Page 69 of My Trojan Horse Majesty

I close my mouth, but I don’t like her tone.

“Youare an abomination.” She jabs a finger at Leonid. “Humans shouldn’t be using our powers at all, and we ought to have roasted Yamauba for what she did.”

“Why didn’t you?” Leonid asks. “If it was so wrong for her to share her powers with a human.”

Lechuza laughs. “Share? You think shesharedthem, like you’d hand someone half an ice-cream sandwich?” She lowers her head. “She slept with a human—the great and handsome Rurik—and then she made children with him. And then, that human, that arrogant, powerful, stupid, perverse human, he cheated on her.” She looks ready to burn something down. “Baba Yaga or Yamauba or whatever name she’s chosen lately, got just what she deserved. A broken heart.”

“So that’s why you didn’t punish her?”

The pep in Lechuza’s step dissipates some. “Well, not exactly.”

“You did it too.” I can tell by her expression. “You couldn’t really fault her, because you. . .” I clear my throat. “You were also guilty.”

“I certainly never slept with a human.” She spits. Then she focuses again on the crevasse. “I’m going to clean this up. Give me a moment.” She tilts her head, sets her feet, and spreads her arms wide. Then she heaves, and the ground trembles slightly, and the two sides of the mountain groan and rejoin. She wipes her brow. “Idiot human, using ten times as much power as he needed.”

“I’m new to using earth,” Leonid says.

“You split that mountain with a combination of your other powers.” She snorts. “If it wasn’t so clumsy, I’d actually be impressed. I tried to slap a governor on you, and you went ahead and accepted the shackles, leaning into the bond.”

“Whatisthe bond, exactly?” I ask.

“You show up here, stomping around with your poorly aligned energy in my part of the world.” Lechuza shakes her head. “He was bound to notice the signature was wrong, and I knew it would wake him up. I went to confront you—to kick you out—but I could sense her.” She points at me. “Your stupid great-great-great-whatever grandmother would surely have shown up to defend you if I evicted you.” She tsks. “Just as stupid now as she was back then. I didn’t want to fight her, so when I saw you there, just bumbling around, I took my chance.”

“To do what, exactly?” I ask. “So what if our souls align? Bonding someone to their soulmate stops them from being able to use magic?”

Lechuza laughs. “You idiots know so little that all your questions are wrong.”

“I wonder whose fault it is when the children are ignorant,” Leonid says.

“I can see why she likes you.” Lechuza spits. On the ground. Like some kind of. . .redneck. “Soul matches aren’t one-in-the-universe, but they’re rare. Things don’t just happen. Isabel Brooks came by the exact location where you were at that moment, when I was also present and looking for a way to mute you for a reason. So when I realized you were a soul match, I pushed a little harder.” She beams. “But the soul match wasn’t what allowed the bond to exist.” She walks around me, searching my face or body for something. “No, I could bond him to you because of who and whatyou are,Isabel.”

“What is she?” Leonid’s eyes light up. “Is she like me?”

Lechuza laughs. “The mold was broken when you were born, beautiful boy. No, she’s something very different.” She crouches down in front of us, and this time, she whispers. “My mistake wasn’t in loving a human. It was in loving a devil.”

I blink.

“While Baba Yaga was fooling around with Rurik, she begged me for a favor. She asked me to distract her horseman, Thanatos. Or you may have heard him called by the name Hades. At first, I thought I’d fail in coming to her aid. But then, the more time I spent pursuing him, trying to distract him. . . He and I. . .” She stands. “Let’s just say we were something like a soul match.” But her smile’sverysmug.

“What does that have to do with me?” I ask.

“You’re my great-great-great whatever.” She shrugs. “Thanatos’ dark energy and my light energy combined to make children who could not work magic—no mess to clean up—but were nevertheless created by equal parts light and dark. That’s why Baba Yaga and our other sisters couldn’t get mad at me. But you do carry within you the dark and light magic from both sides, and I pulled loose just enough of a thread of it to tether this one to you.” She blows a kiss to Leonid. “You’re welcome.”

“Why would you do that, though?” Leonid asks.

“To keep you from waking up the pain in my mountain, Xolotl. Or weren’t you listening at all?” She gestures at Leonid, but looks at me. “So he’s gorgeous, but sadly as dumb as a bag of rocks, huh?”

I laugh.

“Now that I’ve explainedeverything, linked both of the bumbling idiots who were spraying magic all over, and cleaned up your mess, I’m leaving. I have things to do. Don’t make any more messes for me to clean up. I have my own things to take care of. Got it?” She pivots.

“Wait,” I ask. “How can we break the bond?”

She pauses, looking over her shoulder. “Now who’s the dumb one?” She shrugs. “You’re soul matches whom I’ve joined magically, tying his light to your dark.” She shakes her head. “You don’t break it—joined till death.”

Then between one breath and another, she’s justgone.

Chapter19

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