Alexander Death(63)

Panting, she finally reached the top, hundreds of feet above the ground. They faced a building with three empty doorways, Mayan hieroglyphs carved into their stone lintels.

“This was the holiest place in the city,” Alexander said. “Only the highest priests allowed. They received messages from the gods here.”

“Didn't they do human sacrifice?”

“Some of that, too.”

Jenny looked down the steep slope of the pyramid—it was a long fall to the shadowy ground below. For a moment, she could imagine thousands of Mayans standing below, looking up in awe as priests performed the ceremonies.

Then she looked out to a breathtaking view of the sunset over the Sierra Madre mountains. She could see a waterfall here and there off the mountains, disappearing into rivers that slinked away below the dense green canopy. A flock of brightly colored birds passed nearby.

“How old is this place?” Jenny asked.

“About twelve hundred years, give or take,” Alexander said. “It's not one of the famous, touristy places. Most of the old ruins aren't well known. The government just picks a few, runs a lawnmower over them, and charges admission. But nobody ever comes here. We've got the place to ourselves. Let's check out our room.”

Alexander led her through one of the portals, into a room lined from floor to ceiling with hieroglyphs. A thick layer of leaves and debris had accumulated on the stone-tile floor. Alexander swept an area clear with his foot, then shrugged off his hiking pack and set it down. Jenny was grateful to set hers down, too. She stretched her arms and back, all of which now felt incredibly light.

“Got any more coke?” Jenny asked him.

“Why? We're done hiking.”

Jenny shrugged. “Just an idea.”

“We're not doing any more of that tonight.” Alexander laid out a bright, geometric-patterned Mayan blanket that covered a large portion of the cover. Then he took out a woven pouch the size of a grocery bag.

“Dinner?” Jenny asked.

He opened the bag to show her. It looked like a couple of pounds of raw mushrooms. They smelled pungent, like earth and decay.

“Tell me that's not what we're eating,” she said.

“It's the only thing we're eating.”

“Ugh. They look sick.”

“We're not eating them for the flavor, Jenny.” Alexander tossed a mushroom in his mouth and chewed on it, and he was obviously trying to hide a grimace at the taste. “These are sacred mushrooms.”

“Oh...I've never done those.” She looked into the bag again and wrinkled her nose. “Those can make you crazy, can't they?”

“If you use them like a party drug. Used correctly, they can open hidden doors in your mind.” He held out a mushroom to her, but Jenny didn't take it.

“What kind of doors? Hallucinations and stuff?”

“In your case, the doors to who you really are,” Alexander said. He popped the mushroom she'd refused into his own mouth and chewed it quickly. “After tonight, you'll remember everything, Jenny.”

“You mean my past lives?”

“All of them, if we do it right. You'll remember the different ways you can use your power, too. And then you'll be fully awake. You'll remember yourself, you'll remember me, and we'll both be fully ourselves again.”

“All that from a mushroom, huh?” Jenny asked. She was starting to feel afraid, but she didn't want to show it. Her real self, as Alexander called it, the primordial part of her that had reincarnated so many times, had often acted as a monster. She'd glimpsed that much already. “I'm not sure I want to see my past.”

“The truth is the truth whether you learn it or not,” Alexander said. “So you might as well learn it. That's my philosophy.”

He offered her another mushroom.

Jenny could only think of the difficult life she'd had so far. Her father's struggle to make her a good person, his depressing disillusionment when he realized he'd failed. Ashleigh's manipulations—which might even include Jenny and Seth's entire relationship, according to Alexander.

She did know one thing—she was sick of being in the dark about what she was, and she didn't want to go through life depending on Alexander to tell her. She needed to know for herself.

Jenny took the mushroom into her mouth and bit into it. It tasted the way cow patties smelled.

“Delicious, huh?” Alexander asked.

She raised her middle finger at him while she chewed the mushroom. Then she accepted another. And another.

They walked out of the temple and sat on the highest step, watching the sun fade away while they ate their way through the mushrooms, washing them down with water. Jenny grew nervous, then anxious, then bored. The corona of the sun slid out of sight, and an ocean of stars became visible.