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“No idea. But it’s far. So far that it took everything I had to reach you. It’s almost as if…”
“As if what?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter! Zotz and Ixkik’ can’t get away with this!”
“Don’t you see?” he said angrily. “They already have. We walked right into their trap. We are to blame for our stupidity.”
“I have to try to help!”
“I knew you would feel that way. That’s the other reason I came: to warn you. Do not risk your life for gods that are already gone. Your father would kill you.”
“Yeah? Well, he’s out of commission right now, so no one’s killing anyone.” My voice had risen to full-throttle panic. “What do you mean, ‘already gone’?”
“We are no longer here, Zane.”
Anger throbbed in my chest. My eyes blazed. “Look, you know I am going to come for you! You know I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
“Listen to me!” He growled like he was using his last ounce of strength. “That’s exactly what Zotz and Ixkik’ want. It will only send you down a dark and dangerous rabbit hole, and there will be no victory,” he said. “I am…I was the god of death, darkness, and destruction. If I could see a way out, don’t you think I would tell you? Don’t you think I would love nothing more than to shred our enemies?”
“You never give up!” I said, knowing that I had to keep him here, keep him talking. I had to be more convincing. “You fought your way back from the inferno I trapped you in. Back from death! You know better than anyone that there’s always a way out!” Maybe he wouldn’t help me save the gods, but he might care if it meant saving Ren. “They have the entry stone—they’re coming to SHIHOM to kill all of us. We need you!”
He was silent, so silent I was worried he had left. Then he finally said, “The devourer…” He spoke through what sounded like gritted teeth.
“Devourer?” And just like that, the memory of Ixtab telling me about the Mexica earth goddess who gives and devours life slammed into my brain. Ugh! Why couldn’t I remember her name? “You mean the devouring goddess?” I blurted. “Is she the one they resurrected? She did this to you?”
“Yes,” he groaned. I could tell he was barely holding on.
“Please give me more clues about where you are. Think of anything.”
“Ren,” he managed. “She is the only one…”
“The only one what?!”
The centipede shivered once, then began to crawl across the wall, and I knew Ah-Puch was gone.
“Ah-Puch!” I shouted. “Come back!”
The word devourer made me sick to my stomach. Were the gods being eaten alive by that Mexica goddess?
Fury, panic, and bone-deep fear scrambled all my thoughts. This. Was. So. Not. Happening.
In my mind’s eye, I placed the memories side by side:
I am the keeper of time.
Time was invented in this place.
The seeds of this evil could only be discovered in the underworld.
Master of deception.
“What does it mean?” I said. The blue flame rose higher.
Time.
Evil.
