Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas #2)(54)

He kisses me hard, and I don’t care that we’re in a train with my sisters and Nova. I kiss him back harder because, when this is all over, I want to remember the feel of his lips.

Destroy the heart and make the sacrifice.

“This is our stop, lovebirds,” Nova says.

? ? ?

When we get off the train, Alex and Rose walk up front, and Nova brings up the rear.

“Will you stop looking around?” I tell Nova. “You look suspicious.”

“You kidding?” Nova adjusts the bag of weapons and flashes me a smile. Even in the dark, his Caribbean Sea eyes are bright. “This is the safest I’ve ever felt. We got a get-out-of-jail-free card.” He winks and points at Maks.

I laugh, but Maks doesn’t. He’s stares at the red hand at the crossing light.

“Anything in my grandmother’s zombie book about when he spaces out?” Nova whispers at my ear.

The light changes over to white, and we move.

Maks’s milky blue eyes swivel toward Nova, and for all of his bravado, I see a nervous flicker in Nova’s face. Maks’s mouth widens into a smile.

“You okay, bro?” Nova asks him.

“I’m just trying to remember,” Maks says. “Whenever I try, I see splotches. Even before the accident.”

“It’ll take time,” Nova says. “Your mind is probably trying to protect you from the trauma you suffered. That mixed with mad magic, boom! Memory loss.”

“Thanks for the lesson in Nova-science,” I mutter.

Maks and Nova do that thing guys do, when they lift their chins and nod in solidarity. When we reach the high school, we stop. The tall, Gothic spires create long, pointed shadows on the ground. But that isn’t the arresting part.

The entire steps are covered in flowers, candles, and wreathes with pictures of the dead. Ramirez. Kassandra. Maks. Twenty-two faces, smiling and alive. A shrine as big as I’ve ever seen. The ache in my chest strengthens, and Maks squeezes my hand hard. It can’t be easy seeing himself there.

“How long has it been?” Maks asks. “Time is one of the many things I can’t keep track of.”

“Seven years,” Rose says, walking ahead of us. “Welcome to the zombie apocalypse.”

I glare at Rose, but Maks just laughs. There’s something frightening about his laugh, especially here in front of a shrine dedicated to the dead. Or undead, I suppose.

We keep to the side of the building as we walk toward the parking lot. Alex breaks the lock with her magic, and we zigzag between cars until we find Maks’s. His parents have been too busy to pick it up. I want to believe it’s a sign the Universe is in our favor. I want to send a prayer to the sky, but I just keep walking. The Brooklyn lullaby of sirens fills the air. Past the parking lot, behind a row of houses, the red and blue lights whirl where the cops are at the crime scene.

“Anyone bring the keys?” Nova asks, looking over his shoulder. With the sunset, there is only the bright streetlamps that make shadows jump out around us.

“Move over,” Alex says, pushing him out of the way. She presses her hand over the car door. Her eyes darken as she summons her power, and then there’s the click.

“Okay, now does anyone know how to hot-wire a car?” I ask.

“I got this.” Maks cracks his knuckles.

“You do?”

“Yeah, remember my cousin Rome?” Maks pulls a plastic cover from the underside of the front seat. “He works at a garage. The summer I was benched after my surgery, he had me work there so I wouldn’t go nuts in the house.”

“I didn’t know that,” I say.

He pulls at some wires and starts to twist them. “I’m glad after two years of being with me I can still surprise you.”

When he winks, I get butterflies. I haven’t felt this way in so long. I press my hands on my abdomen, like I can feel real wings unfurling.

“Guys,” Rose says, craning her neck around another parked car. “I think we’re being watched.”

“I’ll go check it out,” Alex says.

“I’ll come with you,” Nova says.

“No,” Alex says harshly. “I’m stronger than you. You’ll just get in my way.”

Nova looks like he’s been punched in the gut, but he doesn’t follow my sister as she runs out of the parking lot.

“When did Alex get so mean?” Maks asks. He jumps as something shocks him. He undoes the wires again and mutters something about color schemes.

“She’s not mean,” I say. “She’s stressed.”

“Did my gran say something to her?” Nova asks, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the front of the car.

“Yeah,” I say. “She said to tell you to stop whining.”

Nova kicks the tire and sucks his teeth. “Forget y’all. I’m going to see what I can get from the crime scene.”

“Shouldn’t we stick together?” Maks asks, frustrated.

But Nova’s already gone.

“Do you see anything?” I ask Rose.

“No. All I see and hear is static. Like when we—” She stops abruptly and looks over at Maks. “At the hospital.”

I nod, understanding what she means. The night we tried to heal Maks, she said the same thing. It has to be up to me to sense the casimuertos. But I don’t know how I made the thread appear when I was looking for Maks.