Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas #2)(51)

We’re halfway outside when the bells jingle overhead. Outside the sky is darker. The streets empty. An unseasonable chill in the air.

Angela calls out to Alex one more time, and we stall at the doorway.

“Tell Nova to come home. When he’s ready.”

? ? ?

We take the train back home. We don’t talk. Alex holds the pastry box in her lap and stares out the window at the graffiti on the subway walls. I reread the pictures of the book she took on her phone but nothing stands out. Then I take out the small potion and shake it between my fingers.

“Are you going to drink that?” Alex asks.

“I’m still feeling the side effects from the other potion,” I say, clearing my throat in the process.

Alex nods quietly. There is nothing quite as sobering as the truth. “I can keep healing you. You don’t have to.”

I can’t keep having my sister suffer the recoil of healing magic for me. “I will. I just…I think it’s going to get worse, and I want to save it for when it does. I can manage this.”

She looks at me like she wants to disagree, so I change the subject.

“Find the spear, free La Muerte, destroy the heart, and make the sacrifice.” I rest my head on her shoulder, a hard weight pressing down on my chest.

“I’m going to save you,” Alex says. “This isn’t how your story ends.”

I don’t want to tell her that she’s wrong about one of those things. “Until we can find the spear, we need to make sure no one else gets hurt. We can’t tell anyone about what we read. Especially not the parts about me dying.”

“Agreed.”

The train rattles more than usual, and the b-boys jumping around in the car rethink their busking strategy. I’m afraid Lady de la Muerte is going to appear out of nowhere again, but the last time I saw her she looked about as healthy as I do. At the next stop, the car empties out.

“I should’ve listened to you.” I rest against her because my body feels drained. “To Ma. To everyone.”

Alex sighs. “You don’t have to do that to yourself.”

“I can’t help it. I did this, Ale. I was just so angry. I thought I could take control of everything I wanted. I even used my power to make Maks want me again. Maybe the Deos caused that accident because I tried to use my power on me and Maks.” I lick silent, salty tears from my lips. “I made him kiss me because I couldn’t handle us being apart. What kind of a monster does that?”

My sister brushes my hair away from my face. She holds my face gently in her hands but her eyes are fierce. “You’re not a monster. The accident wasn’t your fault. The Deos didn’t punish you. You of all people know that your power doesn’t work like that. If Maks kissed you, it was because he wanted to. You were hurt and confused and you messed up. But you’re also loyal and kind and good. You’ve never been afraid to bare yourself. When I needed you, you were there, in Los Lagos, guiding me. Because you loved me. All my life I’ve wanted to love as fiercely as you love. So when I say this isn’t how your story ends, I mean it.”

I hold her hand tighter and take the strength she offers just by being with me and don’t let go until our stop.

? ? ?

When we get home, I’m half expecting the place to be wrecked. Nova and Maks aren’t exactly compatible. But when Alex and I walk through the front door, we hear the strangest sound.

Laughter.

“We have a PlayStation?” Alex asks.

Rose, Nova, and Maks are sitting on the couch.

“Bro, she is kicking your ass,” Maks shouts. He runs his fingers through his hair in a motion so familiar it brings butterflies to my stomach.

Rose’s thumbs move fast across the controller buttons. Every few seconds she grunts, like she’s coaching her player in real life.

“Yes!” Rose yells. She smiles so hard her eyes are nearly swallowed by her cheeks. “In your face!”

Nova curses but then laughs and hands the controller over to Maks.

I turn to Alex. “Is this more or less weird than the poison greenhouse we walked through?”

“For us?” she says, scoffing. “More. Definitely.”

The trio on the couch look over at us, like we’re the ones acting strangely.

“I didn’t know you had Street Lighting,” Maks tells me. “Your sister kills at it.”

“I didn’t know we had it either,” I say, walking around and sitting on the couch arm beside him. He places a hand on the small of my back, and for a moment, it’s enough to forget everything Alex and I have learned.

A moment.

“I found it in the basement,” Rose said, typing her name as the new top score.

“From the look on your faces,” Nova says, “my gran didn’t exactly have good news.”

He stands, and the smile vanishes from his beautiful face. I feel like I’m Lady de la Muerte herself, sucking the life out of a room.

“Any word from Mom and Dad?” Alex asks Rose, ignoring the question for now. I wonder what Nova would say if he knew the deal Alex struck for him.

“The baby won’t come out,” Rose says, turning off the game and switching to the local news. “I don’t know when they’ll be back.”

“At least they’ll be safe out there,” I say.