Still, a part of me always worried that he might suddenly tackle me to the ground. I had defeated him once, after all.
But as he came toward us, wearing his signature black suit, he sported half a grin. “How do you like the place?” He swept his hand in
front of him in a grand gesture, his expression loaded with self-satisfaction. “The tree houses were my idea, by the way.”
Hurakan groaned. “Is there a reason you’re sneaking around the jungle?”
“Who’s sneaking? I’m right here. I heard Zane and crew arrived, and I wanted to welcome them.” He conjured a bag of popcorn and tossed some into his mouth. “Mmm. Best corn invention in the universe. By the way, I greeted Ren before you, Zane. No offense, but she’s my favorite.”
“I’m shocked,” I said.
“So, I heard Zotz and Creepy Lady found you, almost killed you,” Ah-Puch said.
“Sounds about right,” I said bitterly.
A slow smile spread across his face.
“How come you’re smiling?” I asked. Now that was offensive.
His grin disappeared. “I’m just imagining what it will feel like when I rip out their hearts. With my teeth.”
Hurakan filled Ah-Puch in on everything while the god of death munched on his popcorn. When my dad was done, Ah-Puch didn’t really react. He just flung an unpopped seed over the cliff. “Kernels,” he said with a shudder. “Bad memories.”
He should have been grateful for kernels. I had restored his strength with a magical one.
“Zane,” my dad said, “there are millions of stones in this universe. Could you tell us more about it?”
I frowned. “It was about the size of a silver dollar….”
The gods stared at me blankly. Too late, I remembered that the Maya didn’t use coins. They traded in chocolate and other stuff.
“Never mind.” Then I added, “Oh, and it glowed red.”
“Well,” Ah-Puch said, “that narrows it down to half a million.” He handed me the bag of popcorn and wiped his hands together. “Think bigger. These godborns—”
“The twins,” my dad clarified.
Smoke curled off Ah-Puch’s shiny black hair. “I hate that word,” he growled. Yeah, I didn’t blame him. I had bad memories of Jordan and Bird, too. “These godborns,” he said, “they had the stone, which begs the question: Where did they get it? And if you want the answer, you need to ask: Which god’s blood is pumping through their veins?”
Hurakan studied me, waiting for a response.
I stepped back, ready to defend the secret, because who wants to be torn to pieces by the queen of the underworld? ¿Yo? ¡No!
Crap! I could tell by the gods’ granite faces that I wasn’t leaving here without telling them the truth. The whole truth, so help me gods.
“We’re going to find out in a few minutes, whether you tell us or not,” Ah-Puch said.
Just in case I was breaking some godly oath, I finagled a way to keep my promise to Ixtab about not breathing a word. I dragged Fuego’s tip in the sand and spelled out IXTAB.
You could’ve heard a pinto bean drop.
I didn’t think it was even possible for my dad to be stunned, but in that moment, he looked like someone who had just been told that cockroaches can live for weeks without their heads. Which is true, BTW.
And then it was as if the sky opened and the answer came whizzing toward me like a comet. “Do you think she made the stone?” I asked Hurakan. “Like you made the jade jaguar tooth?”
My dad had gifted me the jade, a conduit of pure magic. Its owner could bestow it with any power he wanted…but only by giving it away. I know it was a stretch to assume that the twins’ stone was the same kind of thing, but hey, there’s more than one tooth in a jungle cat’s mouth….
Hurakan and Ah-Puch shared a glance heavy with secrets that the other gods would kill for. And guess what? I was so over it.