The godborns began to file out slowly. I watched Alana and Adrik get shakily to their feet.
The Sparkstriker drew my attention back to her. “I’m going home to the Old World now. Tell the gods to lose my number.”
“Hang on,” I said. “What did you say to Ixtab? Why’d she just run off without even a good-bye to the twins?”
The Sparkstriker’s eyes whirled and the bells jingled annoyingly when she shook her head. She leaned closer, and I got a whiff of mulch. “Seems that one of them has greater powers than the other. But you didn’t hear that from me.”
The ground opened at my feet, forcing me to jump back. In the hole, I saw a set of stairs going down. The Sparkstriker swept her red shawl behind her with a dramatic swoosh before she descended into the dusty dark. The electric pool on the court vanished instantly.
Then the ground closed up behind her, leaving just the words resonating in my skull. One of them has greater powers.
I had a sick feeling that Ixtab would soon be playing favorites.
I spotted Rosie at the far end of the court and my heart did a little leap. “Rosie!” I shouted, but there must have been too much commotion for her to hear me.
Ixtab stood at her side, stroking her neck like she was her dog!
Yeah, I know I sound kind of possessive, but Ixtab is the one who turned Rosie into a hellhound and trained her in Xib’alb’a. That always made me worry that the queen thought she had some kind of ownership papers or something.
“Hey!” I shouted, heading over with Fuego. Alana and Adrik called out to me, but I gave them a hold-up sign, never taking my eyes off my dog. With every step, I kept replaying Ixtab’s words in my head: Do you think Rosie misses it here at all? “Here” being the underworld, and no way José was she ever going to take Rosie back!
My dog bowed in front of Ixtab. A tiny orb of light floated out of the goddess’s mouth into Rosie’s ear. If I had blinked, I would have missed it.
“Ixtab!” I hollered.
She drew herself up, slowly lifting her cool eyes to meet mine.
If there were an award for the most intimidating goddess, with the most threatening I-can-burn-off-your-face-with-one-look gaze, she would for sure win it. And I don’t care how fashion-y she was—she was muy scary!
In a blink, she vanished in a column of pale-blue smoke like all the other gods.
“It’s Zane!” someone shouted. A few cheers erupted, but so did some curses. I didn’t slow down enough to pay attention.
The announcer’s voice boomed again. “I said no yelling! So pipe down or I will send for an earth spirit to bury you six feet under.”
My entire focus was on Rosie, who bolted toward me with her lips spread in her signature smile. I was greeted with a giant slobbery kiss on the cheek. I loved it when she acted like her old desert dog self, which wasn’t that often.
I hugged her tight, then pulled back to look inside her ear, but all I saw was a giant wad of wax. Whoops—she was overdue for a cleaning. “What did she do to you?” I muttered.
“Zane!”
I jerked to my left. Brooks was running toward me, followed by Ren and Hondo. The girls were in SHIHOM uniforms, but somehow Ren had gotten out of wearing the black sneakers and instead sported her trademark red cowboy boots.
Man, was I happy to see them.
Then others started calling to me—a few godborns headed our way.
Before I could respond, Ren waved her fingers in the air, creating a shadow circle around the three of us and Rosie. Then she twisted the dial on her watch. Everyone outside the border froze.
I was almost afraid to ask. “Ren?”
Rosie let out a little whine. Her normally perky ears went flat.
Bouncing on her toes, Ren said, “My mom showed me how to stop time. So cool, right? But for now I can only do it for, like, five minutes.” She pressed her lips into a thin, worried line. I got what she was feeling. As awesome as that gift sounded, it also seemed like a scary responsibility.
“Great. We don’t need all those ears listening to us.” Brooks gestured to the motionless crowd.
Folding his arms across his chest, Hondo said, “Something is off, Zane. The ceremony—”