I gave Marco a don’t-even-think-about-it glare. We would need to interrogate Zotz about Ixkik’ as soon as he woke up. I turned to the devourer to ask what the holy Xib’alb’a had just happened, but the words got stuck in my throat. The goddess was bent over Hondo, and she was no longer in the form of Jabba’s twin. She was an older lady with white-streaked dark hair that hung down her small back. Placing her gnarled hands on my uncle’s shoulders, she chanted some words I didn’t recognize. A white aura surrounded Hondo, flecks of sparkling dust floating in the light.
I held my breath.
Please work. Please. Please.
We heard a moan and hurried over. At first, the aura was so bright I couldn’t see if he was still the dried-up wrinkled dude. Gradually the glow faded and I saw…
Hondo was Hondo!
Relief flooded every cell in my body.
My uncle shifted, struggled to open his eyes.
“I have fulfilled my debt,” the toad/monster/goddess said. The leafy vine she was wearing expanded and twisted around her until she looked like a shrub. In an instant, the leaves blew up, leaving nothing behind except dust.
“Whoa!” Adrik said.
Hondo’s eyes flew open the second the last bit of dust settled.
“Are you okay?” I asked. My voice came out way more panicked than I wanted it to.
He grabbed his side, wincing as I helped him to his feet. “I saw awful things, Zane. Dark and terrible.”
I pulled him into a hug, and he muttered incoherently. Had the shadows stolen his mind?
He jerked free, keeping a tight grip on my shoulder. “The shadows hold the secrets, Zane. I saw everything. I saw Blood Moon’s plot. She tricked them all—even the devourer and Zotz!”
“I know,” I said, searching his eyes.
He stepped back, took some deep breaths, and ran a hand over his face.
Marco nodded appreciatively. “We made it back from 1987 because of you,” he said.
“Yeah, man,” Adrik said. “Thanks. That was some seriously brave (bleep) right there.”
Hondo looked around. “Where the hell are we?”
We quickly explained as Marco kept an eye on the sleeping forms of Zotz and the other two mystery gods. Hondo collapsed back onto the deck, folded himself over his knees, and took another deep breath. “I could really use some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos,” he whispered. “With salsa.” His eyes flicked to the bat god. “Why would Ixkik’ turn on him?”
Marco’s eyes narrowed. “To make way for her rotten sons.” He said it with so much assurance, I knew he was right.
“She wants to make Jordan king,” Hondo said.
“King of what?” Adrik asked.
“The sobrenaturals,” I said, but something didn’t add up. Ixkik’ wouldn’t go to all this trouble just to crown one of her brats. “She has to be up to something else—something bigger.”
Hondo’s eyes darkened. “Whatever it is, we have to stop her.”
“Are you sure you’re strong enough to do this?” I asked Hondo as we prepared to go down to the half-burned jungle.
“We have to strike now,” he said. “We might not get a second chance.”
“Uh, guys?” Adrik said, gesturing to Zotz and the other two unconscious gods. “Someone needs to keep an eye on the baddie, right?”
“I am not hanging out here alone with that dude!” Marco argued.
“You’d rather go up against the creepy goddess?” Adrik asked.
Just then, the branches beneath the deck trembled. A low growl climbed up the trunk. I’d know that growl anywhere. I peered into the hole.
“Rosie?”
A paw emerged from the mist followed by the rest of my hellhound. Forget using a ladder—she had clawed her way up the tree like a powerful jaguar with Ren and a fifteen-ish Pacific on her back. I knew it was the time goddess, because who else wears leopard-spotted capes and carries a golden time rope, which, by the way, was trailing behind my dog.
“Ren!” Adrik hollered.
“Rosie can wake the gods!” Ren cried out as soon as she saw us. “Isn’t that awesome?”
“Freaking awesome!” Hondo said, kissing the tips of his fingers and throwing them toward the sky.
My heart hammered in my chest to the rhythm of a single word: hope-hope, hope-hope. If Rosie could wake the gods, it would be like a couple hundred to one. They could pummel Ixkik’!
When the trio had fully emerged from the hole, Ren’s gaze landed on my uncle and she grinned so wide I thought it might split her face. “Hondo!” She leaped into his arms. “I knew you’d be okay.” He hugged her, spinning her off her feet. Even Pacific smiled.
I rubbed Rosie’s neck. Her soft brown eyes held mine like she already knew what I was going to ask of her. She needed to rouse more gods.
Find as many as you can, I told her telepathically. Find Hurakan…and Ixtab.
With a barely perceptible nod, she vanished in a stream of mist.
“Does this mean we’re saved?” Adrik said.
Pacific tugged on her hood and sighed. “We have no powers…yet.”
We? I wondered who else was awake.
“What do you mean, ‘no powers’?” I squeezed the dragon head of my cane.
Marco groaned as he pressed his knuckles into his eyes. Yeah, I knew the feeling—the highs and lows of Maya madness. The forever dangling carrot, promising a treasure but delivering a sucker punch to the gut.
“Well, that sucks,” Adrik said.
“It doesn’t matter,” I insisted. “We have to go down there. We have to—” I suddenly realized that Ren hadn’t returned with Brooks. “Where’s Brooks?” I asked, hoping the hawk would appear any second.
“She’s scoping out some stuff,” Ren said. “When we found Pacific, Brooks and I decided I needed to get her back here safely.”
“You left Brooks alone?!” I didn’t mean for my voice to rise to over-the-top freak-out, but this was Blood Moon we were dealing with, the same one who had Quinn. That fact might have impaired Brooks’s judgment. Brooks was the world’s best planner until her heart got involved.
“I have to find her.” I rushed to the deck’s hole, careful not to touch the time rope that was still hanging over the edge.
Pacific took my arm gently, stopping me. “The nawal promised to be careful. Let the hawk hunt, Zane.”
Hunt? Hunt what? Ixkik’? Demons? Jordan and Bird? It felt like acid was burning a hole in my stomach. I looked down through the deck’s opening…and saw the time rope quiver.
Ren gasped. “I almost forgot!” She brushed past me, dropped to her knees, and leaned over the opening, pulling on the rope. “You still down there, A.P.? You need help?”
“I’m a god,” he grunted.
“Ah-Puch is here?!” I nearly blew flames out of my nostrils.
“Okay, maybe a little tug,” the god said.
“You made the dude climb?” Marco shook his head like it was the world’s greatest tragedy.
“Is there any other way to get up a tree?” the god of death grumbled from below.
Pacific yanked the rope, and a second later, Ah-Puch’s hands emerged through the hole. They were followed by a familiar head of dark hair…but a not-so-familiar face. He clung to the edge.