Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas #2)(16)

“She’s getting closer,” Rose says, eyes shut. Her arms are outstretched, palms out, like she’s stopping two force fields from closing against her.

“Now!” I say.

It’s my turn to do my part.

We join hands, forming a triangle over him.

Healing isn’t like other cantos. It’s not about the words or ingredients. It’s about what’s in your heart. Maybe Alex and Rose don’t love Maks, but they love me, and I can use that.

I clear my mind and think of the power I’ve held dear for so long. My magic rises when I call upon it, just like it did for Alex when I taught her how to heal in Los Lagos—the very thought of Los Lagos sends a shudder down my body that I’m sure my sisters can feel. My mind latches on to that pain, flashing to a more recent memory. Maks in his car, trying his hardest not to look at me. It’s like your fire is gone, he said.

“Lula?” Alex calls out.

“I’m fine. I can do this.”

I shut my eyes harder. Search for love in my heart. My whole life, I’ve tried to love as fiercely as I could. But didn’t Alex tell me once that I gave my heart away too easily?

“Lula!” Rose this time.

“I got it,” I say, but there’s a shadow around my power, and it clings like everlasting night. I know I have to push through. Little by little, I let the light in. I find it in small moments, like Maks’s smile and his laugh. The way he never let go of my hand when we were together. The way he looked at me that made me feel as if he’d never get enough. The way he reached for me when the bus was crashing, using his body to protect mine.

My healing energy starts to flood through me, and I let it flow in the current Alex created at the start of the canto. It cycles through her, then to Rose, then back to me. Again and again, catching momentum until it hits the center of my chest.

Alex is so powerful that the touch of her magic makes my entire body sigh as I experience the exquisite relief from pain, as if I’m made of nothing but feathers. I’ve never felt power like this. But with it comes a darkness too, twisting around the one I already have in my heart, like two energies fighting for dominance.

Next is Rose. Rose’s power is like the slip of day into night. You don’t notice it until it’s completely dark. Rose’s power makes the skin on my arms tingle with cold. It’s like turning up my face to the sky and letting snowflakes kiss my skin. It’s pure, and the brightness of it nearly overpowers Alex’s and mine completely.

We are three points of energy linking like chains until we are one force, and I direct that current into Maks.

“Follow my voice, my love, my love,” I say, shuddering with the euphoria of this power. “Death cannot tear us apart. Take my hand, my love, my love. Follow the light of my heart.”

My head feels like clouds drifting across a clear sky. I don’t know if I’m the one swaying or if the floor has turned into soft earth.

“Lula!” Rose snaps me to the present. Here. Now. Maks.

I’m okay, I think, but can’t speak it. I finish the canto. I help guide our powers to heal his wounds. I start with his ribs. The crash turned the right side of his rib cage into a mosaic of bones, and I focus on mending the breaks. A warm trickle of blood runs down my belly.

“Lula!” Alex shouts.

I’m falling to my knees. The pain in my ribs is too much to withstand, but still I bite down on the scream.

“We should stop,” Rose says.

“If you stop,” I say, “I will never forgive you.”

Rose gasps, and her eyes get cloudy and faraway, her body lifts a foot into the air. Her voice is strange, like someone is speaking through her, “Do not betray the Deos, Lula Mortiz.”

Rose lands back on her feet and starts to pull her hands away from us, but once we break our hold, the bond will be severed and we won’t be able to finish healing Maks. I hold on as hard as I can, by the tips of my fingers, because his life depends on it.

Rose’s eyes return to their normal color. “La Muerte is not happy.”

“Lula.” Alex.

“Lula.” Rose.

My ears pop, like I’m being plunged deep into the sea. The recoil is hitting me hard, and I can hear my heart beat in every corner of my body. My skin feels tight, pulled from all sides, and I fear I might tear myself into ceasing to exist.

But I have to be strong. The light of our magic moves across Maks’s ribs, then travels down to mend his spine and pelvic bone. I move to his organs, his collapsed lung that needs help breathing. I direct our power toward his chest, but it curves away. I try again, pushing the energy to mend his heart, but I hit a wall.

Something is blocking my magic. I push hard against the invisible force, but it’s like running straight into a barricade.

“It’s not working,” I cry out. “Alex, why isn’t it working?”

“I don’t know!” I can feel her panic, her doubts, and realize it’s part of our power being linked.

A red light pulses in the room over Maks’s body.

Rose’s eyes become black again, the same way Lady de la Muerte’s eyes turned when she took the bodies at the bus crash.

“Rosie, what do you see?” Alex asks, her hands vibrating from the strain of trying to hold on.

“I can feel the others,” Rose says, her dark gaze traveling all around the room seeing things we cannot. “She’s here for all of them.”