Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Snared
It was some time before I could think clearly enough to plan. But when Ixtab didn’t return immediately, my breathing evened out, and my heart stopped racing. I began considering my options.
First and foremost, I wanted out of the cage. The bars were too close. I was vulnerable, exposed.
I also didn’t want to be suffocated, in case I transformed into my human self—or even the bat-god version—and the cage didn’t snap.
I didn’t think for a minute she’d put me, thinking it was Camazotz, into a cage that couldn’t hold me.
I wasn’t calm enough to risk it. Besides, transforming could come with other costs.
She could have a camera on me. The room was dark, and the corners were murky. There were many places to hide one.
Thirdly, as long as she thought I was him, she would keep his body alive.
The relief of knowing he was alive was staggering. He was a killer, a liar, a married man, and yet I still wanted him alive. Nothing like a scare to get my priorities in place, even if it made me a fool. I’d rather be his fool than a lonely crow.
Only, what could I do in a sparrow’s body locked in a cage? First things first.
Camazotz? Are you alive?
He didn’t answer. I forced my brain to calm down enough to see if I could sense his presence.
Once I could breathe normally, I tried again.
There he was, somewhere down below me. He didn’t feel nearby, but for now, it was good enough to know he was there at all.
I had been convinced I had lost him, and now I made up my mind to do what I could to get us both out of this mess.
Then, with both of us safe, he’d hear an earful.
The door opened, startling me out of my reverie, and the proud goddess of honorable suicide entered the room.
I got a good look at her for a second time.
She seemed impossibly large from my current perspective, but I looked without blinking.
Her thick, dark hair was cut short, just under her ears.
Light eyes seemed out of place in the large almond shape.
My bird eyes didn’t translate the same shades of color my human eyes would’ve seen, but I could clearly tell she was stunning.
The human world would be drawn to her, and if she wanted celebrity, it would be hers.
The other thing worth noting was I looked nothing like her.
She came straight to my cage.
“Believe me, Husband, I was not behind Chaac’s plan to trap you. I don’t want you dead, no matter what happened between us. I still have affection for you.
“I will let you out of this cage as soon as I’m finished, but I need you to hear me out first, and we both know you may never give me the chance again.
You’ve never once given me a chance to explain myself, always shutting me out or leaving before I can say more than a few words.
Now, I can finally explain… and apologize. ”
She took a breath, and I fluffed out my feathers, doing my best to act as I imagined my Monster would, had he actually been in my bird body.
“I have always been drawn to you from the beginning. I’ve told you this a thousand times before, but it bears repeating.
I still care for you. What I couldn’t do was adapt to your isolated life.
I need other people around me, society, and you are essentially a hermit.
I thrive on meeting and influencing others, while you love your books, your evening flights.
If you never spoke to another being again, that would be fine.
But isolation is my greatest fear. I am just too social.
I love what you consider trivial things like fashion and social trends.
I also thrive on interfering in human politics.
I need it to keep my brain engaged, and no one could do that from Tennessee.
“When Chaac offered me a chance to help with his project, way back when, I had every intention of coming back to you. You have to understand. I was bored, looking for a distraction. Nothing happened between us, not like that, not for a long time, until I knew for certain I could never be happy living up there with you. But don’t think I stopped caring for you.
I didn’t. If I thought I could tempt you to come live with me in Paris, or Tokyo, or any other thriving city, then I’d leave him. I’d even help you overthrow him.”
She stared at me as if willing me to answer.
I wondered what he would’ve said had he heard this confession.
Would he want his beautiful wife back? And now what?
Did she expect me to transform into him?
Would we have a heart-to-heart? Somehow, despite having no clue about his thoughts on this matter, I couldn’t see it.
She stared at me for a moment more, none of her true feelings apparent on her aristocratic face.
“Well, I’m sure you’re hungry. I know how much energy you burn with these transformations.”
A knock sounded behind her. She turned and opened the door.
A rich aroma of cooked meat filled the room, and my stomach cramped in response. I couldn’t remember ever being so hungry.
She turned with a tray of food in her hands. “I’ll give you a few minutes, but don’t you dare leave without talking to me.” She set the tray down on the bed and unlatched the cage while giving me an intense look before shutting the door behind her.
I hopped to the edge of the cage, breathing easier now that the door was unlocked.
The bedroom door was shut tightly, no light leaking in from the hallway.
She was probably on the other side, waiting for Camazotz to emerge.
That’s what I would’ve done. My attention strayed to the mountain of food on the bed.
I was so hungry my legs felt wobbly. I searched the room for a means of escape.
The smart thing would be to fly out of here the first chance I got.
Then again, she had already caught me once.
In a net, for crying out loud. She wasn’t going to let “him” get away without a confrontation, no way.
So, what should I do? Pretend to be him?
Could I do it convincingly? My stomach growled, threatening to cannibalize itself.
Maybe I could eat and then turn into a fast bird, a peregrine falcon, and make my escape?
It sounded like as good a plan as I could think up, so, for the first time in days, I changed back into my human form.
God, it felt good to be myself again. I stretched my arms so high I rocked up onto my tiptoes.
Human-sized, it was easy to see there were no cameras anywhere.
I covered the small room in a few strides and sat down on the bed, grabbing the tray into my lap.
My toes dug into the thin rug, hands gripping the edges of the tray.
The food looked simple: grilled beef, rice, beans, and salsa.
It smelled divine. I grabbed the fork and shoveled the food into my mouth, not caring as it burned, enjoying the physicality of eating almost as much as extinguishing my hunger.
With each bite, I was aware of my legs, of the scratchy fabric under my thighs.
I stretched my legs straight out and fanned out my toes.
The beef melted in my mouth, the rice soaking up the juices. For a few blissful minutes, my worries receded, and I ate my fill.
Then the door opened, and I came face to face with my lover’s wife.
She stared at me, clearly surprised. At least I’d had time to get used to her existence, but I should’ve been ready for her to return so soon. Being a bird for days on end was not easy to bounce back from.
“Who are you?”
I placed the tray down next to me, too worried about facing off a goddess to care I was naked in her perfect presence.
I stood and faced her, only an inch or two smaller than the goddess of suicide. “I’m Freya.” I held out my hand. “A friend of your husband’s.”
She looked down at my hand, sticking out awkwardly between us. Then she laughed. It was an angry laugh. She glanced at the open cage as she worked out the truth.
My hand dropped to my side. “Do you happen to have any clothes I could borrow?” I looked down at my naked form. At least I wasn’t hungry anymore.
The surprise on her face melted into rage, pure and deadly. If she was an immortal demigod, then I was nothing more than an irritating ant—one that had made the dire mistake of angering the powerful goddess.
I took a step back. “Never mind. I’ll just get out of your hair. Thank you for the food, by the way.” I slowly took another step in the direction of the door, smart enough not to turn my back on her.
“If you leave, I’ll make sure he’s killed tonight. For good.”
I ignored her cruel words and stopped, facing her fully.
I straightened to the top inch of my insignificant height and steeled my spine.
I had screwed everything up the last time I had faced off with Cassandra, but these stakes were life and death.
I would do everything I could to survive; otherwise, we were both dead. Only I had no idea how.
I took a deep breath. “Okay. What do you want from me?”
“Answers. Now.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. You probably want to know who I am and how I got here. Well, I’m not anybody special.
Not like you, Ixtab, or any of your friends.
Maybe not friends, but those of you who gather every fifty years.
” Shit, shouldn’t have said that. She didn’t blink.
She just watched me with cold eyes as I rambled, giving her more and more rope.
“Anyways. I just stumbled upon Camazotz accidentally. I literally got lost, and my car broke down fifty feet from his driveway.”
At this revelation, Ixtab rolled her eyes. “You have got to be kidding me. Living by himself in the middle of nowhere, and his other half shows up at his door.”
“His other half?” The insult was in there somewhere, even if I couldn’t quite get it.
“And then what happened, little toad?”
“It’s Corvus, actually, but never mind. Are you going to kill him?”