I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Fifty-Four

The world around me lost its air as Tezcat's body fell. His last breath left it, and it lay still.

Coyol's hand moved. A bolt took Xolotl and Tlaloc in one flash, and Quet's cry could have shattered the whole world. He fell to his knees. Another flash; Chal dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. Xipe put a hand on Quet's shoulder. Flash. Exhale.

"Now you know how I feel," said Coyol.

It was only Quet left. He gave me a sad smile, and I knew I was forgiven.

Look after them for us, he said.

The last bolt left Coyol's hand. Its force knocked the wind god's slight frame backwards. He fell beside his twin and did not move again.

Coyol was left standing over her siblings with an expression split between calm and deep, deep hurt finally starting to heal. "You didn't deserve half the world," she said.

"Leave my village," I said in a voice as shattered as I felt.

Coyol waved a hand at the turkey god. "Do as she says."

The turkey in my vision didn't disappear, though. The god responsible for it stood rooted in place, his eyes fixed on something behind me. Cihua grabbed Coyol's arm with a hiss.

A web of fine roots had crept over Tezcat's body like a blanket while nobody was paying attention. He was breathing.

He was breathing.

Jem's arms were still around me, locked tight. Coyol shot another bolt at the night god, but on contact, the root-web exploded in a shield of light. When I could see again, the burst had resolved into a crackling web of a spellcast magic I had seen before. It was gold. Pure gold. And this time, it swallowed the silver, not the other way around.

Who was protecting the gods? And how were they doing it with the magic of the long-dead earth goddess? Was she not dead after all?

No, the gods were sure about that much. Coyol would not have rested—or turned on her siblings—until their mother was gone.

Coyol in the present was backing up like she didn't realize she was doing it. I could see fear in her eyes. I hadn't seen that since my vision of her begging her mother to let her outside. She fired at the other gods, but they too were covered. The root-blanket closed over Quet the moment before his sister's magic reached it. Gold outmatched silver again. The roots thickened.

Coyol's wide, wild eyes turned on me. I saw her palm, then silver, then gold. The gold remained this time, lacing together and building up into a cage identical to the one already around us. Swamp-green magic glowed in protest, but the gold ate that, too. Had Cōātlīcue's magic eaten other magic before, too? Or was this new?

This combination was familiar.

Cihua's barrier fell. Inside its replacement, something rose behind me. The hairs all up the back of my neck stood on end. Whatever this was, it was big. Ominous, slithering, swelling; full of unimaginable, quiet power. And anger. More anger than a single magic could contain. Jem and I both flinched as it stepped up beside us. I looked up to find Emma staring Coyol down.

She had a snake in her hair again. A snake in her hair and frost-gilded roots at her feet, rising where she stepped and thickening behind her. And the look on her face... it was identical to the last two times her magic had taken control.

Everything made sense now. The spellcasting earth magic. The half-callings that converged on a grudge against Coyol. Even the magic's source. Most gods could not reap magic straight from the earth. Cihua could, but she lived in the sky-world, not on the world below. It was the world below where Cōātlīcue had died, soaking the ground with a magic so angry and powerful, its memory of its killer lingered even to this day.