CHAPTER FORTY JAGUAR TEMPLE CALAKMUL BIOSPHERE RESERVE

JAGUAR TEMPLE

CALAKMUL BIOSPHERE RESERVE

January 10

Suki’s heart thumped with the sound of the bullets deflecting off the web of kem ?m. Her powers were strong when certain planets or the moon was in sight. The times she’d practiced in the ball court, she’d been able to do more, lift heavy things, control multiple items all at once. In the tomb-like corridors beneath the temple, her connection with the magic was more limited. And it didn’t help that they were near the source of a totally evil magic.

The jaguar priest was also protected from their bullets, which were still ricocheting like burning coals through the corridor. Suki watched the jaguar, trying to see him through the hail of ammunition. The stone door that had blocked the mirror room continued to grind open.

Suki glanced at Jordan, his rifle raised but not firing. He looked deadly serious as he glanced back and forth between the jaguar and the mirror room.

“We’re in between,” he said in a low voice to her. “Not a good spot to be in.”

She noticed two hand grenades poking out from the front pockets on his vest. She knew the basics. Pull the pin. Boom. The jaguar priests inside the room wouldn’t be expecting it.

“Roll a grenade in there when I tell you,” she said, hooking her thumb and pointing underneath the stone door. “I’d rather collapse their room than ours.”

Jordan grinned and let go of his rifle, which was hanging from his shoulder by a strap. He yanked the grenade out of his pocket and pulled the pin, holding on to the safety lever.

“Four seconds,” he told her.

Suki nodded and held up her hand to count. One, two, three. “Now!”

Jordan released the safety lever, and Suki used the bracelet to draw any kem ?m from the other side of the stone door into it. Motes of golden dust swarmed her hand.

There was no protection on the other side, but it could be reinstated if they didn’t act quickly enough.

“Roll it!” she urged to Jordan.

He counted silently in his head and then did a softball underhand throw and rolled the grenade beneath the stone door. Suki put up a shield in the gap to protect them from the explosion.

The blast rocked the corridor, just a dull tremor. The tunnel was made of solid stone. Suki’s shield defending them from the jaguar priest came down. Their attacker, a man once more, rushed forward. He jammed a dagger into the neck of one of the soldiers before she could raise another one.

Suki saw the motes swirling around him, drawn to her hand, and ripped the magic away from him.

“Now!” she shouted.

“Fire!” Jordan ordered. Before he could lift his own rifle, one of the other soldiers with a handgun shot the jaguar priest point blank in the chest with three rounds. The popping noises from the gun weren’t what Suki had been expecting, but the results were instant. The priest’s face gaped with shock and pain, and then he fell on his back, writhing, struggling to breathe, blood blooming from his chest wounds.

The army guy who’d been stabbed fell to his knees, blood dripping through his fingers. Suki rushed to him and put her hands on him, invoking the healing magic. This was her strength, not fighting. She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t see the blood. Tapping into the magic thrumming inside her, she filled the soldier with healing energy.

When she opened her eyes again, he was healed. He stared at her, dumbfounded, patting his neck above his body armor where the blade had gotten through.

Then he grinned. “You ... you healed me!”

Suki smiled back and turned to look at the stone maw leading to the room where the mirrors had been. All she could see was stone dust swirling against the kem ?m. The feeling of dark magic was gone. The grenade had broken all the obsidian mirrors in the room. It had killed whichever jaguar priests were in there too.

“We did it,” she gasped.

“Did what?” Jordan wanted to know.

“The mirrors are broken. They can’t get out.”

One of the other soldiers, Killian, was standing over the jaguar priest. The man wasn’t breathing anymore, his face gone slack. He was dead.

“If Suki hadn’t put up a shield, we’d all have died,” Jordan said, panning his glance across the group of soldiers. “Got that?”

“We need to leave,” Angélica insisted. “More will come.”

“Lead the way,” Suki said.

They went back down the corridor they had come from, and Suki released the kem ?m at the stone door. The tunnel was narrow and confined, and then it hit a fork. Angélica led them through the twisting tunnels, going up as soon as they encountered stairs. They were climbing higher now. Did that mean they were near the surface of the pyramid?

“Where does this corridor exit?” Suki asked Angélica.

“On the front face of the pyramid, near the bottom of the main stairs. We’ll be above the crowd. The sacrificial victims will be brought to the altar at the top of the main stairs.”

More stairs to climb. Suki swallowed and steadied herself.

“I’ll go up with Suki,” Jordan said. “You three keep up cover fire to slow them coming after us but come up the steps too.” Looking at Suki, he added, “Once we get to the top, you can teleport us back to Cozumel, right?”

“That’s the plan,” Suki said. “I think I’ll be able to see the moon from the top of the pyramid.”

“That’s the plan,” he repeated. “Up and away. Got it?”

“Roger,” said a soldier. “Lock and load.”

“Lock and load, rock and roll, create and improvise,” Jordan said. “Let’s do it.”

When they reached the top of the stone steps, there was a corroded metal door blocking their path. A square piece of it was open, like a spyhole—about eight inches tall and six inches wide. The door was discolored with rust and moss and looked like it had been a recent addition, not by the original Maya who had built Calakmul.

Jordan reached it first and gazed outside. He held up two fingers and then pointed to the right and left. The other soldiers nodded.

Angélica pressed her fingers to her lips. The noise of a crowd outside could be heard through the open partition embedded in the door. Suki saw the moonlight outside, which was a comforting sign.

Jordan examined the doorframe and then pointed at the latch. The door would swing outward, which meant they’d likely be spotted immediately. Suki’s heart was racing. None of the people out there had kem ?m shields activated. She sensed the power, but it was more like a force field over the entire area. No one was individually protected. Of course, that could change in the space of a moment. They had to hurry.

“No one is shielded,” she whispered to Jordan.

Then she heard a cry of exultation coming from the crowd. Jacob’s voice radiated as if from a loudspeaker. He was speaking Mayan, but she understood the words.

“To thee, god of the night sky, god of the hurricane, of hostility, discord, and rulership. To the god of jaguars and sorcery, of beauty and war, I offer this next sacrifice! Your enemy Jonathon Roth!”

Jordan’s head turned.

“Dad!” Suki groaned. They were too late.

Jordan frowned with determination and shoved the latch up. Slamming his body into the door, he threw it open, knocking down one of the warriors guarding it. Another soldier shot down the other with his rifle.

“Move, move, move!” Jordan screamed as they all spilled out into the night sky.

Suki didn’t wait for the others. She rushed past them, to the narrow steps in the center of the pyramid. A huge glowing stela was planted on the base of it, shimmering with magic. It was taller than her, a formidable obelisk. She ran toward it, knowing it was in front of the stairs she needed to climb. The army guys would follow. She had to get to her dad. Her mind connected with the stela instantly, like a Wi-Fi signal infused in her DNA. She saw the glowing symbol of a king and queen embedded in its design. It looked ... strangely familiar. As if she recognized it, and it recognized her.

Her bracelet started to glow, awakened by the magic of the place. She’d never stood there before, hadn’t been allowed to climb the temple when she was a prisoner. Now she knew why.

Her ancestors had been from this place. Their magic was in her blood. The bracelet she wore belonged to her family. The stelae throughout the temple grounds would obey her. She was part of the royal house.

Welcome, Daughter. Welcome home.