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.
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.
Hurakan’s voice raced toward me telepathically. Get the rope around him, Zane!
Jordan broke free and bolted toward his mother, who was still trying to rip off the cord. Hurakan dove for him but missed by a long shot, landing with a double thud to his head that knocked him out.
“Zane!” Ren shouted. “I can’t hold on much longer.”
Jordan was unraveling the blistering rope around the demon goddess. I launched myself onto his back, seized the slack, and wrapped it around his throat. He wailed and shuddered.
“Get out of there, Zane!” Ren yelled. There was a burst of blinding light as I jumped back, but Ixkik’ got her hands on my arm, gripping me so tight I couldn’t distance myself. She put a loop around my wrist, searing my skin.
I tore at the rope, but its magic wouldn’t release me. I summoned Fuego, and my spear zoomed over and began sawing the cord. Hot white sparks blinded me.
Everything spun violently. I was falling into space. Voices vanished. Darkness closed in.
Just when I thought I was gone, I felt strong hands grip me from behind. Tugging, twisting, breaking me free.
There was another flash of light so bright it was like a thousand suns were exploding. The earth shook once…twice. Then everything went still.
And I looked up at my rescuer.
“Mom?”
She fell to her knees and pulled me into a fierce hug, saying incomprehensible words broken up by her heaves and sobs.
“I’m okay,” I reassured her. “See?” I pulled back and gave her a relieved but trembling smile. “All in one piece.” Well, sort of, unless you counted all the gashes and burns the time rope had left on my arms, hands, and cheek, and the sheer terror still coursing through my veins. “Don’t worry—Rosie’ll fix me up.”
“I could have lost you,” she cried, her eyes wide with fear.
“But you didn’t,” I said. “You saved me. But how? How could you—”
“How could I, a mere mortal, save you?” she asked, a smile creeping onto her face. “Desperate moms have superpowers, didn’t you know that?”
This time I was the one who pulled her into a hug.
“Zane!” Ren hurried over and threw her arms around both me and my mom, muttering, “That was too close,” over and over and pretty much smothering us.
>
Hurakan groaned and turned onto his side. My mom’s eyes fixed on him, and her expression froze when she saw the resemblance to me.
“Dad?” I helped him to his feet. It was muy cool that I was taller than him (by at least three inches). He rubbed the back of his head, grimacing. “This non-godly power stuff is dreadful.”
Ren tapped his shoulder gently. “But it’s not forever. I mean, you’ll get your godliness back, right?”
He gazed at my mom, then looked away. “I imagine we will. Someday.”
Someday was good enough for me, because it wasn’t never.
“So Ixkik’ and Jordan—” I began.
Ren cut in, “Are stuck in a time loop with no chance for parole. I wasn’t sure I could even do it.”
“You’re sure they won’t be coming back?” Mom asked. Her voice was still shaky.
Ren snapped the time rope, retracting it to the size of a ruler. “Positive.”
“How…how…did you get the rope?” I asked, still dazed. “I thought only Pacific could use it.”
She shook her head and sucked in a sharp breath. “Pacific knew the time rope was our only chance to get rid of Ixkik’ for good.” She hesitated, as if she couldn’t believe she had possession of something so magical, so powerful. “It didn’t work for her anymore, and after you left to face off with Blood Moon, we knew we had to do something drastic. That’s when Marco came up with the plan to be you and throw Ixkik’ off-balance.”
Hurakan opened and closed his jaw like he had been clocked. Which he had. “Your mother sacrificed everything by giving that to you, Ren.”
“Ren can’t give it back?” I asked.
Hurakan shook his head, and Ren pressed her lips together. “It’s definitely mine now,” she said, “and I have a lot to learn. It almost slipped from my hands.”
I tried not to imagine what would have happened in that event.
“Why didn’t you just stop time?” I asked. Seemed like that would have saved us a lot of pounding.
“I tried,” Ren said. “My watch doesn’t work anymore, and even if it had—”
The Shadow Crosser Page 30