Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters (30 page)

My eyes fill with tears, washing away the ash from the volcanoes and the fire ring. “Then what good was all this? I came to rescue you.” Jinx was right—my father was willing to sacrifice himself for me.

Inu thumps his tail and whines. He barks sharply.

Peyton's chin juts out. I recognize that expression—I've seen it on him when he's pitching a losing game and he's putting up one last good fight. “We don't have a choice.” He puts his arms around me and begins flapping his wings.

“No!” I scream, reaching out my arms. “Inu! Dad!”

But Peyton's already beginning to lift me into the air.

I squeeze my eyes shut. I imagine the forest where I saw Ojīchan. See him standing in the center. He nods at me.

I'm Momotaro. The peach boy warrior.

Half-breed weakling
, I hear the bounty hunter say in my ear.

I open my eyes and look down at the scene below.

Maybe I'm not weak because I'm half. Maybe my mixed blood gives me an advantage over the other Momotaro. After all, every single one of my ancestors eventually got defeated.

Maybe being different is good, like my grandma hoped.

“Go back down,” I say to Peyton. Command him. I sound like I'm a policeman or something. “I have a plan.”

P
eyton lands back on the ground and I kneel by Dad. “Come on. Put your arm around my neck. Hurry!”

“Xander.” Dad's voice booms like the old days. “Leave.”

“I'm the Momotaro now.” I sound just as stern as he does. Somewhat to my surprise, Dad puts his arm around me, maybe because he's too exhausted to fight anymore. He can barely stand. I put my hand on Inu, and Peyton grabs my shoulder. I imagine that big ball of light coming out of me again like it did with Gozu. It will envelop everything like an explosion. All the oni will be destroyed.

Nothing happens.

I squeeze my eyes shut and imagine it again. Ball of light! Work, powers, work! I try not to try too hard, but of course that makes me seize up like machinery in need of oil. Argh.

Suddenly I hear a girl screaming. Jinx. She's on the other side of the flames, with the oni. She's trying to fight them off with a big stick, practically a tree trunk, but there are too many. She falls on her back.

I leap over to where she is, leaving Peyton to hold up Dad. Jinx's whole body appears a wavy red through the fire. “Jinx, wait! I'll help you!”

“Get out of here!” she yells. “Go home!”

It reminds me of when I first saw her, through that ring of acid.

The acid.

Of course!

I take out the sword and thrust it through the flame.

The hilt heats under my hand as if I'm putting my palm on a hot stove. My skin smokes. I shout and almost drop the sword. No. Hold on. I'm not leaving without my whole crew. I have to get all of us to the ship.

My hand stops hurting. The flesh is the color of steel, the same color as my sword, as if the weapon is an extension of me. Or I'm an extension of it. Maybe I'm going to be like Captain Hook now, only with a blade for a hand.

Go home
, I think. I don't know how, but I have faith that something will happen. Something that I make happen.

A breach appears in the red-orange fire. A dark oval.

A doorway. A portal.

“You did it!” Dad's eyes light up. He glances at me. “You go first, Xander. I'll hold the sword.”

“No.” I won't let him try to get left behind again. “Go!” I bark at Peyton and Inu.

“How do you know we won't just burst into flame when we go through?” Peyton says.

“I just made a doorway appear in a wall of flame. I'm pretty sure you can trust me.” I jerk my head toward the portal. “Have some faith!” Just like my grandmother said.

Inu jumps through. Peyton stops arguing and follows.

“You go, Xander.” My father's still insisting.

“Dad, sheesh. Now who's not listening?” I have no choice. I shove my dad through the portal with my free hand.

To my left, Jinx crawls away from the hissing and growling oni. “I'll be fine, Xander!” One claws at her experimentally, like a lion playing with its prey, ripping at her arm. Then it throws her, limp as a piece of meat, right next to me.

“I thought you'd stopped lying!” I shout.

She struggles to rise, manages to get up on her hands and knees.

The doorway's closing, turning back into a solid wall of flame. My hand starts to feel like it's melting. I reach through the fire and grab Jinx by the wrist as quickly as I can. If it hurts, I can't feel the pain yet. With every bit of strength I have left, I yank her through the fire and push her through the shrinking doorway.

A phalanx of oni lunge for me. At the last possible second, I jump through the door.

They disappear as if a curtain's been drawn.

It feels like I've jumped down a set of stairs.

I land on my ship's deck.

I
should have died at least six times today, I think. I lie on the deck for a minute, grateful for the blue sky, the faces of my friends and family. The fact that I'm still breathing.

Then Inu nudges my cheek, and I stroke him between the eyes and scratch his woolly chest until he drools all over me. “Inu!” I chastise, but not really, because I'm so happy we're here.

“Xander.” My father helps me sit up, hugs me, Inu leaning against both of us at once. Now Dad feels warmer, more normal. “Thank you.”

I hug him back hard. “Dad, I'm mad at you.”

He rocks me back and forth like I'm a little kid. For once, I don't mind. “Why's that?”

“You didn't tell me about any of this stuff before! For the first time in my life, you had something I wanted to learn.” I let go of him to give him my best mock-glare.

He laughs, tries to push up his nonexistent glasses. “Xander, I don't know if you know this, but you happen to be very stubborn. I gave you stories. You enjoyed them when you were younger—like when you made the comic. These days, though, you tell me you'd rather play video games. I offer to teach, and you wander off into your own daydream world. I can only force-feed a person so much. You have to
want
to learn.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” It's true. Of course it's true. And honestly, even though I'm rolling my eyes, it feels really good to be lectured again. I hug my dad again.

He touches my hair with one too-thin hand. “And I see your Momotaro hair has come in.”

“Oh yeah. At the sides.” My hand goes up to my temple self-consciously.

“No. Look.” Dad takes my sword and holds the polished blade before my face, like a mirror.

All of my hair is as shiny silver as a brand-new quarter, gleaming in the sun.

I wrinkle my nose. “Great. Now I look old, like you.”

“Thanks a lot.” Dad pretends to be huffy. “It is a mark of honor.”

I touch it—it feels the same as always. “If you say so…”

“You'll get used to it.” Dad smiles at me.

Peyton's reflection appears behind my head. “Hey. I can see myself in your hair, dude! I'll never need a mirror again!”

“Guess that means you'll be spending most of your time staring at it.” I turn and Peyton gives me a fist bump. “Everything all in one piece?”

He pats his torso. “Eh. It feels like I might have left a piece of my liver back there, but other than that, I'm good.”

Peyton sits down on the deck, directly in front of me. “Ahhhhhh. Never thought a wooden floor would feel like a featherbed. It's just good to sit down.” He smiles at me, leaning back on his palms. He looks like he just emerged from a coal mine; he's completely covered in black soot.

I probably don't look much better. “Are your wings okay?” I ask him. I touch one. They look broken, or smaller.

Dad bends a wing gently. “They're disappearing.”

Peyton widens his eyes. “Disappearing? No! I
like
having wings! And flying. Oh man—I'd be so the king of basketball.”

Dad shrugs. “Sorry, Peyton. No wings in our mortal home.”

“Where's home?” Jinx's voice pipes up from the other side of the deck. If Peyton looks bad, she looks worse. Even worse than she did before. Her arms are crisscrossed with deep scratches and cuts that might need stitches. One of her eyes is totally swollen shut.

“I'd hate to see the other guy.” I point to her wounds.

She laughs shortly and then puts on her tough-girl expression. “Yeah, that oni bird might be missing a couple of eyes. Oh well, that's what happens when you hold me against my will. It's not pretty.”

“Jinx.” Dad's face breaks into another grin. “My girl.” He hurries across the deck. “Are you all right?”

“You know her?” I ask.
My girl?
What?

Jinx shrinks away from him, holding up her hands like a boxer. “Don't touch me! I don't know you.”

Dad takes a step back. “Jinx,” he says slowly, “you are the daughter of my wife's best friend. Your mother was maid-of-honor at our wedding.”

“That must've been before she met my father,” Jinx says shortly.

I say to Dad, “You know her father's an oni.”

“It's not her fault who her father is. Remember how these oni can disguise themselves.”

I think about Lovey and Mr. Stedman. Are they real people, or oni? Maybe they won't be at school after break! A guy can always hope.

But I seriously doubt my life is going to be any easier now. As Jinx said, I'm Momotaro. I'm never going to be normal again.

Dad bends toward Jinx. “You look just like your mother. Except your hair's lighter.”

“My mother thought my father was the lead singer of her favorite cover band.” Jinx points at her Misfits T-shirt as she walks in my direction. “After she married him she discovered he had, like, a slight anger-management issue.”

“Understatement of the year.” I grin.

Jinx grimaces slightly. “Well, my mother has her own problems. She ended up leaving me with him. She still doesn't know the truth about him. Heck, I didn't know the truth, either, until two years ago.”

Now she's next to me, blinking hard. “I'm sorry, Xander. I really thought Gozu would keep his promise this time.” Her face is as twisted as a wax paper wrapper on a piece of saltwater taffy.

I can't be too mad at her. Who knows what horrible things her oni dad did to her? Making her live in oni country would be bad enough. He probably also made her hang out with the stinky carrion oni.

Besides, she helped us. A lot. She led us out of the cave. Healed my arm. Took us to the river. Found us the plane to sleep in. Saved Inu. Cut Peyton and Inu down from the tree. Told me to use the fire.

She's not that easy to get along with, but maybe that's okay sometimes. In her own awkward, bitter way, Jinx pushed me to be better. To try harder. To not give up, all so I could prove her wrong.

I hold out my hand to her. “No hard feelings?”

Her face breaks into a grin. I swear, she either looks as mad as a Disney villain, or her smile makes you smile. “None.” She shakes my hand firmly.

“Uh, I have some hard feelings,” Peyton calls. “Right over here.”

“Dude. You'll get over them.” I wave him off.

Dad gives me a friendly slap on the back. “You're a good man, Xander. Just like I knew.”

A warm feeling washes over me. Pride, I guess.

“You'll come home with us,” Dad tells Jinx. “We will take care of you until we find your mother.”

Jinx shrugs. “Good luck with that. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to be found.”

He touches her shoulder. “You never know, Jinx. You never know.”

Peyton stands up. “They're gone. They're really, really gone.” He turns around, his whole body slumping, to show us. Yes, his wings have disappeared.

“But you're still super buff,” I point out. “At least you have that. And big muscles are a lot cooler than silver hair.”