They’d found an unlocked car? We need to talk to them before they try to take off again, I told her.
I rigged the gate so they can’t get out. And don’t forget, they just saw a demon, Quinn said. Believe me, they’re too scared to go anywhere. But we do need to hurry. No doubt Iktan will be coming back with an army.
Reaching into her boot, Brooks tugged the gateway map free. She studied it with a frown.
I explained that Ik wouldn’t be able to find the godborns without me, because she couldn’t sniff them out within half a mile. For maybe the hundredth time, I was super glad for Ixtab’s magic, born from her brilliant, cautious, overly skeptical mind.
“Nothing to stop her from tracking Quinn and me, though,” Brooks whispered as she scanned the map. “Maybe you shouldn’t be here.”
“This is my mission,” I argued. No way was I going to abandon the last two godborns or Brooks and Quinn. “Let’s just be quick.”
“Any gateways nearby to get us to Isla Holbox?” Quinn asked Brooks.
“We’re taking the godborns to my house?”
Quinn quirked an eyebrow. “It’s still surrounded by Ixtab’s shadow magic. We’ll be safe there until we can figure out next steps.” Then she turned to Brooks. “Any luck?”
Brooks’s frown got deeper. “Just give me a couple more minutes. I’ll figure it out.”
Quinn filled me in on some of the undercover work they’d been doing over the last few months. When it was my turn to talk, the sisters just kept nodding like I wasn’t telling them anything they didn’t already know. Then it hit me. “Were you…were you guys watching me the whole time?” No wonder Brooks hadn’t called. She was too busy spying on me!
“Ik…” Brooks’s cheeks flushed. “We were watching Ik.”
Apparently, part of Quinn’s assignment in Xib’alb’a (the stuff she couldn’t tell me about when I’d last seen her down there) was related to a tip that Ixtab herself might be a conspirator with Camazotz. No way could that be true. There were so many other much more credible suspects. I mean, the bat god had once called the underworld home, so it made sense that he still had friends there. I was about to argue on behalf of Ixtab, when Quinn added that the intel had led nowhere. Relief spread through me.
Right. Ixtab was the queen of the underworld, probably the most duplicitous of all the gods, so why should I care?
Because she’d saved my life more than once. And Rosie’s. Not to mention she reunited the god council and stopped my dad’s public execution. All that counted for a lot in my book.
Quinn said, “The traitors ended up being some demons in Ixtab’s army.”
“But Ik wasn’t one of them,” Brooks chimed in, turning the map upside down.
“It’s like Iktan came out of nowhere.” Quinn twisted her mouth like she was considering a new idea. “That’s why we were following your moves. To see if we could find out what she was after.”
“I still don’t get what Ik or the bat god wants with these godborns. We’ve already gone down that road. Our blood isn’t powerful enough to resurrect a Mexica god.”
“I don’t know,” Quinn said. “But whatever it is, these godborns are different and somehow necessary to Zotz’s plans.”
Brooks showed the map to Quinn, pointing to a spot. “There’s a gateway in a laundromat ten blocks from here. We have twenty-six minutes before it closes, so let’s do this.” She folded up the map and stuck it back in her boot.
I thought about what Ik had said about gateways being all around, and I wondered how many invisible ones were looming right in front of us.
“Hang on,” I said to Brooks. “Are you…are you working for the White Sparkstriker tribe now, too?” Quinn had joined the super-secret group of spies to get out of marrying Jordan, one of the obnoxious hero twins. Maybe she’d recruited Brooks.
A clanking sound caught our attention. The kids were climbing the fence about twenty yards away.
“Showtime,” Quinn said, sweeping an arm in front of her body dramatically as if to say You’re up.
I began to make my way over, when Brooks jerked me back.
“What’s wrong?”
She tugged off her sweatshirt and started to reach for my face with it. Then she changed her mind and tossed it to me instead. “You’re bleeding.”
“Awww.” Quinn fluttered her eyelashes melodramatically.
I blushed so hard my cheeks felt like they might melt right off my face.
Scowling at her sister, Brooks groaned. “He can’t just walk up to them all bloody. Blood freaks some people out, okay?”
“Right,” Quinn said with one corner of her mouth turned up. “I’ll wait on the other side, just in case they succeed in climbing over the fence.” She shifted back into the white cat and darted into the shadows.
I wiped my face, then tossed the dirty sweatshirt under a car, promising to replace it. But Brooks had already taken to the sky.
My mind shifted gears. Something was missing from the puzzle—something no one had thought of yet. Why did I have the feeling it had everything to do with that antiques shop and whatever the godborns had stolen?
I looked down at the jaguar tattoo on my hand and willed Fuego to reappear.
Then I headed toward the thieves.
With Fuego’s help, I cut across the lot in three seconds. This new version of my cane made me a speed demon when I needed to be. Okay, bad choice of words. It made me fast. Really fast.
I stood directly beneath the kids, who were halfway up the ten-foot-high fence. Here’s the thing about my approach: It had to be just right. Smooth but not fake. Calm but not tired. Alert but not stalkerish. These two looked like the kind who would appreciate the whole less-is-more thing. So I took a deep breath and started with “Hey.”
They stared down at me as they white-knuckled the chain link. Their hoods kept most of their faces in shadow.
“Get away from us!” the taller one said. His voice was gruff, but it teetered on panic.
“I just want to talk,” I said. I felt like a cop handling a hostage taker and every word had to be perfect or else.
Quinn emerged from the shadows on the other side of the fence. But not as a white cat. Say hello to the massive German shepherd with a growl that shook the warm air. Very subtle. NOT.
The godborns were trapped.
“How about some chill, Quinn?” I said behind clenched teeth. Then I called up to the godborns, “I bet you’re wondering about the whole demon thing. Scary, I know. But I have answers, and I’m a lot nicer than that shepherd is.”
Brooks circled overhead before landing on the top of the fence as a regular-size hawk. Okay, that was better than a ginormous hawk that might have plunged these guys even deeper into a sea of panic. But still, did she really have to do the whole glowy-eye thing?
This was so much easier when I did it alone.
“My name is Zane,” I said to the godborns. “I’m like you.”
All I got were vacant stares.
I kept going. “I remember the first time I saw a demon—it totally freaked me out. He was flying this twin-engine plane all borracho like, and it crashed into the volcano in my backyard and…” More blank expressions. “Look, I’m here to help you. I promise. Just come down so we can talk.”