Cemetery Boys(21)

“Really?” Julian’s head canted to the side, sparing Yadriel a confused squint. “I ain’t never seen this place before, and I know the streets of LA like the back of my head,” he explained.

“Back of your hand,” Maritza corrected.

Julian waved her off. “Whatever.”

“It’s secret,” Yadriel supplied, feeling a bit dumbstruck as he trailed behind the other two.

“Right, right, right,” Julian nodded, his head bobbing over and over. “The secret society of witches.”

Yadriel felt like he was in the middle of a very weird dream. How could they be so calm? Julian had barely batted an eye upon finding out he was dead. Maritza effortlessly weaved between sarcophagi and urns as she stared at her phone, her long lavender fingernails typing away.

Yadriel couldn’t understand it—this was a huge, ginormous big deal! He’d summoned a spirit, and now they had to placate Julian before he’d let Yadriel release him to the afterlife. Día de Muertos was only a few days away. Yadriel was on a deadline. How was he supposed to help the brujos find Miguel if he was babysitting Julian Diaz?

If he wanted to prove himself in time to be presented at the aquelarre, they needed to get down to solving this mystery, and fast.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Yadriel asked, quickening his pace to catch up to Julian. “Before you, you know”—he gestured vaguely—“died?”

Julian didn’t seem affected by his lack of tact.

His shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I was just with my friends, walkin’ through Belvedere Park—”

“When?”

“Tuesday night.”

“Well, it’s still Tuesday.” Yadriel checked his phone. It was past midnight. “Or Wednesday morning, technically.”

Julian frowned. “How did my necklace make it to your spooky old church if the last place I remember being was Belvedere Park?” he asked, as if it was somehow Yadriel’s fault.

“How am I supposed to know?” It was a fair question, but one he didn’t have an answer to. “Maybe you were here and just don’t remember.”

Julian hummed, unconvinced. “I’d remember this place.” He shook his head and continued on. “Besides, I’m pretty sure someone jumped me. It was, like, right after sunset, and we were taking a shortcut to King Taco—”

Maritza glanced up long enough from her phone to offer, “That place is the best.”

A grin split Julian’s face, white teeth flashing. “Right?” He pressed his palm to his flat stomach. “Their chicken sopes are—”

“Then what happened?” Yadriel cut in, continuously glancing around for anyone else in the cemetery.

Raised voices alerted him that someone was up ahead. Julian opened his mouth but Yadriel cut him off.

“Shh, wait!”

Yadriel steered them clear of the pair—a brujo arguing with the spirit of a feisty old woman.

“You couldn’t even get the flores I asked for?” the woman demanded, gesturing to a bouquet of what Yadriel thought were very pretty roses in a vase at the foot of an ornate angel statue. “I hate roses!”

“Ay, Mamá! It was the best I could do!” the brujo exclaimed. “I can’t fight with you about this right now—Miguel is missing; people could be in danger—”

“Oh, so they’re more important than your own mamá?” the woman demanded, her chest puffing up indignantly.

Yadriel heard the man groan as they crept out of earshot.

The closer they got to Yadriel’s house, the more on edge he felt. He kept an eye out for flashlight beams announcing the presence of people still looking for Miguel, but there were fewer than earlier. That probably meant they were starting to concentrate their efforts outside of the cemetery.

Yadriel should’ve been with them.

“Okay.” He gestured for Julian to continue his story. “Go ahead.”

“Like I was saying—we took the walkway over the freeway,” Julian went right back to explaining. “Luca ran up ahead because he likes taking the ramp down real quick—” Julian stopped in his tracks, black eyes going wide. “Fuck.”

Maritza started and Yadriel ducked, thinking he’d spotted someone. “What— What’s—?”

“What happened to my skateboard?” Julian threw his head back and groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I just put new axles on that thing!”

Yadriel arched an eyebrow at Maritza, who returned it with an amused look.

Julian spun to him, his eyebrows pinched. “We gotta find it!”

Yadriel blinked back at him.

Was this guy serious?

“I really don’t think you’re gonna need it now,” Maritza pointed out, but he plowed on.

“Man, if that guy took it!” Julian’s mouth pressed into a surly line, the muscles in his sharp jaw jumping. “I swear, I’ll—”

“What guy?” Yadriel interrupted before Julian went off on another tangent.

“The guy who jumped Luca!” Julian fumed. He started talking a mile a minute, gesturing wildly as he walked backward. “Luca yelled, and when we caught up, there was some dude that had him backed up against a wall. Probably tryna mug him or something, which is dumb ’cause he’s never got any money.” He snorted. “So, I just ran up on him from behind and shoved him. I thought I knocked him over, but he turned and before I could take off…” Julian walked right into a stone sarcophagus up to his waist without noticing. He stopped, suddenly deflated. His shoulders slumped and his eyebrows tipped. For a moment, he looked watery, his edges smudged. “Everything went black.” He rubbed absently at his chest. “Next thing I knew, I was with you two.”