IT WAS A DAGGER.
Jax was shocked. Excalibur was supposed to be a sword. But a moment later, he realized it made perfect sense. Of course Excalibur was the honor blade King Arthur used to enhance his voice of command in battle. The iron weapon was black with corrosion, but in better shape than the mummy it came off. Jax could still make out part of the engraved coat of arms on the hilt.
“Today we rest,” Wylit said to Evangeline. “My vassals have preparations to make at the site, and I’m awaiting arrivals not expected until this evening. We will commence after sundown. In my condition, I cannot tolerate natural light . . .”
“Of course not. Nature abhors botched magic,” Evangeline said matter-of-factly.
Jax sucked in his breath. He couldn’t believe how brave she was, standing up to this shredded-faced freak who looked like a cross between Emperor Palpatine and Freddy Krueger. The crack about botched magic seemed like it went too far, but Evangeline turned away from the creep and flared out the long skirt on her dress as if she didn’t care whether she offended him or not. “I require that you return me to my room now.”
Wylit signaled his men. Evangeline and Jax were escorted to the room where they’d held her last night. As soon as the door closed, Evangeline threw her arms around Jax. “Are you all right?” she asked.
He felt her trembling and hugged her back, realizing how much of an act she’d been putting on in front of Wylit. “I’m okay. I was worried about you.”
“Jax, I’m so sorry you were dragged into this.”
“I led the Donovans to your hiding place,” Jax said, swallowing hard. “They found you because of me.”
She smiled sadly. “People have been after me since before you were born. It’s not your fault.”
“Riley’s coming for us.”
Evangeline sank down on a corner of the bed. “But?”
“But I don’t know what kind of plan he has or even if he knows where we are.” Jax hated to squelch her hope of rescue, but she needed to know. He sat down beside her and explained how Riley had planted a man among Wylit’s vassals who could be sworn to more than one liege. “Riley said to trust him. But Miller told me that if he couldn’t rescue you, he’d have to . . .”
“Kill me.” She didn’t look surprised. “If it comes to it”—Evangeline lifted her chin—“you let him do what he has to do. Billions of people are a lot more important than I am.”
Jax shook his head but didn’t argue with her. It didn’t matter. Miller wasn’t here; Riley probably wasn’t going to get here in time; Jax and Evangeline were on their own.
“If you see any opportunity to escape by yourself,” Evangeline said, “I want you to take it. Don’t stick around for me.”
“No way.”
“You’re the only friend I’ve ever had. I want you to be safe. I can order you to go.”
He thought that over and tested it against what little he knew of magic—and his new vassalhood. “You don’t have Riley’s voice of command. You can’t compel me to leave if my place is with you.”
“Jax, I’m only pretending that Wylit owes me any courtesy or respect, and he’s only pretending to give it. When I refuse to do what he wants, it’ll get ugly.”
Jax thought of her brother and knew that now was not the time to tell her what had happened to him. “Then let’s do more than refuse.” He stood up. “Let’s mess up his ritual. If everything isn’t exactly perfect, it won’t work, right?”
Evangeline stared at him. “A small thing could throw a massive spell like this off, but it’s also dangerous and unpredictable.” She paused to think. “Wylit’s not going to let me cast a spell in the middle of his ceremony, and if I set something up in advance, that Donovan girl will know. Whose side is she on?”
“Her own.”
“Everyone’s going to be watching me, but they might not keep as close an eye on you.”
Yeah, what am I going to do? Ask a bunch of questions? Jax doubted that revealing someone’s bedwetting issues was going to get them out of this kind of trouble. “The Balins aren’t affected by my magic,” he said. “They don’t think I’m much of a threat.”
“If I give you a spell to hold, maybe your friend won’t tell.”
“She’s not my friend,” Jax said. Then her words sank in. “Can you actually give me a spell? Like what you had last night?” He didn’t understand the difference between a spell and a talent, but she’d set a coffin on fire with her bare hands, and if he could do that . . .
“That spell’s too hard to hold for more than a couple minutes,” she said. “It would have to be something else. Do you think you can remember a brief incantation in Welsh?”
“I’ll be freakin’ Harry Potter if you need me to be.”
“If I send you out to tell them I demand food or something, can you steal a candle and matches? If natural light hurts him, I can work with that.”
He nodded. “There’s candles on the tables in the courtyard outside this room.”
“They might kill us if we do this,” she warned him.
“So what else is new?”
35
AFTER SUNDOWN, Jax and Evangeline were moved from the hotel into one of the Land Rovers and driven down a cobblestone road to the Avenue of the Dead. Information on Teotihuacán swam up from Jax’s memory, although he would’ve sworn he’d never paid any attention to Extraterrestrial Evidence. There were three famous structures in this ancient city: the Pyramid of the Moon at the end of the avenue; the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, hidden behind hills almost a mile away; and the Pyramid of the Sun—the third largest pyramid in the world.
It was going to be one heck of a climb to the top.
Wylit couldn’t do it. His men had brought a sedan chair to carry their lord like a king. Heavy and wooden, with carvings on the legs and back, it was cushioned in red velvet and topped by a canopy. Two poles were bolted to the arms so that four men could carry it. When Jax saw Wylit emerge from one of the Land Rovers, he didn’t know whether to laugh or throw up.
The Kin lord had dressed himself like an Aztec king. He was bare chested, which exposed more of his flaky, peeling fish skin, and bare legged beneath a short skirt. To top it all off, he wore a headdress of feathers fitted around the carved wooden face of a serpent.
“This is bad,” Evangeline murmured. “He’s invoking the shamans of this place.”
“Aren’t they all dead?” Jax whispered.
“Encapsulated in an alternate timeline and snipped off from reality, but still here . . . in a manner of speaking.”
Jax shuddered, remembering how Evangeline had been in the coffin and not in the coffin at the same time. The people of this city had vanished waiting for a “next day” that never came. In a way, they were still waiting.
Up and down the avenue, men with guns were deploying on the tops of other structures. A pickup truck bumped along the concrete road on its way to the Pyramid of the Moon with a double-barreled machine gun in the bed. “What’s that?” Jax asked.
The nearest of Wylit’s vassals who wasn’t a Balin promptly responded, “Twin M2 Browning. By the orders of my lord.”
Jax had to smother a smile even though there wasn’t much to smile about. He hadn’t needed to chant a verse or even direct his question at that man. Evangeline’s magic buzzed at the back of his head, and he felt empowered.
They were ordered to start climbing, just behind the men carrying Wylit and ahead of the two Balin brothers. Jax glanced around discreetly, but there were enough armed vassals on site to block any escape attempt. Their path up the pyramid was illuminated by floodlights set up on the landings and powered by generators. After the first section, Evangeline struggled to mount the steep steps, and Jax carried the train of her gown. When he looked up to see how much farther they had to go, he spotted Tegan on the second terrace.