Mercedes uncrossed her arms and let them fall to her sides.

“It may not be beautiful now, but it will be! When they work together! There are many gods! Ours says so and orders the search for another medium. It’s in the book!”

Juan approached Mercedes until he could see the glint of her eyes behind the dark glasses she always used, even in the semidarkness of the tunnel.

“Where do you get them, Mercedes? Indigenous children? The children of prisoners? Why don’t you ask for a sacrifice, an offering, from the rich Initiates of the Order? Do you steal them in the night, or do their mothers sell them because they’re dying of hunger? Do their fathers know where their children are before they’re thrown to the Darkness? You’ve learned a few things from your friends’ torture chambers.”

“Such compassion. Why don’t you save them, then? You have the power to do it.”

Juan turned his flashlight back on and shone it directly into Mercedes’ dark glasses. He wanted to look her in the eye. He wanted to blind her.

“That would be another cruelty. They’re far beyond any help.”

Juan directed the flashlight on to one of his own hands, and Mercedes started to babble and beg for mercy. She tried to run out the door, but Juan willed it sealed hermetically. She was alone in the tunnel with the golden god, the lord of the gate.

“You know where this tunnel went?” he asked her. “It didn’t go from one house to the other in a straight line. The builders had to skirt round some underground lakes, because it’s very close to the river. And in one stretch, several meters past the beginning of the collapse, it reaches the Place of Power. See?”

His illuminated hand was now surrounded by black light.

“Female mediums are much more powerful,” he went on. “They have the power to summon anywhere, they just have to figure out the particular conditions needed for concentration, or else, the ritual can be performed on them. Men depend on Places of Power. There are many. Some mediums simply run into them, others learn to find them. I know how to find them. I also know the radius of the power they emanate. Far from those places, we are almost normal. Although I have natural talent, it takes a lot of energy to use it. Far from the Place of Power, Mercedes, you and I aren’t so different. Close to it, however . . .”

His hand radiated that dark, sharp light, a blade of shadow. He brought it close to her face.

“Luckily for you, this god is bored and only wants to know if you killed Rosario. If you killed your daughter. I want you to admit it, Mercedes, because this hand won’t leave any skin over your bones. I don’t respect the blood. I don’t know what that means.”