The 52nd (The 52nd Saga Book 1) (37 page)

Lucas gave a subtle wave to the performer, then pointed up and to the right. “There’s
Dylan.”

My body tensed, and I started to think that entering the mass of people wasn’t a good idea. His thumb instantly circled the back of my hand, gripping it even harder as he did, and we headed into the
crowd.

The club was laid out on different levels. To get to Dylan, we had to step down onto a lower level, cut a path that curved to the right around the dance floor, then ascend a few steps. A black rope at the top blocked off a private area, and Lucas unhooked it without pausing. The space up here was large and nearly vacant. Max and Casey sat on one of the twenty boxy lounge chairs talking to Dylan, who made swooshing motions with his hands. Gabriella sat on a low, modern-style table, and the leg that she had crossed over the other bounced out of boredom.

“
Hola
, Zara.” She smiled, looking relieved, as she rose to kiss my cheek. She looked stunning in a short yellow dress and pink lipstick. A bracelet matching mine dangled with others along her
arm.

She smiled approvingly as Lucas fastened his arm around my side. The boys looked up from Dylan and toward us with contagious
laughs.

“Zara, you should have seen Dylan, he was sick!” Max cackled, grabbing his stomach from laughing too
hard.

Dylan’s face went devout behind his glass.
Great, Max and Casey have met their long-lost triplet, and Dylan has gained lost brothers.
It was a perfect reunion, though it made me feel guilty about
Xavier.

“Vamos, amor,”
Gabriella moaned, tugging Dylan off the
chair.

Dylan smiled at the twins and shrugged his shoulders submissively, though he followed her without complaint. She swayed her hips like a duck as they glided off to the dance floor. Max and Casey stared at the incapacitated Dylan in
awe.

Lucas threw his sweater on the table next to the boys and looked to me. “You
too!”

“What?”

He grabbed my hand and yanked me off in the same direction.

“What are you doing?” I asked, tugging in the other direction, even though I couldn’t overpower him. I didn’t want to be next to Gabriella as she danced. I imagined her, graceful and seductive, her movement and body flawless—as it should be when you dance. After Lucas had dragged me ten feet closer to the dance floor, I gave up resisting. Gabriella and Dylan were already in the zone by the time we joined them. I looked away, feeling shy.
How am I going to top that? Every move is like a Tony Award
–
winning bit of choreography.

“Don’t think,” Lucas said before I could protest that I shouldn’t
dance.

I was worried about the bodies bumping into us, but he angled himself in front of me as if they didn’t exist. My body pulsed as he decreased the space between us, watching me intently as he did, and rested his hands on my hips and moved them in rhythm. As his body moved slowly with mine, and he looked down, engulfed in our movement, I surrendered. I put my arms around his neck and stepped closer. Soon our bodies rocked in sync, our hips swaying together. Our skin grew sweaty with close contact, but Lucas only pressed himself harder against
me.

Songs later, when my legs grew tired, Lucas broke the space between
us.

“Let’s take a break.” He smiled, fanning out his shirt, which was stuck to his chest. I shook my head and realized that I was out of
breath.

Max and Casey were standing at the rope at the top of the stairs, pointing to girls below and whispering.

“I wish I spoke Spanish,” I heard Casey
say.

Max threw a hand to his chest. “Bro, all you say is, ¿Señorita baile?” His pronunciation was embarrassing, but worse was the motion of two stick figures he made with his fingers.

Casey nodded like some stoned hipster. “Zara, hands down, this is the best Christmas
ever.”

“Good,” I replied, amazed that I was getting along with my brothers.

“Where did you take our sis today, bro?” Max
asked.

“To one of the homes I grew up
in.”

“That’s it?” Casey replied, sounding kind of shocked.

“Pretty
much.”

Max and Casey looked away as if we were boring and continued where they left
off.

“Max, Case, we’re leaving,” Dylan said from behind us. “We’ll catch you at home, Lucas.”

Casey nodded, looking disappointed.

“Don’t worry, the ladies will be here tomorrow too,” Dylan promised.

Outside, the cool night breeze graced my skin as Lucas tugged me toward the black tree line with a secret
grin.

“This way,” he whispered.

I caught his excitement, and we ran into the forest, plunging into the shadows until the parking lot was out of view. The branches brushed along my arms and behind my back, but I was focused on Lucas, who watched me back. My heart picked up its pace again as he slid his arms around my waist and pulled me into
him.

“This is more like it,” he whispered.

I stared back, sensing a wall inside him crumbling further as he leaned his head against
mine.

“This is my someday,” I finally said in the silence.

He responded with a closed, velvety smile that made my head spin and my toes tingle. As he tilted his head toward me, I inched closer and prepared. I puckered my lips just as his briskly touched mine, but then they turned to stone. He pushed himself away from me, his eyes large with shock. I stared at him, confused, but then I heard it too: the loud beat of a
drum.

I covered my ears as it grew even louder and yelled, “What is
that?”

His skin suddenly looked pale in the darkness. “We must
go.”

I backed away in confusion.

“NOW!” he
yelled.

We rushed to the car and bolted for home, my hands still fumbling for my seatbelt.

“What’s going on?” I
asked.

“The executioners are declaring war. They will be here by morning,” Lucas said through tight
lips.

“But I thought you said they couldn’t come back after Solstice.”

He swerved onto the small gateway road, the boxy palace ahead a beacon in the dark. “I said they wouldn’t come after Solstice, not that they
couldn’t
. They are breaking the laws now
too.”

Lucas swerved toward the light. The fluorescent whiteness made the garage seem like a surgical theater. The Castillos were standing together next to the boat Dylan had taken out earlier, the jaguars at their
feet.

“Did you hear it, their drums of war?” Valentina asked nervously as we pulled
in.

“Yeah.” Lucas met me on the other side of the car, looking distracted.

The ghostly drumbeat pounded in our heads
again.

“What
is
that?” I asked irritably.

“It’s Xibalba,” Tita answered in a daze. She turned a deathlike gaze on me, her eyes void of expression. “They’re coming for
you.”

“Tita,
silencio por favor,
” Andrés interrupted. “Zara, honey, I need you to stay in the house with your family until we return. The Aluxes will be here to guard you, but you cannot leave the house,” he stressed. “You will tell your family that we had last-minute family business, and that we will be back in a couple of days at the
most.”

“A couple of days?” I shrieked.

“Tita will put a spell on the house to protect you, but no one will be allowed to enter or leave. It will be safe,” he added in a reassuring tone, though his body betrayed his
unease.

“I don’t like this,” I
said.

“Yeah, me either,” Gabriella
said.

“Aren’t you forgetting about one little detail . . . like the prophecy?” I didn’t mean to raise my voice. I took a deep breath and calmed myself. “The Milky Way’s dark rift, what about that? Isn’t that just another means to another portal? So if you close this one, the Underworld will still have another way of getting out, only then you would have a Celestial coming after you for killing a
god!”

“We’ve run out of options. It’s the only shot we have right now at guaranteeing your safety,” Lucas said. His face was tight with frustration as he pulled his fingers through his
hair.

“He’s right, Zara. Please, go inside and be with your family,” Andrés
said.

“No, I will
not
just listen. You listen to
me!”

I waited for their shocked faces to smooth, but when they didn’t, I continued. “Xavier’s mother came to me for a reason. She was scared, and very cautious, like she was being watched. She risked coming because it was important. There has to be another way to deal with
Xavier.”

“Like what?” Lucas said. He looked scared, like someone was about to come and rob him of his rightful property. I had to remind myself that
I
was the possession he was worried
about.

“What if Dylan called for her and asked her to join you? Have her go with you to where the portal is located. Promise Xavier that you will break the curse if he promises to disappear forever. I mean, that’s what he wants, isn’t it? His freedom?”

There were a few disconcerted
nods.

“From there, she takes Xavier away, if
and only if
he promises to stay out of your way, never cross your paths. You know, that sort of thing.” I ran out of things to
say.

“That can’t work,” Tita clarified. “The spell I put on him is called a curse because it cannot be revoked.”

“Unless they have Zara,” Dylan
mused.

Lucas glared at him. “Out of the question.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Valentina
added.

“We can’t trust Xavier. I’m sorry.” Andrés turned to his family. “We leave at dawn’s first
light.”

I glared back at all of them, expecting Lucas to speak up. But he stood with his family on this one, not even man enough to look me in the eye. The pressure in my head suddenly made my face throb. I fled without another word through the kitchen, past my family in the great room, and into my
room.

I belly flopped on the bed and pushed my face into the pillow to muffle my sobs. But when I rolled to one side, my cheeks wet with tears, Lucas was standing by the dresser. I looked away and sniffed.

“What do you want from me, Zara?” he said. “The executioners are on their way, right now. We have to block them before they come with an army to kidnap you and deliver you to Mictlan.”

“Aren’t you worried about the Milky Way being another way for them to come?” I asked, shocked that he wasn’t freaking
out.

“Not really, no.”

“And you’re sure you can seal the portal for
good?”

He sighed and added an encouraging, “Yes.”

I moved to the edge of the bed and wedged my hands between my
knees.

He moved in front of me noiselessly, his face full of remorse. “Look, if roles were reversed, I would feel the same way as you do right now: angry and betrayed. But you need to understand how important it is that you stay in this house. You don’t know how much you mean to me.” He paused. “What happened with your connection and Xavier at Fallen Leaf was too dangerous, and Xavier would do anything to get you now. I don’t know how I could protect you from an army.” His voice trembled as he looked at
me.

I picked at my fingernails and, with hesitation, dismissed my own judgment. “I will stay
here.”

He watched me closely. “I will come back for you, I promise.”

I fell back and stared up at the ceiling. My instincts still screamed against every grain of this plan, but I had to trust him now. “How do you even kill Xavier? He’s a
god.”

The whites of Lucas’s eyes widened, and I could see the risk they were willing to take in his fearful face. “We remove his heart and burn it on an
altar.”

I waited a moment as the pieces of their plan came together. I rolled my head sideways to look at him. “So you’re going to lock me in the
house?”

“It’s the only way I know how to protect you. We are trying to keep everything as normal as possible so your family doesn’t suspect anything.”

I shot up with a brilliant idea, the last piece of hope I had. “I have a better plan. How about we contact the Celestials?”

“What?” He shook his head as if I were crazy. “We can’t.”

“Tell them everything, let them make the decision. You don’t have to do this!” I
cried.

He looked torn as he nodded slowly. “I
do.”

I looked down, partially frustrated, partially fighting the pounding in my head. It killed me that everything was out of my control. Because of me, the Castillos were willing to risk exposing their identity. Because of me, Lucas was willing to put his life on the line. Because of me, my family was in the most danger they would ever face, and they didn’t even know
it.

His feet moved into the patch of floor I was staring at, so close that our knees touched. He tilted my chin upward, and the dim lamp highlighted his features as he raised his eyebrows.

“We’re not over. I am coming back for you,” he confirmed, the deep promise splitting the air between
us.

He held on to me, and I could almost feel him still questioning his desire to act on how he felt. I wanted him to do it, get it over with, because I knew with every fiber of my being that my first time would be with
him.

“What are you waiting for?” I whispered, pushing away just enough to look him squarely in the eyes. I wished I had the courage to do it myself, but I didn’t.

His passion was there, in all its drowning intensity, but he looked conflicted. “I’m holding on to anything I can as a reason not to do
this.”

In that moment, his closeness consumed me—I had never wanted him more. I could think of many reasons why he
should
. Then, before I could reach for him, he swallowed, kissed my cheek, and vanished, the curtains on the French doors flapping with his passage.

I stayed on the bed. As much as it ate at me inside, I would not go to him tonight. If he wanted me, he would come. I left the doors open, already feeling somehow trapped, and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. There was the nightgown that Lucas had promised me, fine white cotton soft as silk, folded by the sink. It slid cool and smooth over my skin. As I brushed my teeth, imagining never seeing Lucas again, I
choked.