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“Great ancestor. Not by blood, of course, but by secret. But that doesn’t matter now. What matters is that you’re a—”
“Halfer, I know.”
“Half…?” She blinked slowly like she was trying to understand what the word meant.
I tried again. “You know, like a hybrid, a mix? Crossbreed?”
Pacific scooped a handful of the sea into her hand. “The gods do not measure in human terms. You may be half, or more than half.”
“Half is plenty, thanks.”
She sighed. “My prophecy frightened the gods because it brought to mind the hero twins, the very first godborns. Their mother was Sh-keek.” (Spelled Ixkik’—I had to look it up.) “She was from the underworld,” Pacific said. “And some say she was part human.”
Right. The one who fell for the skull. Wait, did she say godborns? I hadn’t heard that term before.
Pacific swept a piece of knotted blond hair from her pale face. “The twins inspired jealousy in the gods,” she continued, “
so the gods established a law that never again would such creatures be born. And the punishment for any god who disobeyed?”
“Vat of boiling acid?” I guessed.
“A long and torturous death,” she said with a scowl. “Seeing their fear, I knew I could never reveal that not only would you be descended from a god, but you were also the one destined to release Ah-Puch, the very god they had imprisoned. Their rage would have shaken the stars from the sky.”
Okay, so my dad was a criminal… sort of. He must have heard about the prophecy, and yet it hadn’t stopped him from falling in love with my mom. Talk about hardheaded.
Then I had another thought. “Hang on. So how does Ms. Cab know?”
“I shared the prophecy with another seer from the bravest lineage, a lineage I could trust. I asked that she preserve its truth for generations so when the time came for the prophecy to be fulfilled, Ah-Puch could be stopped and your true identity kept a secret. But even she didn’t know that you were to be a godborn.”
So that’s how Ms. Cab had gotten the gig. I put the events in order: godborn twins, imprisoned god of death, jealous other gods, dangerous secret. That’s where I came in. Ugh!
She blinked her cat eyes, shifting her gaze to the dark waters. “I only told the gods an ‘innocent’ would be the one to release Ah-Puch,” she went on. “I left out the part that he would be godborn. And you know what the gods did then? They used a powerful magic to ensure that only a god could release Ah-Puch.”
So Brooks’s guess was right. “They thought they made the Stinking One’s prison foolproof,” I said. “But then I came along—the innocent fool.”
Pacific laughed lightly. “The gods were the fools. They thought they could bypass my sight?” She shook her head. “They never put the pieces together.”
“Okay, and what about my dad? Why would he risk torture by getting together with my mom?” I didn’t want to think any more about that. “And… you said you know him?”
“We have been friends since the beginning. He was the only one who helped me when the gods erased me from memory.” She spoke quickly. “I was to be executed, but your father volunteered to do it himself. Instead, he brought me here, to live beneath the ocean, where K’ukumatz hides me. I owe him.”
“K’ukumatz? Isn’t he the feathered serpent? God of the sea?”
“Also known as Kukuulkaan.”
Great! So my dad, and K’ukumatz (aka, god of coolness), and Pacific were keeping the biggest secret of all time from the other gods. My side cramped. “Why didn’t my dad come to tell me all this himself? Why’d he send you?”
Pacific frowned. “And bring the gods to you? That wouldn’t be very strategic, would it?”
My head was about to explode. “So who is he?”
“Only he can reveal himself to you.”
Naturally. My heart banged against my chest like a wild beast trying to break free. “Then why hasn’t he?!”
Pacific pulled her hood over her head, tucking her hair beneath. “The gods would kill him if he were to claim you. They would know he was the one who had broken the Sacred Oath. Don’t you see?”
I felt sick. My heart, my stomach, my head—they pulsed with an anger that shook me to my core. So my dad didn’t want to claim me because he was worried about saving his own butt?
