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Lew’s shape softened beneath a flowing layer of fog. I could still see him clearly if I squinted slightly, but the veil shielded him. I glanced over at Carys, Leonie, and Sekh to be sure it had covered them too. I already knew it’d worked for Rik because I couldn’t feel the same furnace of heat glowing like a forge against my back.

Feeling better, I spoke again. “Is Tanza here?”

The high-pitched distant sound not quite a voice wavered again.

“Come closer, Tanza. Please. I need to speak to you. Your mother sent me. She misses you. She asked me to find you and bring you home.”

The sound grew louder, flowing closer like a jet high overhead. Air ruffled my hair and clothes as if the breeze picked up, rolling in from the ocean. Then the sonic boom of a scream, so intense and high it made me flinch, even with the veil muting my senses.

Bulging outward, the surface of the pool lifted, rising with the scream. Coalescing into a hand and forearm, reaching up out of the liquid. Straining. Only to slip back into the pool. The surface calmed into the still, silent metallic pool once more, but a faint whisper came again. Close enough I could identify it as a voice. A young child. Tanza.

“Help me.”

59

SHARA

Heart pounding, I stared at the now silent pool.

:It’s a trap.: Rik’s flat, even tone still managed to convey the pounding fury of an earthquake. :Remember when the golden eagle tried to carry Xochitl through the portal in the cenote. We have no idea what’s on the other side.:

:I know,: I replied just as evenly despite the dread roiling through my stomach.

I didn’t say the rest. I didn’t have to.

Of course the Screaming Madness would use a child’s voice as the lure. Her spirit. My own guilt. It was the perfect trap.

I killed Tanza with my own hands. My little pocketknife slammed into her heart. Probably a killing blow, even for an Aima queen, though Guillaume had finished the job by taking her head to be sure she was dead. Without understanding the full depth—and consequences—of my gift of death and resurrection, I had accidentally condemned Tanza’s spirit to a place where she couldn’t escape. Which had also condemned her mother’s spirit to unrest because she waited for her daughter to cross over.

I didn’t regret killing either of them. I would do it again in a heartbeat to protect my Blood.

But I hadn’t intended for them to suffer like this. As long as Tanza was held on the other side, this portal would remain connected to our world. A possible weak spot. A place for the Screaming Madness to someday penetrate. I had to find a way to close it.

:This isn’t your fault, Shara,: Rik said.

:I know,: I repeated. :But if I can fix it, I should. Even a glimpse of what the Screaming Madness is trying to do on the other side may help us fight them.:

As long as I didn’t end up trapped with her.

The thought crashed through our bond like tumbling boulders laced with jagged shards of metal and glass. I allowed the fear to flow through me, even though that meant Carys and Leonie saw it all too. The memory of passing partially through the cenote to save Xochitl. Falling through an upside-down world, straining to reach her. The terror on her precious face.

While the soulless sacrifices of loose, empty skins and gaping mouths stared up at us. Hungry. Desperate. For a taste of living flesh.

That had been Huitzilopochtli’s world, tainted by Ra’s influence. Which may have been tainted by the Screaming Madness first.

I had no idea what might lie on the other side of this portal. But the only way for me to free Tanza would be to go. Myself. And pull her out.

The trick would be not allowing myself to fall all the way through.

Immediately, Rik sent orders down the bonds. :Mehen, get your ass down here. Shift, but keep as much of your body out in the tunnel as possible. Sekh and I will anchor her inside this space.:

:It’ll be a tight fit.: Sekh scanned the roof, shaking his head. :I won’t shift fully unless we have no other choice.:

I gave Leonie and Carys tight hugs. :Go out into the tunnel. We need the space inside here, and I don’t want you to accidentally get pushed in with me.:

:Shara, you can’t possibly expect to go through…: Carys gaped at me, her face paling with horror. :Goddess. You are.:

I forced out a light chuckle. :Don’t tell me the numbers.: