Zoe Mathers

The Obsidian Butterfly

Atzi didn’t believe in the gods. The all-powerful beings believed to be hovering above the grey clouds and moon, somewhere in the heavens, causing floods and fires and storms when forgotten or ignored. The beings that her people slit palms and splattered copper blood on the stairs of temples for and sacrificed the hearts of animals and slaves to keep their own hearts beating one more day. The beings that stayed quiet through it all.