“What happened with the Fire Keeper?” Ren asked.
“Can we have this conversation somewhere else?” Ah-Puch was worried. “After we’re through a gateway, perhaps? Far, far away? I sense danger.”
“More bats?” I asked.
“More danger.”
I checked my hands. They were pale with greenish veins bulging out of thin skin. It was only the second day of the death magic, and I was looking more and more like a zombie.
“Fire Keeper…” I whispered. It felt like my brain was drowning at the bottom of the sea. Something about dinosaurs and shadows. Or was it guitars? I reached into my pocket and pulled out the jade handle that used to be attached to Fuego.
The memories of last night came flooding back all at once, suffocating me under the weight of the awful truth. Rosie came over and nuzzled me with her nose like she knew what I’d had to let go of. What I’d destroyed.
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“What happened last night?” Ren asked.
I walked into the living area, trying to cool off. “You want to know what happened with the Fire Keeper?” I asked with unexpected fury. Hondo once told me anger is the easiest emotion of all. It’s sudden and powerful. My eyes flashed from Ah-Puch to Ren. “He said there’s a traitor in our midst. So how about you tell me about this magic of yours and why you really showed up the night before the mud person came, and why shadows surround you, and—”
“You think…?” Ren shook her head in disbelief. “You think I’m a traitor?” Her lower lip trembled and tears pooled in her eyes.
“I don’t kn
ow what to think.”
“I think we should go,” Ah-Puch said.
With fists on her hips, Ren glared at me and said, “I never lied. I already told you I have magic from my Mexican side of the family. I never lied,” she repeated.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me everything. You said something about your family’s blood….” My words hung in the air.
Ren shot Ah-Puch a side-glance. “Tell him,” he said to her. “Quickly.”
I braced myself.
Standing straighter, Ren said, “I’m part Mexica.”
All eyes were on me. And for a blink it felt like time stood still. “You mean, you’re related to those pitiful ghosts?”
Okay, those weren’t the words I’d planned to say. I can hear your sighs and groans and you’re-an-idiot accusations already. What, you’ve never stuck your big fat foot into your even bigger mouth?
“I didn’t mean it like that….” I was backpedaling. Hard. “I meant…”
“Apparently, they’re not all ghosts,” said Ah-Puch.
“Mi familia, we’re the last bruja bloodline of our kind,” Ren said. “Some Maya gods didn’t want any Mexica magic to survive. If they found out that we had…”
She didn’t need to finish her sentence. I knew firsthand how much gods craved power.
“So some Maya goddess…” I tried to choose my words more carefully. “Your mom…she, like, fell for a Mexica?”
Ren frowned. “She fell for my dad.”
“That’s what I meant.” I struggled with what to say next, because I’d already said too many stupid things. “I’m sorry for what your family’s been through. I…I know what it feels like to be hunted…hated for something you didn’t even do.”
“We definitely didn’t have anything to do with this mess,” Ren said. “My dad refused to teach me any magic, and now he’s gone. So I’m not the traitor, okay?”
I put up my hands. “I get it, I get it. I’m sorry.”