Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas #2)(86)
“Family isn’t just blood,” Dad says. “Sometimes you get to choose your family. And you’ve earned a place here.”
? ? ?
The middle of July is scorching. I miss Coney Island. I miss the beach and the noise. But Queens is okay. I sit in the front yard on a lawn chair. Light breaks through the large tree in front of our house and makes patterns along my skin. Alex and Rose lie down on a blanket. Rose reads from The Kingdom of Adas, and Alex tries to find a canto for Nova in a large, unmarked text.
A black car pulls up right in front of our house.
“Here comes your boyfriend,” Alex singsongs.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I say calmly because I know they’re just trying to get a rise out of me. “I’m not ready for boyfriends.”
“Hey,” Rhett says, approaching the brick gate. The ends of his dark hair curl at his shoulders, and he blows a strand away from his deep brown eyes. It’s strange seeing him in broad daylight. He’s holding a plant with dark-purple flowers, and it makes him look like a normal guy, instead of a hunter. “I should get you one of those ‘number of days without an incident’ signs.”
“Do not get us that,” Alex says without looking up from her book.
“Right,” he says. “I just wanted to drop by a housewarming present from the THA. Frederik grew it.”
Rose lowers her sunglasses and tells him, “Half-truth.”
Rhett smirks. “Charming. How’s your new power working out, magical hacker?”
She pushes the lenses back up with a dismissive finger. “You can’t call me that.”
“Stay there,” I say, and I get up from my chair to save him from my sisters. Close the distance between us. I favor my left leg, which hurts less, but I’ll always have an ache in my bones. Even now, the scar on my chest burns.
I lean my elbow on top of the brick gate. A part of me likes the way his Adam’s apple ripples when he swallows, the blush that creeps up to his cheeks when I look at him.
“These are beautiful. Tell Frederik thanks.” I touch the gauzelike petals that remind me of butterfly wings. I grab the pot by the base. “Is that it?”
“I wanted to say I’m sorry I missed your graduation ceremony,” he says. “We had to take down this alien cult that was using human sacrifices—it was a whole ordeal.”
“I’m not sure I believe in aliens.”
He scrunches his face, bewildered. “I watched a deity rip what was basically a cephalopod out of your chest cavity, but aliens make you skeptical?”
“We all have our boundaries, hunter boy.”
Garhett Dulac, hunter and Knight of Lavant, actually chuckles. “I could show you proof. Peru’s an extraterrestrial hot spot.”
“And how would we get there?” I cock my head to the side and let my hair fall over my shoulders.
He licks his lip, and his dark eyes flick from my mouth to my scars. “I could steal one of our jets. Break protocol again.”
I scrunch up my nose but smile all the same. “I think I should keep a low profile for now.”
He leans forward, chest pressed right against the brick fence. The way he looks at me sends a jolt through my veins, something I haven’t felt in so long.
“Maybe we could do something sinmagos do. Dinner?”
Say no. I inhale the scent of freshly cut grass and the new flowers in my grasp.
Say yes. He shoves a hand in his pocket and looks down at the ground.
I want him to stay.
I want him to go.
And I know that until I can pick one of those, I can’t go anywhere with him.
“I can’t,” I say. “Not for a while.”
“You know where to find me, if you change your mind.” He flashes a smile that rattles me. “I’ll check in on you guys another time. Make sure the new house isn’t burned to the ground yet.”
“Funny.”
“Bye, Lula.”
“Bye, Rhett.”
I watch as he gets back in his car and drives off, and a feeling I haven’t had in so long returns—possibility.
I return to my sisters and set our housewarming flowers beside me.
“What did Captain Scuba Pants really want?” Alex asks.
“It’s dragon skin,” I say. “And he wanted to make sure everything was okay with the house.”
“You’re the worst liar.” Alex shakes her head. “And you know we could hear you, right?”
“Fifty bucks says he’ll be back,” Rose says. “With more flowers. Hopefully chocolates too.”
Alex grins at me but keeps a wary eye on the road. “Be careful, Lula. That boy looks like trouble.”
“Maybe he is.” I sit back, a wicked smile on my lips, and sunlight kisses my face. “But so am I.”
Epilogue
The Bastard King of Adas wanted it all.
His reign just and true,
his reign is my fall.
—The Kingdom of Adas
The canto to wake Dad’s memory takes longer than we hoped. Nova searched for a seed from the realm where Dad was taken.
The seed is the size of a walnut and is smooth all around except at the top, where a ring of tiny spikes sprouted like horns.