Page 11

11

LEON

W hat a long night. What a long, exhausting night. But this thing about the statuette was a lead, and we were finders, damn it. We couldn’t just let go of a juicy tidbit like that, even if it meant hiding in a clump of bushes at ass o’clock after midnight.

Guillotina turned over her shoulder, picking a leaf out of her hair. Her question came in an urgent and slightly annoyed whisper.

“So exactly who is this Just person again, and why exactly do we trust them?”

I shrugged, the branches closest to my shoulders rustling. I was hiding behind Guillotina, and she in turn was using Max for cover. I was happy to be in the rear, for once, finally accepting that I had the least magical firepower in case things got too hairy. For the moment, at least.

“He’s this nerdy little twink that Max met on the job. Works at some magic trinket shop or something.”

Max’s voice rasped from the front of the bushes. “I wouldn’t call him a twink, exactly. More of a twunk.”

I rolled my eyes. He was right — Just was too well built to be a standard issue twink — but was that really important right now?

“Works at Hermanas Arcanas. You know, with the Mendez sisters?”

Guillotina scoffed. “Oh, I know them, all right. Gustavo’s lackeys. Then again, he has his fingers in pawnshops all over Dos Lunas, anyway. And beyond.”

“Okay, yes,” I hissed. “Point is, this statuette we’re looking for, Gustavo’s people must have it. There’s all this bullshit about the Quartz Spider, but we’re still finders. Gotta keep the Jade Spider happy.”

And a paycheck was nice and all, and so was making sure that we stayed in Vera’s good graces. But the real reason I wanted us to settle the statuette situation so badly was how much it seemed to matter to Max. Securing this thing would effectively be sticking it to Tío Gustavo, showing him that Max didn’t need him or the Brillantes to lead a successful career and existence in the arcane underground.

And if it meant a decrease in Gustavo’s profits, then hey! That was just a neat bonus.

“Any minute now,” Max whispered.

Guillotina scoffed. “Any minute? Too many minutes, already. What are we waiting for, anyway?”

“Just trying to assess the situation. We don’t know how many people are in there — or if there are any to begin with.”

I craned my neck, trying to get a better look. No cars parked anywhere around the warehouse, but that didn’t really mean much. What if they were hidden inside the building? It was certainly big enough. What if they teleported their way in? In a perfect world, no one was in there waiting to spring a trap on us, but then this would all be too easy otherwise.

“Listen,” Guillotina said, her leather jacket squeaking as she leaned forward. “We’re just going through the motions here. There’s a ninety percent chance that Tío Gustavo has something special planned for us. We waltz in, the lights go up, Gustavo gloats about his evil plan. Let’s just get this over with. We grab the statuette, then we blast our way out.”

That was what I liked about Guillotina. Always so straightforward, and always with the senseless violence, too. But Max tilted his head toward me, watching my face through half lidded eyes, and I immediately understood his hesitation. Whatever happened, we were going to be within the clutches of the Brillantes yet again. Things didn’t go so well the last time when Divina had tried to drown me — twice.

“I’ll be okay,” I whispered, mouthing the words slowly so he could read them, ending the sentence with a reassuring smile. I was safest when I was near him. Besides, we had Guillotina and her blood thirst to help keep us safe, too. And surely none of the Brillantes could be quite as unhinged as Divina — right?

We stepped from one shadow to the next, then again, and again, until we found our way to the flimsiest looking door in the warehouse. No cameras in sight, possibly so any would-be interlopers would let their guard down. It was far more likely that the place was under magical surveillance to begin with.

Max made a complex series of gestures with his hands, pointing at the door, his face, the ground, then again at his face. I rolled my eyes and gave him a face of my own, one that said “Get the fuck on with it, already.”

“Penetrate,” he whispered, conjuring a pair of crystalline slivers, picking at the lock on the door. Somehow this entire situation felt custom-made for Max’s skill set, as if designed that way by a curious architect, or a doting and slightly condescending uncle.

We were rats in a maze, in short. Between Guillotina and myself, we could have just blasted through to get the cheese. But Max needed this, and so did his bizarre family, apparently. We strode into the darkness. Max lifted his fingers, just about to summon one of his light crystals with his Illuminate spell when all the lights in the warehouse went on all at once.

My vision swam with a kaleidoscope of colors, eyeballs aching from the brightness. I could hear the buzzing of electricity, a quiet clearing of throats. But loudest of all was the warm, almost fatherly greeting from one Tío Gustavo Brillante.

“Maximo. Mijo . It is so good to see you again.”

I rubbed the sting of harsh light out of my eyes. The portly mustachioed man in the pristine white suit was clearly the uncle in question, flanked by identical women in garish floral prints — Teresita and Luisita Mendez, the owners of Hermanas Arcanas. All along the edge of the room were goons upon goons, at least a dozen Brillante thugs.

And in the back of the room, on top of a pedestal right by where Gustavo stood: a statuette of a woman, its features worn and smoothed away by age.

Max held out his hand. “We’ll just take the statuette and go, thanks very much.”

Gustavo frowned, his features twisting with disappointment. “Is that all you have to say to your favorite uncle? You do wound me, mijo .”

“Real funny, tío. Favorite nephew? You sent your thugs out to harass us tonight. It’s bad enough that you keep sending them to the coffee shop. But a parking lot to threaten me? Come on. That’s tacky, even for you.”

Gustavo’s frown lines deepened. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean. No one was supposed to visit you on this loveliest of nights. I thought that I had an agreement with Teresita and Luisita. We have their new boy at the shop drop you a hint you can’t refuse, and here you are, come to catch up with dear old Tío Gustavo.”

Max scoffed. “Pass. I don’t believe you for a second. Let’s get this over with. Tell me what you want for the statuette, and we’ll go.”

“Very well,” Gustavo said, sighing. “We’ve heard so much about your social life these days. Hello, Guillotina. So nice to see that you and Maximo are still so close.”

Guillotina grumbled, crossed her arms, and tapped her foot.

“But what we’re truly curious about is the boy with the dragons.”

All heads turned toward me. I forced a grin, offering them a limp little wave of my hand.

“Well, you see, the problem with that is — ”

“No deal.” Max stepped in front of me, as if protecting me with his body. “Tina? Plan B.”

What was Plan B? I didn’t even know about a Plan A.

B stood for buzzsaws, apparently. Tina spread her arms, sending a crisscross of circular blades screaming throughout the warehouse. Some of the thugs scattered. Others made the foolish mistake of mounting an assault on the three of us. Max flicked his hands out, firing his crystalline slivers. One thug fell to the ground screaming, clutching his face. Another yowled as he considered the danger of plucking the knife-long crystal that had burrowed as deep as a bullet into his shoulder.

Max and Guillotina dashed into the fray, but I had to help somehow, thin out the thugs. Also, a couple of them seemed especially intent on retrieving me for dear old Tío Gustavo.

The goons bore down on me, coming so close that we were practically within punching distance. One quick lunge, a well-executed kick, and I was in for a world of hurt. I needed to hurt them first.

My reflex was to call on the essences of the dragons still swirling within my soul — but after everything I’d learned, why would I turn to them again? Fuck. And these guys were much too amped up for me to terrify with a fear hex. That was assuming I could get a solid grip on them long enough to deliver it.

That left only one option. The blasting hex.

Everyone in the Alcantara bloodline always had a different story for how our blasting hex was created. Some said that it was initially designed to be a prank. Others said that it was in response to the frightfully destructive gunpowder that the Spaniards brought when they first reached Philippine shores.

The stories only ever agreed on two things. That the blasting hex was difficult to master, and that it was a fucking pain to execute.

But did I really have a choice?

Magic ripped out of me in an agonizing pulse, a dull ache in my bones, my skin tingling with the piercing pain of a thousand unseen needles. Brillante goons went flying in all directions, smashing into crates, against the wall. So many sounds of breaking that I couldn’t distinguish between splintered crates or shattered bone.

Gustavo and the Mendez sisters were the luckiest, positioned far enough away that the worst of the blast had dissipated, barely brushing against them with diminished force. Gustavo wobbled in place, waving his arms to regain balance like he was standing on the edge of a cliff. Teresita and Luisita clung onto each other for dear life, their skirts billowing in an arcane wind.

As for the statuette — gone. Gone from its pedestal, that is, floating toward me in a jerky, twitching motion. Clever boy. Somewhere in all the chaos, Max had used his Obfuscate spell to turn invisible and grab the goods.

The shimmering humanoid shape dashing toward me solidified into something made of flesh and blood. Max reached for my hand as he sprinted. Our fingers interlocked, and I ran alongside him.

“Stop them!” Gustavo bellowed.

“That was so fucking cool,” Max said, ignoring his uncle, awestruck and breathless. “Why did you ever bother with dragons when you could do all that?”

“Because it hurts like hell,” I replied, still feeling the deep ache in my bones, knowing that this full-bodied soreness would haunt me in the morning. “Can’t use it too much. Break glass in case of emergency. Now I have to put myself back together.”

Max turned his head for the briefest moment, a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. “I’ll spend all night putting you back together. Just you wait and see.”

“Time and a place,” I shouted back, feeling my insides puddling. He seemed to find it hot when I made extravagant displays of magic, and frankly, the feeling was mutual.

A rapid tip-tap of bootsteps caught up with us as Guillotina joined our footrace, her hair whipping in the breeze. “You guys are disgusting. I tell you all the time, but you never listen.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Oh, Tina, you know Max still loves you even if he spends all his spare time on — hold up.”

I stopped running. Max’s fingers slipped out of mine. He widened his eyes at me, jerking his head over his shoulder.

“Leon, what’s the matter? We need to get out of here.”

I blinked, then turned around. We’d made it out of the warehouse, but no one else had, for some reason.

“No one’s chasing us,” I said.

Guillotina craned her neck, angling for a better look inside the warehouse. “You’re right. I mean, the ones you exploded are still putting their bones back together, probably, but Gustavo and the Mendez twins were barely even blasted. Maybe it’s late. Maybe it’s past their bedtime.”

“Tina, that’s mean! Maybe a little ageist, too.” I stretched my arms out and yawned. “To be honest, I’m super sleepy myself. What time is it, anyway?”

Max tapped his watch, lifting its face to his, squinting at the little numbers. “That’s funny. My watch just stopped. That’s not supposed to — ”

My blood ran cold.

“Run,” I shouted, grabbing their hands and pulling tight.

Gustavo was never the real threat tonight. The Quartz Spider wove a tangled web, and we’d walked right into it.