I had to think fast.

No way was I going to let this sludge be the last thing my friends and I ever saw.

As I treaded the black gunk, wondering why it wasn’t eating me alive, I shouted, “Alana! Adrik! Hondo!” Where were they?!

A terrible chill spread through me as something wrapped itself around my ankles and climbed slowly up my thighs. My storm runner leg vibrated with what felt like a million volts of electricity. Whatever was gripping it let go with a hiss.

YES!

I reached for more fire power, for any ounce of strength I had left, but there was nada, not even a spark. And the more I struggled, the farther the freezing muck pulled me under.

I was shivering uncontrollably. I sucked in huge gulps of air as I struggled to keep my head above the living darkness.

An image of my mom came into my head as the sludge crept up to my chin. She stood on the beach, throwing a stick for Rosie and smiling. The black liquid rose to my mouth. My eyes teared up as reality slammed against my heart and mind.

But right before I was about to take my last breath, a shape beneath my feet rose from the depths, lifting me out of the freezing sea. My legs trembled as I tried to find my balance on top of the moving form.

I drew in a lungful of air and looked around wildly.

“Hondo! Brooks!” I gasped for breath between each name. “Ren!”

The fog was still too thick to see through. Where was everyone? Were they okay?

A familiar heartless laugh filled the air.

I froze.

Ixkik’! Blood Moon. The wicked underworld mom to even wickeder twins.

I spun in a circle. My heart thrashed like it was on a mission to punch a hole in my chest. Then, slowly, the fog lifted like a stage curtain. Except I didn’t want to see this stage. A sick feeling roiled through me.

“It was so tempting to just watch you drown,” Ixkik’ said with a sigh.

I was now standing on a fifteen-foot-long platform that was floating in the air at least five feet above the black sea. At the far end, a sludge-covered Alana was crab-walking toward her brother. Adrik sat up, shivering with a panicked look in his eyes as his sister pulled him to her, rubbing his arms to warm him up. Hondo stood over both of them, looking like he’d just taken a mud bath. His chest heaved as he gripped a stone ax that had to have come from the open pack near his feet. Around his neck, a plain jade face mask hung by a thin string.

What the heck? Where did he get that? And why was it perfectly clean? Had he just put it on?

The moment my uncle saw me, he let go of the ax, raced over, and tugged me into a near-smothering hug. His voice came out in an exhale of relief. “Zane, you’re okay. You’re okay.”

“How did you survive?” I held him tight, not wanting to let go. “Where are Brooks and Ren?” I searched the sky, but it was empty. Had Brooks gotten away? Had they…? No! I refused to think about them falling into the dark sea.

“Ixkik’!” I shouted.

“What a sweet reunion,” her voice echoed. “Now, how about we get down to business.”

Before Hondo released me, he whispered in my ear, “Protect the stone!”

What?! I blinked back the shock of his words. How did he know about the stone? Was this an in-the-know teacher thing? Forget about the stone! I wanted to shout. We need to keep our heads and get out of here alive. Heck, I didn’t even know where here was. Or how Blood Moon had found us. And how we were supposed to fight an invisible enemy.

“Enough with the theatrics!” Camazotz’s gravelly Dark Knight voice soared toward us on a gust. Then, within a ring of ash and shadow, the bat god materialized. All ten feet of him—a semi-human body with huge, hairy wings, slimy claws, and slitted reptilian eyes that blazed yellowish-green.

My chest seized. How had they found us? I thought water was supposed to throw gods off. And then I realized—they must have tracked Brooks, the hawk flying over the water.

Alana and Adrik, still clinging to each other, gasped as he loomed over them, his wings spread wide.

I’d hoped (dumb, I know) that I’d never have to see the bat god again. I stepped forward, slipping on the wet surface. “Let them go!” I yelled. “They have nothing to do with this!”

Hondo’s gaze flicked down to the ax he had dropped, and to his pack, as if he was trying to send me a message.

“Where’s your fire now?” Ixkik’ laughed lightly. “Did the darkness steal it from you?”

So that’s why I’d felt so cold inside and Fuego hadn’t flown back to my hand.

Zotz turned to face me and smiled wickedly, showing all his fangs. The tiny bat mouths on the undersides of his leathery wings snapped hungrily. My stomach turned in on itself.

“It’s been a while, Zane,” he said, stroking his chin with curled claws.

Adrik kept his eyes on Zotz, never blinking. Okay, so if I managed to get out of this alive, Ixtab was going to gut me, because the hairs on Adrik’s and Alana’s heads had definitely been touched.

Ixkik’ sighed, and I cocked my head, trying to figure out where the sound had come from. What was her deal with always hidey-holing? She’d done the same thing back at the Pyramid of the Magician. She could pass me on the street or bump into me at the mall and I would have zero idea it was her. And that made her more dangerous than Zotz.

“I’d like to be forthcoming, Zane,” said the bat god. “Can we be forthcoming?”

I braced myself, knowing I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. I waited, my senses on high alert for any weakness, any opening to escape this madness. “Okay,” I said. As long as he was talking, he wasn’t clawing out my heart.

“Good,” he said. “Ixkik’ is quite impatient. I agree it would have been so satisfying to watch the darkness devour you. Especially after you sidestepped Iktan and managed to thwart my plans for a second time.” His eyes flashed as he clapped his wings. “Bravo. I really do applaud the effort. I had hoped our next meeting would be different…. No, not different—excruciating. But I must play the hand I have been dealt. So, without further ado, I am going to ask you a question. I want you to be very careful in how you answer. Do you understand?”

I nodded, swallowing the burning lump in my throat. I glanced up at the sky and saw a faint glimmer of silvery blue. Brooks?

“Good,” the bat god said gleefully. “Let’s begin. Where is the stone?”

No one said a word. It was like that moment in math class when your teacher asks for a volunteer to go up to the chalkboard to work out a problem. And even if you know the answer, no way are you going to raise your hand, because who wants to be a show-off and solve an equation in front of everyone?

Adrik stood shakily. “I have it.”

Zotz jerked his attention back to Adrik. “Ah, finally someone with a speck of sense.” He uncurled a claw slowly. “Hand it over.”

Hondo stepped forward. “I have the stone.”

“No!” I shouted, unsure of what Hondo and Adrik were up to. “I have it!”

Alana stood, tears making tracks down her black-streaked face. Her sunglasses hung crookedly around her neck. “It’s my stone. I have it.”

Zotz dropped his head, shaking it. “I really wanted to save this for later, but you give me no choice.”

I for sure thought he would spread his wings and let all those creepy mini bats scratch out our eyes for an afternoon snack, but instead, the sea boiled and bubbled, splashing over the sides of the platform and making the surface even slicker and shinier.

Zotz floated above the mess as if he was afraid to get dirty. A thick tentacle whipped out of the sea and lashed through the air. Before we could react, the thing seized Adrik, spun him off his feet, and turned him upside down, shaking him like a piggy bank.

Alana screamed, “Leave him alone!”

I had to give Adrik credit. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even close his eyes. And no amount of acting videos can teach you that kind of control.

“I sense he doesn’t have it, and I don’t want to hear him speak another lie,” Ixkik’ said. The tentacle slid up to Adrik’s mouth and covered it (gross!) so no words (or lies) could escape. “Let’s get on with this!” she commanded.

“Patience,” Zotz argued, eyeing Alana. Another tentacle whipped over the platform’s edge, gripping her around the waist so quickly I barely registered the motion before the slimy thing began to drag her toward the sea nice and slow, like it wanted to make sure we didn’t miss one heart-stopping second of her demise.

I sprang forward and tried to grab hold of her, but I slipped and crashed down on my knees. Hondo also made a lunge, only to slide across the platform’s surface and collide with me. His mask was now tucked beneath his shirt. Was he hiding it from the gods?

Adrik kicked and squirmed against the giant tentacle’s strength.

A hateful laugh came from deep within Zotz when Alana was tossed into the air like a coin. We all watched in horror as she fell toward the dark churning sea of sludge. Hondo and I scrambled and clawed our way across the platform like fish out of water.

Out of nowhere, Brooks swooped in. Ren, now awake, was on the hawk’s back, her blue eyes fierce and angry.

Zotz’s thick neck swiveled in Brooks’s direction, but before he could raise a claw, Brooks snatched up Alana and rocketed her out of the bat god’s reach. Then they were gone, as if the sky had swallowed them whole.

How was that possible?

Zotz stared at the silvery sky with a look of surprise that disconcerted me as he folded his wings. “Zane, Zane, Zane,” he said. “I suppose I will have to kill you all one at a time until I get what I want. And I was so looking forward to the thrill of the hunt. Oh, well.”

Hondo reached into his boot and pulled out something. That must be the stone! I thought. It was the size of a silver dollar and glowed red like a hot coal. “You want this?” he shouted. “Then come and get it!” He threw it high into the air.

The moment shrank down to a slo-mo tunnel view.

“Noooo!” Ixkik’ and I screamed simultaneously.

Hondo, taking advantage of the distraction, hurled his ax at Zotz. A wing lashed it away. I’m pretty sure Zotz would have bitten off my uncle’s head if he hadn’t been so focused on the stone still spinning toward the sea.

Brooks reappeared, the edges of her wings silvery blue, matching the sky. That’s when I realized she had never disappeared. She’d just used some sort of camouflage, like that night in New York. But how? Ren and Alana clung to her back.

Brooks dove toward the spinning red glow and nearly snatched it up…. But it slipped from her grasp and fell back toward the platform.

With a flick of his wrist, Zotz trapped the stone in a vortex, spinning it toward his outstretched talon. “Finally,” he said with a sigh. “And now for the disrespectful little thugs. I’ll start with the hawk.” He sniffed the air. “A ha’ nawal?” He traced a long claw across his jaw as he shook his gigantic head in amazement. “It’s been more than a century since we’ve encountered one of those, right, Ixkik’? Which will make her a valuable addition to my legion.”

“Our legion,” said Blood Moon.

Ha’ nawal?

I knew that Mayan word! Ha’ meant water. But…what was a water shape-shifter? Brooks had always hated the stuff!

“We have the stone,” Ixkik’ said. “Now, let the suffering begin!”

I had mere seconds, and all of them mattered. I closed my eyes, searching deep for a flame, for any ounce of my godborn powers. Just one spark…And then I remembered: The sludge hadn’t touched the top of my head. Or my eyes.

Fire. Fire. Fire.

“Zane!” Hondo shouted.

I opened my eyes. Zotz’s gnarled claw was within inches of swiping Brooks. A stream of blue flame burst from my eyes, shooting directly at the god’s neck. He clutched his burning throat in a silent scream as two bats raced out of it in a terrified frenzy.

The bat god fell to his knees, heaving. Steam rolled off his hairy back.

I lunged for the stone, but a frantic small bat got in the way, accidentally knocking it out of the vortex and over the edge of the platform, where it sank into the darkness.

“Oh, how those you love will pay, Zane Obissspo,” Ixkik’ hissed. “I promise you they will pay.”

Suddenly, jagged stripes of lightning split the sky into a hundred pieces. Rain lashed down violently. Thunder crashed. The world felt like it was colliding with the sun.

Ixkik’ shouted, “They’re here!”

They?

A thin spiral of dark fog spun into the sludge as Zotz beat his hairy wings furiously. His eyes were burning with rage and pain and lust for revenge. In that moment, I swear the world stopped spinning under the weight of my enemies’ threats.

Zotz flew closer to the black sea, desperately searching for the stone. Dark water splashed higher and higher like angry lava, driving back the bat god as tentacles lashed out.

The sky trembled, exploding in blasts of violent white.

“There is nowhere you can hide, son of fire!” Zotz screeched. “Nowhere you will be safe. I swear by the darkness, I will hunt you.” Then he disintegrated into a million specks of dust.

The tentacle holding Adrik vanished, too, and the godborn crashed down onto the platform, which groaned, then tilted.

There was no doubt about it: we were going down.

I jerked my gaze to my uncle. He put on the jade mask.

“Hondo!”

“The stone!” he shouted as he jumped into the roiling darkness.

As the platform sank under our feet, the last thing I heard was Blood Moon’s faint whisper:

“At last it is mine.”