Night enfolded me as I walked the Zaniyah lands beyond the nest’s blood circle.

Trees grew thicker and taller, so old and majestic they might have sprouted before Grandmama was even born. The moon was just a silver slip in the sky, but millions of stars twinkled and blinked, a secret language that I couldn’t quite understand. Staring up at the midnight sky, I felt the answer inside me, even though I didn’t quite understand in words what the universe, or the goddesses, were trying to tell me. I felt it in my bones and in the pulse of magic in my blood.

Now.

It’s time.

Three jaguars prowled through the underbrush, though the biggest stayed close enough to me that his tail touched my thighs. Eztli always remained close, even as his jaguar. My fangs descended, and he made a low, coughing grunt of hunger. I held my wrist out to him and let him tear open my skin.

Power rumbled to life inside me. I didn’t shift to his form—I couldn’t. Shifting into a jaguar had never been my gift, only the ability to call them to my side. However, I did gain his enhanced senses. I could suddenly see perfectly in the dark shadows beneath the trees. I could tell the difference between the squeaks of bats feeding on the ripe fruit overhead and the tiny mice shuffling through the leaves on the ground. The slight rasp of a snake’s coils as it hunted its prey rang in my head as clearly as a bell. Thousands of scents flooded me, carrying all the messages of the land and its inhabitants. The jungle filled me, each life a blip on an internal radar that spun out into the night.

Eztli cradled my wrist in his formidable jaws, letting my blood run down his throat. His tongue was like sandpaper, but it was a rasp that I enjoyed. The rough stroke of his tongue told my body he was feeding, and soon, he’d be feeding me.

:Enough,: I told him in our bond, and he immediately released me. I needed blood for the call, and I didn’t want to bleed so much that he had to carry me home.

I held my wrist out so that my blood dripped onto a stele of crumbling stone that was almost hidden by thick ferns. So many lost cities lay buried in these jungles. Pyramids, temples, and ball courts from generations so long ago that even Grandmama didn’t know the cities. I wasn’t sure which goddess’s image was carved into the worn rock, but it didn’t matter. In my mind, it was Coatlicue, the Mother of the Gods, our Zaniyah patron.

She stirred in my mind. Approval flowed through me like a touch of coolness in an otherwise warm pool of water. I had never seen Her directly, though I felt Her touch and influence in my life often. Grandmama said I didn’t want to meet Her, because She only called us to Her pyramid home, Coatepec or “Snake Mountain”, when She had a dire purpose.

When someone needed to die.

I didn’t have death on my mind tonight. Only life and power. Blood and sex.

My usual thoughts, to be honest. The stronger I was, the better protected House Zaniyah would be, and blood was the path to greater strength. Inevitably, sharing blood led to sharing bodies too, and the more I shared with my Blood, the deeper and richer our bonds became.

My sacrifice sent a ripple of power through the old ruin. Letting my blood fall as it may, I walked up a fern covered hill, that was actually a small, overgrown temple. The jungle had swallowed it up, but the stones were still there, as well as the ancient power.

Sacrifice had been offered here many times before. Whether or not humans had lost their lives, priests always sacrificed their blood to the gods. Blood opened the portal to the otherworld. Absently, I wondered if Mama had known she needed to bleed in order to try and open the cenote portal, or if she’d just jumped in. I’d have to ask Grandmama if she knew.

On the flattened peak of the pyramid, I spread my arms, tipped my head back, and just breathed. I soaked in the jungle and let my mind roam the night. I touched each of my jaguar Blood briefly, their purrs and low roars familiar and dear to me. Not even thirty paces away, I felt a wild jaguar, wholly animal with no Aima blood. She crouched high above a game trail on a heavy limb, the glow of her eyes the only hint of her presence. Her coat blended in perfectly with the dark shadows and moonlight dappling through the canopy.

She inclined her head to me, and I knew she would do my bidding if I asked. But she was not Blood to be called.

I let my awareness spread further, lightly touching the other nocturnal beasts in the trees. Focusing on my need, I whispered aloud, “Come to me, my jaguar Blood, wherever you may be. Your queen has need of you.”

The night breeze carried my intent out into the world like a tumbling leaf. Powered by my blood, my call rose in strength. With my three jaguars pressing against me, I drew on their strength as well. Eztli’s unswerving loyalty. Maxtla’s fatalistic warrior attitude. He’d fought the tide of Spaniards and lost our greatest city, yet he lived to fight another day. Luis burned with the need for retribution. His brother had died decades ago, before he’d come to me, but Luis still hunted the beast who’d managed to kill a young but powerful jaguar shifter.

If we were going to leave the nest in search of my jaguar god, I needed as many Blood as possible. The god I sought was Tezcatlipoca, or Smoking Mirror. The god of darkness, divination, and earthquakes. But I had chosen him because of the other form he took in our religion, his jaguar aspect, Tepeyollotl, or Mountain Heart. Even his name sent a thrill through my power, a zing of confirmation that yes, he was the one.

He was the god for me.

Far to the south, I felt a slight tug, as if a fly had brushed the furthest edge of a massive web. My heart leaped with excitement. Could a long-lost god truly be found so easily?

I reached toward that distant sense of something… important. He was miles and miles away. Not the god, sadly, but a jaguar Blood. I felt him running through the dense jungle, his sleek body stretched out in flying leaps to reach me as soon as possible.

Good. Hopefully four Blood would be enough protection to risk leaving the nest in search of Tepeyollotl.

I turned in a slow circle, fingers spread wide to pick up the slightest sense of anything else responding to my call. Blood trickled down to my elbow, but I sensed nothing else. Not even a glimmer of Tepeyollotl, though I wasn’t sure what a jaguar god would even feel like. Pausing, I offered my other wrist to Maxtla and allowed him to feed for a few moments before allowing my blood to drip onto the ancient stone.

“Coatlicue, Great Mother, Skirt of Snakes, please hear Your child’s plea. Show me where Tepeyollotl rests. Help me find my future daughter’s father. Help us continue Your line in House Zaniyah.”

My instincts were to strain and push for any clue, but generally, that wasn’t the way my goddess worked. She much preferred a quiet, peaceful submission to Her will. I needed to surrender, so She could work through me, not for me.

It wasn’t in my nature to wait quietly. I wanted to be busy. I wanted to make lists and plot maps and call every Aztec and Mayan expert to ask them where they thought a long-lost god’s final resting place might be. I was a doer. A fixer. A planner.

But none of those things would help me find Tepeyollotl.

I bled until my knees trembled and my head buzzed, but I felt nothing other than the new Blood far to the south.

Sighing, I drooped against Eztli’s side, and he bumped his giant head against my stomach. :You must have patience, my queen. Tenochtitlan wasn’t built in a single day.:

I wrapped my arm over his shoulder to steady myself as I carefully climbed down from the pyramid. Offering blood had never failed me before. I wasn’t sure what else to try. Maybe one of Grandmama’s potions?

Luis bounded ahead of us, scouting the path for anything or anyone who might threaten me. :The god you seek is called Smoking Mirror for a reason.:

“I know,” I replied slowly. “What does that mean?”

:You’re too young to remember the old ways,: Maxtla replied. :In Tenochtitlan, his priests used polished obsidian mirrors to speak to him.:

Hope quickened my pace back to the nest. “I’ll see if Grandmama has one. She has everything else hoarded away somewhere.”

:Tomorrow,: Eztli growled, his bond firming in my mind.

I knew he was only trying to take care of me, but I didn’t want to seem weak. A queen should probably toss her head with a haughty laugh and make a defiant statement, but he was right. I was exhausted, and I had to be smart and stay within my limits.

I needed to feed. I needed to rest.

And then I would search the nest top to bottom for an obsidian mirror.

Whatever that was.