At that, I straightened a little, and Ren’s eyes caught mine. She was clearly worried, but her words were confident. “Knots are always good. They probably keep out the bad stuff.”
“Actually, they cause congestion,” K’iin said. “Knots represent—”
“Wh-what was—” I stammered.
“Your future has been altered significantly,” K’iin said. “I cannot tell you how or when.”
“That’s so mean!” Ren cried. “Why would you dangle that in front of him?”
“Sooo mean,” Louie agreed.
K’iin said, “The moment was meant to be, godborns.”
“Guys,” I said in a voice that sounded too far away, “it’s okay. It’s done.”
“Then you did make him pay after all,” Ren said angrily. “Now give us our answer.”
The mirror shards spun and turned, seeking their puzzle partners, until we were looking at a perfectly smooth surface. Slowly, an image appeared in it. There was no mistaking what I was looking at—the same place where Hondo, Brooks, and I had gone to find the hero twins, and where I had met Jazz, the giant, and Antonio, the Fire Keeper. “It’s Venice Beach,” I whispered. “Again.”
“Why would the gods be in California?” Ren asked suspiciously.
She was right to wonder. It seemed like the worst place to hide the gods—unless Zotz and Ixkik’ wanted them to be found.
“We need something more specific.” Alana threw her head back defiantly.
Louie nodded. “Like an address.”
“Oh, I can give you an address, but it won’t help you,” K’iin said in a gleeful tone that made me wish I could launch a fireball into the mirror.
“What do you mean?” Alana asked.
K’iin told us the exact location. “But if you go to that address, you will not find the gods.”
“Zane just paid with his destiny, and you made me give you an IOU!” Ren spluttered. “Why would we do that for nothing?”
“You didn’t ask me how to get to the gods,” K’iin said, “only where they were.”
“You’re talking in circles,” I spat.
“Why won’t we find the gods?” Louie asked. “You just told us the address.”
The mirror began to crack and split. The image of Venice Beach shattered into a thousand pieces.
“Because,” K’iin said, “the gods are trapped in 1987.”
1987.
1987.
1987.
Did I mention 1987? The gods were trapped in time more than thirty years ago? As soon as those mind-blowing, impossible words were spoken, our destiny strands vanished. Dust and debris drifted down from the ceiling. The stars on the floor started flashing brightly.
Alana shielded her eyes, scrambling for her shades. “I don’t see any gateways in here.”
“I don’t want to die in an ancient clock!” Louie cried.
“K’iin?” Ren said. “Are you there?”
The hole in the floor went dark. The walls began to close in on us at a rapid pace—so fast we would go splat in a matter of seconds. Four feet. Three.
“Zane!” Alana cried.
We pressed our hands and feet against the encroaching walls, trying to stop them. “K’iin!” I screamed.
“I can’t do you a favor if I’m dead!” Ren shouted.
A beam shot out of the floor again. “Just testing your resolve,” K’iin said. “Ready, set, go!”
The room turned upside down. The ground—or was it the ceiling?—disappeared under our feet, and we tumbled into a dark abyss. We finally stopped, one on top of another in a pile of limbs, and I thought we might be stuck there forever. But then I opened my eyes to see that we were jammed at the end of the time tunnel. We had fallen up! Alana and Ren were ahead of Louie, and I was dead last, clinging to his ankle to keep from sliding back down.
Louie kicked, nearly smashing my nose. “Hey!” I shouted.
Alana was close enough to the top that she could climb out, then help the rest of us.
As we clambered out into the ice cave, no one spoke. No one said What the hell?, K’iin’s bonkers, or You should never trust an ancient calendar. Maybe we were all in shock. K’iin’s cost was too high, because the answer equaled a no-way solution.
And then Ah-Puch’s words flew into my brain: We are no longer here, Zane.
So he knew. He knew he was lost in time and he hadn’t told me, because he thought he was protecting Ren, protecting all of us from attempting an impossible quest. But here’s the thing about gods—yeah, they’re strategic and cunning and powerful and sometimes super smart, but they lack something that matters even more. They don’t have the stubbornness of a human heart. Not by a long shot.
Alana led us to an invisible gateway that she was hoping would get us to Montana. We needed to bring our comrades up to speed, and it wasn’t like we had anyplace else to go.
“How will we ever save the gods now?” Alana whispered, staring at Ren’s watch. “Do you think you could…?”
Ren caught Alana’s meaning. “I can only stop time for five minutes. That isn’t the same thing as traveling through it.”
Zotz and Ixkik’ were bigger geniuses than I’d given them credit for. They had managed to hide the gods in a place no one could ever reach. Well, unless you lived in the ’80s. So Brooks had been right. Our enemies no longer had access to the gods.
“If we don’t save them,” I said, “does that mean none of us were ever born?”
Ren thought for a second, then shook her head. “Not unless they also wipe out the gods in 1987,” she said. “Right?”
“How should I know?” I groaned. “You’re the time goddess’s daughter!”
Alana paced. “Ren’s right. If the gods are in 1987, they’ll still meet our moms or dads. So we get to live.”
“For now,” Louie snarled sarcastically.
For now was good enough for me.
This was the part when I would typically say to my friends We’ll find a way. But to be honest, I was all out of optimism, and that’s saying a lot, because I practically stockpiled the stuff. How could we ever save the gods now? There was no We’ll find a way, no Ixtab to go to, no Hurakan to lean on, no Fire Keeper to give me answers. All we had were each other and a weakening moon god.
I didn’t even have the heart to put the sunglasses back on and give Itzamna the terrible news.
Alana inched back. Her eyes flashed midnight blue as she turned her head to the right and said, “Oh my gods! Are you okay?”
“Not really,” Louie said, gesticulating. “I think we got taken. I think that K’iin thing is a con artist.”
Alana batted his hand down and said, “Not you, Louie! It’s Adrik. He fell off his horse.”
Horse?
“You can talk to Adrik from this far away?” I asked. I knew they had a super-killer twin connection that didn’t even require physical contact, but this? It was over-the-top epic!
“Did everyone get to Montana safely?” Ren’s words rushed out in a flood of worry.