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Except . . . he felt his heart beating still. He tasted the coppery flavor of blood in his mouth. The brightness was beyond anything he’d experienced, like a dozen floodlights all aimed at him at once. This wasn’t the kem äm. This was something else.
A gurgled cry sounded from behind Roth, and the grip on his hair went slack. Roth sagged to his knees, still feeling the javelin protruding from his chest. He couldn’t breathe, each moment making the pain constrict more tightly.
As he slumped forward, one hand pressing against the stone floor, the other pressing the wound beneath the javelin, he tried to see through the blinding light. What he saw inside the light stunned him.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
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 äm 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 äm.
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 äm’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 äm 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 äm 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.
