Page 53 of Queen Takes Blood
I didn’t expect Coatlicue to laugh. Her deep, amused chuckle made my cheeks burn even as my spine stiffened.
“Oh, to be so young and arrogant.” She patted my shoulder, taking some of the sting out of her words. “Trust in me, my obsidian blade. When I send you to answer your destined queen’s call, she’ll be queen enough to sheathe your blade all by herself.”
“I can’t bear—” My voice cracked and I squeezed my thighs tightly, trying to hold myself together. “I can’t bear to hurt another woman. Let alone my queen. I would rather die now.”
“I have a purpose for you, son of Zaniyah. I have need of you yet.”
Resignation weighed heavy and cold in my stomach. She didn’t promise I wouldn’t hurt this destined queen, only that She would send me when it was time. “I hear and obey, goddess. Send me wherever you have need of me.”
She remained silent for a few moments. I listened to the rhythmic pant of Her jaguars. The faint rustle of Her skirt of snakes, their jeweled scales moving sinuously in a hypnotic dance. Finally, She let out a long, slow sigh. “As with the creation of the Fifth Sun, if you wish to reach your brother, you must be willing to jump into a raging bonfire. The price is high, my obsidian blade. I require your heart—served with the weapon you laid between my feet.”
A fitting payment since I’d ripped my sire’s heart from his chest and taken his blade. I crossed my arms over my chest and bowed my head. “My heart is yours, Great Mother.”
Her hand rested heavily on my head, the weight of responsibility and honor, regret and grief. A mother’s love for her wayward child. She didn’t say anything else. There was no need.
Searing heat flared on my face, a blast of hot, dry air that swept my hair off my forehead and stole my breath. I lifted my head, not surprised to see that Her throne and the jaguars were gone. A hole shimmered in the floor, a flaming inferno. A high-pitched shriek stabbed my ears and grated my nerves. If that cry was Tlacel’s…
Without hesitation, I scooped up the obsidian blade and dove headfirst into the fire.
28
TLACEL
The air was thick with smoke that smelled like burning cloth and copal. Almost peaceful. A reverent sacrifice to the gods.
Curtains of webbing rippled in the firestorm, pulling away from the ceiling of the cave and falling down on top of the monstrous spider queen. Tangled in her own web, she shrieked and thrashed, trying to cut away the flaming strands, but her struggles only tightened the flaming sheets around her. Pillows of thick, cottony webs exploded with eager flames, sending a rippling blast of heat through the chamber.
Ropes of fire blasted over my head and down the tunnel. So hot. My lungs seared, crisped and shriveled in the heat. My skin felt tender and tight as if I was cooking from the inside out. The image of a blackened piglet filled my mind, skin splitting open.
Her howling screech rose in intensity until a detonation rocked the cave. Bits and blobs of fluid splashed the walls, dousing some of the flames. Her screams ended. Queen Tocatl was no more.
Relieved, I closed my eyes, waiting for the flames to finish me off.Thank you, Coatlicue, Great Mother, for allowing me to avenge Mama and stop the horror of Tocatl.
A thud shook the ground beneath me. Curious, I opened my eyes and turned my head in time to see my brother roll to his feet and begin running through the flames. Eyes blazing with intensity, a knife gripped in his teeth, his hands reached for me. His hair whipped around his shoulders, glowing with cinders and sparks. Another thick web wafted up between us, flaming almost to the ceiling. Without faltering a step, he lunged through the wall of fire, falling toward me.
He landed on top of me, smothering the lingering flames from the remains of my clothing. Wrapping his arms around me, he rolled, taking me with him. I wasn’t sure where. I couldn’t focus enough to tell him about the tunnel. I didn’t think it was passable. He’d suffocate on the smoke even if the flames were out. He wouldn’t make it at all if he had to drag me.
Water hit my skin and I screamed at the intensity. So cold against the burns. Steaming. Shaking. Water closed over my head, not that it mattered if I could breathe or not. My lungs didn’t work now.
So much water. An underground lake, perhaps? A cenote? Itztli shifted me to his left side, one arm crooked around my neck so he could use his other arm to swim with strong strokes and kicks despite my dead weight. Soothing darkness wrapped me close, and I had to smile even as I drifted away.
My brother, such a warrior. So strong and courageous. Not that I ever had a single doubt about his honor, no matter who his father might be.
Blood brought me back. Itztli’s. I would know his taste and scent anywhere. Though I couldn’t comprehend how I was still alive, even as his blood flowed down my damaged throat and began to heal me from the inside out.
“They’re all dead,” he assured me, stretched out beside me with his wrist in my mouth. “Though before we leave Teotihuacan, we should burn their bodies to be sure they can’t rise again.”
As the sky lightened above, I realized where we were. He’d managed to bring us through the water back to Teotihuacan, but rather than ending up beneath the Pyramid of the Sun where I’d sensed water before, we lay on the very top of the mighty peak. A fitting place to watch the break of dawn after never expecting to see the sun again.
:Queen Tocatl is dead. She exploded in the flames. Hopefully her egg sac burned too.:
Itztli’s jaw flexed. “The last thing we need is a horde of hungry spider queens. Though Coatlicue confirmed we have eliminated the last of the Blood that were descended from the original gods of this cursed city.”
:You spoke to our goddess?:
He didn’t tell me the vision. Instead, he allowed the memory to play out in his head, sharing it with me directly. Distressed at the cost he paid to save me, I rolled closer to him and managed to get my arm around his shoulders.:You should have allowed me to die. I was ready to go.:
Resting his head against mine, he hugged me back, a rare display of affection that made my heart ache.:You missed the most important part of the vision. We have a destined queen who will someday call us as Blood.:He didn’t say the last part as words, but I heard the reverberation in his bond.Even me.
