Your human mind thinks of death as the end. For me, it means something else.
Then you won’t really die?
Silence hit me from all directions. I came to an abrupt stop. Cobwebs were taking over the dying trees, just like we’d seen in the Old World. Wispy white trails fluttered in the sea breeze.
Hurakan?
Crap! Was he gone already? Had I wasted our one chance to talk? A deep and terrible roar emerged from my throat, reverberating across the jungle.
Zane. His voice was now a whisper. Something flickered in my peripheral vision and then…Hurakan stepped out from behind a tree. In the form of a man. I stopped breathing. He looked part solid, part ghost. He wore a loose-fitting black shirt-and-pants set that reminded me of the scrubs doctors wear, and his face was thin, his eyes sunken.
In the same instant, he transformed me back into human form.
“Whoa!” I looked down at my hands, then back to Hurakan. “Why aren’t we panthers?”
The first time we met here, Hurakan had told me we had to take the shape of jaguars in order to relate to each other, because we were strangers. Once we had some familiarity, an emotional connection, we could take a different form.
Oh. OH.
Imagine someone igniting a thousand sticks of dynamite inside your heart. That’s what this realization felt like.
But he clearly wasn’t well. Hurakan coughed as the outline of his shape faded in and out. A raging fury burned inside my bones. I wanted to slowly gut the gods for what they’d done to my father.
I hurried over to help him stand. Once he steadied himself, he let go and said, “I wish I could have been here to train you. But…other things got in the way.” He took a wheezing breath, grimacing like his ribs were busted and it hurt to inhale. “Like prison walls.”
“So not funny,” I said.
He half smiled anyway. “Dad joke.”
Who knew Hurakan had a sense of humor?
“I’ve been waiting…hoping you’d show up here, Zane.”
“Waiting? I didn’t think you could still access the Empty. And the jade—you didn’t call me until today,” I said.
Hurakan’s eyes found mine. “I don’t have a connection to the jade anymore.” He frowned. “So, no, I didn’t call you here.”
“But then…” Every cell in my body froze. “Who did?”
Hurakan’s face was suddenly cold, unmoving. “There isn’t time for us to solve that mystery. Events have been set in motion, and you must do something—”
“Save the godborns?” I cut in. “You’re not the only one who broke the Sacred Oath.” I don’t know why, but for some reason I felt it was important for me to tell him. I quickly explained everything Ixtab and I had figured out.
He didn’t even flinch at the mention of the godborns. With great effort, he said, “You will need your greatest powers for what lies ahead. Which is why you must listen.” He began to fade.
Desperation crawled up my spine. “No…wait!”
It was too late. He had faded to nothing, but his voice lingered on the sea breeze. Get to the pyramid. The top step. Now!
I bolted back toward the pyramid, taking long strides. Here in the Empty I had no limp, and I could race with the speed and power of a jaguar, even in human form. But as I did, the ground shifted beneath my feet. The Empty began to tilt. I lost my footing and had to grab a tree branch to steady myself. My hands slipped, and I went spinning toward an ocean cliff and away from the pyramid.
Hurry, Zane.
With every ounce of strength I had, I redoubled my efforts and launched myself toward another tree, trying to get a hand- and foothold. A moment later, the world righted itself enough so that I could run again. And I did. Like I’d never run in my life. Not as a human or a jaguar. As a godborn.
I flew up the stairs until I reached the top. Bits of gray sky fell around me like ash. The ground rumbled. The top stone step was broken, and a piece of thick parchment was sticking out of a crack. I unrolled it to find a message.
Dear Zane,