K’ICHE’S GAZE FOLLOWED HIS XITLALI She quietly endured, trying her best to maintain composure. Febrero paced back and forth, almost gliding through the kitchen and living room. Distraught, her energy throbbed with an explosive need, the electricity sizzling beneath her skin.

His little star.

His yolia.

A beat skipped in his heart, and then his stomach lurched nervously. Guilt. He almost felt guilty. Almost she didn’t know what the cost of saving her meant. His nostrils flared at the image of her battered form. He felt no remorse; their bond had been the only thing that kept her alive. Guilt could fuck itself. K’iche refused to continue with that emotion. He would tell her. He would, but… Febrero was hyperventilating. Something wasn’t right. He watched her rummage through his orange wood cabinets until she found where he kept all the cups.

I’ll tell her when she’s ready.

“Look a puppy!” Artemis’ sweet voice pulled his vision to the tiny girl that resembled her mother. She giggled when she pushed her on the tire swing that, for the longest time, had remained outside his backyard from a few years ago when he had bought the cabin house.

The little girl pointed at the sky. The clouds shifted in tune with the humidity in the warm May weather. The air drew into us as the human world sparkled and stretched hot. The cloud-shaped dog thickened and glinted gold. It moved once, twice and, like sand, trickled down from the sky, gently lowering down in front of the elated girl in a stretched out bow.

He had stopped the swing, and they had watched in awe. Artemis had seen a dog in the clouds and given it form.

Dangerous.

Artemis squealed and jumped off the swing—launching her body at the golden retriever.

“Puppy!!!”

Did Febrero know about this already? He rubbed his stubbled jaw and watched the woman with her back to the backyard. He somehow doubted it.

“Can I have him?” Her almond eyes shone with innocence, and her wide grin was infectious. K’iche had to smile right back at the girl.

“I’ll ask your mom.”

Artemis squealed with excitement at the prospect of the newly made dog being hers. He hoped she allowed her to keep him. It was tough for pets with no owners. Besides, it would be good for Art. He remembered having owned many pets as a child. Looking up at his house, his heart squeezed at the sight of her beauty.

“I’ll be back.”

He warded the perimeter with his teotl and walked up the stairs in time to watch Febrero go straight to his fireplace. Her gaze was intent on the tribal mural on his mantelpiece. Crude and beautiful, the acrylic art shifted, making hidden swirls of hypnotizing work that had a habit of drawing gifted creatures in order to see glimpses of a dark past.

The mural reminded him of what had been and what could be.

A dying sun, bright and crude on the verge of death like a rotten, molted egg–centered with quetzal birds flying away from a large blue bird, its neck long and green. Its head, yellow with vicious white eyes, focuses on its prey. Two different jaguars. One black circling the white with a snarl. People decorated with corn and wheat; their mouths agape in horror and anguish. Death by a snake figure.

“Careful.”

Febrero started swirling around—her hand on her chest. Her cheeks flushed a pretty rosy hue. Reminiscent of the sunrise in the summer in Chicomoztoc. Brown hazel eyes stared wide at him. Her gaze on his still-healing lips. It made his mouth twitch a little.

Curious little thing.

“Sometimes it's best not to look too closely at the darkness that hides within beauty.”

“Is that so… Is that why you ended up under Tezcatlipoca?” she asked.

Febrero stepped closer like a magnet drawn to its match, and he held still. He would not admit that he had been foolish while he was hunting—and he definitely would not admit what he was hunting for…yet.

His Xitlali held her stubborn jaw up. The smattering of lavender in her eyes looked anguished. Something is not right. A little giggle from outside distracted her. Eyebrows rising slightly at the sight of her daughter holding a golden retriever as it licks her face.

She definitely didn’t know. He held his breath and exhaled softly through his nose.

“It was part of it.” he said.

“Why do I feel… drawn to you? Why did you come for me?”

“When you were on death door… When I saved you, I used my teotl and a ritual that permitted me to give you healing. You feeling drawn to me, may be the cost of me saving you.” K’iche shrugged, a grimace on his handsome face, and his eyes glittered with regret. “The same may be for me Xitlali. Its as if I’ve been hyperventilating my whole life until suddenly you’re in my eyesight and oxygen balances out.”

Just say it, K’iche. You are stuck with me. We are what you call mates.

Glass in her hand jangles as she sips her water; he catches it. Her panic.

“Sure that makes sense. Your energy is within me.” she says, still avoiding his eyes. “When will it fade?”

Fuck. Thread carefully.

“I’m not sure.”

“If you are trying to say that you’re not sure if this,” she pats her chest a tad roughly, “feeling, this physical weird reaction, whatever it is… If you’re not sure. How do I give your energy back.”

“That’s not how it works. You can’t just give teotl back.”

Febrero draws in a sharp breath, stepping back. She curses out loud.

“What does it mean to give teotl anyways. Is it the same as when I—”

“No.” K’iche shot that train of thought quick. He would not lie just to ease her, but his proximity could soothe her heart.

“This isn’t normal.” She whispers, their body heat a gift. All too soon she sidesteps him — her eyes back on her daughter chasing the dog in circles.

“Febrero.”

“This whole situation is fucked up. I was only supposed to be in Mexico for two days tops to sell a land to my aunts and uncle. Instead I got pushed into a water portal, almost drowned. Got tortured and found out my parents were never my actual parents.” Febrero glanced at him, her face tight in displeasure. “And now this… whatever this is.”

“Hey, breath.”

Coward. I’m a coward, but this is not the time.

He refused to add more to her plate. He had to unpack whatever she had just said before he could add to it…

***

The story continues in book two.