CHAPTER FORTY-THREE JAGUAR TEMPLE CALAKMUL BIOSPHERE RESERVE

JAGUAR TEMPLE

CALAKMUL BIOSPHERE RESERVE

January 10

Welcome, Daughter. Welcome home.

Suki reached out and placed her palm against the glowing stela. The glyphs carved into it glowed more intensely, like weak batteries suddenly fed energy. Thoughts swirled in her mind as her consciousness expanded. This stela was connected to all the others within the Calakmul compound, which was much more vast than the buildings and pyramids nearby. The compound went on for acres and acres, mostly buried under the jungle’s growth. She could sense the other stelae, feel them, and her mind swelled with the knowledge they contained. This one was carved into the likeness of two rulers, a king and queen, the last to rule Calakmul. They’d been deceived by the jaguar priests, ensnared by their cunning. They’d wanted to fight the Spanish conquistadors and protect the lives of their people, but instead they’d succumbed to the manipulations of the Kowinem, who had used the Spaniards’ arrival to try to overthrow their Aztec overlords ruled by Moctezuma. The Maya had hated their subjugation to both groups and yearned for freedom. The Order of the Jaguar Priests had taken advantage of it.

The shriek of a jaguar filled the air. Looking up, Suki saw one of the monsters charging down the pyramid steps, coming right for her.

Suki wasn’t afraid of it. She stood there, feeling connected to the rulers. Their blood flowed in her veins. She didn’t understand the relationship, but it went through Grandma Suki’s line. She was a rightful descendent. That meant the stelae and kem ?m would obey her. With this insight, she looked up through the eyes of a glyph already positioned at the top of the pyramid and saw her dad lying on a sacrificial altar. Jacob Calakmul stood above him with a dagger. He was protected by a shield of kem ?m.

No! No, no, no, no!

But the solution came to her as if Ix Chel herself had presented it—she could shut down the defenses completely. She could draw all the kem ?m’s power into the single stela she was touching.

Do it,she thought forcefully.

It felt like she’d triggered a vortex. All the kem ?m around them—from the torches to the shields to the echoing magic used to amplify voices—all of it was sucked into the stela she touched. The sigils glowed and sizzled with power as the swarm of kem ?m reached it.

The rest of the compound went dark.

Suki cast her gaze upward. The moon was still shining, and strangely, parts of the walls were shining. And the streets were shining. Knowledge flooded her. The stucco in the walls and streets were made of limestone powder, which reflected light. The streets of the Maya had always been intended to glow in the dark.

Jordan put his hand on her shoulder. “Suki! Get behind me!”

She turned and looked at him. “The shields are all down. No one is protected.”

“Fire at will!” Jordan yelled. “Repeat, fire at will!”

The 82nd Airborne needed no further encouragement. Warriors were already charging up the lower pyramid steps to get to them, and the bullets sliced through them. Jordan raised his rifle and aimed at the jaguar priest coming down from the top, about to reach them. He’d been a jaguar but not anymore. Suki’s power had stripped his away.

Bullets blasted against the stone, causing puffs of dust. The jaguar priest was quick, though, and came down the last steps altering his movements in a zigzag pattern to confuse Jordan. He kicked the barrel of the assault rifle away and then came down at Jordan with his fists.

Suki, still touching the stela, held out her hand and sent a blast of lightning into the jaguar priest. It threw him back against the steep steps, and he yelled in pain.

Jordan swung the weapon around again and shot him with a quick burst of bullets. Blood bloomed from his chest. Suki watched in horror as he tried to rise, gasping for breath, despite his injuries. Something animated him, even though he should have been dead. A sickening feeling hung in the air. Fear seeped into Suki’s bones.

Jordan stared in disbelief and then emptied his magazine into the jaguar priest, the bullets literally tearing him to pieces. He collapsed in the shadows, still twitching but unable to move.

Jordan detached the magazine and shoved another one in.

“He’s dead,” Angélica said, coming to stand near Suki and Jordan. “He was the worst of them.”

“Let’s save my dad,” Suki said, gazing up at the steps. She removed her hand from the stela at last, and it too went dark.

The other three soldiers followed her up, spraying bullets at anyone who came after them. A few javelins were hurled at them, but they clattered uselessly against the stone steps. The soldiers had their night vision goggles on, ensuring they could see, where others could not, and the muzzles of their rifles flashed with light as they shot their attackers. Suki started up the steps, Jordan jogging next to her.

The steps were so steep and tight that Suki ambled up them sideways. She felt the strain of the climb and was panting in moments, hurrying up the steps. Then she heard a noise and gazed up. Someone was falling down the steps, crashing violently against the stones.

“Look out!” Jordan warned.

Suki moved to the side, and the body came sprawling, stopping just by her, upside down. In the moonlight, she recognized Jacob Calakmul’s face. His eyes were wide open, his mouth gaping. She saw his chest move up and down, but he didn’t move. Not even his body twitched. He was helpless.

Angélica gasped.

“It’s him,” Suki said in surprise. She gazed up the steps of the pyramid. How had he fallen?

Angélica grabbed a knife from Jordan’s flak vest. With a wild look in her eyes, she plunged it into Jacob’s chest before anyone could stop her.

“They’re still coming!” shouted one of the army guys. “Too many!”

Suki looked down and saw warriors climbing toward them from all over the pyramid. They fearlessly came onward, leaping from stone to stone to get up faster.

Suki looked at the knife buried in Calakmul’s chest and didn’t begrudge Angélica’s choice. Whatever had passed between them before, he’d left her for dead, and she didn’t want him surviving to come after her later.

Suki charged up the steps again, clambering up row after row. Jordan was right next to her, followed by Angélica and the three army dudes. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she gasped to breathe and keep up her momentum. Almost there!

Something blew up in front of her. The light was so blinding that covering her face wasn’t enough. She stumbled and almost lost her footing. It was like going from a dark house into the noonday sun. It hurt her eyes, but she blinked them open anyway, trying to see. What had caused it? All she knew was she was blinded by it. Regardless of the pain, she dropped onto her hands and clawed her way up the final steps.

It was like staring into the sun. A glyph came to her mind, and she traced her finger through the air, invoking the magic of the kem ?m. The stabbing pain of the light subdued, or maybe it was her ability to endure it that had changed. She felt strangely calm.

And then she saw the Maya dude with a glowing sword and feathered wings. She watched as he took out the warriors atop the pyramid, one by one.

She saw a few men dressed in modern clothing cowering in fear. Where was her dad?

Jordan reached her next, but he was shielding his face with one hand and trying to aim the rifle with the other. Angélica joined them and then the other soldiers.

“No, he’s on our side,” Suki mumbled, pushing Jordan’s arm down.

The Maya warrior-god turned and faced them. He had a white goatee, white hair, and bronze skin.

Suki dropped to her knees, overwhelmed by her awe and fear.

“Put down your weapons,” he said in perfect English.

There was a compulsion to follow the words. If Suki had been holding one, she would have slammed it to the ground. The soldiers did so instantly. Then, one by one, they all went down on their knees.

“It’s Kukulkán,” Angélica murmured with awe.

“I am not,” said the angelic Maya in perfect English. “I am His follower. My name is Ezequiel Cumenon. Tend to your father, Socorro.”

She looked to the left and saw her dad with a javelin sticking through him, kneeling on the stones. “Dad!”

She scurried to him, shocked by the blood on his shirt. He slumped down, and she caught him before he collapsed. With one hand, she yanked the javelin from his chest and began murmuring the words of healing over and over.

Her dad shuddered, his body quivering as the magic swept through him. She kept repeating it over and over. “Kunaj, kunaj, kunaj.”

“So ... who are you?” she heard Jordan ask the angel.

“I am a tioxalaj winaq, a divine servant,” he said, and Suki looked up briefly as she continued to pour out the words and her magic. His glow was fading, but it still radiated from him, as if he were standing amid a shaft of lightning. “I came to punish the jaguar priests. I’ve been waiting a long time for the Jaguar Prophecies to come to pass and the wards that had been blocking us from coming to finally fail. I will hunt down the rest of the jaguar priests so that none can escape. Their time is ending. There will be no more death games. No more torture.”

Suki felt her dad’s shuddering breath on her cheek. Her attention jolted back to him. He was winded, in a lot of pain, his clothes dirty, bloodstained, and scuffed up. But he looked so surprised and relieved to see her.

“Suki?”

She smiled at her dad. “Hey. I think you’re going to make it.”

He wrapped his arms around her, and she hugged him back hard, feeling tears dripping from her eyes. She was so grateful she’d come in time.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered to her.

“I couldn’t just let you die,” she said, grinning as she wiped away tears. “You need someone to look after you.”

“Where are the others? Are they safe?”

Suki nodded vigorously. “With Mom. Jane Louise is too.”

Her dad lowered his head and sighed in relief. “I kicked Jacob, and he fell off the pyramid. I don’t know if he’s still alive.”

“Oh, he’s dead,” Suki assured him.

“Are you sure?”

“Um. Yeah. I saved Angélica, and she stabbed him in the heart.”

“Return to Cozumel,” Ezequiel said, his voice booming. “This land must be purged for the awful murders it has done. We must prepare for His coming. It is nigh.”

Suki helped her dad to his feet.

Jordan motioned for the other men to gather around them. Some were leaders—she had no idea who they were, but they looked disturbed by the angel’s presence.

The angel looked sternly at them. “Prepare for His coming. Your worldly kingdoms are soon to end.”

Angélica looked fearful, but the angel didn’t object when she joined them. The crowds below had begun to trample each other in their haste to escape the light-shrouded figure. He strode to the edge of the pyramid, looking down.

“Let the purging begin,” he declared. Light exploded from his body.

“Rapinik,”Suki breathed. The magic of the Maya whisked them away, back to Cozumel.