Maya and the Return of the Godlings

by Rena Barron

  “And why not destroy the veil outright?” Eli added to the list of questions.

  “I don’t think he can yet.” I frowned. “Papa said there have always been tears in the veil, but they got worse after the second war.”

  “What changed after the second war?” Frankie asked as we saw the first houses on the edge of the city.

  I stopped in the tall grass. I couldn’t help but think that we were missing something important. The orishas said that the Lord of Shadows had absorbed other celestials. “I bet he has a secret weapon—something that he’s kept hidden like my father’s soul.”

  Before we reached the city, Eli turned himself invisible to scout ahead. Frankie and I waited in the shadows by a tree oozing golden sap that smelled like honey.

  “So, this might be a good time to don our disguises.” Frankie slipped off her backpack and rambled through the contents. She pulled out her stash of face paint and costume props.

  Frankie had gotten the idea to pick up supplies from the pop-up Halloween store on Ashland Avenue. We might not have been able to fool anyone up close, but at least we shouldn’t stand out as much. It made me realize how much I missed some of my old life—dressing up for Halloween, riding my bike, hanging out at the park. I hadn’t even had time to keep up with reading the latest Oya comics. It would be nice to have a day when I didn’t have to worry about the world coming to an end.

  “This is smudge-free and should last up to twelve hours,” Frankie said, opening up the first tube. “The horns are the tricky part.”

  She put on her makeup first—and the final results could’ve fooled me. She had indigo skin with two curved horns, one on each side of her forehead. She’d sprayed the edges of her hair silver like one of the darkbringers we’d seen at Comic-Con. Being a genius and all, Frankie had a photographic memory.

  “Now, your turn,” Frankie said, squeezing out a different shade of face paint. This was cobalt to her indigo. She dipped a brush into the paint and swiped it across my cheek. It tickled, and I pushed down a giggle. It almost felt like we were back home and everything was normal again. “You look pretty good blue.”

  “I like your horns,” I said.

  Frankie made quick work of painting my face and styling my hair to cover the band that held my spiraling horns in place. They were black and looked like real bone, even though they were made of blocks of wood. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice timid. “A lot has happened in these last couple of days. I wouldn’t blame you for being overwhelmed. I sure am.”

  I shrugged. It was hard to explain how I was feeling. I worried about Mama at home alone with Papa, and we were running out of time to retrieve his soul. “I’m okay, I guess.” I remembered what the kishi had said about Frankie’s first mom. “What about you with everything and the stuff with ­Charlie?”

  Frankie glanced down at the palette of blue paint. She swiped the sponge back and forth across it like she didn’t know what to do with her hands. “I guess I’m okay, too. I always thought that something happened to my first mom, but now Charlie’s confirmed it. I hung around after our last encounter with the orisha council to ask if they knew anything. They said the Azurian celestials had investigated her death and ruled it an accident. I don’t buy that for one second. When this is over, I’m going to find out the truth for myself. I owe it to her.”

  “I can help you,” I offered. Frankie didn’t say anything, so I reached out and touched her hand. I didn’t really know what it was like for her to lose her mom, but I knew how scared I was for Papa. How afraid I’d been when he went missing and how determined I was to get his soul back now. I gave her hand a squeeze. “You’ve always had my back, let me do the same for you.”

  “Thanks.” Frankie finally glanced up from the makeup, her eyes shiny. “I’m going to need it.”

  We both startled at the sound of grass crunching underfoot. Eli shimmered from invisible to semitransparent to solid in the blink of an eye. He had a bundle of clothes in his arms and almost dropped them when he saw Frankie and me. “I got something to help us fit in,” Eli said, “but I see I’m late to that party, gentle blue maidens.”

  Frankie wriggled her eyebrows at him. “You’re next.”

  Eli looked like he was deciding between staying and running away. Frankie descended on him with a quickness. When she was done, she’d painted him slate blue. She didn’t give him horns, although he did have a convincing barbed tail.

  “How did you get these clothes?” I asked, as Eli tossed me a bundle, then one to Frankie.

  “Hanging outside on a clothesline like in the olden days,” Eli said, turning his back to let us change. “I figured we needed some new threads to blend in with the locals.”

  Frankie pulled on a bright green tunic with a slit where a tail might be. My matching tunic came almost to my knees, and the pants were pretty much black skinny jeans. I tried out the staff and found that the clothes didn’t restrict my movement.

  Our backpacks might be a dead giveaway that we were outsiders, but it was too late to do anything about them. “Ready?” I asked, sucking in a deep breath.

  “Um, I’ve got blue paint slathered all over me,” Eli said as we set off for the main road that led into the city. As we got closer, the sky started to lighten at the first sign of the sun rising in the west—the opposite of the human world. I had a gnawing feeling in my gut that we were walking into a trap.

  NINETEEN

  Why is curfew a thing?

  We arrived at the darkbringer city during morning rush hour. No one gave us a second glance as they hurried about their business, which was good. I didn’t want to know what the people here would do if they knew we were three godlings strolling down their streets.

  We walked past houses hollowed out of trees with bark for walls and leaves that pulsed with light. There were apartment buildings painted bright pink to yellow to rainbow stripes. Some houses had silvery rooftops that drank up the bluish light from the sun. Some changed colors like mood rings. Others seemed to breathe and sigh like they were conversing with each other.

  A darkbringer with a toddler in his arms opened the front door to a house that hovered six feet above the ground. Steps appeared beneath his feet as he descended.

  Some kids wearing the same uniforms as ours flew by overhead. “Imagine what it would be like if everyone could do that back home,” Eli said.

  “Don’t even say it,” I groaned. “Winston is already so insufferable. Now that he’s a walking torch, we will never hear the end of it.”

  “Things are going to be really different at school,” Frankie said. “With so many kids with powers.”

  “But they’ll never forget that we are the real OGs,” Eli proclaimed.

  Frankie frowned. “Original Gangsters?”

  “Original Godlings,” he corrected her.

  With everyone in a hurry, we got a chance to see a side of the Dark that we never would have under normal circumstances. We already knew what went down when the darkbringers came to our world. But we’d only seen the lackeys sent by the Lord of Shadows to stir up trouble. These were normal people. “They’re not that different from us,” I said, voice low. “Living their lives and whatnot.”

  “We could learn from each other if there wasn’t an impending war and all,” Frankie added, shaking her head. “Imagine what technological advancements and achievements in science we could share.”

  When we got to a busier neighborhood, darkbringers crowded the streets and the skies. The air buzzed with wingbeats and chatter. They sat on terraces eating breakfast. They walked pet impundulu and bloodhounds, and a creature that looked like a hairless goat.

  “Not sure we’re going to stay unnoticed,” Frankie said.

  There were fewer kids on the streets. I guessed they’d headed to school by now. As much as I didn’t want to stop, we couldn’t risk being noticed. We had to find a place to hide, so we didn’t stand out. I wouldn’t admit this to my friends, but I could have used a little rest myself.


  We could see a massive park not too far from our location. It looked more like a jungle in the middle of the city, with overgrown weeds and unkempt trees. I figured the darkbringers’ idea of a park was to leave the land in its natural state. We tucked ourselves beside some bushes far from the walking trails. Aside from the roots that groaned in protest when we first curled up on our sleeping bags, it wasn’t a bad setup.

  As soon as I shut my eyes, I was out and didn’t open them again until it was pitch-black outside.

  We raided our snacks and then Eli went to check the scene on the street. He reported the all clear, and we got started walking again. “According to the markers on the map, we should be able to get through the city in three hours,” I said as we joined the crowds.

  Someone looked at a screen that was counting down. “Thirty minutes . . . still time,” they said.

  Every screen we passed had the same timer, and I got a bad feeling about it. People hurried on the street, glancing at the clocks on the tall buildings every so often.

  “Why does everyone look so nervous?” Frankie asked as we walked with our heads down.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Eli answered her.

  As we continued south through the city, the map blurred as the ink moved around. Before, it had been only a faded rough draft of buildings, waterways, and roads. Now the city covered most of it, and the Crystal Palace was a speck in the distance. “The map changed,” I said, accidentally catching a darkbringer’s attention.

  “What are you children still doing out this late?” the woman asked, stepping into our path. She hugged two bags of groceries to her chest. Her dark eyes lingered on our uniforms. “Why are you all wearing that ridiculous makeup at your age?”

  “We had extra work at school,” Frankie volunteered an excuse. “And the makeup was for a class experiment on skin pigmentation.”

  “Curfew’s in fifteen minutes,” the woman said, heading for the building next to us. “You best get inside before the city patrol sees you.”

  “Wait, we’re from the south side, and we don’t have anyone to pick us up,” I called after her. “Any idea how we can get home faster?”

  “Take the rail like everyone else,” the woman replied impatiently.

  “Where is the rail, and do we need money?” Frankie asked.

  The woman squinted. “What is money?”

  Oh, that didn’t translate well, or at all.

  “Credits?” Frankie tried again.

  “The rail is two blocks that way,” the woman said, not seeming to understand that word either. “You’ll see the signs. I hope you’ll get let off with a warning for breaking curfew. Good luck.”

  We hurried in the direction the woman had pointed out. A sign read RAPID RAIL SYSTEM, which reminded me of the Chicago Transit Authority back home. Before we could go down the steps, a horn blew across the city, and we froze in place. Projections flickered to life across every face of the buildings. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing—who I was seeing. I clutched the map hard in my fist.

  “Holy crap,” Eli mumbled under his breath. “Is that . . .”

  “Do you want the truth or a lie?” Frankie retorted, still staring up at one of the projections. It was a recording, but it still shot a chill through my spine.

  The screen read CHIEF OF ORDER.

  I gritted my teeth, hardly able to believe my own eyes. The aziza stared at us from every angle. She was every bit as beautiful and as terrifying as I remembered. Golden-brown skin, broad nose, raven-dark eyes, lips painted black. She wore a new shiny gray uniform with a silver badge pinned to her jacket. The last time we were in the Dark, she’d been in command of the soldiers on our trail.

  “Citizens of Zdorra,” Nulan said in her familiar slippery sweet voice. “It is my duty as chief of order to remind you that curfew is in five minutes. Anyone caught outside without proper authorization will be severely punished.”

  By the time she finished speaking, most of the street had cleared. Aside from us, there were only a few stragglers. At least they had somewhere to go. We didn’t. My pulse throbbed against my eardrums as we jetted down the steps to the rail. We had to get through the city before Nulan found out we were ever here. We’d gotten her demoted from her position, and knowing her, she’d want revenge.

  TWENTY

  My second-worst nightmare

  If the Lord of Shadows was my worst nightmare, then Commander Nulan, aka Chief of Order Nulan, was my second worst. As we rushed down the steps to the train, we saw holographic projections of her against the walls. She had the same twisted smile that she’d worn when she tried to kill my friends and me twice. The text below her photo read Tap here for a message from Zdorra’s chief of order.

  “No, thank you,” I said, as we jogged down too many steps to count.

  “How is this a demotion?” Eli asked, breathing hard. “She’s got a whole city to boss around now.”

  We landed in the busy station with harsh fluorescent light that hurt my eyes. Darkbringers strolled back and forth across the vast room that had so many signs that it made my head spin. It was like no subway station I’d ever seen. No turnstiles to tap your Ventra card to pay. No musicians serenading the crowd with popular songs. No one talking or texting on their phones or listening to music either. I noticed something else too. They all wore silver triangular pins on their collars. I hadn’t noticed that earlier. That had to be why everyone was staring at us. That and our awful makeup.

  A woman passed by us with a little kid tugging at his pin before she hissed, “Stop that.” The boy poked out his bottom lip, but he did as he was told.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Frankie asked, eyeing the pins, too.

  “Hall passes,” I said, dread filling my belly.

  Here was my theory. Some people had special permission to be out after curfew. The triangle pins were a kind of badge, and we wouldn’t get far without them.

  “We need those badges.” I glanced at where Eli had been moments ago. I felt terrible about stealing clothes and now the badges, but what other choice did we have? We couldn’t afford to draw attention to ourselves.

  “On it,” came Eli’s disembodied voice.

  How had he transformed into ghost mode in the middle of a crowd without anyone noticing?

  “Unauthorized use of magic detected,” droned a pleasant voice over a speaker. “Please await the arrival of the city patrol for immediate arrest.”

  Scratch that no-one-noticed part from the record.

  “Ugh, forget about that announcement,” I said, my heart racing. “We need to catch the train that’ll get us closest to the palace.”

  “There’s a map of the rail system over there.” Frankie pointed to a wall. “We just need to find a landmark to follow.”

  I pulled out the darkbringer map. The palace was on the other side of a river and a scatter of houses on the southernmost edge of the city.

  “What about this building?” I said, noticing the one labeled ANTIQUITIES. In social studies, we learned that antiquities meant really old. “I think it might be a museum, and it’s on the south edge of the city.”

  Frankie looked down at the darkbringer map, then scanned the map on the wall. “There.” She jabbed her finger against the rail line that passed close to the museum. “It’s off the yellow line . . . Well, it’s not called the yellow line, but the rail system is color-coded.”

  We were so busy reading the signs that we didn’t see the two darkbringers until they were in our faces. From their dark uniforms and steel-blue prods, I guessed that they were a part of the city patrol.

  One of them tapped a tablet that looked like an iPad. “They’re clean,” he said. “No residual magic detected. It wasn’t them.”

  His partner, the taller of the two, stared down his nose at us. He looked like he was going to reach out and swipe some of the blue paint from my face and say, Gotcha, little godlings. “Where are your Exemption Passes?” he demanded.


  “We have them here.” Frankie whipped off her backpack and rifled through it. “I had it just a moment ago,” she said, stalling until Eli got back. “It’s here somewhere.”

  I followed her lead. “Maybe they’re in my bag.”

  “Per section A56.1,” recited the darkbringer with the tablet. “Citizens must wear their E-passes at all times after curfew. Citizens found in violation will be arrested onsite and taken to the stocks.”

  “The stocks?” I mumbled. “That’s rather archaic.”

  The taller darkbringer gripped his prod like he was itching for a fight. “What did you say?”

  “She said that’s rather mosaic.” Frankie pointed at the tiles on the floor. They were a uniform gray that reflected a prism of colors from the lights overhead.

  We were starting to draw attention now. People stopped to stare and whispered to their companions. They stood around, waiting for what would happen next.

  “Who would let their children outside without E-passes?” one man said. “What a shame.”

  “No one ever comes back from the stocks with their right minds,” explained another. “Always missing a body part too.”

  An older woman shook her head. “That’s if they come back at all.”

  “By the law of the chief of order, you are under arrest,” the patrol officer with the tablet declared.

  I felt a faint pressure against my side and said, “Wait! I have it.” I snatched the E-pass from my pocket. Eli had come through again. “Here it is,” I said, pinning the pass to my collar.

  Both officers rolled their eyes as if disappointed that they couldn’t haul me off to the stocks. Some of the bystanders sighed in relief. It seemed that they were not fans of the stocks either.