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Yet Sergio claimed his land was some type of paradise where nothing could touch its inhabitants as long as they swore allegiance to him. He promised them something no man could achieve—only a god.
A smile tipped at her lips as she started to get a good idea of the politics of the area—why it was so closed off and why people truly believed Sergio to be some sort of old Aztec God who had control over human suffering.
Just like in the Plumed Serpent, Sergio was taking advantage of deeply rooted regional beliefs and using them to his advantage.
He was no god, just as he had no magical powers. Of that, she was certain. After all,she, a mere mortal, had been able to injure him so direly and according to Lucero, so permanently.
No, Sergio was nothing but a charlatan. A power-hungry, delusional charlatan that got off on having thousands of people worship the ground he walked on. In fact, Noelle could hazard a guess why there was no disease in the land—it wasn’t the lack of disease, but of diseased people.
“Doyoubelieve Sergio stopped disease and made the land fertile?”
Lucero stopped what she was doing, leaning back and frowning.
“I do not think so, for he is the most evil of men. But everyone else believes it to be true.”
“How? Why?”
“Things are different here,” Lucero sighed. “People believe in the old gods and the power they have over the living world and the spiritual one.”
“How comeyoudon’t believe it? You grew up here, did you not?”
“I did… In the beginning. Until I realized a mere man cannot be a god. A man who enjoys hurting little girls cannot be the incarnation of a revered deity. Until…” Lucero trailed off, a look of pure desolation descending upon her features. “There was a man—Nicholas. He was a worker, too, but he was an outsider. He taught me English and he told me stories about the other world, of the big cities where people have no gods; a world where women are not required to do a man’s bidding or be a plaything. A world where…” she trailed off, blinking back tears.
“Is he still here?” Noelle asked.
Lucero shook her head.
“I helped him escape two years ago. He’s gone,” she whispered.
“You had feelings for him,” Noelle noted—it was obvious with the way Lucero’s entire face lit up when she talked about this man.
Lucero nodded, a sad smile pulling at her lips.
“He never knew of my feelings. But I’m happy he got away. This place… It has a way of sucking your soul out of your body. Those who don’t worship el señor end up in very bad places.”
Noelle could imagine what type of bad places. She’d only been at the hacienda for a short period of time but it was enough for her to realize that you were either with Sergio, or against him. There was no middle ground. And according to Lucero, the entire area controlled by the hacienda was the same. You either worshiped him as a god, accepting his word of gospel in exchange for his protection and the good fortune he shared with his people, or you were against him, never to be heard from again.
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Noelle probed. “He could have taken you away with him.”
“No, no,” Lucero quickly replied. “I was sixteen at the time, a child in his eyes. He was older, more mature. He never saw me as anything other than someone who eased his loneliness.”
“I’m sorry,” Noelle mentioned, seeing Lucero’s stricken expression. “I’m in love with someone, too,” she confessed, melancholy lacing her words. “I don’t know where he is, orhowhe is. I don’t even know if he is alive…” the last word caught in her throat as she choked on a sob. “He could be very well dead right now and I…”
Her swollen eyes were red and rimmed with tears. The conversation with Lucero had given her a small respite from thinking about her Blue, but that didn’t erase the pain in her heart—much greater than her physical one.
She hadn’t dared think he might be dead until that moment, never mind voicing it out loud.
But he was missing and not even his family knew where he was. If even his family couldn’t find him…
She couldn’t cope.
Bringing her hand to her mouth, she stifled a wail as she doubled over from the anguish bubbling inside her breast.
She couldn’t live in a world without him—she refused to.
How could she hang onto a better tomorrow if she could not see a tomorrow at all? How could she be strong when she had no one to be strong for?
The realization that she was nothing without him was startling—an echo in the barely alive chamber of her heart.
