Hungry Ghosts (Eric Carter #3)(71)

He looks at me, more annoyed than anything else, and falls motionless to the floor.

I’m wheezing from the fight and the slash on my arm is oozing blood out from under the duct tape. Mictlantecuhtli must have gotten them far enough away that I can’t hear the other warriors. He’ll be a good distraction. He knows this place.

And I’m not completely buying that those warriors wouldn’t listen to him if he turned around and told them to stop. Either I’ve got more confidence in his abilities than he does, or he’s lying to me. Guess which one my money’s on.

Okay, so he’s lying. The question is why? Something’s tugging at the back of my brain, trying to get out, but it’s not quite there. The memory from my conversation with Darius? Fuck, this is maddening. I know why he did it, but so far my tattoos have kept the piece of Mictlantecuhtli in my head from getting out.

I think. But how do I know for sure? He can see me where Santa Muerte can’t. There’s no way I can be certain that the piece of Mictlantecuhtli in my head isn’t talking to him.

I know I’m being played. I’ve known for a long time. I know they don’t just want me to kill the other. I just don’t know why or what the endgame is here. I’ve been so focused on just getting here and staying alive during the journey, I haven’t had a chance to give much thought to what I’m going to do now.

Sure, stab them. But I need to get close enough. I need to be fast enough. And let’s not forget, I kinda need the blade. All of which is pointing me in one direction. Up. So how do I get up there?

“I could tell you,” Alex says, appearing next to me. “It’s hidden. Secret passage.”

“Why the hell would it be a secret passage?”

“To keep the riff-raff out, of course. Only Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl are allowed up there. Along with whoever they’re sacrificing. And I know where it is.”

“I’m sure you do. What’ll it cost me?”

“Tell me what Darius said.”

“You’ll know what Darius said as soon as I do. I can’t hide it from you.”

He glares at me. “It’s in there in that fucking melon of yours, and I want to see it.”

“I don’t know what he said. I don’t know how to break that lock he put on it. And, in case you haven’t been paying attention, it’s there specifically to keep you out.”

“Tell me and I’ll show you the secret passage. You’re running out of time.”

“Yeah, that means you’re running out of time, too. So how about you stop trying to screw me and just tell me where it is.”

“Show me,” he says. An edge of desperation is creeping into his voice.

“I’ve made one hell of a lot of bad choices when it comes to you fucking gods. I’m gonna make a hell of a lot more. But this isn’t one of them. So tell me what you know, or shut up.”

He opts for the latter and disappears. At least I don’t have to listen to him whining at me anymore. But it doesn’t solve my problem. And then it hits me. I’ve got the perfect thing to get me out of here. I just have to ask it.

I close my eyes and open myself up to Mictlantecuhtli’s power. I’m really not sure this is a good idea, but if it’s a secret passage not only do I need to find it, I need to open it. I’m betting I’ll need the door to think I’m him.

The power floods through me, a great wash that pours through my limbs, into my mind. Throttling it back is like trying to tie a knot in a running firehose.

I wrestle with the power until I can get enough of a handle on it that only a little is available to me. The rest of it is hammering on the walls of my psyche, trying to break through. I grab that power and channel it into a location spell.

“All right,” I say, gritting my teeth from the massive pressure in my mind. It feels like it’s going to split me open any second now. “Show me where the passage is and let’s get this show on the road.”

The pressure focuses on one side of my head, a sharp migraine that bursts inside my skull, driving me blind for a fraction of a second before receding. When my vision clears I see a wide, glowing line running along the floor, out through the doorway, and down the hall.

“Much obliged.” I follow the line through a dozen rooms, the maze-like route leaving me lost in a matter of minutes. Every room looks the same. Every grinning skull grins in the exact same way.

Until they don’t. The line stops at a tzompantli larger than the others. The rack takes an entire wall, the skulls twice the size of normal. The rack lights up and I feel a tugging in my hand.

I remind myself that I need this. That I asked for it. That there’s no way to get from here to there without doing this. Then I press my hand against one of the skulls and Mictlantecuhtli’s power pulses through it. The rack and wall behind it disappear into smoke, revealing a wide staircase heading up.

That’s when the pain kicks in, my vision goes green and I pass out.

___

When I wake up I take a few seconds to marvel at the fact that I can wake up at all. Everything has a green tint to it. The jade’s engulfed the rest of my head and progressed all the way down my right arm. The only piece of me that’s still me are the last two fingers on my right hand.

But on the plus side I got the door open. So, yay me?

I pull myself up from the floor and stagger through the doorway to a staircase. The wall seals up behind me. I take the stairs two at a time.