Chapter 14 Xolotl
Xolotl
Once Whitney’s as shielded as she can be from this interaction, I walk back toward my brothers. “You came faster than I thought you could.”
“Why’d you summon us?” Osiris asks. “We aren’t your little errand boys, you know.”
“If you weren’t awake yet, my summons would have woken you,” I say. “I was doing you a favor, plus it’s been too long since we saw one another.”
“You called us here for a reunion?” Pluto looks pretty skeptical.
“Well, that, and I thought you might like to hear about how the world has changed, in case you haven’t picked a champion or met with any local leaders yet.”
“I picked one,” Pluto says. “A really great one, actually. The North Koreans are crazy and have almost nothing to lose. He’s already started a war with South Korea.”
“I did, too,” Osiris says. “I can’t believe you thought we needed your help with acclimating after waking.” He shakes his head. “Even you’re not usually that patronizing.”
“Yeah.” Pluto’s frowning. “He’s right. Tell us why we can’t kill anyone here? And why would you pick that little girl for your champion?”
“She immediately tried to kill me when I emerged from the mountainside. She’s a fierce warrior.”
“In a swirling red dress?” Osiris rolls his eyes. “Try again.”
“Okay, it might have been a mistake to choose her at first,” I admit. “But I’ve gotten to know her better, and she’s improving. So I don’t need your hel—”
Osiris explodes. “You called us to help you?” He slaps Pluto on the back. “The great Xolotl needed help?”
Pluto’s grinning, too.
“I don’t anymore,” I say. “I formally apologize to you for the now-unnecessary summons. I have a meeting with the local military leaders soon, so I don’t have much time to spend with you.”
“I hate that you even can summon us.” Osiris is glaring again. “Why are you the only one who can do that?”
Pluto shoves Osiris. “Every group needs a leader. Drop it.”
Osiris ignores Pluto and moves closer. “No, I don’t think I will. I’ve never been stupid enough to choose a human champion who would be a liability, so why should you lead us if you’re that dumb?” He attacks then, slamming into me with a hard cross to my jaw.
Before he can do anything worse, I open up the ground beneath Osiris and bury him under two tons of rock. Then I turn toward my other brother. “You care to take issue with me as your leader, Pluto?”
He’s shaking his head when Osiris explodes out of the ground ten feet back, flinging debris all over. I use air to keep it from hitting me, but Pluto isn’t as fast.
“Hey, leave me out of this.” He’s glaring at Osiris.
“His human’s a liability. He’s not killing because of her. Spread your senses out, moron. They’re everywhere, live humans, just. . .living.”
Pluto’s eyes widen. “Why are there so many humans all around you? If you’re meeting with the military tomorrow, don’t you need to be at full strength?”
“It’s for her.” Osiris tosses his head at the hotel room where I tucked Whitney. “He called us to kill her, but somehow, she’s ensorcelled him, and he’s changed his mind.” He’s scowling now. “He’s been tricked. We have to help him, do what he knew he needed when he called us.”
Pluto looks confused now.
“He’s wrong,” I say. “Whitney’s learning to use her powers quickly, and she knows everything about the local government. She’s become an asset, and I don’t want to find a new champion.”
“We’re only forced to take one as a check on our power,” Osiris says.
“That’s not true,” I say. “We gain more from them than a ticking clock on our waking time.”
“We do learn from them,” Pluto says. “And they can be entertaining.”
“And normally, choosing badly would be terrible,” Osiris says. “But we’re here. If we eliminate her for you, we can power you back up right away. It’s the best way to rid yourself of a bad choice.” He’s smiling now. “You need us for once.”
Pluto’s smiling, too. “But you didn’t say why you changed your mind.”
“I said—she’s improved since I summoned you.”
“You wouldn’t have called us unless you were in bad shape—was it that you didn’t want to go to sleep again, or was it that you couldn’t bring yourself to do what needed to be done?” Osiris starts toward Whitney’s hotel room. “Either way, we should do what you called us to do.”
I move to block him. “You will go. Your help’s no longer needed.”
“I think Osiris may be right,” Pluto says.
“Call me Anubis,” Osiris says. “You know that.”
Pluto sighs.
I send a shock wave at them, and then I toss my head. “You two will go. If Whitney needs to be destroyed, I can take care of it myself.”
“I don’t think you can, brother,” Pluto says. “I think Anubis is right—you’ve somehow become confused.”
Osiris strikes me with a lightning bolt, then ducks around, arrowing for Whitney’s door.
I hit them both with the same strike, but twice as strong.
They’re both flung back thirty feet, landing hard on their backs.
I’m always stronger than they are, but here, in my own territory?
There’s no contest. I pull on earth and dump them deep in the ground.
Then I hit that spot with strike after strike of lightning.
Of course, they’re smart enough to use that power to their benefit, repurposing it to burst through the ground.
“We’ll get nowhere with this,” Pluto says, spitting dirt out as he speaks. “We could do this all day.”
Osiris bursts free a second later. “Not so. It’s two to one.” He’s beaming. “We can take him, working together.”
They come at me from opposite sides this time, hoping to crack me like a nut, but they underestimate my ability to draw on my own territory’s power. I set them both on fire, and while they’re burning, I materialize a broadsword. A few strokes while they’re distracted, and Pluto’s only got one arm.
A few more, and Osiris is a stump—I took both his legs.
I’m beaming when they start to regrow them, screaming at me the whole time.
Half a dozen humans flee the rooms behind us, and Pluto ignores my request and sprints toward them, using a combination of lightning strikes and fire to take their life-forces, the humans screaming as they die.
I wonder how long I have before Whitney comes out of that room and shows them exactly how untrained she is.
I don’t wait for either of my brothers to reach further out, striking again before they can. Osiris materializes his double longswords, and Pluto’s arm is almost regrown, so he goes for his traditional bow.
“Wait.” Osiris smiles. “We don’t even have to defeat him. We just have to kill her.”
I swear, loudly. “If you do destroy her, I’ll never forgive that violation of my power here. I’ll attack you forever.”
Pluto’s brow furrows. “What is it about this human? Do you remember hearing that Baba Yaga went insane over some man? It caused all kinds of problems in the past. We can’t allow that for you.”
Instead of giving me time to defend myself, they both beeline for Whitney’s room. I dive after them, not sure how I can keep them both occupied and away from her when she’s so very fragile.
I use wind to yank Pluto back.
But Osiris has almost reached the hotel room door.
I leap after him, but he blocks my attack with one of his swords. “This is going to be fun—setting you straight for once. I’m at least as curious as Pluto about how exactly you were ensorcelled, but I suppose answers about that will have to wait until after she’s gone.”
I set him on fire, but he puts it out immediately.
Then his hand’s on the knob. It’s locked, but that won’t stop one of us. He rips the door off the hinges and steps forward.
I try to block him, but strong bands of wind yank me backward. Pluto. I swear loudly while I knock those back, but Osiris is already plunging through the doorway.
There’s a loud explosion behind us, which Osiris ignores, and then Thanatos leaps out of the ground. “Why you have the right to summon us, I will never understand.” He’s scowling mightily, and he already has a staff in hand. “If there isn’t a good reason for this, I swear—”
Osiris has dragged Whitney out by one arm.
She’s thrashing around, and somehow she found some kind of—what is that?—to stab him in the shoulder. It looks like a chair leg.
“We’re about to kill the human who ensorcelled Xolotl.” Osiris is beaming, in spite of bleeding profusely from the spot where Whitney stabbed him.
I use wind to tear her away from his side and pull her against mine. “You’re not about to do a single thing to my champion,” I snarl. “And if you try, I’ll fight you without forgiveness, and eventually, I’ll destroy you.”
Thanatos smiles. “It does appear this human has done something to Xolotl.”
“He may be the most powerful among us,” Pluto says. “He may be able to drop humans with a mere thought in ways we don’t really understand, but there’s no way he can take all three of us.”
I do something I’ve never done before. I reach for the same light, the same power, the same critical point I sense in humans, but this time, in Osiris, and I pull.
He staggers. “What was that?”
“I’m about to end you.” I press Whitney closer to my side. “I told you to leave her alone, and I told you I’d never forgive you if you ignored me.” I pull a little more.
Osiris coughs, and blood splatters the ground. “Brother, we’re helping you. You’re clearly sick.”
“I’m telling you that I’m fine.” I straighten. “And I will end you if I must.”
Thanatos jogs closer, and I feel for his life force, prepared to do whatever I must. But instead of striking me or Whitney, he pivots and faces Osiris and Pluto. “You two can’t destroy this human anyway.” He turns back to me. “Because she’s mine.”
Rage rips through me at that proclamation, and I prepare to end him.
Whitney’s trembling at my side. “I—I don’t belong to anyone.”
Thanatos reaches for her, and I feel for his life force, and I prepare to squeeze. But then he steps back, smiling at Whitney as he does so. “You’re my child, girl. Mine and Lechuza’s.”
“What?” Pluto and Osiris ask at the same time.
My anger dissipates. He appears to be speaking to her origins, not his current possession of her. I should clarify, however. “I also don’t understand.”
“Lechuza and I—many years ago, we fell in love. Connections between life and death were obviously not allowed, so we hid our child among the humans. She’s a descendant of that offspring of light and dark combined. Our power and theirs, blended with the humans. A truly unique bloodline.”
Whitney doesn’t even look surprised.
“Did you know this?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I’d heard something like that before.”
It’s why I saw light in her and dark both. It’s not her human nature—it’s a power she inherited.
“But he’s bonded her as his human champion,” Osiris says. “What does that mean?”
Thanatos looks sad. “I’m not sure. I wouldn’t have thought he’d be able to, but I guess only time will tell the effects of one of our kind being bonded to one like her. Any problems that arise are my fault, so I’ll take responsibility.”
“For breaking Xolotl?” Pluto swears. “What can you possibly do to fix him?”
“I’m not broken.”
They ignore me.
“I’m not sure,” Thanatos says, “but you won’t kill her.”
“I hate this,” Osiris says. “I’m out.” He leaps back into the earth and disappears.
Pluto takes a bit longer to process, but within five minutes, he’s gone, too.
Whitney’s still hiding under my arm, but she emerges when Thanatos is the only one left. “You’re really my ancestor?”
He bobs his head. “I am. I’m the reason you’re equal parts light and dark energy, or at least, I’m responsible for the dark half.”
“Then can you break this champion bond that Xolotl formed? Then I’d be free, and so would he.”
“I can certainly try,” Thanatos says.
A snarl rises up inside of me, clawing its way out. “You can’t have her.”
Both of them stare at me.
“She’s mine,” I say. “Not yours. You won’t terminate the bond.”
“But she’s not a good champion,” Thanatos says. “The light energy pulsing through her would keep her from ever understanding our role. She’ll always want to protect the humans, not harm them. She’ll wreck the balance you’re meant to create.”
“We’re working it out,” I say.
“No, you’re at least fifty percent diametrically opposed, which isn’t as bad as Lechuza and me, but just as doomed.” Thanatos beckons to her. “Come with me, girl. We’ll figure out what to do with the bond.”
I grip my broadsword and angle it toward him. “You will not take her.”
“How about you let her decide where she goes?” Thanatos turns toward Whitney.
I’m paralyzed for a moment. If she really is his child, he has a claim, and his magic would call to her.
Could he take her from me? And if she wants to go, should I try to keep her anyway?
The image of her slumped over haunts me.
If she has a choice and I take it from her, I could be creating a slumped-Whitney.
I can’t risk that—even thinking about letting her go makes me feel unsettled and strange, but slumped-Whitney’s worse.
The idea of handing her to Thanatos just makes me so angry. Angry, and also something else I’ve never felt before. I think humans would say I was scared.
I hate it.
It’s the worst feeling I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
But I sense that if I don’t let her choose, I’ll lose her anyway.
“Whitney, would you like to leave with Thanatos? Or stay with me?” For some reason, it feels like my entire future’s wrapped up in this one answer.