Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas #2)(49)
She doesn’t disagree, and we start flipping through the pages.
“I can’t read in Spanish,” Alex says, handing the book over to me.
I’m not much better, but the diagrams help. The cover has a faded symbol burned on the center, and it takes me a moment of staring to realize it’s an anatomical drawing of a heart. I flip it open. The title page reads El Libro Maldecido.
“The Accursed Book,” I translate for her. I flip the page. There are anatomy drawings of the casimuertos. Arrows point to its heart, eyes, and brain. My fingers tremble when I turn the page. The event is marked by a year and location. 1913. Vinces, Ecuador.
“It says here that there was a case in Ecuador. A circle of brujas was trying to save the life of one of their own after she was murdered by her husband. The woman was presumed dead, and the canto unsuccessful. But the next day, the dead woman rose and started killing people in her town. They too rose as casimuertos soon after.”
My heart sinks like an anchor plummeting to the bottom of the sea. I look around the room for somewhere to sit or some water to satiate my parched throat but find neither. I lower myself onto the floor and Alex follows. My feet throb like my toes have just been smashed.
“What?” Alex asks, staring at the spines of books Angela asked us not to touch. “How did they get rid of them?”
“They didn’t,” I tell her. “The village was razed to the ground.”
“Okay, so not helpful.” Alex reaches over me and flips to the next page. There’s a diagram of an open chest with several lines extending out of it—just like the spool of silver thread that I saw coming from my chest.
Next page. A crude drawing of a casimuerto, blood dripping from its eyes and mouth, a heart gripped tightly in its fist.
“The casimuertos must feed off human hearts to quell their ravenous desire to live,” I read the caption. “It is never sated.”
“Endless supply of human hearts,” Alex says dryly. “Do you think we’ll be able to get that at the supermarket?”
“Stop it,” I growl. “You’re not helping.”
“I’m sorry, but I have to laugh in the face of our impending doom by zombies.”
I glare at her. She holds her hands up in defeat. “Fine, casimuertos.”
“Another case recorded in 1683, outside Salamanca, Spain. An encantrix raised an army of casimuertos to do her bidding. Lady de la Muerte cleaved the bruja in two and struck her undead army from existence with her spear.”
“Then why the hell hasn’t Lady de la Muerte done that to you?” Alex asks. “Not that I want her to.”
“Because she’s trapped between realms,” I say. “Here, this one is recent. Juan Buenavista, a grieving young husband couldn’t see his bride go. Maria Azucena was killed leaving the chapel on their wedding day. Juan, son of a brujo but with no magic of his own, took her to the desert and made a deal for his soul with El Corazón to bind her life to his. The longer she lived, the weaker he became, and the stronger her craving for human hearts grew. Caracas, Venezuela, 1965.
“That’s why I haven’t been healing properly,” I say. I want to shut the book and set it on fire. “So basically, everyone dies. That’s the moral of the story.”
“No,” Alex says, pointing to a thin arrow at the corner of the page. “There’s more.”
I flip the page, something like hope fluttering in my heart. “Upon consuming his heart, Maria Azucena became nearly unstoppable. Her strength quadrupled. Her senses heightened. Even her hunger grew. It took a High Circle and a dozen more brujas to sever her head, but not before she killed dozens. They burned her body parts in separate pyres. El Corazón claimed both their souls.”
“It’s good to know gods only care about souls and blood.” I half cry, half laugh. “Well, if Maks eats my heart, he gets superstrength.”
“That’s not going to happen, not while I’m still breathing.” She grabs the book from me. “We’ll find a way to save you.”
“Save me? What about Maks? What about the others? Are we going to burn New York to the ground? Alex, this is hopeless. It’s called The Accursed Book for a reason.”
I hunch forward and grab hold of my side. The pain is back with a vengeance. I bite back on the cry and breathe until it subsides. I have to keep Alex focused.
She flips back to the beginning. “There has to be something on how to kill them without calling in the National Guard.”
I take a deep breath and fight through the pain. Snatch the book back. “Let’s see. More anatomy of a heart. Bones. Eyes turn white or yellow when they’re consumed with hunger. Death, death, death. Ah.”
I flip the final page. “Typical methods of zombie exterminations do not apply to casimuertos, as decapitation will only slow it down. A single casimuerto can be killed by destroying its heart. A horde can be eliminated by using a divine weapon to kill the—”
“What is it?” Her voice a whisper now.
“The human they are bound to.”
She looks confused, then frowns with the realization. “So—”
“I have to die.”
21
A casimuerto is neither living nor dead, but something in-between. Created by a deep bond of love, the heart is the only food that can keep them in a state close to human.