The shock is brief. “The queen.”

“If that is what you insist on calling her.” Centavo stops beneath the arched entrance. “Her name is Citlali, although you would be wise not to address her as such in person.”

I stop a meter shy of the wall. “Why not use the underground entrance? I mean, isn’t that what it’s for?”

“She controls its usage. That is the arrangement. Only scheduled visits enter that way, and ours is not scheduled.”

“Even when it comes to you?”

“Especially when it comes to me.”

I attempt to slow my breathing. “But through there?” I try to block out the images from earlier. “Twice in the same day?”

He places a hand on the lever, beckoning me with the other. “I can assure you, this time will be different. Unlike Yetic, we are not here to play. No one inside will be harmed.”

Reluctantly I relent. Despite the horror I know to be inside the Shadows, I’m curious to meet the queen again—Citlali, star. I can’t think of a stranger place to find a star, and the name is one I wished my parents had given me instead of Calli, the common term for house or home. Citlali has such a pleasant ring compared to Calli.

Besides, I remember how reticent Yetic had been about the connection between the old man and the queen. She had gone nuts at the mention of Huatiani. I can’t wait to see what happens when Centavo stops in uninvited.

“I apologize, this will require physical touch.” Centavo’s hand remains outstretched.

I breathe deeply and grasp it.

“Normally, I would suggest keeping your eyes closed. It makes the experience less disorienting.” Centavo wraps his arm around my waist. “But I suppose you wouldn’t listen.”

“You’re catching on.”

“Do try to remain silent.”

Before I can pop off another snide remark, the breath is sucked out of me. The sights and sounds of a sleeping New Teo hiccup. Dangling and nearly weightless, I feel only a slight tug at my waist. As I struggle to breathe, my surroundings blur together with darkness and the occasional flash of forest swimming in a green glow.

The rhythm feels like clipping across rough seas at unimaginable speeds. Suddenly, the bubble bursts. Dropping to the forest floor, I land on hands and knees. I try to stand, but the green-lit forrest canopy is spinning. Rolling onto my back, I focus on Centavo standing above me.

He kneels down and offers his hand. “Again, I would normally suggest one refrain from being offensive around Citlali. Seeing how the two of you have already met, and you’re still alive, she must like you. Perhaps it’s best to be yourself.”

On my feet, I brush away pine needles.

Centavo continues in a mumble, loud enough for me to get the hint. “God willing, no one will get hurt.”

As soon as the spinning stops, I recognize the cave entrance. It appears we’re alone. “What exactly is your relationship with the queen, with Citlali?”

“Complicated.” He points with his chin while dimming his green glow to a barely perceivable flicker.

I turn in time to see the queen emerge from the mouth of the cave. In the dark of night, her skin swims with green luminescence more visibly than during the day. But her shade of green is so dark it barely lights the ground in front of her.

She stops several meters away. “I was just about to leave for the evening’s hunt. I never expected such a prize right at my doorstep.” Centavo starts to speak, but the queen cuts him off. “Let me guess. Father Huehue found out about your little visit to our forest and wanted you to apologize.” She seems to be talking straight to Centavo even though addressing me. “Raise them up to follow the straight path. Such a dutiful daddy right from the start.”

“Enough.” Pushing me forward, Centavo lowers his voice, “Go on, show her.”

I split the distance between the two immortals. As I stop, I turn my head for the queen to see the ragged stubble that used to be my braid.

Her brilliance swells until it releases in a puff. “How?” She speaks over the top of me, focused on Centavo.

“Huatiani executed his verdict.”

The queen stomps her foot, sending a ripple through the earth. Her glowing, mottled flesh roils like soup over a fire. “He should not be allowed to live.”

“It is as you wish.”

“What?” Citlali steps forward. “Don’t play games with me. You haven’t the totoltetls to kill—”

“It wasn’t me.”

“Who else could—”

“The boy.”

“Impossible.”

“You met him, did you not?”

Citlali nods. “He has power, but not the will.”

Centavo strides forward, placing a hand to the back of my head. “He was attempting to stop this.”

“Siblings,” Citlali exhales.

There is a long silence, as if the fact Olin and I are brother and sister should explain the deepest mysteries of the universe if only we take time to ponder the connection.

Finally Citlali breaks the silence. “Certainly you didn’t come all this way just to brighten my mood with the best news I’ve heard in years.”

“As you can imagine, recent events require I leave the city.”

“You double my joy. Could this evening get any better?”

Centavo’s subtle green glow pulses bright before shrinking again. “I realize I have wronged you. I am trying to correct the mistakes of my past. Why must you allow bitterness to rule your heart?”

“You have done nothing except grovel and lecture. How does that make up for abandoning me?” Citlali’s skin flares with tongues of dark, green fire.

I back away from the two of them.

“You would not listen. Not now or when you were little!”

“Listen to who? A stranger intent on kidnapping me, taking me from everything and everyone I loved? And to do what? Train me like you did my brother?”

“Enough!” Centavo rips his arms from his sides. Slashing them downward, he directs a blinding ball of light into the ground.

The shockwave tosses me backward in a puff of pulverized earth. Lying on my back, I hear both Citlali and Centavo breathing heavy. I sit up, and the two of them are hovering over a small crater, face to face.

“You are right. I did not come here to convey good news, or even to say goodbye.” Centavo points toward me. “I came here for the girl.”

“Am I to adopt your failed projects?”

“I’m not a—” both of them shush me with piercing glares.

Centavo continues after regaining his composure. “She is not a project. And she certainly has not failed.”

“You want me to restore her braid.”

“Think, Citlali.”

The queen’s glow intensifies at the use of her name.

Centavo ignores it. “Think of what she and her brother have accomplished already. But they must remain together.”

“Masa? You would have them register? You, of all people?”

Centavo nods. “It is the only way.”

“So this is how you plan on executing your revenge? By preying on ignorant children?”

“You label it thus, because revenge is all your heart can feel.”

During the silence, I stand and walk to the edge of the crater.

“You are wrong, Huehue,” the queen finally replies. “I no longer have a heart, thanks to men like you. Does the girl even know who you are?”

Centavo opens his mouth to speak.

The queen cuts him off. “It doesn’t matter.” For the first time that night, Citlali looks me in the eyes. She extends an arm. I lift from the ground and float slowly toward her.

After a small hitch in my breathing, I steady myself for whatever is to result. The last twenty-four hours have brought both high and terrible low. There is nothing else this immortal woman can do to harm me. Without a braid, my death sentence is pronounced.

If this dark star, queen of the twitchers, can perform what Centavo has promised, I will gratefully accept my indebtedness, along with whatever unsavory intent they have for me. Olin fears being transformed into a monster. Monsters are all I see. If this is what it takes to protect my brother, so be it.

I stop directly in front of the queen. From this close, even her eyes swim with torrents of green and black.

She places a hand on the top of my head. “With this braid you must promise to protect your brother and anyone else under your watch.”

I narrow my eyes, exhaling the words from the depth of my soul, “I promise.”

“You cannot know the difficulty of this vow. The time will come when you want nothing more than to betray this moment, or to be freed from its impossible burden.” She pulls me close, until I can smell mushrooms on her breath and see nothing except her molten irises. “When that time comes I want you to remember what you see now.”

A painful burst of static overrides my senses. Terribly vivid images rise out of the confusion. Enveloped, I’m thrust into nightmare after nightmare. The stench of rotting flesh clings to me. Writhing humans in the dying throes of the twitch cry out, reaching for me. The strobing progression freezes on a single face. My fear is overridden with grief, with longings for the fading young man I hold in my hands.

I know him. I love him more than I could possibly love myself. I watch him blink out behind the dull fog of the twitch—nothing left except a mindless servant, another minion among dozens—no longer the love that completes my heart.

In a crackle of light and sound, I awake. Whisking away tears and blinking in the sudden transition to the present, I see my own face reflecting in Citlali’s eyes. “That was you.”

“It was, yes. Now it is you. I pray you succeed where I could not.” She turns and walks away.

“Wait!” As I land in the soft bottom of the crater, something slaps my back with a familiar touch and weight. I whisk my hand to the back of my head and run it along the length of my braid. It’s as if it had never gone, and yet the memory of its absence will never fade. I fumble between overwhelming emotions of joy, shock, relief and a lasting grief I cannot shake.

Even if the braid is the same, somehow I know I never will be. Everything has changed. “Thank you.” I call out after Citlali, but she’s already disappeared into her cave.

“Do not thank her.” Centavo grips me with his mind, lifting me out of the crater and placing me next to him. “She is grieving.”

“Why?”

“She knows she has sealed your fate.”

“I don’t understand. She gave me my future back.”

“Restoring your braid required her to imprint her signature onto yours.” Centavo exhales, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “She is a part of you now.”

I stare at him while fiddling with the end of my braid. As usual, I have no idea what he’s talking about.

“I apologize. This is a happy moment. Besides, the two of you are so similar, I’m sure you won’t notice any difference.”

“Similar?” I huff. “Me and her?”

Centavo snorts. “Impossible to the end.” He holds out his hand. “Come, my time in New Teo has expired. I’ll drop you outside the gate.”