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“So I have to choose in three days?” Suki repeated, dumbfounded.
“The president of the United States will be taken on Friday. We celebrate on Saturday. If you choose not to join us, to claim your birthright, then you will be sacrificed as part of the ceremony. Along with your father and brothers.”
Suki couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What kind of choice was this?
“My father isn’t even here.”
“He’s in Washington, DC, right now,” Jacob said. “And that is where I am going to fulfill my destiny.” He lowered his hand. “Three days to decide. You kill someone close to you, or you all die on my altar.”
“How could I choose?” Suki demanded. “That’s . . . that’s just awful.”
“Choose or die with them,” Jacob said. “There are others who can take your place in this temple. If you do not believe I can achieve my plans, then wait and see. I was prophesied to do it.”
The look of energy in his eyes was intense.
“Go,” he said curtly.
Suki nodded, numb, and walked out of his private chamber, passing through the screen of beads that clicked and clacked as she parted it. Her stomach was sick. Calakmul would force her to make an impossible decision. She’d never thought she’d say so, but this was worse than the death games.
Dizzy, she walked back to her private room.
Her mom was waiting on the mat, sitting cross-legged across from Jane Louise, holding her hands. The moon shone through the window, bathing them both in light. Her mom’s silver hair shone in the brilliant glow.
“It’s time to go,” her mother said in a voice that rang with power.
Filled with relief, Suki dropped down to the mat. “Thank goodness. You figured a way out?”
“Yes, we need to link hands.”
Suki didn’t hesitate. She took Jane Louise’s hand and then the wrinkled hand of her mother.
“Breathe. Feel the moonlight’s pull. Listen. Can you hear the sea calling? It’s Cozumel. It is a nexus for Ix Chel. Feel it. Hear it call you.”
Suki’s heart trembled with her burden. But she calmed her mind. She calmed her heart. Holding her mother’s hand comforted her, even if it no longer looked like her mother’s hand.
In the stillness, she heard a mosquito buzzing near her ear. She hated that annoying sound, but beyond it was something else. Something in the distance.
An ocean crashing on the surf.
Then she could smell it. The salty smell. Feel a cool breeze soothing her neck.
“This is the prayer. This is the word. Rapinik. Think it. Pray it.”
The word meant to fly. She knew that intuitively. But it meant so much more than that.
“Rapinik,” they all said in unison.
A tug at the back of her navel.
“Open your eyes, daughters. Breathe.”
Suki opened her eyes. The three of them were now sitting on a beach in the sand. The moon was fixed above the horizon, silver—pale—picturesque. A sea turtle rested in the sand right by them. It was huge, beautiful, peaceful. It swung its knobby head to look at them. Weird. Totally weird. Suki turned to look at her mom and saw that the aging had been reversed. She blinked in surprise. It was her mom, just as she’d remembered her when they’d first come to Cozumel.
Relief radiated through her. She’d feared the aging would stick, and she’d have to face losing her mom again after finally being reunited with her.
“You’re young again!” she exclaimed.
Her mom flinched, then lifted a hand to her face, touching her own cheek. A slow smile spread across her face, and she looked upward at the moon.
