To save his children and those they protect, Ahau Kin plucked a piece of the sun from the sky and locked it inside a special stone. Whenever the stars were to align with the solstice and the gate was to weaken and allow them to leave their prison, the Ixkib-the soul jaguar who was a direct daughter from Ahau Kin's wife-was to use the stone to drive that darkness back into the sky and seal it shut, thereby resetting the calendar until the next alignment. But should his children exist no more, then the world of man will cease....
Kateri was the last of that direct line. Her mother had been designated as the Ixkib. And the darkness knew it. It'd come for her and killed her.
Just as it killed her grandmother. Her home invader had never been caught because it had been a demon who took her life.
The only reason Kateri had survived was because her father and stepfather had been sent to keep her safe and had hidden her from the evil that wanted her dead. But for their care, she would have died as a child....
Bullshit. She didn't want to believe it. But she knew the truth now.
It was why she'd never studied Mayan history. Her father had put that dislike into her to keep her away from anything that might alert her enemies to her whereabouts.
And her grandmother, knowing that one day the time stone would be hers, had taught her to love and collect rocks and minerals. Their combined strength kept the time stone shielded and off the grid of those who would have destroyed it.
In her mind, Kateri saw the stone that she needed perfectly clearly. How stupid of her to not have known it immediately.
Her grandmother had always referred to it as the Eye of the Sun, saying that it was the single most powerful stone she had in her collection. The same color orange as the official Cherokee flag that bore seven stars-one for each clan of the Cherokee nation, and the same number as the Pleiades stars-along with the one solitary black star in the upper corner that signified those who'd died tragically on the Trail of Tears ... the same darkness that they were to always guard against.
For that matter, even their peace flag held the Yonegwa constellation-seven red stars against a field of white....
And it was a stone that was only found in Mexico. All Mexican fire opals were rare, but seldom did they show the play of color that was common to the more familiar "black" and white opals found in the rest of the world.
As a child, Kateri used to believe that her grandmother's opal winked at her. That it was trying to tell her a secret.
Now she knew what its secret was.
Her grandmother's opal had actually come from the sun. Ironic really, given the fact that it was set into a necklace that had always reminded Kateri of a Mayan-styled sun from one of their glyphs....
Unbelievable.
She frowned at Cabeza. "What do I have to do with it?"
"On a cave wall that only a Guardian can see, there will be a mural of a thunderbird and hummingbird. You'll have to take the Kinichi-the sun's eye-and place it into one of their mouths ... whichever one has a spot of the thunderbird so that it can carry the eye into the heavens and drive the darkness back. Once done, the stone will be returned for your safekeeping."
"And this mural is located where?"
"The Valley of Fire."
Which was why they'd brought her to Las Vegas. The Valley of Fire was where her father had gone to rest after his battle with Ren. In the heart of the Valley was a cavern that was critical, as it formed an intersection between all the gates of this world and the realms no one wanted opened.
Honestly, she didn't want to believe in any of this.
But every time she had that thought, she heard her grandmother's voice. "You don't have to believe in something for it to be real."
God love her grandmother for that one single truth.
She looked up at Cabeza. "Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by responsibility that all you wanted to do was curl up in your bed and become a vegetable?"
"Si, but I was in the midst of battle at the time and couldn't dwell on that wish." He lifted his coffee mug in a silent salute. "Just like you, bonita. No time to dwell."
She nodded. "Can I ask you something?"
"I put the seat down. I swear it."
She laughed at his unexpected comment. "Seriously, why do you speak Spanish when you're actually Mayan?"
"Because when I speak my native language no one, other than Acheron and a small handful of other Dark-Hunters, can converse with me in it. And I learned Spanish long before I learned English. I spent two thousand years in Spain, Basque, and Portugal before I was allowed to come back to my homeland."
"Wow," she breathed. "That's incredible."