Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas #2)(80)

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“It matters to me! Where did that heart come from?”

“I didn’t rip it from someone’s beating chest, if that’s what you’re asking,” he says, raking his fingers through damp, long waves. “We have our own morgue of bodies that can’t go to the human authorities. I broke protocol. I knew I’d made a mistake, but I left the box that night because I saw how much you were suffering, both before the accident and during. I wanted to help you, Lula. When we stopped being able to contain them and Knights were killed, I was so angry at myself that I acted like an idiot.”

“I’m sorry about the hunters you lost,” I say, my breath hitching in my throat. “I’m sorry I couldn’t let him go.”

“Lula—” His eyes follow the arc of my cheekbone, tracing over the scars. His lips part, starting as his phone buzzes. He gives me his back and listens intently. “No, they’re safe here. I’ll meet you there.”

“Was that McKay? Where are they?”

“He’s with my unit. The casimuertos are using the subway,” Rhett says, taking several steps away from me. “All hands on deck.”

He runs out the door, and the scent of the ocean lingers in his wake.

I lock the door and walk down the hall to join the others. Every step I take is like walking on hot coals.

In the living room, Ma, Nova, and Mayi are tending to the recoil Rose, Dad, and Adrian are suffering. The place looks like a war zone with buckets of water, bloody bandages for Dad’s blisters, and the bag of weapons Alex has been collecting massed in piles everywhere.

Alex looks up from sharpening her favorite dagger. “You realize you haven’t let go of that thing once, right?”

“Can I touch it?” Adrian asks.

I move the spear out of his reach.

“I can’t lie,” Nova says. “I thought that when you pulled the Death sword from the stone that it would make Lady de la Muerte appear.”

“Where’s Sargent Scuba Suit?” Alex asks.

“The casimuertos have gone underground, literally, so the Knights are regrouping. In the meantime, I have to figure out how to use this thing to free La Muerte.”

“She’s between realms,” Ma says. “That would mean we need a portal.”

I wonder aloud, “Is the portal in the yard really closed?”

“Yep. Total dead zone. Besides, La Muerte isn’t in Los Lagos,” Alex says. “I’d know.”

The living room lights short-circuit.

“Alex!” Ma yells.

“That wasn’t me!” And for a moment, our house feels the same as it always has.

“I got it,” Nova says, making soft orbs of light appear all across the ceiling.

“It’s the storm,” Rose says, still coughing up water into her closed fist. She pulls back the curtain and looks out. “The house next door is dark too.”

“I’ll check the breakers,” Mayi says. “And bring up candles.”

“I’ll go with you,” Adrian says. “My dad says they kept a dead body down there once. Is that true?”

It’s just the six of us in the living room. Even with Nova here, it feels right.

Ma presses her healing compresses on Dad’s welts. He explains what it felt like to hold the lightning in his hand again. Nova keeps calling Rose a magical hacker, and she kicks his shin. All the while Alex watches me, like she’s afraid I’m going to spontaneously combust. I know she’s only worried, but for now, all I want is to bask in this moment.

I want to tell my parents that I love them. I want to tell my mom that when I felt like I needed strength, all I had to do was think of her. I want to tell my dad that I’m grateful that he used his power. I want to tell Nova that he needs to be careful, that he’s got family if he wants it.

But I’m stopped by the sound of breaking glass.

“That came from the back,” Mom says, picking up the machete on the coffee table. Dad gets up and goes with her.

“Stay here,” they tell us.

Rose and Nova pick up weapons from the table too.

I hold the spear spike-side out and go into the hallway.

“Lula,” Alex tells me. “Stay together.”

“I have the spear. I’ll be fine.”

A cold draft blows in from the front door. I locked it after Rhett left. I know I did. I head straight for it to slam it shut, but a chill runs along my arms.

His voice behind me stops me cold.

“Hey, baby.”

I spin around, holding the spear out as a threat I fully intend on carrying out.

Maks stands in the entrance of my home. His skin is the palest gray, crisscrossed with scars that run along his face and arms like eels skimming beneath the skin. His eyes are stark white with bright-red veins.

I pull the spear back, ready to plunge it into his heart, but then I see them just over his shoulder.

My sisters and Nova held captive by casimuertos.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Maks says. “We dropped by unannounced for dinner.”





34


El Odio could not stand the world

but left his discord buried like seeds.

Beware the souls who eat his fruit.