Jordan squeezed my mom’s throat tighter. Her eyelids began to flutter.
“You’re brilliant!” I blurted. The blackest of smoke streamed out of my nose. The world smelled and tasted like ash. A few minutes earlier, all I had wanted to do was end Ixkik’. Now I only wanted one thing: my mom to be safe.
Ixkik’ drew closer to my mom.
“I’ll do it!” I was screaming now.
Why was Ixkik’ getting so close to her? She ran a claw across my mom’s chin. “What a pretty face,” she said.
I couldn’t hear much besides the boom-boom of my heart, which was about to shatter. “I just said I would do it! I’ll shake your hand!”
Tears rolled down my mom’s cheeks. She shook her head frantically.
“That’s good, Zane,” Ixkik’ said. She extended her left arm across the fifteen-foot span to me like a Stretch Armstrong doll. Her veiny hand hung there, waiting.
“You’ll let my mom and my friends go if I agree,” I said, “and the gods will live.”
Ixkik’ bowed her head and blinked slowly. “You have my word.”
I shook the demon goddess’s cold, lifeless hand. Her arm retreated back to her side, but her right hand was still on my mom.
“Still, I need a backup plan,” she said, “and believe it or not, I want you to be as comfortable as possible, since you’ll be staying with us for a while.”
“Yeah,” Jordan added. “You should feel like you’re surrounded by family.”
Ixkik’ swiveled her neck toward me, never removing her claw from my mom’s chin. “Her face will look so good on me, don’t you think? A snip here, a cut there, and voilà…all mine.”
I gagged, then blurted out, “You said you’d let her go!”
“And I will,” Ixkik’ growled. “But you stole my sons’ futures. That deserves payback, so now I shall steal your mother’s face.”
Fire raced up my spine, ignited in my bones, and exploded in my head. I knew I only had one shot. I was a bomb detonating in three, two…
With one hand, I flung a massive fireball against the wall to the right, creating a distraction. While the enemies’ attention was diverted, I blasted a stream of blue fire at the mist holding Fuego. Using the flames as if they were my own hands, I hurled my spear at Jordan faster than the speed of light. Unfortunately, it only grazed the side of his head. But it was enough to blind the jerk with a blast of dazzling light and force him to let go of my mom.
“Run!” I shouted as I threw a huge circle of black smoke around her. It wouldn’t last long, but it would buy her a little head start. Bird took off after her as Fuego flew back into my hands.
Ixkik’ released a guttural cry, spinning swirls of mist from her fingertips. I drop-rolled, avoiding her magic only by inches. The broken stone floor sliced my arms. Blood seeped out as I jumped to my feet, creating an inferno of fire all around me to block Jordan’s advances. But it couldn’t keep out Ixkik’.
The demon goddess’s mist swept around me like a hurricane, dousing my flames. I launched Fuego at Jordan, who was coming at me with a ferocious look uglier than any demon. My spear ripped through his chest, but the guy kept coming.
Fuego circled back to me just as a swirl of fog wrapped its poisonous arms around me. Invisible hands choked the air from my lungs.
“Stop!” Jordan shouted to his mom. “We need him!”
The goddess’s mouth peeled back in a vicious snarl. The smell of sulfur and dead things spun through the air as I collapsed to my knees, gripping my throat, trying to break free.
Blood Moon’s hate-filled eyes were glued to me. “You are bound to me now.”
I gasped for air. Panic shredded my insides.
She squatted in front of me, so close I could count the veins pulsing in her forehead. She barely lifted one claw and the mist’s grip loosened a little…enough for me to steal a breath.
“I need you for a while longer, godborn,” she said, seething.
At the same moment, a thick shadow loomed behind Ixkik’ and Jordan. Ren stepped out of it, as stealthy as a ninja. She held one finger to her lips as she twirled the time rope over her head like some kind of lasso queen. And that’s when I knew what she was going to do—try to drop-kick Ixkik’ into some kind of time warp.
YES!
One end of the rope snapped across the air like a sizzle of electricity. Ixkik’ spun around. The mist choking me retracted and zipped across the space, stopping the rope in midair. Ren held the other end tight.
“How did you get this?” Ixkik’ gasped as she inspected the golden cord, careful not to touch it.
Speechless for once, Jordan drew closer to the rope, too, like it had some kind of hypnotic power. A golden light pulsed across the dim space.
“Let my rope go, Ixkik’,” Ren growled as she tugged on her end.
The goddess, keeping her reptilian eyes fixed to the time magic, murmured, “It can be mine.”
“I’ll never give it to you!” Ren said.
With Fuego’s help, I managed to stumble to my feet just as Brooks zoomed in as a hawk, ripped the rope away from the mist, and pitched it to her closest ally—me. The magic seared my hand worse than any acid, forcing an agonizing scream.
Dropping Fuego, I threw myself into the air and landed with a hard thud at the goddess’s feet, close enough to try and throw the cord around her and Jordan’s ankles. But they swept out of range so fast I missed, dropping the rope.
Ixkik’ came at me, all claws and teeth, while Jordan lunged at Ren. Spiderlike shadows closed in on the twin. Thick legs surrounded him, and then a shadow web blasted out of their bulbous bellies, trapping him in place. I spun out of the goddess demon’s grasp and swept myself up into a tunnel of flames.
“Your fire can’t save you!” she yelled.
I looked up just as Brooks came in low, but this time she had a passenger that looked a whole heck of a lot like me. Dad? He rolled off her back and snatched up the loose end of the time rope. Agony swept across his face, but he didn’t let go. He rushed Ixkik’ from behind, wrapping the rope around her waist, barely keeping hold of the slack. The goddess demon wailed.
“Now, Ren!” I shouted.
Why wasn’t she throwing Blood Moon into a time loop? Then I saw that Ren was struggling to hold on to her end as Ixkik’ pulled at the rope, trying to break free. As powerful as Ren was, she couldn’t give life to shadows and fight Ixkik’ at the same time. Half a second later, the spider shadows holding Jordan vanished.
He flew at his mom, grasping for the cord.
“Free me!” she screamed.
For a split second, I was terrified that Ixkik’ would just turn to mist and disappear, but then I realized this was why my dad had told me to make her show her face. Once she was trapped by the time rope, the demon goddess couldn’t change forms.
Bird reappeared then, without my mom. Had she gotten away?
With an ear-piercing cry, Brooks zoomed in, grabbed Bird by the back of his collar, and carried him up into the night sky.
“Zane!” Ren shouted.
I spun to see Jordan knock Hurakan to the ground and grab a section of the rope. The jerk screamed as his skin sizzled. I lunged. We got tangled up, a wrestling blur of two godborns, struggling for the same prize. The cord scorched and burned every inch of skin it touched. I reached for the fire inside me but found nothing. The time rope was a power sucker.