“What if she calls the cops?” I asked. “Reports you missing?”
“She won’t.” Alana sighed.
“How do you know?” Ren asked. “Wicked people can’t be trusted.”
“Because if she does,” Adrik said with a perfectly timed sneer, “she’ll end up in jail.”
Adrik said the words like he’d been practicing the lines forever.
Okay, so there was a lot more to these godborns than I’d thought. They were like those puzzle boxes that are impossible to open and after hours of failed attempts you just want to bust the things open with a sledgehammer.
“Jail?” Ren asked.
Alana lifted her chin. The firelight cast dark shadows under her eyes. “She’s our aunt.”
“What about your parents?” Brooks asked.
“There’s only our dad,” Alana said. “He’s in the military. Got sent somewhere secret and—”
“Alana,” Adrik warned, “why don’t you just give them the four-one-one on everything!”
“They should know our dad won’t be coming home for months, can’t even call us, and our aunt is an evil, greedy hag who won’t care if we never return. She’ll probably throw a party.” Alana folded her arms over her chest with an angry pout. “All she cares about is the money…” Her voice trailed off, but I’m pretty sure she said, “and the houses, cars, and servants.”
No one else seemed to catch it, but I wanted to shout to everyone except the twins: Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Why would a couple of rich kids break into a store and steal something?
“So, where’s the god in charge of all this?” Adrik asked.
Hondo smirked. “No gods—just us. Did you say ‘servants’?”
I said, “So, you guys know…? I mean…”
“That our mom’s some goddess?” Alana said. “Yeah, Dad told us that much.”
“You knew?” Brooks repeated, sounding even more stunned than I felt.
“He also said someone really important would come for us someday, but…” Adrik stopped there, eyeing us like we were scrappy pirates.
“Then you’ll come to the World Tree and learn how to defend yourselves,” I said.
I reminded them about the ceremony where their godly parent would claim them and they would come into their godborn powers. Once I got started, everything spilled out of me like I just had to tell someone what being on the road with a traitorous demon for three months was really like.
Brooks brushed my arm with hers. Good idea. Make them think they can trust you.
They can trust me.
That’s what I said.
Alana knit her eyebrows together. “So, the whole time you were sleeping next to a demon who was plotting to kill you?”
THERE WERE NO SIGNS! “Something like that,” I mumbled.
Adrik played with his jacket zipper, pulling it up and down. “You think we’re just going to go to some magical tree and what, meet our so-called godly mom and say, ‘Hey, thanks for dumping us’?”
“You’re not the only godborn who was dumped, kid,” Hondo said.
Brooks sighed and lifted one shoulder. “I don’t think they let thieves go to the World Tree.”
I touched her arm. Way to be subtle.
Someone has to address the elephant in the room…uh, jungle. It’s reverse psychology. Get it? Tell them they can’t go and then they’ll want to go.
“What she means is,” I started, “um…what did you steal from the antiques shop? Is that what Ik is after? Because if it is, we have to know.”
Adrik groaned. “No one stole anything.”
“You were in a closed store,” I said, “and there was something glowy in your hand. And believe me, demons don’t go after nothing.”
Ren said, “I bet it’s just a misunderstanding. You guys don’t look like thieves to me.”
“They are kinda dressed like burglars,” Hondo muttered.
“What do thieves look like?” Adrik asked.
“We want to talk to someone in charge,” Alana said, tugging on a red hair tip. “Who would that be? Is there, like, some king of the gods?”
“All the gods think they’re the boss,” Hondo said. “So it depends who you ask. I bet that little round rain god thinks he’s king. What’s his name, Zane? Chaac?”
Adrik pulled his hood over his head, and it flopped over his eyes. That’s when I noticed that the jacket was too big for him, like maybe it belonged to his dad. “So, about this World Tree,” he said, “who’s in charge there?”
See? Brooks said. You’re welcome.
Technically, Itzamna, an all-powerful, all-seeing god, sits at the top of a sacred árbol. But he wasn’t the boss of SHIHOM, which is what Adrik was really asking.
“Ixchel, the moon goddess, got the job,” Ren said. “She’s also known as the rainbow lady.”
I was still desperate to find out what the twins were hiding. “If Ik is after whatever you have,” I said, trying to cajole them, “that means Camazotz, the bat god, wants it, which means—”
“You two are on his hit list,” Brooks finished. “And the only place you’ll be safe is at the Tree.”
Adrik and Alana shared a knowing glance. Silent words passed between them as their eyes flashed that electric blue. Then Adrik said, “Okay. We’ll go.”
“Bueno.” I pulled my phone free.
Alana practically lunged for it. “Who are you calling?”
“1-555-MAYAGOD.”
It was protocol. After I found a godborn and got them to agree to go to the Tree, I always left a recording for one of Ixchel’s assistants, usually an air spirit (they’re into this kind of reunion/happy-ending sort of thing). It was their job to then explain to the godborn’s human parent that their kid had been chosen for an exclusive art, music, math, engineering, et cetera summer camp complete with a scholarship to college afterward. No parent had refused yet.
As soon as I finished my message, including explicit directions not to call the twins’ aunt, Alana leaned into my phone and added, “If you call the Witch, we bolt.” Then she gave me half a grin and said, “Just making sure they get it.”
Hondo stretched his arms over his head and turned to me. “Your mom doesn’t know you’re home. You should go see her. She’s gonna flip.”
As we drove through the moonlit jungle, I was relieved that Adrik and Alana had agreed to go to the World Tree, and not just because they could finally learn who they really were. Two things were certain:
1) They had stolen something tonight that our enemies were after.
2) They weren’t like any of the other godborns, and I was going to find out why.
The past three months had been the longest of my life. They’d also been the más difíciles.
Before, I hadn’t I realized how much I needed my family to feel strong. And I don’t mean like fire-missiles strong—I mean the feeling that you belong somewhere, that someone has your back no matter what. Someone like my mom, who pretty much went crazy screaming and laughing and crying when she saw me, squeezing my guts out with a muy fuerte abrazo.