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Brooks introduced us, but Jordan didn’t shake our hands or smile. He simply took us in with a sneer, like he could see past the enchantment as easily as Flaco had. I immediately decided I hated the guy.
I stood straighter, grasping the jade in my pocket. I didn’t have time for this dude’s small talk, but I also dreaded having to ask him for anything.
Hondo looked around. “Any more shrimp left?”
Ignoring him, I said to Jordan through clenched teeth, “We’re here to ask for a favor.”
“Isn’t everyone?” Jordan chuckled. “But come on, join the party. It’s my birthday. Business can wait.”
We followed him to an enclosed cabana near the pool’s edge. I whispered to Brooks, “You have a sister?”
“Later,” was all she said.
Hondo scrunched up his face as we passed a group of girls singing along to the rap music now blaring across the party. “Who made these guys’ playlist?”
A line of people wound around the tent, waiting to see the other twin, no doubt. I wondered what all these people wanted and what “magic” they were willing to trade.
A giant twice the size of Jazz stood at the tent’s entrance, keeping his gaze on the crowd. He didn’t blink, didn’t even look at us. His gray suit was a size too big and looked more like an ugly bedspread, which made me feel sort of sorry for the guy. I knew how it felt to have to shop for “specials” because of some… irregularity. What had he been forced to trade to be allowed in with the “beautiful people”?
Inside the tent were purple velvet couches, a bar, three crystal chandeliers, plenty of gold-framed mirrors, and Bird. He wore a dark suit and stood in the corner whispering something to a giggling girl. His eyes locked with Brooks and unlike smiling Jordan, his face was granite. He waved the girl away and walked over to us. Yeah, he was Jordan’s twin, all right. But there was something darker about him, something that made him seem older.
“La mitad de halcón returns,” he said slowly to Brooks, and I could tell he meant the half-hawk comment as an insult. “And you are looking very… enchanted,” he said, eyeing her from head to toe. “You resemble her, you know.”
I couldn’t wait to get Brooks alone, to find out who/where her sister was. What the heck had Jordan meant by She doesn’t have a choice? Was Brooks’s sister being forced to marry him?
Brooks fidgeted with her dress and said, “Happy birthday.” Then she grudgingly handed Bird her present—a gold-plated seashell Jazz had given us for the occasion.
Bird immediately set it aside on a nearby table. “Gold was last year’s theme,” he said dismissively.
I’d been bullied pretty much my whole life, but this guy? He took first place for jerk-hood. Maybe everyone was right: Coming here was a bad idea. I mean, I could abandon this plan and just leave things to chance, hope that the twins would be able to take Ah-Puch down again. But Hurakan had said something about Puke recruiting the Yant’o Triad. The twins wouldn’t be ready for that no matter how much magic they had. And anyway, it wouldn’t get me out of my promise to become a soldier of death—that would take me defeating Ah-Puch alone.
I had to try. I had to do whatever it took to increase the odds that the world would remain standing and the peo
ple I cared about would stay alive.
Bird reached toward a silver platter that held small meatballs on toothpicks. He took one of the hors d’oeuvres and popped it into his mouth. “You’re not here for the party,” he said to Brooks.
She glanced at me, then said to Bird, “I’m here to ask for a favor… for my friends.”
“Friends,” Bird echoed, never taking his dark eyes from us. “Yes, they must be friends for you to return.” He paused and I couldn’t tell if it was for effect or if he really was deciding what to say next. “What’s the favor?”
Jordan threw himself onto one of the sofas and propped his feet on a matching velvet ottoman. “You can’t be serious, Bird. She doesn’t deserve a favor after what she—”
Bird raised a hand and immediately silenced his brother. “Tell us. What do you want?”
I stepped forward. “I’m the one who wants the favor,” I said. “I need to know how you defeated Ah-Puch.”
Some kind of recognition flashed across Bird’s face. He adjusted his perfectly pressed cuff. Music boomed. Glasses clinked. Then he looked up at me like all his thoughts had been gathered in this single instant. “What do you know about Ah-Puch?”
I was about to make up some story, but something told me he’d smell the lie easily and we’d be tossed off the side of the building like Brooks had promised. Don’t make them mad.
I weighed both options, trying to decide which would make them angrier—a lie, or the fact that I was the one who had freed their nemesis. But if I told them the truth, they’d know I was part god.
Brooks’s eyes found mine and I could see her telling me not to do it. To come up with anything but the truth.
Hondo got me out of my dilemma. He lifted his chin and hardened his gaze. “The death dude’s bad news,” he said to Bird. “He’s busted out, and he’s ready for revenge.”
I nodded. “He’s in LA. He knows you’re here and he’s coming for you.” Surely they’d appreciate the warning and it would earn me something more than shrimp-on-a-stick.
