Juan didn’t understand any of it. The moment he’d heard he had a visitor, he’d expected to find his best friend here, even though he could hardly believe that was actually possible.

And now Mateo was the one holding him. Mateo, who was trapped here, who shouldn’t be here at all, who…

His lungs felt like they’d seized up. He was breathing, but somehow none of the air seemed to reach them.

This couldn’t be real.

He was losing his mind. He couldn’t… He stepped back, put his hands to his head and shook it, muttering, “No, this can’t be real. This isn’t real. I…”

“Hey.” Warm hands gently cupped his face. “I’m here, Juan. I promised I’d always be there for you. So that includes here in fucking prehistory.”

Juan shuddered and bit his lip.

Through the haze, he saw Emilio push past Mateo and pull him into a hug. “Dude…”

That was all Emilio seemed capable of getting out, too. His voice was shaking. Juan didn’t think he’d ever heard that before. He took another deep breath, and finally, a little oxygen made it into his lungs.

“I thought… I never thought you’d…” Juan whispered.

“That I’d make it more than a day out here? Neither did I, man. Seriously.”

Emilio stepped back. Unlike Juan, he wasn’t wearing worn-out, filthy jeans and a T-shirt. Instead, he was dressed in an elegant purple tunic, the kind Emilio would once have refused to wear unless someone paid him a hundred dollars.

“Did you manage it? Did you kill that beast? Because that…” He gestured at Emilio’s clothes. “Looks pretty fucking celebratory.”

Emilio grimaced. “You have no idea how celebratory.”

A hundred questions were fighting to get out, but Juan also knew they were guests here. It would be incredibly rude to sit around having a long conversation their host couldn’t understand. Sawa hadn’t come along this time to translate. Hopefully Emilio had picked up enough of the language to manage, because the thought of having to do all the talking himself made Juan extremely nervous.

Emilio and Mateo sat down, and Juan lowered himself onto the carpet as well. He gave the godly couple and their eldest son an apologetic glance.

Santui. Si’s fiancé. She had taken a seat beside him, and Juan couldn’t shake the feeling that something about it was wrong. She belonged on the other side.

With them. With him.

Since their engagement had been renewed, Juan hadn’t spent much time with her. He simply couldn’t get past the fact that she was going to marry a man who didn’t give her the respect she deserved. And it frustrated him that she couldn’t see it herself.

“We would like to know where you come from,” the Lord of the Condor said.

“Far from here,” Emilio replied. “Somewhere beyond the reach of the human mind.”

Emilio knew far more of the language than Juan had dared hope. Learning languages had never been his thing. Not that Juan was particularly good at them either, but still… Emilio had never had much interest in anything involving school or studying.

“What ancestor are you descended from?” Santui asked.

A small smile flickered across Emilio’s lips, making Juan uneasy. “Who says I have an ancestor?” His attention shifted towards the door. “We have travelled a long way. We can speak about such things later. We are grateful for your…” He hesitated, searching for the word. Hospitality, Juan assumed. He couldn’t help with that one either. “Warm welcome. We would like some food. My… friend would as well. Where is he?”

“The limp young man? I thought he was your servant.”

“He is. That doesn’t mean he isn’t hungry.”

The man nodded and ordered one of his servants to find him. After a second command, several young women entered carrying bowls of food, which they placed before them.

Before long, Juan found himself looking sideways again, at his brother. He was really here. But how?

He looked older, Juan realised. Well past thirty. Fine lines creased the skin around his eyes. Juan had so many questions…

But he knew he would have to sit through the meal first if he wanted any answers.

Emilio was given a room in the godly couple’s home. Juan felt a small flare of jealousy at how easily everything seemed to fall into place for him, though he was also relieved not to be the one everyone was watching. Apparently, Emilio was still sticking to his story about being a god. Maybe he didn’t have much choice now that he’d somehow managed to prove it. Juan pushed the thought aside.

As soon as the three of them had some time alone, Juan took them to the sheltered spot by the lake. On the way, Mateo told them about his search in Peru and the time machine that had brought him here. It was a bizarre story, and Juan needed a moment to wrap his head around it.

“We didn’t come here in a time machine at all. We weren’t even in the mountains. We were on the coast,” he said thoughtfully.

Mateo sighed. “Yeah, E already told me. About the young girl who lured you through a portal in a temple.”

“Do you have any idea what happened to her?” Emilio asked Juan. “She must know how to get us back.”

Juan lowered his head and rubbed his thumb over one of the many splashes of mud on his trousers. “She’s here. She came to us while we were working at the temple.” He explained how she had helped him and James escape, along with Si, and how they had gone looking for Si’s sisters afterwards. “We couldn’t get them out. The place was too heavily guarded. So we came here. Si’s fiancé lives here. At first, he refused to send his men with her, but his father overruled him. They’ll probably leave soon.”

That immediately left Juan wondering what he was supposed to do next. Sawa had told him he needed to free those sisters. But there was no way he was leaving Emilio again. Not now that his brother was here, too. Rather than getting caught up in everything that might happen next, he asked Emilio what he’d been through.

That turned out to be another unbelievable story, involving a warrior who spoke English and had taught him how to survive in the wilderness.

“We killed a jaguar, a condor and a caiman and stitched them together. Then we showed that guy a video of it. I…” Emilio fell silent for a moment. “Well. I said something that pissed Iliyan off, and he stormed away once we got to the palace. Then the asshole I had to prove myself to decided he wanted to marry me. Mateo was in prison, so he forced me and…” Emilio’s voice faltered again. “Well. I strangled him. On our… wedding night. Then I freed Mateo, and we travelled here with the help of one of Iliyan’s friends.”

The ruler of the Moche had forced Emilio to marry him? Juan shuddered. “That must be why Sawa brought you here. So you could kill the guy.”

Emilio snorted. “Bit of a roundabout way to get someone from the future, though.”

Juan couldn’t argue with that. Especially since Sawa was carrying a gun. He rubbed his temples. He felt like he was missing something painfully obvious.

“And now? You need to find your boyfriend, and then we go home?” Mateo asked.

Juan stared at his best friend in surprise. For the first time in twenty-two years, he saw Emilio blush.

“What?”

Emilio shot Mateo a dark look. “Nothing. But yeah. Without Iliyan, I’d have been dead ten times over by now, so I owe him. I promised I’d help him with something.”

“And you don’t know where he is now? Because… well, this place is pretty damn big.”

“He’s coming here, too. He wants revenge on his parents and his brother.”

“And you’re going to help him?” Mateo asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Emilio shot back. “It’s not like you’ve never helped someone get revenge.”

Juan pulled his knees up to his chest. It felt as though a venomous snake were slithering through his stomach. Its fangs sank into his flesh, and the poison dragged up a memory of a school party, when one of the popular boys had groped June, before she and Juan were even together. He could still feel the knife pressing into his palm when his brother had told him to avenge her.

He hadn’t been able to do it.

Would Emilio be able to?

And now that Juan knew about this… could he really just let it happen? Did he want to be complicit in something violent again? To stand by without telling them that he didn’t want this? That they were going too far?

“I… what did they do?”

“They banished him when he was fucking fifteen. And they slit his friend’s throat.”

The story Si had told him earlier came rushing back. “Because they were attracted to the same sex.”

No one said anything for a few seconds.

“Your friend is coming here to kill the rulers of this valley. And Santui.”

Emilio stared at him coldly, his jaw clenched.

Si’s fiancé. Her future in-laws.

The venomous snake inside Juan had turned into a constrictor, tightening around him with every breath.

She’d already suffered so much. Do I really have to look away now that they want to get rid of her future in-laws too?

Emilio kept staring at him, as though he could hear every doubt running through his mind.

“You can’t warn them, Juan. I…” Something in Emilio seemed to give way, and he lowered his head. “I don’t want him to keep hating me. And if I take this away from him…” He drew a deep breath. “Then I’ll destroy him.”

Juan watched his dejected posture for a while. He thought about Emilio’s flushed cheeks when Mateo had called Iliyan his boyfriend.

Could it…?

He couldn’t quite believe it, not after all those homophobic comments. At the same time, maybe that was exactly what had been behind the hostility Juan had never understood.

Juan didn’t need much imagination to understand how painful such a comment must have been for someone who had been cast out because of who he was attracted to. And Emilio had never been particularly good at caring about other people… yet it was obvious that Iliyan had come to mean a lot to him. Whether it was friendship or something more didn’t really matter.

It would be hard and painful for Si if she lost the future she’d been looking forward to as well. But Emilio had been his best friend since kindergarten. If he wanted to make things right, Juan would help him.

“Okay,” he said softly. “I won’t warn them. As long as he leaves Santui’s fiancé alone. She… she’s been through enough already.”

Emilio picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water. “I can’t promise he’ll even let me say a word. If he does let me help him… I’ll do everything I can.”

Juan suppressed a sigh. That was hardly a guarantee. “Then maybe try convincing Santui and his father to bring Si’s sisters back,” Juan suggested. “To the Valley of the Quetzal. At least that would get her out of the way, along with some of the warriors.”

“The Quetzal, you said?” A thoughtful frown appeared between Emilio’s brows. “That’s where the ruler’s sister lives. The one who probably wants revenge on me, according to T’ukri. Maybe they’d be interested in that. A direct attack on the new ruler, before she has a chance to settle in.”

Juan nodded encouragingly.

But the snake inside him was still there.