I can’t help my smile. “Gotcha.”
His scowl’s so deep, it almost changes the way his whole face looks. “I’ve changed my mind about that. I called them in a rash moment.”
“Apparently.” I fold my arms. “But maybe I should come with you. What if one of them sneaks around back? I just saw two men, but aren’t there supposed to be four horsemen? Shouldn’t there be a third somewhere?”
His whole face darkens. “How did you know that?”
I roll my eyes. “Dude, you’re famous. All humans have heard of death, pestilence, famine, and war.”
“Which one am I?”
“Death, obviously,” I say. “He’s the coolest.”
Xolotl smiles, but then he shakes himself. “You will stay here.”
I sense the bond pushing against me, and I finally nod. “Fine.”
He’s gone one second later, and I lock the door just in case that might slow someone like him down a hair. I wait until I hear him making noise near them again, and then I pick up the phone.
I get lucky.
Dial tone.
Their stupid magic hasn’t shorted it yet, probably because instead of snap-killing, they’re lighting each other on fire.
My mom picks up on the first ring. “Whitney?”
“It’s me,” I whisper, just in case any of the idiots are listening. I rattle my address off from a flier for the hotel near the phone. “And listen. Three of the horsemen are here right now. Xolotl wanted me dead and he called them, but he’s changed his mind.”
“I’m glad you’re still alive. I just saw on the news that someone wiped out a bunch of military jets. They said it was an exercise gone wrong, but it was at Tahoe.” My mom sounds like she’s crying. I can’t really blame her. “I told Leonid not to do anything dangerous when you’re still near him.”
“Whitney?” It’s a man’s voice—Leonid. “Listen, we’re all delighted to hear that you’re alright. But did I overhear correctly? Do you really have three of the horsemen there now?”
I start filling them in on broad sketches, that Xolotl called his brothers to kill me, but he’s changed his mind.
“Why would he do that?” Leonid asks. “Did something happen?”
I grunt. “He massacred lots of soldiers in front of me. Maybe he realized he doesn’t need a human general, or maybe he just likes horrifying me.”
“Do you really think that’s it?” Leonid sounds. . .curious. But also very, very serious.
“I don’t know. Every time I’ve thought I learned something new, I realize I had it all wrong. It feels like I’m trying to swim in the center of the ocean and sharks are swirling around, but there’s something much bigger just hanging out, waiting to snap them up.”
“Well, the good news is that the witches have agreed to listen to us. If they can, they’ll help. They’ve never interfered directly with any part of the horsemen’s purpose, so this is a big policy shift.”
“Why would they agree to help?” I ask.
“We aren’t sure, except that Baba Yaga’s more vested this time, and so is one of the other sisters.”
“I’m not sure how much longer I have,” I say. “But tomorrow morning, Xolotl’s meeting the American military leaders at dawn at Travis Air Force Base.”
“That’s good information to have, but with the American military, there are too many angles. We don’t want to get involved while they’re also attacking.”
“Yeah, Xolotl can swallow missiles and stuff and puke them back out wherever he wants. It’s concerning.”
“We’re working on a way to incapacitate him, but until?—”
“Leonid, I’m telling you this as your sister-in-law, and I’m telling you because you’re the only one who might be rational enough to use this information the way it needs to be used.”
