Dance music boomed across the jungle as Rosie and I made our way to the party. She leaped and loped like she had missed her old dog self, too.

Green and blue lights twinkled in the trees to the precise beat of the music. Monkeys leaped from branch to branch above me, smacking their lips and jabbering.

We came to the edge of the clearing, and I blinked in surprise. I didn’t know the god of death had it in him, but man, the place looked awesome. New thatched-roof huts lined the borders, each lit up with torches and filled with tables of food and drink. The first two shacks were full of godborns. At least I thought they were godborns—it was hard to tell them apart from the teen gods.

At the center of the clearing was a glass dance floor with flashing blue, pink, and green lights. No one was dancing, but some kids were eyeing the space like they might take the risk. To my right was a waterfall, tumbling in slow motion so you could see winged golden fish leaping out of it in a coordinated dance.

Rosie startled as teen Pacific came up behind me. “Aren’t you going to join the party?”

I patted my dog’s head, hardly believing she was mine again. “Aren’t you?” I asked as I leaned against Fuego and took it all in, thinking how differently things could have turned out. It led to thoughts about snags in destinies, and how I might have ruined mine when I was inside of K’iin. Before I knew it, I was spilling my worries to Pacific about getting snagged in my destiny thread.

“Ah,” she said. “And you didn’t want to see?”

I shook my head. “Not if I couldn’t change it.”

“What if it was a good snag?” she asked. “A twist in the road that leads you to something you might have never found otherwise.”

A good snag? “Oh…I just assumed…”

Rosie settled onto her side and began licking her paws. Have I mentioned how beautiful she is?

“Maybe you should stop assuming.”

It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and I turned my gaze back to the party with a totally different outlook. Good snag. I liked the sound of that.

“And what about Ren?” I asked. “The favor she owes K’iin.”

“She made an honest deal, so that will be up to K’iin to collect when the time comes,” she said casually. “But perhaps I can help alleviate the weight of the favor.”

“That’s good,” I said. I mean, who wants to owe a mighty all-seeing calendar anything?

Ixchel and Ah-Puch were barking orders at the earth and air spirits, who had given up their strike when the gods gave them a raise and more vacation time. But clearly the spirits hadn’t earned any more respect.

Speaking of spirits, I kept my promise to Kip and asked the gods to give him a bigger greenhouse. Hopefully it wouldn’t come with bigger centipedes, too….

My mom and dad were sitting at a table, sipping some gran blue drinks out of straws. They were talking and laughing like they hadn’t seen each other in a millennium, and maybe this sounds corny, but I was happier in that moment than I think I had ever been.

Quinn and Hondo made their way to the dance floor, and let me just tell you that Hondo can’t dance. Like at all. He jerks his arms and legs around like a badly strung puppet. But Quinn didn’t seem to mind. Maybe because Itzamna had told them Jordan’s date with a time loop meant she was no longer married to him. Plus, the moon god was going to bend the law about humans and sobrenaturals mixing, since Hondo had shown “sobrenatural bravery.”

Ren, Marco, Adrik, and Alana headed to the floor next, jumping up and down to the beat. Louie joined them, doing a moonwalk with a monkey on his shoulder. I realized then that we were a family, and it had taken everyone’s talents to beat our enemy: Louie’s snow, Alana’s gateways, Adrik’s memory stealing, Marco’s cloning, and Ren’s time rope.

And Brooks’s water powers. Without her, we never could have gotten the devourer out of that tank. I scanned the crowd until I spotted her on the far end of the clearing, glancing around like she was looking for someone.

Rosie whined. Her ears perked sharply as her eyes landed on Brooks, too. Brooks was wearing a white tank-top dress and she had her hair in a loose ponytail draped to one side like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to let her hair down or not. Pacific must have seen me watching her.

“Did you ever wonder why you connected with her so quickly when you first met?” the time goddess asked.

Her question threw me off guard. My cheeks flared. How did she know that? Was anything secret from the gods?

“Nah,” I said, shrugging it off. “She had a drawing of a demon on her folder.”

But it was more than that. I knew it then, and I knew it now. Brooks got me, like, really got me, even though I annoyed her half the time. We always had each other’s backs. And no matter how much time we spent apart, our link only grew stronger. As soon as she walked (or flew) onto the scene, I felt like everything would turn out okay no matter what. Even when monsters and gods were trying to crush us.

“Maybe there was a connection because you had already met her,” Pacific said in a way that told me she already knew the answer.

“Huh?”

“I couldn’t figure it out at first,” she said, tapping her chin. “But then you went to 1987, and it made me wonder: Did something happen there?” she asked. “Something strong enough to create a bond with Brooks way before the two of you were born?”

Rosie let out a little groan.

Something? Like a kiss? Oh, crap! Had Brooks and I somehow changed the future?

Brooks’s eyes locked with mine, and she started to walk over, which I guess Pacific took as her cue to leave.

I met Brooks halfway, ducking a monkey that was trying to swipe Fuego.

Brooks laughed as the monkey ran off, shrieking in frustration. Then her eyes landed on Rosie, and she fell to her knees to welcome my dog. “Rosie?” she squealed. “I can’t believe it!”

The boxmatian ate up every stroke, scratch, and hug that Brooks gave her while I explained what Ixtab had told me. Rosie sniffed the air and took off toward whatever scent she had caught.

“So what now?” Brooks asked. “I mean, the world isn’t ending, and there aren’t any castles to storm.”

“We could be normal?” I said, thinking that sounded perfect.

“A normal godborn and a normal shape-shifter,” she said, nodding as she tapped her feet to the music.

“And a normal dog,” I said, still wearing a goofy grin.

Brooks frowned. “Well, one thing isn’t normal. I mean…I think we messed up.”

“What? How?”

She hesitated. Her eyes flicked to the fiesta. “We kissed.”

My heart flopped like a fish out of water. I thought she was going to pretend that never happened—let it stay in 1987.

Crap. Say something, Zane. Say something really smooth.

“Is that bad?”

NOT SMOOTH.

Shrugging, she said, “Don’t know. It was in 1987, which means…”

“What?”

She glanced up at me. “I don’t think it counted.”

Uh, yeah, I didn’t know what she meant by counted, but it happened, and what did it matter when it happened?

Before I could stick my foot in my mouth with more dumb words, Brooks said, “I mean…unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you think it was real…I mean, like, technically, it wasn’t, right?”

“Uh…” I gripped Fuego to keep from falling over. Yup, I was really good at this pouring-out-your-heart stuff. But then it was like my mouth got way ahead of my brain. “Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I mean yes, it didn’t count…I mean…”

Tell her what you mean, Zane!

Brooks tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “So we haven’t had a first kiss, then, I guess.”

Oh. OH!

And before I said another dumb thing, I leaned over and kissed her. Not a rushed kiss, or a life-or-death kiss, or even a good-bye one. Just a regular kiss. Between a normal godborn and a normal shape-shifter.

The music blared. My heart raced.

Brooks looked up at me, smiling. “I love this song!” Then she bounced toward the party.

“Where are you going?” I called after her, thinking I might start floating.

“Come on,” she said over her shoulder. “Let’s dance.”

I didn’t know what my destiny strand had in store for me the next month, or year, or five years. I didn’t know what was going to happen to the gods or the rogue godborns. But maybe I didn’t need to know. Maybe that was the best part of life: figuring out the now.

And right now, I was going to dance.

EL FIN