  I thought for a moment. “I really am, actually.” I reached my hand up to my forehead and felt the bump there—it was already getting smaller. “I think that tea Vishnu gave us protected us from the worst of our injuries. If it hadn’t been for him, I’m not sure we would’ve made it.” I glanced at Shani, who was walking on my left, and stopped in my tracks. “Oh my God, Shani, your ear!”

  She smirked. “What about it? Did it fall off altogether?”

  “No,” I said in wonder. “It’s healed!”

  Shani stopped walking and reached up to touch her wound. The tear that had been there was gone, the two halves reunited as if they’d never been apart. Shani faced me, her eyes watering. “I have my ear back,” she said in a shaky voice. “It must have been the tea.”

  I furrowed my brows. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were about to cry. Are you all right?”

  Shani bit her lip and scratched at her arm, as if she were allergic to her own emotions. “I just . . . I want to thank you, Ana, for pushing me out of the way and going after Anubis. You didn’t have to do that. I swear I would have done it.” She swallowed hard, her dark eyes searching mine.

  I reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “I know that,” I said, giving her a small smile. “That’s exactly why I didn’t want you to. You’re so smart and loyal—we couldn’t risk losing you. Besides, you’ve already sacrificed so much, things you can never get back.”

  “Don’t you go thinking I’ve sacrificed my school just yet,” she said, pointing her finger at me with a determined look in her eye. “Principal Ferris said she might let me back into Temple.”

  “I was talking about your hair,” I said with a wink.

  Shani smiled and pulled me into a tight hug.

  “All right, you two. How about we save the mushy stuff for later, huh?” Lin said. “We should get back to the jet and see if we can get in touch with Ms. Benitez.”

  “The jet?” Shani said, her eyes bulging.

  I nodded. “Principal Ferris thinks we took it to Cancún for a research project.”

  “Wow,” she said. “I wish I could go with you guys. But I should get home. My dad’s probably going crazy looking for me by now.”

  I exchanged a nervous look with Lin and Doli. “Shani, about your dad . . .” I started. I explained what had happened at her father’s apartment—how her dad didn’t seem to remember who she or her sisters were. For a second her face blanched and something tender passed across her face. “He doesn’t remember me?”

  I shook my head. “There was no trace of you at the apartment. It was weird.”

  Shani furrowed her brows. “That is weird.” Then she gave me a sly smile. “But you say he doesn’t remember my sisters either, huh? Well, at least that’s something.”

  “There is one more thing,” I continued. I told her that I had seen Kiah transform into a dog.

  “I knew it!” Shani cried. “I knew there was something fishy about that little creep.” She punched one fist into her hand. “Well, it looks like Anubis has sort of hijacked my life here, which means I’m coming with you guys . . . if you’ll have me.”

  “Are you kidding? Of course we’ll have you!” Doli exclaimed. “We’ll figure out what to do after we get Ms. Benitez to help us free your dad from Anubis’s magic.”

  “And to find my aunt and uncle,” I added. “I know we won just now, but we still have two more gemstones to find and two more Chaos Spirits to defeat.”

  “Not to mention that Anubis is still out there, and we
know he’s looking for a new friend. Even if Vishnu holds Shiva in the temple, we don’t know what’s going to happen with Quetzalcoatl, if Ms. Benitez wasn’t able to finish the ritual she told us about,” Lin added.

  Shani sighed. “Anubis isn’t going to give up if those two don’t work out either. So the Brotherhood is growing. A Wildcat’s work is never done, huh?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet, anyway. But at least we’ve got each other.”

  Doli nodded. “Wildcats stick together.”

  We piled our hands on top of one another’s and then let them fly apart.

  “Let’s get back to the airport,” I said. “We’ll take it from there.”

  We started walking around the edge of the park in search of a busy street where we could catch a taxi. As we walked, it sank in for me how easily any of us could have died over the past couple of days. I knew it was a weird time to think of Jason, but I couldn’t help it. There was so much left unsaid between us. I would have really hated it if we left things the way they were. True, he had asked for time, but I was sure he would at least want to know that we were in one piece after fighting off three different ancient gods. I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket and typed out a quick text.

  In Mumbai—seriously scary stuff here! Huge battle, but we made it out alive. See you soon, I hope.

  While the others drifted into the now empty street, talking about what we would do once we got back to the jet, I fell silent on the sidewalk, thinking of Jason and how he’d smiled at me that day when he had waited for me after morning assembly. After a few minutes of walking, my phone dinged. I looked down and quickly read Jason’s text back.