“Oh yeah, they unlocked a door that they didn’t have a key for. And they can talk telepathically without even touching, but when they do, their eyes melt. I mean, not melt. They go from brown to, like, electric blue.” I heard myself babbling and I really wanted to shut up, but my brain kept firing the words minus the punctuation. “Like a bluish molten color it’s kinda cool actually and Alana wears shades because she’s sensitive to light and don’t you want to know what they stole?”
Ixtab turned away and poured some tea from a brass teapot that hadn’t been there before. A rope of steam rose from the cup, looking like it was waiting for a neck to wrap around. I retreated and swallowed the expanding bulge in my throat.
Ixtab took a careful sip, then turned back to me. “They don’t sound terribly gifted,” she said.
And as she did, her eyes flashed a familiar glowing blue.
Okay, so I was a little slow on the uptake, but being in the underworld can really turn your brain to mush.
Ixtab’s molten eyes made it clear.
“Oh my gods!” I practically shouted. “WTX!”
“WTX?”
“What the Xib’alb’a.”
“Get ahold of yourself, Zane.” She sighed. “And please refrain from using the sacred name of the underworld in your dramatics. A curse like that could bring all kinds of trouble down on your head.”
WTX is officially struck from my vocab, I thought.
“The twins…they’re your kids, right?” I knew it! Okay, I didn’t exactly know, but I had definitely sensed that there was something different about them. So, this was why Ixtab had summoned me. She didn’t want to hear a firsthand report about Ik—she wanted to hear about her kids!
“Do you like the races?” she asked, motioning to the TV screen.
She turned up the volume so I could hear the announcer: “We’re only minutes away, and the hellhounds look restless. Who will be this year’s champion? Who will be chosen to serve our queen?”
Was Ixtab seriously going to ignore my question?
“Do you?” she asked again.
“Uh—never seen them,” I said. “The winner becomes your servant?” How was that a victory?
“None will ever be as grand as your Rosie,” she said quietly, and I could tell she missed her. “Don’t you agree?”
“Yeah, but, um…” HELLO! ARE THEY YOUR KIDS?!
The announcer droned on while the camera panned the track. It looked just like a horse racetrack except that the fence was made of bones and steam rose from the dirt.
“Do you think Rosie misses it here at all?” Ixtab asked.
My cheeks flushed with anger. “Why would she? She has a great life, and we’re the perfect pair.” To emphasize my point, in case the goddess hadn’t been listening, I added, “She belongs with me.”
“But you’d give her up if that was in her best interest.”
How could living in the underworld ever be good for Rosie? And why did that matter now?
Oh. OH!
I finally got it. Ixtab was talking about Adrik and Alana.
“I’d do anything if it was best for Rosie,” I said, and I meant it.
Ixtab nodded thoughtfully. “You are not to mention me to Adrik and Alana.” Her voice was empty of any emotion, which was weird, but maybe only by human standards. I mean, gods don’t feel things the same way we do.
“Oh,
okay, but…” I inhaled, deeply worried that what I said next might land me in Rattle House, or worse, corpse-diving in Pus River. “You never said you had two kids.”