“No one’s going to die!” Ren hollered.
Brooks shook her head, processing my suggestion. “First we’d have to find the gods, and then we’d have to explain everything. I’m sure they would totally listen—right before they cut off our heads.”
My mind caught up with hers a second later. “Yeah, you’re right. Telling them about the godborns would for sure equal no godborns in the future.”
Adrik took a swig of Ren’s soda before mopping up the spill with the towel Jazz brought him.
Ren folded her arms across her chest. “So, Jazz, can you tell us more about this party?”
“Yeah,” Jazz said. “If you’re not on the invite list, no chance you can get in.”
“How do you know all this?” I asked.
“My hermanos head up security for them.”
“And you’re willing to help us crash the party anyway?”
“And beat the we-know-better-than-you jerks at their own game?” Jazz said, grinning. “Heck yeah.”
Brooks paced, avoiding the sticky soda spill. “Do you have a boat?”
Jazz smirked. “Do I have a boat? Are you kidding? Of course I do,” he said. “It’s not a yacht or anything, but it’s got this really souped-up engine and—”
“Can we use it?” I asked.
“No way,” Jazz said. “No one drives Betty but me. But that’ll cost you extra. Especially since you’re asking me to undermine my bros.”
“You just said they’re jerks,” I reminded him.
“So?” He pushed his hair off his face and gave us the elevator gaze. “And if you’re going to try to fit in, you’ll need something better to wear.”
“Like what?” Ren asked.
“I heard it’s a Star Wars party,” Jazz said. “You can go as any character except Luke or Han. Those are reserved for the twins.”
Adrik took off with Jazz to get us Star Wars outfits. Apparently Jazz “knew” some guy who ran a warehouse…. Sounded sketch, if you ask me, but as long as we got the costumes—preferably ones that hid our faces—I was cool with it.
By the time they got back a couple of hours later, the sun had set, and Ren, Brooks, and I had a plan. We’d head out to the yacht, climb aboard, blend in with the other Star Wars characters, and do some serious sleuthing. We’d have to make sure the twins never saw me or Brooks, since that would definitely mess up the future.
Rosie would help us sniff out the gods. That meant we had to conceal her, too, which is where Ren’s shadows would come in. If the twins saw a hellhound cruising around their boat, they’d sound the alarm for sure.
Jazz blew into the house and tossed the costumes on the sofa. “May the Force be with you!”
Adrik shook his head as he came in behind him. “I wanted to be a stormtrooper and have a blaster,” he grumbled, “but this is all the guy had left—stupid brown robes with hoods.”
“Stupid?” Jazz said, a vein popping out of his forehead. “Obi-Wan is the best character,” he argued. “Smartest. Toughest. No one messes with Obi!”
I’d seen the original Star Wars trilogy, and Obi-Wan was pretty cool. I mean, not as cool as Han Solo, but what did I care? I just wanted to get off that yacht with the gods and without anyone seeing us.
We had a quick bite of canned pork and beans and soggy fish sticks. Gross, I know, but Jazz said he only knew how to heat up food, not cook it.
After dinner, I changed into the white shirt and brown robe, then met up with Adrik and Ren in the living room. Rosie was lying on her side with her eyes rolling back as Adrik scratched her belly.
“Where’s Brooks?” I asked.
“She flew off to take Marco some food and make sure he was okay,” Ren said. “I hope the time rope isn’t messing with him.”
Oh. Right.
“I’ll go find her,” I said, frustrated that she would leave us when every second mattered.
Jazz came in and leaped over the back of the sofa, landing with a thump. “We better hurry. Once Prince arrives, no one else will be getting on that boat. I heard he brings his own security.”
“Brooks and I will meet up with you guys,” I said. “Where do you keep your boat, Jazz?”
“Betty’s parked at the Marina del Rey docks,” Jazz said. “About two miles south. Just be quick. I gotta be at the arcade.”
A few minutes later, I arrived at the bench where we had left Marco. But no Marco. Seriously? I was going to incinerate the guy! All he had to do was sit there and keep hold of our ride home. The crowds had thinned to a few stragglers cruising down the boardwalk and beach. I scanned the area and didn’t spot him or Brooks.
Where could they have gone? As I hooked a right down an alley, I collided with someone.
“Zane?” Brooks said. “What are you doing here?”
“Me?” I said, trying to hold my annoyance in check. I mean, who cared that she wanted to feed the son of war and thought he was the strongest? I couldn’t think about that right now. Time was running out.
“Where the heck’s Marco?”
“I found him on the beach,” she said, like it was totally okay that he had left his post. “He’s up to his ears in sand.”
“What do you mean?” Was he building a sandcastle or something?
“He said the rope was messing with his head, trying to make deals with him, so he buried himself so he wouldn’t have to listen anymore.”
“Do you think we can count on him to stay put?” I said, handing her the Obi-Wan costume.
“He won’t let us down,” she said.
Those five dumb words made my stomach twist into a million knots.
“Come on, Obispo,” said Brooks as she changed into a hawk. “Let’s go find some gods.”
We touched down on the dock in Marina del Rey, instantly spotting our crew, which wasn’t hard to do, since they were all dressed like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Even Jazz was playing the part, and he had what looked like a real lightsaber—or maybe it was just another one of his zapping tools.
Betty was a small navy-blue motorboat with bench seating behind the wheel. Jazz seemed to know his way around the controls, because a minute after we boarded, he zipped into the open water. The sea looked like black glass, shiny in the half moonlight. No one said anything. We all just kept our eyes on the water as if pretending that we weren’t about to do what we were about to do. Rosie propped her front paw on the gunwale and let the wind hit her face like she used to back in New Mexico, when she rode in Hondo’s truck. For half a second, I could see her as the dog she used to be.
Jazz said, “Check it out,” as he flicked a switch and the motor went silent. But we were still cruising.
Adrik got to his feet. “How did you do that?”
Looking over his shoulder, Jazz wiggled his eyebrows. “I told you she was souped-up. Like the Millennium Falcon. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to make her jump to light speed.”
“Wow,” Ren said. “You’re really smart. I mean, I know you’re an inventor—” She stopped herself, throwing me an oops look. I couldn’t even be mad. I mean, it was hard to forget everything we knew about Jazz’s future and who he would grow up to become.