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“True, but he went rogue. It happens sometimes. Especially the little ones—always trying to make up for their stout nature. If Brooks hadn’t killed him, I would’ve, trust me.” She straightened a few magazines then turned back to me. “You want to know the worst part?”
“Worse than being attacked by blue demons and crazy rogue monsters?”
“Having to look like a hideous hag!” She clenched her fists and shook her head.
“Why would you have to look like—?”
“Because it’s expected of someone sitting on the throne of death. But if I were a man…”
“Okay, I get the whole creepy death god costume, but that doesn’t explain why you held Quinn prisoner.”
“She was never a prisoner. She was in training as a spy for a very old, very secret…” She hesitated. “She was working undercover the whole time.”
Great! So the gods have a spy network? “Does Brooks know her sister was a spy?”
She straightened a black-beaded pillow. “She knows now, which could create a problem for Quinn’s cover.”
Rosie turned in circles before finding a cozy place to settle on the floor. I didn’t want to say anything, but man, did she need a bath. Or two. She smelled like singed hair.
“Hang on, didn’t Quinn… er, stab you with a lightning bolt?”
“She had to…”
“To make it look good.” I nodded, catching on. “I get it.”
My mind raced through everything Ixtab had done, everything she’d been responsible for. All her answers added up. Then I remembered Ms. Cab. “You turned the seers into chickens!”
“You’re a little slow for a godborn, you know that?” she said, annoyed. “Think about it. We couldn’t have a bunch of seers running around knowing what we were up to, now could we? For this all to work, it had to be flawless. We had to get you to the Old World, so your dad could claim you in front of the council if you were to have half a chance at defeating Ah-Puch.”
“Puke could’ve killed me!”
“That was a risk we had to take.”
“Yeah, because it wasn’t your head!”
Rosie crooned in agreement.
“Why?” I asked. “Why would you risk so much to help my dad, to help me?”
“We…”
“Who’s we?”
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She turned away, paused, then looked back. “Your father’s not the only one who broke the Sacred Oath.”
Oh. Ohh. OHHHH.
“There are other godborns. Were other godborns.”
Yeah, wasn’t expecting that little tidbit of information. “Wha… what happened to them?”
I thought I saw her wipe off a tear, but she turned too quickly. “We don’t know….We sent them away—to hide them—but they all died. It was like their blood couldn’t hold the power.”
They all died? My breath whooshed out of me. The whole thing was too depressing. “Then… does that mean I’m going to—?”
She shrugged then spun back around with a deep frown. “You seem to have defied the odds. Who knows why you survived? Maybe because you’re Hurakan’s…” She shivered. “I shouldn’t be telling you all this. It’s ancient history. Right now the important thing is that you disappear. Do you think you can play dead?”
