CHAPTER 19
UNITY

IRIS hadn't woken up in a lot of foreign places in her life. She usually always ended up right back in her bed. Only once or twice had she tortured her drunk self into a one night stand, finding herself in sheets that weren't her own, but she continuously managed to make her way out before anyone could see her. This situation, however, didn't seem as likely. Because not only did she wake up in a place that wasn't her bedroom, but she also couldn't move.

Fluttering her eyes open, Iris was greeted with the sight of a large, empty room. A single lightbulb swung from side to side above her head, blurring her vision, and she had to cup a hand around her eyes as she sat up. Blinking rapidly, she scanned the half-empty room. It was mostly dark, except for the one spot of light. She laid on a ratty sofa. There was a coffee table in front of her, littered with scratches, with a glass of water and pastry sitting on it, and an old TV set blasting the History Channel. The theme song to Ancient Aliens played softly through her ears, but she hardly paid attention when something became very clear to her.

She was chained to the couch.

"Holy fuck," she muttered under her breath.

Iris tugged at the chain, hoping for a small bit of release, but she got nothing. Whoever captured her here, they made quite a show to keep her in place. The heavy chain was wrapped around the whole side of the couch before it was enclosed around her left wrist. Iris began to panic. Her hands formed into fists as she yanked on the chain. The metal was digging into her delicate skin, creating sharp marks and redness around her wrists. She gave up after a while, looking to the ceiling for some sort of way out. It was like she was sitting in a sea of pitch black.

Without thinking, Iris released an incoherent scream. She wailed at the top of her lungs, hoping that she would shatter glass or pierce someone's eardrums – anything to get another form of human interaction. An echo became her only reply. Her right fist pounded into the sofa, while her feet stomped against the floor. She breathed heavily through her nostrils and began screaming, "HELP! SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE! HELLO!"

Clearly, she had made enough noise, because an entrance was suddenly cracking open, and she noticed a doorway within the darkness of the empty room. On the other side, she heard commotion, dozens of people speaking at once, and as the door shut, there was nothing but silence.

This room was slightly soundproof. What she would give to have not left her weapon in her desk drawer.

Footsteps entered the room, and soon Iris was facing a man with tired eyes and a wary expression. His stared bugged out at her and she clamped her mouth shut once they came face to face. He lifted his hands in the air, "Be quiet."

That was all it took to make her anger spike.

"Are you kidding me?" She answered, voice low, before raising it to her highest peak, "YOU FUCKING IDIOT! I WON'T BE QUIET UNTIL YOU EXPLAIN WHERE I AM AND WHY I'M CHAINED TO GODDAMN SOFA!"

The man looked back at the door, brows knitting together. When he met Iris' angry stare again, he put out his hands and stepped forward slowly. "Um – well, miss – uh – everything will be explained soon. I promise."

He really shouldn't have gotten that close.

Iris reached out with her free hand, locking her fingers around the man's t-shirt collar. Their noses were touching and he was breathing heavily against her face. She watched him swallow hard. The sight was almost too enjoyable.

"Explain to me," she snarled, "now."

"I – I –"

Iris yanked on his collar again. "Spit it out!"

"I –"

She hissed in his direction, giving him a free moment to pull himself out of her grip. He stumbled backwards, almost falling into the coffee table and giving it another scratch. She debated on reaching out again, but he was already too far away. The man rubbed at his collar line and sprinted towards the door. "HEY!" Iris called, slamming her fist into the pleather cushions. "DON'T LEAVE –"

The door shut with a slam. She was left in the silence again. Iris leaned her head back and slapped a hand against her forehead. "Fuck my life," she whispered, even though no one would be able to hear it anyways. She could shout it to the heavens if she wanted to, and she would still be locked in this goddamn room.

An idea sparked in her brain. She suddenly remembered that her phone had been in her back pocket as she left the station. What were the chances that it was still there.

Iris sat up and awkwardly moved her arm back, fishing into the back pocket of her jeans. She felt something rectangular and solid, and sure enough, there was her phone. Iris almost screamed when she saw it. Whoever these captors were, they were a bunch of idiots to leave her with a phone. Pressing down on the power button, Iris readied herself to dial 9-1-1 before someone else could come back in. But then there was one little problem.

The room had no signal.

"You have got to be kidding me!" She screeched, pinching the bridge of her nose. Iris looked back down on her phone and also noticed that she had half a battery left. She groaned and turned the device back off to save her battery life, slipping it back into her jean pocket. With her luck, it would still die by morning, depending on what time it was.

Slowly, Iris turned her attention back to her left hand, eyeing the chain. She glanced at her free hand. Maybe she could do something with this. She didn't have light-up hands for nothing, right?

Harnessing all the anger inside of herself, Iris exhaled a heavy breath and tried to bring the light out. She flexed and unflexed her fingers, waiting for the intense burning to begin. She hovered the free hand over the chain and waited for at least something to happen. There was nothing.

No lights. Not even a burn.

Iris huffed and wiggled her fingers over the chain. "Come on," she muttered. "Why won't you work?!" Her necklace felt normal. It wasn't heavy, nor did it scorch her chest. She had nothing left inside her. Absolutely nothing! Of course, when she actually needed this burden to help her out, it was completely useless.

But maybe that was why. She felt so out of energy that it was probably affecting her powers. Her normal energy rate affected when the lights would start and end – that's why she could turn them off when she calmed down. Whoever knocked her out before had done it pretty hard, and now she felt like a living couch potato.

The last thing she should be thinking about right now we a cigarette. She should've been crafting another way out. And yet ...

Iris sat up and slid herself over to the glass of water. It was the only thing available that could sustain her sudden appetite for nicotine. She struggled with grasping it. The glass was so close, but just out of her reach. Iris cursed under her breath, fingers just about grazing the surface, as the door opened once again.

She froze in place, hand out to grip the glass, expression full of frustration. Iris was pretty sure a sheen of sweat had formed on her brow as well. These next footsteps were loud, commanding and imposing. She swallowed hard as the darkness enveloping the figure filtered away, bringing them into the bright light. Her brow shot up. This was the last thing she expected to see.

It was another man, but he was handsome. Long face and broad shoulders. Straight nose, forming into a tiny button at the end. Warm, brown, kind eyes with just a hint of wickedness in them. The perfect dark, messy hair look and a smile that would make most women fall to their knees.

Thankfully for Iris, she wasn't most women. But the longer she stared at this man, she could be.

With a sense of gracefulness, the man strode forward. His stare didn't break from Iris'. He smiled softly, leaning down and plucking the glass of water. For a second, Iris thought he was taking it away, and then he held it out to her. She gulped, tasting the dryness of her throat, and took the glass from his hands. After a moment of hesitation, their eyes broke and she downed the whole glass.

"You seem pretty thirsty. I'll make sure to keep your pitcher full."

An accent. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something there, as if he had lived many different lives in such a short amount of time.

"I didn't know cottonmouth was a side effect from getting knocked in the head," she quipped, meeting his eyes one again. He smirked and poured her another glass. She took it very willingly. "Thanks."

He bowed his head and stood up straighter. "I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances, Miss Kingsley. But you've put up a fight for a long time. I wish it could've happened differently." He laced his hands behind his back. "My name is Nicholas Patli, but you can call me Nick, if you please. I'm the head of the Coatls. I'm sure you've done your research?"

In that moment, all Iris could do was tell herself to stay calm, which was regretfully hard considering her situation. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She tried not to show fear or surprise. In a way, she always knew it would come to this. She couldn't outrun a group of psychopaths forever. Iris wasn't like Dick. She wasn't a hero and didn't have enough street-smarts to find a way to run away.

She raised her chin, staring him down. "Where am I?"

"A warehouse near Port Austin," he said quickly. "We wanted to have our meeting place right by the water."

Iris swallowed. She realized now that maybe his smile was a bit more vile than soft.

"So why are we here?" She huffed, slapping her free hand against the sofa. "You want the necklace? Have at it. Please, take the burden. Or is this about that Aztec god and goddess reuniting thing? You know, that 'once they're reunited, a new world will arise at their hands' bullshit."

"You have done your research."

"I have my ways, Nick." Iris sat up a tiny bit, looking around for another person lingering in the shadows. "So where is he? That husband I'm supposed to meet? Maybe he can get this necklace off."

Nick grinned big. She slowly turned her head towards him, watching the devilish way he walked forward and sat on the coffee table in front of her. Bile rose into her mouth. If he got any closer, she was going to scream bloody murder –

"You're looking at him, love," he replied, clasping her hand in his. A shriek clogged itself inside her throat. She didn't have enough time to react before he was speaking again, "I was chosen by the Great God, Xiuhtecuhtli, to take on his duties and bring a new world. I gathered my followers. I found my resources." Iris noticed his sleeve lift up a little, and sure enough, he was wearing a bracelet adorned with a big, fire opal stone. Xiuhtecuhtli was the Aztec god of fire and day.

"All I had left," he smiled, "was to find you."

Lifting a hand, a few flames flickered at the tops of his fingertips, but vanished just as quickly.

Iris immediately yanked her hand out of his grip. "You're not a god. You're a fucking cult leader."

Nick snorted. "Of course, I am."

"Wait," she blinked, "what?"

"When I was a boy, I was teased constantly for my stutter, even my accent," he began, taking the now-empty glass from her lap. "Once I got rid of the stutter, I went through puberty — all I wanted was to be loved. I wanted something I never had. And then, I looked into my own folklore more ... I learned the history of the gods and goddess ... and when I laid eyes on the last fire opal ever created in a museum exhibit on Aztec art, I knew it had to be mine. Only then would I become Xiuhtecuhtli, a god loved by his people."

Iris glanced at the bracelet again. "Did you steal it?"

He laughed. "Yes, of course, and then I had it fashioned into a piece of jewelry that would match my lovely wife's, whenever I would meet her." Clearing his throat, he added, "The stone still chose me, though. I just had to find ways to let it come to me."

If he stole it ... the stone clearly hadn't chosen him, she deduced. He was still just a man. The stone hadn't give him full power. He wasn't the reincarnation of a god, just a petty thief.

"After that, I found my followers," he continued. "And the rest is history. Now that I've found you, everything can come to fruition."

She arched a brow. "You became a cult leader because you were bullied as a kid? Are you serious?"

His expression didn't fall. He was serious.

"Okay, listen to me here, Nick." Iris sat up and patted his hand. He grinned at her touch. "I don't know if you know this, but chaining a girl to a sofa isn't really a way to win over her affections –"

He scoffed, "You're here, aren't you?"

"– Furthermore," she interrupted, "you gotta tell me what I can do. What can I give you to get me out of here? There must be something you want since you've been looking for me this whole time."

Please, don't say sex. Please, don't say sex. Please, don't say sex.

"Precisely," Nick agreed. "I want you here – right now, forever. You, Miss Kingsley, were chosen to bear Chalchiuhtlicue's gifts and now we must be officially united as husband and wife."

"We're speaking right now," she replied, deadpanned. "Isn't that enough of a unity?"

He laughed, voice bouncing off the walls. The sound sent a shiver down her spine. Whatever handsomeness that was left of him surely went out the window this time.

"No, no," Nick said with a shake of his head. "By uniting, we must be married."

Iris felt like her entire head was going to explode off her body.

"MARRIED?!" She screeched, practically spitting in his face. Nick leaned away for a short moment. "I ... I ... I don't even have a boyfriend! At least ... I think I don't. It's been complicated."

"Perfect, then! Now there won't be any problems when we have the ceremony."

Iris shook her head. "No, no, no. I am not marrying you. I have to leave, get back to my job, and ... well, get back to my fucking life! No way am I doing that!"

"A marriage is the only way that the reuniting will be complete, Iris," Nick rationalized. "And then, finally –"

"– A new world will arise at our hands. Yeah, yeah, I got it."

"So will you do it?"

Iris bit her lip. She seriously felt like she was going puke this time. This had to be one of the worst situations of her life. Not even Dick yelling at her in front of the whole office felt this bad. What other choice did she have but to marry this guy? There was no way out. She had no weapon, no energy to burn her way out. This place was definitely under lock and key, and her room was soundproof.

She was completely fucked. And not in the good way.

"Perhaps, I should give you some extra time to think about it."

He got to his feet and turned on the end of his heel, walking back into the darkness. He was heading for the door. He was going to leave her alone again for a couple more hours – maybe even days. Iris needed to get out of here, and fast. This marriage ... it could be the only way, and even then, would she ever really be free again?

"Wait."

She was surprised at her own voice. Nick spun back around, lacing his hands together, and walked back into the edge of the light. Iris could only see half of his face.

"Yes?" He asked, hopeful.

Her throat was closing up. The world felt like it was spinning. If she didn't speak now –

"I'll do it."

•••

A/N: WE ARE ALMOST AT THE CLIMAX NOW FOLKS!!!! hate to say it but.........we might only have like 4 chapters left 🤭

so idk if I'm completely overthinking this, but I just want to make clear that I'm weaving together aztec folklore and myths with the plot of this story. I really fell in love with aztec folklore in college and wanted to explore it within this story. the traditions that nick speaks of in this (the unity, all the jewelry that bear gifts), they're not necessarily part of aztec folklore. aztecs believed in some stones/minerals/materials having gifts, but not as specific as a turquoise necklace giving them the powers of a great goddess. am I making any sense lol

since I've only studied aztec myths and legends, I guess I just don't want to offend anyone. but idk if this is just me and 😜 my anxiety 😜 I also wove in this folklore with my own plot to show how ancient traditions/folklore cannot always translate into the real world with a selfish man at the head of them. this will all be evident real soon!

ANYWAYS I hope all of this made sense and you guys enjoyed the chapter!!!