The Jade Bones

by Lani Forbes

  Excitement crept into every inflection of her voice. “This is the Mother goddess’s plan. I’m sure of it. She has given me an incredible blessing. It all makes sense. It’s why she gave me that doll back on the beach.”

  “I don’t doubt she gave you that doll for a purpose. But are you sure it’s her will for you to resurrect your mother? How do you know it’s not your own will?”

  Mayana scoffed. “I’ll show you when we make it back to the overworld. I know this is a gift from the Mother.”

  There was no arguing with her. And maybe she was right. He was no better at deciphering the will of the Mother. Hadn’t his mistakes that got them here proven that?

  “Before we start planning a trek to the caves of creation, let’s focus on escaping Xibalba before the end of the Nemontemi. We only have two more days. And we need to find a way to cross the River of Blood.”

  Mayana’s lip curled in disgust as she turned to face the red current, oozing like an open wound. “We’ll have to go through it.”

  He was afraid there was no other way. But they’d wait until morning. Because if he had to cross a river of blood, he’d rather not do so in the dark.

  Ahkin didn’t know why, but part of him expected the River of Blood to be cold.

  He was deeply mistaken.

  He gagged the moment he took his first step and realized the blood was as warm as his own body, as though the land of Xibalba had been sliced and its lifeblood now flowed fresh across the surface.

  “I’ll wash us with water from the amulet when we get to the other side,” Mayana promised. She’d offered to float them across, but Ahkin didn’t want her using the amount of blood it would take to carry them.

  The river was not deep, running only up to his waist so far. Had it been water, he would have been swept off his feet, but the blood was thick and sluggish. Ahkin’s tongue tasted as though he had bitten it, but he knew it was likely from the red droplets tossed into the air when he moved against the current. He spat the saltiness out of his mouth, but it didn’t help. Mayana stayed close behind him. Ona whined from where he lay across Ahkin’s shoulders, and Ahkin tightened his grip on the beast. Once he thought he felt another warm liquid running down his back, underneath where he had strapped his shield. He told himself it was splashed blood, but the dog snorted as if it knew exactly what it had done.

  Mayana’s promise of water once they reached the opposite shore was the only thing keeping him going.

  The stones beneath his sandals were smooth and slick. Twice he almost slipped and dropped the dog, but he managed to keep upright. He was glad they had removed their heavy cloaks and stashed them in Mayana’s bag. They would have bogged them down the moment they were soaked. She carried the bag above her head to keep everything dry.

  About halfway across, something long and gray and scaled slithered past them before sinking back beneath the surface. Ahkin’s skin crawled, but he remained steady. Mayana, on the other hand, screamed and jumped. Her foot must have caught on a slick stone, because her hands suddenly flew into the air and she lost her balance completely. She submerged and disappeared from view.

  Ahkin yelled, his heart leaping into his throat. He thrashed through the bloody currents, trying not to dislodge the dog as he reached with his foot, feeling for any sign of her. Finally, his toes brushed up against something solid and warm, nudging her back to the surface. She flailed, trying to get her own footing as she gasped for breath, not unlike a newly birthed fawn trying to stand on untested legs.

  “My bag!” She mopped soaking hair away from her red-stained face as she frantically checked to make sure nothing had been lost. The bag was soaked, but firmly closed. She sighed in relief.

  Ahkin felt relief flood through him as well, though more for her safety than the bag.

  “I won’t tell you how disgusting you look right now,” Ahkin said, his mouth twitching at the corners.

  “You’re too kind, Your Majesty,” Mayana replied scathingly, spitting blood out of her mouth. But the corners of her mouth twitched too. “Keep going. I don’t know what in the nine hells that was, and I don’t want to find out.”

  They waded through the remainder of the river at a much faster pace, the tangy scent of the blood winding into Ahkin’s nose until he thought he would be sick. A horrible thought occurred to him, making the hairs on his arms raise. “Do you think the purpose of the River of Blood is so that you are coated in blood when you go through the forest?”

  Mayana’s eyes went wide in understanding. “So the beasts can smell and track you.”

  Ahkin suppressed a shudder. “We will definitely need to wash off as much as we can when we reach the shore.”

  “What do you think the beasts are?” Mayana slipped again but caught herself before she went under.

  “I wish I knew.” Ahkin hated the thought of facing unknown foes. He always studied everything there was to know about his enemies before he engaged them. Without any knowledge of what to expect, his stomach churned with unease. The beasts could be anything.

  Mayana groaned. “I don’t want to face beasts that devour your heart.”

  Ahkin laughed. “I don’t either. But I promise that whatever happens, I will protect you.”

  This time it was Mayana’s turn to laugh. “And who has protected whom down here, prince of light? When will you realize that we are doing this together ?”

  Ahkin ground his teeth together and did not answer. He didn’t want to be reminded of how many times he had failed her.

  The river deepened so that Mayana was up to her chin in blood before the riverbed slowly began sloping upward. Ahkin stayed close beside her, though he struggled to balance the dog on his shoulders. They finally stumbled onto the opposite shore, drenched in both crimson and sweat. Ahkin eased the dog off his shoulders and back onto the ground. His back was definitely wet with more than blood. He glared at the dog, and Ona cocked his head to the side with a smirk that Ahkin swore said, What?

  “That was awful.” Mayana coughed several times and wrung thin red streams out of her long hair.

  Ahkin shook out his shoulders. “I think it would be best to wash off before we enter the forest.”

  Mayana wrinkled her nose. “I agree.” She withdrew her knife and cut the end of her thumb. Her eyes slid shut as she held her hand out in front of her, palm up. Water burst from the jade skull pendant hanging around her neck. It surrounded her like an embrace, her hair swirling high above her head. The water turned from crystal clear to murky brown as it swept the remnants of the River of Blood off her body. She closed her fist, and the water fell back to the ground in an almighty splash. Ahkin tried not to look at how the water dripped off the smooth curves of her waist and the defined muscles of her legs. She turned her back to him and adjusted the fabric tied around her chest. Her hair hung down her back like a waterfall of ebony. The back of Ahkin’s neck grew hot, and he swallowed hard. He mistakenly dropped his gaze to the dog. Ona watched him with suspicious eyes, so he cleared his throat and quickly diverted his gaze toward the trees. Mayana summoned more water to wash the surface of her animal-skin bag, though it would likely stay stained as red as the tattered remains of her loincloth skirt. He mistakenly let his eyes linger on where the cut along the side of her skirt exposed the skin of her thigh. Ona growled, and Ahkin was tempted to do that same right back at him.

  She turned to face him and jutted out her hip. She opened her fingers again and summoned more water from her necklace. A shining silver snake emerged from the skull’s mouth and curled around her hand, like a pet waiting for its owner’s command. “Hold your breath,” she said, arching an eyebrow.

  Gods, she was so beautiful.

  Ahkin sucked in a breath and Mayana opened her hand toward him. The water surrounded him with its current. It was biting cold compared to the warmth of the blood from the river. But he definitely needed it to wash the heat from
his skin. By the time she closed her fist and the water collapsed to his feet, Ahkin’s skin felt almost frozen. His teeth began to chatter, and bumps rose across his arms.

  “Better?” she asked, a smile curving on her lips.

  “Much,” Ahkin agreed. He shook out his hair like a dog and wrung out some of the water from the wrap around his waist.

  They both turned to face the twisted black trees. Their trunks stood within the mists like pillars of stone, welcoming them into the temple of the beasts. The sun that shone behind the clouds above did little to light the dense canopy. Whispers seemed to hover in the air, as though the spirits of those who had perished in this place were begging with the last of their strength for Ahkin and Mayana not to enter.

  “Keep your knife out,” he warned. He balanced his own in his left hand, feeling like a shadow of his former self—the warrior who could cut his way across a battlefield.

  “I’m not good with a knife,” Mayana complained.

  “We’ll need to remedy that. I can show you some basic skills. But at least keep it out in case you need to need to summon water. It can be as powerful as any blade.”

  “True, I’ve taken out a jaguar with water before.”

  Ahkin raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask. There was a lot about the daughter of water he needed to learn, but oh, Ometeotl, if he was honest with himself, he still wanted to. He didn’t care that they were so different. Mayana had shown him exactly how brave and strong and resourceful she was. She was tender, so tender, but that didn’t take away from her strength. It gave her a different sort of strength, one he was beginning to worry he sorely lacked.

  But in every challenge they’d faced so far, he seemed to have come up short of what she needed from him. But perhaps there was a way to prove, brutalized hand or not, that he could at least show her the strength of his heart. How everything he was, from his obsessive planning to his tendency to take everything onto his own shoulders, was because he cared as much as she did. Deeply. Passionately. He cared about protecting his people. And protecting her. Even if that meant she escaped this place and he did not.

  He just wished he had what it took to succeed at fulfilling those deep desires. He wished he had what it took to earn back her favor.

  “No matter what happens in this forest, promise me you’ll run if I tell you to.”

  Her eyebrows dipped down, and she opened her mouth to argue.

  “Promise me, Mayana.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t respond. It didn’t sit well with his stomach.

  “Mayana—”

  “You know I won’t,” she snapped.

  Ahkin sighed in defeat. “I know.”

  They strode with purpose toward the line of dead trees, and the mists enveloped them.

  Chapter

  24

  Stars blinked into existence above Yemania’s head, and she wished she could go to bed and forget this evening ever happened. The stone seat of the bench was cool beneath her, but her skin felt as though it were on fire. Even the sweet aromas of blooming night flowers and the trickling water of the tiled fountains did little to ease her spirit. At least she had gotten permission from Metzi to start preparing remedies for the commoners of Tollan, even if it was Ochix who had been the one to help her make it happen.

  She stared up at the twinkling specks of light, wondering if the gods that lived there were laughing at her. Of all the men in all the empires of the world, she had to care for a death demon. A death demon prince. A death demon prince now engaged to her empress. Were the gods playing a cruel joke? They had to be. There was no other explanation.

  The sound of sandals slapping against the stones of the garden’s pathway pulled her out of her negative prayers. She looked up to see who else was walking through the gardens during the feast.

  Of course. It was Ochix.

  Her heart skipped a single beat before thundering on harder than it had been all night. “What are you doing here?”

  “Here in the garden? Or here in Tollan?” he asked, the corner of his mouth curving up.

  “I know why you’re here in Tollan.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “The entire empire probably knows by now.”

  “News travels that fast here in the valley?”

  Yemania laughed humorlessly. He had no idea . . .

  Ochix stopped just before the bench and lowered himself beside her. Heat radiated off him. Beneath the bone necklace, his bare chest glistened slightly from the exertion of dancing. She tried not to look at the planes of his stomach. When she failed, she told herself it was purely to assess his injury.

  “Your stomach seems to be healing nicely.”

  Ochix boomed a laugh. “Of course, you’d notice that.”

  Yemania shrugged. She couldn’t muster the playful spirit she’d had in the jungles. The events of the night had crushed it out of her.

  Ochix seemed to sense it because his demeanor shifted to one that was more serious. “I’m sorry, Yemania.”

  “What do you have to be sorry for?”

  “That you found out this way.”

  Yemania scrunched her eyebrows together. “How else could I have found out?”

  Ochix sighed and ran a hand through his dark, flowing hair. “I should have told you in the jungles. The reason my father and I got into a fight. What I had confronted him about.”

  “That was about marrying Metzi?” Yemania felt breathless.

  “The entire arrangement was his idea. He dispatched the offer as soon as the empress canceled her engagement and the storm lords declared war. He saw it as his chance to get one of his sons on the throne in Tollan.”

  Yemania nodded slowly. “And Metzi finally agreed.”

  “Two days ago. I knew if I returned to Omitl that my father would press the issue again. I am the oldest of my three brothers. And by far the most handsome.”

  Yemania snorted. “You’re impossible. Why didn’t you stand up to him? Just say no?”

  Ochix gave her an amused half smile, pointing to the scar on his abdomen. “I tried. Remember? The stabbing? The falling? The washing up on the riverbank half dead?”

  “Right,” Yemania whispered, her cheeks warming.

  Ochix chuckled to himself, crossing a leg over his knee.

  “Shouldn’t you be back inside? Dancing with your . . .” but she couldn’t say it.

  “Dancing isn’t my idea of fun.” His dark eyes glittered like the shining shell of a beetle.

  “You seem to dance well for someone who doesn’t enjoy it.”

  “Were you watching me, daughter of healing? Or should I say, High Healer of Tollan?”

  Yemania smacked his shoulder. “No, I wasn’t watching you. I just noticed. In passing. In fact, maybe it wasn’t even you I’m thinking of.”

  “Sure,” Ochix said, rolling his eyes. “And why weren’t you dancing? Surely there are many young men eager to join a woman of such talent and beauty in the ritual celebratory dances?”

  Yemania gave him a flat look. “Really? Do you actually say those things to girls?”

  Ochix’s smile turned wicked. “Only the special ones.”

  “Ha,” Yemania scoffed. “Save them for your soon-to-be wife then, prince of death.”

  “Prince of death,” he mused. “That’s better than death demon, at least.”

  “Ugh,” Yemania groaned. “Why do you have to be so irritating?”

  “I can’t help it. You’re fun to tease.”

  Her heart couldn’t handle another minute of this. “Well, the teasing has to stop. You are betrothed. To the empress. It probably isn’t even wise for you to be seen out here with me.”

  Ochix shrugged his wide shoulders. “I don’t care what people think.”

  Yemania closed her eyes tightly. She couldn’t look at him, at the burning fire she knew was smo
ldering in his eyes. “Well, I do. Trust me, Metzi’s wrath is not something I want to bring down on either of us.”

  “Who says Metzi has to know? Who says anyone has to know? I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the beautiful, caring healer who saved my life even though I was her enemy. The girl who talked with me for hours about life and love and matters of the spirit. All I could think when my father told me I was going to Tollan was that I might get the chance to see her again.”

  Her breath came sharp and ragged. It stung to even hear these words on his lips.

  “How can you say those things to me? Do you have any idea how hard—” She couldn’t do this anymore. She stood up to stomp away from him, away from her own breaking heart.

  But she couldn’t. It was as if he had become a dark moon pulling her into his orbit. She couldn’t force herself away. She turned, and he took a step closer. His arms reached up and gently traced her shoulders. He was so close her heart practically threw itself out of her chest. His warmth seeped into her. His hand moved up to trace the side of her face.

  She tried to turn away, a single tear trailing down her cheek. Ochix wiped it away with his thumb.

  “Tell me you don’t feel anything for me, Yemania. Tell me and I’ll go back inside right now.”

  She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t even look him in the eyes.

  “Tell me you feel nothing.”

  A shiver ran through her, more tears joining the first on her cheeks.

  “You know I can’t say that,” she whispered finally.

  “I know,” he said.

  Maybe it was the husky tenor of his voice, or the desire burning but restrained behind his eyes. She knew he wouldn’t go any further than she wished. He truly would walk away if she told him to . . . but she couldn’t stand the thought of it.

  She leaned up on the tips of her toes, and kissed him.

  It was unlike anything Yemania had ever experienced. Ochix responded to her enthusiasm in kind, claiming her mouth as though it would only ever be his. She’d never kissed a boy before but had always dreamed of what it would be like to have soft lips against her own, that sense of desire, of urgency, of needing. Her heart swelled to capacity, filling parts of herself she hadn’t even known were empty. He tightened his arms around her, a soft groan escaping his throat.