Page 123 of Dead Vengeance

“I’m very sure he would, but the question is, if this is true and real, and Tezcatlipoca has him, like you suggested, why would he let Jem tell you? Why wouldn’t they tell me? This is what I do. This is my entire life’s purpose. Jem is a link to you, you’re a link to me. But what links Tezcatlipoca to Jem?”

Three sharp knocks sound on the door, and this time, the handle turns.

The latch gives with a resounding click that, in this heightened state, sounds like ten atom bombs going off.

Liam raises his gun, and I dash a shoulder in front of him, trying to create a barrier between him and that black crack down the side of the doorframe that could be hiding all manner of horror. “Let’s maybe give it a few minutes of thought before you go running out there, trying to shoot a… a literal god, with that weird toy in your hand.”

He turns the thing slightly, giving it a vague look. “No, I set the office on fire with this. It’s a very good gun.”

“You set the office on fire?”

“Training,” he mutters.

Then, again, like the steady beating of a heart, the knocks on the door, one, two, three, pushing it open a little further with each one. He stiffens, but he doesn’t charge towards it this time, only watches, gripping his gun. Softly, he says, “I have to go out there. I have to do this.”

“Then I’m coming with you.” I dash for my pants, because if we’re doing this, I’d really like more than just a robe on.

Liam steps towards the doorway, weapon raised, but he does it slowly enough for me to discard the robe, pull my top on, and be ready to… stand close to him and watch him shoot the thing if it comes for us. But I’m very much going to be there in spirit.

I shuffle past him and take the edge of the door in hand. “Ready?”

His eyes catch mine, and he turns my heart inside out when he says, “Thank you for doing this with me, Archer. I don’t want to do this alone.”

My hands are on him before I even know what I’m doing, his lips on mine, then our foreheads press together. “You’re not alone,” I whisper. “I’ve got you. Whatever happens next.”

He gives a fast nod, fear drowning behind his determination. I step back, then fling the door wide open.

The other side is exactly as expected. We’re walking into the world Tezcatlipoca makes for us. A world of stone and vines, of fire and smoke, of incense and the scent of tobacco. The place that, now we know who he is, can only be… “His temple,” I whisper to Liam. “He’s been taking us into his world every time. Into what he knows of our plane of existence. What he remembers.”

Liam says nothing, shifts forward with his gun pointing directly down the hall. He moves fast. As if he knows exactly where he’s going.

I can’t see the entrance to the attic now. In the smoke and the mist, I only know that going forward will trace my own hallway in reality, taking us to the epicentre of all the trouble.

While I don’t stop to study the carvings anymore now than I did before, because I need to stay close to Liam, I recognise their style as Aztec for the first time. From photos, drawings, computer games. It’s somehow just a little less frightening having some footing in where I am, believing we might finally be getting some small clue about what Tezcatlipoca is here for.

The mist clears a little as Liam stops at the bottom of stone steps, looking up to a platform that used to be my attic. Where the worst thing I used to hear from it was some angry ghost dragging chains back and forth. Life used to be so simple.

“Will you stay with me?” he asks.

“Of course I will,” I promise him. “I wouldn’t leave you for anything.”

“No, I don’t mean…” He bites his lip. “It’s not through fear. I know you wouldn’t run. You’ve saved me so many times already. I know that. But if it shows me…”

I take his arm and pull him around to face me. “I promise you, I’ve seen it all. You don’t need to worry about me.”

He nods, once and slowly, his face blank with whatever he’s doing to prepare himself.

I stroke a hand down his cheek. “I’m here for you, no matter what. You’re strong. And you’ve got this.”

“Okay.” He smiles the smallest, saddest smile, then tilts his face to catch my kiss. A quick one that I give him instantly, that’s sweeter than words could describe. Because now I’m his boyfriend, and he needs my comfort, and I’m so determined to be here for him.

I trace a hand down his back and rest it there when he ascends. He’s fast to the top, resolute, then he steps aside quickly to make room for me.

I follow, some altar, some stone slab coming into view as I climb higher and higher. Bright sunshine streams from an opening in the ceiling, torches illuminate every dark corner, rows and rows of skulls on racks grin back at us. Then, from across the room, footsteps. Or… one thump that sounds like a footstep. Then something different. Sharper.

Liam focuses the muzzle of his gun in the direction of the sound. There, from a distant blackness, we both watch as the smoke clears, and a face appears in the mist.

A skeleton. A white skeleton face. But even as we watch, it darkens, blooming with sparkling colour until it morphs into something I recognise.