I felt sick. Worse than sick. Of all the possible plans that had run through my head, this for sure wasn’t one of them. She was going to make herself a hero and the rest of us villains.
“No way,” I whispered, wriggling uselessly in the mist. “I won’t do it.”
“Oh, but you will, because I have a new pawn on the board.”
The rain slowed to a fine sprinkle as the silvery-purplish mist parted and slowly vanished into the air. I found myself in a dilapidated stone structure that looked like it had been bombed once or twice. Its arches and steps were battered and weather-beaten. Its walls and roof were half-gone.
Now that I was no longer wrapped, I could take a couple of steps forward. Flames erupted behind my eyes, coloring everything an angry red.
A woman materialized near the broken steps about fifteen feet away. She had her back to me, and thick silver hair cascaded to her waist. She wore a fitted green metallic dress that looked like it was made of lizard skin.
Make her show you her true face, Hurakan had said. Only then can you defeat her. I held back my fire. Waiting. Heart pounding.
Slowly, Ixkik’ turned. Shock and terror gripped me so hard I fell back. My gasp ricocheted across the stone. I blinked, sure it was a trick of the shadows and light. But this was no trick.
The goddess had no face.
Did you get that? The goddess had NO FACE!
No eyes. No mouth. No anything! Where her face should have been, there was only a waxy-looking surface. Kind of like a bare Mr. Potato Head but way grosser.
Note to Hurakan: WHAT FACE?
“Do I look familiar, Fire Boy?” she cooed. “You’ve seen me before.”
Fire Boy? Every inch of me froze. Where had I heard that before?
“Pretty sure I’d remember that,” I said. Flames erupted under my skin. Man, did I want to launch a few at her, but I couldn’t shake Hurakan’s warning. What if I incinerated her too soon and ruined something?
“I was there at the twins’ party in Beverly Hills,” she went on. “The butterfly mask? You looked right at me. What a terrible night that was, the night you ruined my sons’ destinies and all I could do was stand by and watch.”
I stretched my memory to that night Brooks and Hondo and I had crashed the twins’ fiesta. Brooks had pointed out the masked people. That butterfly girl over there? She probably wants to be a model.
Crap! Blood Moon had been there? Watching us? The idea of it sent chills down my spine.
“No?” she said. “Well, I’m quite certain you will remember this.” She tipped her head down. I held my breath. She lifted her face. Bye-bye, Mr. Potato Head.
Hello…“Iktan?” I staggered back as shock waves rolled through me. Please, please, please tell me I hadn’t spent three months with the enemy! “You…I…you…pretended to be a demon all this time?”
“I am a demon, Zane.” Her blue skin stretched thin when she smiled.
“You’re a…a…goddess,” I argued.
“Of the waning moon,” she clarified.
The faceless moon, I thought. “So you’re what, like, part demon, part goddess?” What did that make the twins? Godborns and demons? Where was a chair (or better yet, a demon-burning flashlight) when I needed one?
Crappity crap crap!
That’s why her poison had felt so powerful back in New York. It was god/demon poison! And that’s how she had found us on our way to SHIHOM. She was there when Hondo and Ren called to tell me the claiming ceremony had been moved up. She knew we would be leaving early. “Not much of a power player among the gods, are you?” I spat out angrily.
“But look how the power has shifted.”
Power. Shifted. Right. My senses flew back to me. This was my chance. But I had to be sure. “So, uh…is this…how you look for real? Just like any other demon? I would have thought, as a moon goddess, you’d be more special.”
“Oh, but I am. The moon has many phases,” she said. Her features melted like hot wax, dripping down her neck until I could see what was underneath. A paler-than-bone face, pockmarked and filled with spidery blue veins. She had no eyebrows, the same narrow eyes, a large round nose, and a wide mouth—probably to fit all those fangs.
Fire burned so hot inside me I didn’t have to question the message. Yup, this was her true face.
Instantly, a flame erupted in my free hand, and I flung it at the goddess/demon/monster. Ixkik’ batted it out of the air like it was nothing more than an empty soda can.
“Didn’t the great Hurakan ever teach you to learn your enemy’s strengths before you try to annihilate them?”
Was she immune to fire? I willed Fuego into spear mode and hauled my arm back faster than a flash of light. My spear ripped through the thick air only to smash into a wall of mist, which froze it in mid-flight.
Ixkik’ laughed, flashing a mouthful of crooked fangs. Man, she could really use some orthodontics.
I watched as Fuego pulsed blue, struggling to break free of the goddess’s magic. If my best weapons couldn’t be used against her, how was I ever going to beat her? Hurakan might have been a powerless teen god, but I sure could have used his strategic mind at that moment.
“You said something about another pawn.” Why did I have a sick, sinking, can-barely-take-a-breath feeling I was going to hate her next play?
“We’ll get to that,” she said. “But first, I want to make sure you paint me in the best possible light.” Her dress shimmered as she came down the steps, drawing closer. She still reeked.
“And how’s that?” I asked. “Evil?”
“See? There’s the problem. Demons are always being demonized.” She blinked her reptilian eyes. “My father was a great demon lord of Xib’alb’a,” she said. “The demons followed and glorified him in ways the pathetic gods never would. I much preferred my demon brethren to the selfish, arrogant gods.” She slowed down for this last part like she really wanted me to hang on to her every word. “And now I can finally let the demons rise to their appropriate status. I can reinstate my sons’ greatness, which you stole from them. And you will help me by rewriting that history.”
“I’m not going to steal people’s memories and feed them lies!”
“Sounds like you could use some motivation,” she said way too cheerily. “Ready to meet the pawn?”
Just then, I saw a shadow in the doorway…. But of what? Who?
Jordan (back in human form) walked into the crumbling structure.
He was carrying my mom by the throat.
Silence seemed to roll off the ruined walls in waves. Mom’s eyes were fixed on me like she was trying to tell me something, but that jerk had his hand around her throat so tight she couldn’t speak.
“Let her go!” I shouted.
Jordan smiled. “First tell me how brilliant we are.”
Ixkik’ looked at her son adoringly, like he wasn’t the worst kind of monster.
“You want me to tell you your plan is brilliant?” I said. “Fine. It’s brilliant.”
“Not the plan,” Bird said as he walked in. “My brother said to tell him how brilliant we are.”
What were the twins doing here? I thought they had gone after Quinn. Had they already caught and imprisoned her? And what about Brooks? My insides collapsed.