I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Sixty-One

"This is edible?" I poked the green sludge in the bowl while Xipe laughed at us silently. "Cool."

"The name was accurate," said Lupe in mixed horror and fascination.

"Right?"

"What are you two doing?" said Emma, wandering over with a dog at either heel. Grifo had not stopped looking pleased with himself ever since he'd gotten over his experience in Mictlan and adjusted to Jem and I's trips back to the underworld. It was starting to show why. Tochtli looked suspiciously pudgy these days.

Lupe and I exchanged a knowing glance at Emma's question. My cousin folded her hands daintily. "Tecuitlatl."

Emma's face screwed up exactly as expected. Lupe and I doubled over laughing.

"It's not funny!" shrilled Emma. "Who in Ōmeteōtl's name calls a food rock poop? Xipe!"

"What?" The golden god had a disarmingly good "innocent" face. "I didn't name it."

"Well, rename it, then." She stormed off with a scowl.

My cousin met my eye. "What do you think?"

"Not a chance. I like tecuitlatl better."

"I hoped you'd say that."

A wave of laughter rose from the group Emma had just passed through. I suspected we would have support for our anti-renaming campaign.

"Are those two back yet?" said Lupe.

I scanned the bustling tent-town. It had tripled in size since my seeking-flame and some very determined adventurers had found Tepepia alive and well, if shaken, in the desert some thirty kilometers south of here. To say that the two villages had merged smoothly would be an understatement. It had been six weeks since the war had ended, and two since Grillo Negro had packed up its tents and joined Tepepia where they were camped. Already I could only tell their people apart by their faces and hair.

Well, and their accents, but even that was nearly a moot point. With Grillo Negro gifted back their language by the gods, everyone in the village just spoke Nahuatl.

"Adriana..."

"I can't see them."

Quet and Tezcat now traveled to Mictlan every other day, crossing its first three challenges to visit Xochi's grave. Quet said Xochi would reappear where she had faded when there was enough energy around to reverse the fade. The trip also got Tezcat out of the tent regularly, which did him good. He still didn't speak, but his siblings seemed fine with the silence. I doubted it was the first time they'd dealt with this, either.

"Adria~na..."

"What?" I grumbled. Lupe had her sparkle-eyed face on, and I wasn't in the mood to tell her who I was or wasn't pining after. I dragged my gaze from the crowd. Jem wasn't back yet. He hadn't told me where he was going, and he'd been gone all day.

"You going to take him up on a dance offer tonight? You still owe him one. And now that you're officially dating..."

"Haven't you got your own offer to worry about?"

"She's taken." Lupe could put on a good pout when she wanted to. "Or will be. And I'm not going to fight a goddess over it."

"Oh?" I let a grin quirk the side of my mouth.

"Okay, maybe I will. But you'd better be there to back me up."

I gave her my best cousin-smirk and left to grab the clay bowls we'd be drying the rock-poop algae in. It was, I would rather die than admit, another excuse to check for returning gods and Jem. And to hide the stupid grin that kept trying to bubble up inside me. It was fun having the gods here. I secretly hoped they'd stay longer than the time it took Xolotl to recover enough to manage the trip back to a now-rebuilt Tlalocan.