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Twisting her pinkie, Alana went on. “I sort of wasn’t paying attention, because I was mad, and, well, I walked into one of these blurry spots. I ended up”—she took a breath—“on the other side of SHIHOM, near a lake. At first, every portal I found took me somewhere here on the grounds. Then I went through one that led somewhere else.”
I thought about what Ik had told me back in Hell’s Kitchen—how you can’t just fall into a gateway. Everything has to align just right. Something about angles, rising planets, and I think it was unflossed teeth. “How?” I asked. “Where?”
“After I went through a few, I got used to it,” Alana said almost shyly. “I tried again, this time thinking of home.”
“I went with her to our house,” Adrik said. “It was wild!” He let out a controlled breath. “Wicked Witch was downstairs humming a tune like she didn’t give a lick that we were gone. I messed up her bed and tossed some of her stuff around so she’d think she was being haunted. Ha! It was sick!”
“Witch?” Louie slammed his book closed. A few snow flurries tumbled down from the open roof. “Sorry,” he said, stopping the flakes immediately.
Brooks drew closer to Alana. “But how did you guys get back here?”
“We just came back the way we went,” Alana said like she was telling us how to ride a bike.
“But gateways always close after you use them,” Ren said.
“Mine stay open, I guess,” Alana said with a shrug.
My thoughts came to a stuttering halt. “Hang on,” I said. “Are you telling me—”
“She can control gateways,” Adrik said, before turning to his sister. “See? You never believe me! I told you your gift would show up.” He held his hand out, palm up. “You owe me some dinero! Twenty bucks.”
“Define control.” Hondo looked suspicious.
Rosie wagged her nub tail and panted like she was saying Let’s go, let’s go!
Had I been wrong? Was Alana the one with the greater powers? Controlling gateways sure seemed bigger and better than dream walking…. A ball of heat expanded in my chest, making it hard to breathe.
“You’re like a walking Google Maps?” Marco scratched at his scar. “You can just tell the gateway where you want to go?”
Alana shrugged again.
It made perfect sense that she would get this gift from Ixtab, who had once escorted the dead to the afterlife and so needed lots of gateways.
Brooks’s eyes met mine, and in that second, I knew the question she was about to ask. “You said you can control gateways, but can you actually—”
“Conjure them?” Ren finished. “Because that would be so cool. We could conjure one to shove all the Maya gods through.” She threw her hands out to illustrate.
As if anything were that simple.
“Unless they’ve already been devoured,” Marco muttered, still tracing his finger across the wood table. I swear he was Brooks’s long-lost fatalistic hermano.
“Don’t even say that!” Ren warned.
“Alana is still figuring out how to use the gateways,” Adrik said, “so don’t expect too much.” He leaned toward her. “Right?”
Hondo clapped three times. “Focus, godborns. Right now, some of us need to get to K’iin.” He glanced at Alana. “You think you can open a doorway to this Cave of Crystals from Ren’s alien dream?”
“Crystal alien what?” I could tell Marco was on the verge of mad-scientist laughter. Like one more word about magic or other unexplainable events was going to make him snap.
“I don’t know…” Alana said nervously. “I don’t know where that is.”
“That’s what we’re here to ask Saás.” I pointed to the globe.
Ren asked the glowing orb to tell us the exact location of the cave.
And you know what Saás said? Actually, I can’t repeat it. Whoever programmed her either had their head in the gutter or was in a super-bad mood at the time.
I bet it was Ixtab.
