‘I don’t understand,’ Dominique says, looking to the elder Guardian male. ‘How can Lilith be Hunahpu? I thought Mick was your chosen one?’

‘Michael Gabriel was only one of several hundred possible genetic anomalies the Guardian hoped would evolve in time to activate the Balam’s weapon system. Lilith’s great-uncle found a way to manipulate the Hunaphu bloodline. This mutation causes a deeply rooted schizophrenia that was passed on to Lilith.’

‘And where is Mick? What happened to him?’

‘Michael and our fellow colonists are trapped in a netherworld, a bubble of existence created by Devlin Mabus.’

‘Devlin?’

‘Lilith’s son, a pure posthuman, very powerful, conceived from two Hunahpu parents.’

Jacob sits, suddenly light-headed.

‘Who’s the father?’ Dominique asks. ‘Jake?’

‘I don’t know, Mother. Yes, it’s possible. For that matter, it could be Manny or another Hunahpu in our time.’

The three Guardian elders go silent, their minds exchanging thoughts at light speed.

Dominique loses patience. ‘I don’t care about this Devlin or Lilith, I came here to find Mick. Tell me what happened to him and how I can reach him.’

The younger male is first to speak. ‘Michael Gabriel journeyed into Devlin’s realm to save the Nephilim, but Lilith and her son had been forewarned. He remains trapped in the netherworld. Lilith uses his light to control her followers and keep them in line. Michael’s light attracts them like a moth to flame. It gives them hope, but Michael cannot escape. Now, only the combined strength of the Hero Twins can free One Hunahpu and the Fallen Ones.’

The elder Guardian male looks hard at Jacob. ‘Which means our mission has failed. Your brother should have made the journey, not First-Mother.’

Dominique ignores the remark. ‘How many years have passed since Mick’s arrival?’

‘Just over a Xibalban century,’ the female answers. ‘Approximately 114 Earth years.’

‘Oh … God, how’s that possible?’

The female takes her hand. ‘Dominique, Michael hasn’t aged in a physical sense. His body remains in suspended animation. It’s his mind that is being tortured.’

‘Tortured?’

‘By the Abomination. She is a leech to his soul.’

Jacob stands. ‘I came here to save my father and rescue the Nephilim. Tell me what I have to do?’

‘You may already be too late.’ The older male points a finger.

A volumetric display activates. The astrotopographic projection races through space, approaching a monstrous blazing red fireball of a star. As the red supergiant grows closer, its surface cools in color to that of a soft lightbulb—

—revealing the presence of a second star lurking behind its mass. The smaller star, a white dwarf, is under tremendous turmoil, its surface bloating.

‘The red supergiant will go supernova in thirty-one hours, seventeen minutes. When the event happens, it will disperse massive doses of radiation and energy across this sector of the Galaxy. Nothing on this moon or the planet will survive.’

‘What will you do?’ Dominique asks.