Jessica Andersen - Demonkeepers

“Maybe you should . ”

“I don’t,” Jade said firmly. “I forgive you. I hope you’ll forgive yourself.” She paused. “I’m okay now . . . Mom.”

As if that had been what the nahwal —ghost?—had been waiting for, despite whether she knew it herself, Vennie’s lips turned up in a smile that Jade knew from seeing her own face in the mirror.

Then the vision wavered and went thin. In the instant before it disappeared, though, Jade saw another shadow: that of a tall, broad-shouldered young man waiting for Vennie in the mist.

Tears blinded Jade alongside a thought of, Thank you, gods . Then the air detonated around her and the magi materialized, their feet firmly planted on the floor for a change. Only they weren’t at Skywatch.

They were in the library.

Lucius’s hand tightened on hers and his face drained of color. “Oh, gods. Oh, shit !”

Jade’s heart stuttered in her chest. They stood in the study area Lucius had described: There were the racks and robes, the tables, the yes/no stones, and the way glyph. Beyond, shelves stretched into the distance. The fountain was just as he had described it, with one difference: It was working now.

Water spilled from the wall spigot, filled the bowl, and trickled down the back of the stone jaguar’s gaping throat. Between its paws, the bowl was filled with flat, irregular rounds of corn bread.

A disbelieving laugh caught in her throat and emerged sounding like a moan. “At least we won’t starve right away.” But could they get out again? Had she found love, inner strength, and a new sort of peace, only to lose it too quickly? More, had they just doomed the earth to—

“ That’s new.” Lucius’s eyes were locked on a plain wooden door that was inset beside the jaguar.

Tugging on their joined hands to bring her with him, he crossed to the door. Seeing no latch, he pushed on it.

The panel opened easily. Sunlight spilled in, blinding Jade. She squinted into the light, which was too bright, too white, too hot. . . . Her eyes were slow to adjust. When they did, she found herself blinking at canyon walls and a worn pathway leading to a small cluster of buildings in the middle distance.

Skywatch. Oh, holy shit.

“We’re home,” Lucius said. “And I think we brought the whole fucking library with us.” He let out a long, shuddering breath as the others clustered behind them, and they poured through the door as a team. The sky was very blue, the sun very white. The air felt drier than it had the day before, and the encroaching algae slime was already turning black and dying beneath the might of Kinich Ahau.

Turning back to look at where they had come from, Jade let out a long breath of her own. “No,” she said softly. “ We didn’t bring the library home. You did.”

The plain wooden doorway had appeared in the spot where the hidden tunnel mouth had been, flanked by the flame-shaped stones on one side, the staring eyes on the other. She imagined that when they went back inside, all the way to the rear of the chamber, they would find that the place where Vennie’s skeleton had sat in the star bloodline’s secret room would match up precisely with the metaphysical version of her corpse Lucius had seen within the barrier. Or maybe they would both be gone, vanished now that her soul was where it belonged. Either one would be fine, Jade thought. She knew her parents now.

Above the door, blazoned into the canyon wall in glyph writing, was the prophecy Lucius had translated from the carved wooden box.

“Fuck me,” he said on a sharp bark of disbelief. “It was a true prophecy after all, but Sasha guessed right. It was a damned fragment.” He read aloud, translating: “ ‘In the triad years, a mage-born Prophet can wield the library’s might, but it will take a human’s love to bring it back to Earth . ’ ” He turned to Jade, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her deeply. When they came up for air, he finished the translation: “ ‘Magic isn’t the answer. Love is.’ ”

Like much of the Nightkeepers’ culture, their language comes from the people they have lived with throughout their history. Or if we want to chicken-and-egg things, it’s more likely that the other cultures took the words from the Nightkeepers and incorporated them into their developing languages just as they did their science and religions. The following is a brief glossary of some of the most common (or uncommon) terms and their meanings. Pronunciation-wise, most of these words sound the way they’re spelled, with two tricks: First, the letter “x” takes the “sh” sound. Second, the letter

“i” should be read as the “ee” sound. Thus, for example, Xibalba becomes “Shee-bal-buh.”

For more information on the Nightkeepers’ world, excerpts, deleted scenes, and more, please visit www.JessicaAndersen.com.

Entities Akhenaton—More than three thousand years ago, this pharaoh forcibly converted the Egyptian empire to monotheistic worship of the sun god, Aten, and proclaimed himself a god-king. As part of converting his subjects to the new god, he had all priests of the old religion slaughtered . . . including the Nightkeepers who had guided ancient Egypt up to that point.

Banol Kax —The lords of the underworld, Xibalba. Driven from the earth by the many- times-great-

ancestors of the modern Nightkeepers, the Banol Kax seek to return and subjugate mankind on the foretold day: December 21, 2012.

Godkeeper—A female Nightkeeper who has bonded with one of the sky gods. The Godkeepers are prophesied to form the core of the Nightkeepers’ fighting force in the years leading up to the 2012 doomsday. itza’at —A female Nightkeeper with visionary powers; a seer. The itza’at talent is often associated with depression, mental instability, and suicide, because the seer can envision the future but not change it.

Kinich Ahau—The sun god of the ancient Maya. Each night at sunset, Kinich Ahau enters Xibalba.

With the aid of two huge black dogs called companions, the god must fight through the underworld to reach the dawn horizon each morning, beginning a new day. makol (ajaw-makol) —These demon souls are capable of reaching through the barrier to possess evil-

natured human hosts. Recognized by his luminous green eyes, a makol -bound human retains his own thoughts and actions in direct proportion to the amount of evil in his soul. An ajaw-makol , which is a ruling makol created through direct spell casting, can create lesser makol through blood sacrifice. nahwal —Humanoid spirit entities that exist in the barrier and hold within them all of the accumulated wisdom of each Nightkeeper bloodline. They can be asked for information, but cannot be trusted.

Nightkeeper—A member of an ancient race sworn to protect mankind from annihilation in the years leading up to December 21, 2012, when the barrier separating the earth and the underworld will fall and the Banol Kax will seek to precipitate the apocalypse.

Order of Xibalba—Formed by renegade Nightkeepers, the order was believed to have been destroyed in the 1520s. However, the Order of Xibalba survives, and is now led by a powerful mage named Iago, who seeks to bind his soul to that of the long- dead Aztec god-king, Moctezuma.

Prophet—An oracle created when a magic user’s soul is destroyed but the body is magically preserved, becoming an animate shell that relays information from the barrier-bound library to the Nightkeepers on earth. scribe—A mage who holds a powerful but fickle talent among the Nightkeepers: the ability to create spells. winikin —Descended from the conquered Sumerian warriors who served the Nightkeepers back in ancient Egypt, the winikin are blood-bound to act as the servants, protectors, and counselors of the magi.