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“Your intel is a day late.” Jordan laughed. “We’ve got the best of the best posted everywhere, and we’ve shielded the place with more magic than…” He stopped, then added, “Ah-Puch’s too stupid to find our new digs. And even if he did find us, we don’t need your help, human. We’re godborn. Or didn’t you know that?”
Crap! What was plan B? Did I even have one? My palms started to sweat and my tie was choking me, but I had to keep my cool.
“Yeah, we know all about the myths,” Hondo said. I shot him a glare to remind him not to make them mad. But he kept going, like he didn’t care if he was tossed off the roof headfirst.
“You think we made up our victories?” That was Bird.
Hondo threw his hands up and shrugged. “Just sayin’. I mean, whenever I won a championship, I went home with the gold. Something to prove it.” He glanced around. “Don’t see any trophies or medals, guys.”
Was Hondo looking for a fight? I tried to get his attention, to send him the message Pump the brakes!
Jordan came at him, but Hondo ducked in time, pivoting like a pro. Bird grabbed hold of Jordan while I shoved Hondo back, trying to pin him in place. I was furious—he was going to blow this! What was his problem?
Brooks pushed at a braid. “Word on the street is,” she began, “your story is made-up. That you had help in defeating Ah-Puch. That you stole your magic.” Then she went in for the kill. “Kind of like now.”
“Stole…?” Jordan said. She’d struck a nerve. Every stupid twitch in his face said so.
“We’ve got raw power,” Bird asserted, almost as though he were trying to convince himself, not Brooks. “And our magic is legitimate—” He stopped suddenly, like he’d realized it was beneath him to argue with a half-breed.
I finally caught on. Hondo and Brooks were playing with their egos. Not appealing to their logic, like I had planned. It was brilliant! Clearly the twins weren’t going to give up anything for free. I hated to even think it, but Hurakan was right. Still, there had to be a way to get the answer out of them. Everyone has a weakness. Even the best clutch players in history.
Hondo had always told me to measure your opponent when you step into the ring—or, in my case, school. Find the soft spot and go after it with all you’ve got. And weakness of the heart or mind, he’d said, is more perilous than any physical weakness.
The twins were physically powerful, more than we ever could be, but they obviously needed human magic to sustain their power. And that was their weakness.
“Legitimate?” I said. “Then why do you have to take it from people?”
“Yeah,” said Hondo. “If you’re so powerful, why do you have to steal anything?”
“You’re a pathetic has-been,” Jordan said to Hondo. “And no amount of enchantment is going to hide that.”
Hondo half grunted, half laughed. “Prove we’re has-beens.”
“And how would you propose we do that?” Bird’s eyes flicked to his brother and they shared a this-is-going-to-be-fun smile.
The giant guard poked his head into the tent. “Crowd’s getting restless. Ready for another applicant?”
Jordan motioned for him to let the next person in line come forward. “Hold that thought,” he said to Bird.
A tall willowy man with a grasshopper mask entered, walking toward the twins slowly, like he was approaching some almighty throne. When he got close enough, he bowed. Bowed!
“My lords, I thank you for your generosity. For seeing me.”
My lords? Was he kidding?
“Take off your mask,” Bird ordered.
The man did as instructed. The right side of his face was pitted and melted, as if he’d been eaten by fire.
“Bird…” Brooks said through gritted teeth, but he ignored her, keeping his dark gaze on the guy.
“Let me guess,” Jordan said, popping a meatball into his mouth. He threw the toothpick at the man. “You want us to get rid of that hideous face of yours.”
The man kept his head down, like he was afraid to look into the twins’ eyes. “I… I have a daughter… She plays piano. Like an angel. But I do not have the money for lessons. No one will hire me, and I thought you could help me get a job. So I could pay for her to learn from the best. So she could be famous someday.”
Bird spoke to the man but kept his eyes on me. “And what do you have to trade?”
I clutched the jade tooth. Something burned deep in my chest.
