Agosto snaps his head toward the hiss coming from the trees. The winds change, bringing a terrible cold with them. Shadows whisper in my ears.
“She is coming.” Agosto jumps to his hooves and grabs me by the shoulders, pushing me to the border of the meadow. “Run to the Wastelands. Just run!”
“I can’t leave without them!” I try to shove the faun out of my way but he’s too solid. I scream for Nova and Rishi, but they’re too sick to understand, eyes glazed and smiles plastered on their faces. They don’t know we’re in danger. They stumble in my direction, listening to the ghost of the adas’ songs.
“Fix them,” I tell Agosto.
He shakes his head. “The only way is to purge the poison.”
“Poison?”
I grab Rishi’s arm first and wrap it around my shoulder. I turn and Nova trips over his own feet. I can carry one, but not the other.
A collective gasp falls across the meadow. The adas retreat, the same way they appeared, into nothingness. Blink. They’re gone.
“I told you,” Rodriga hisses, her salamander skin changing to solid black as she gets on her knees, bowing to the shadow that cyclones at the center of the field.
I beg Nova to get up. I beg Rishi to run, but I’m losing them. Fear slithers into my body, pushing away at my magic. I can feel my power recoiling, hiding in the comfortable place I’ve always kept it.
“Agosto, help me!”
He can’t. He’s on his knees, hands splayed forward in submission as the great black cloud takes shape. Shadows curl like tentacles around a figure cloaked in a bloodred dress. The material hugs her like death, and a helmet of bone and metal hides her face.
She takes small steps, practically walking on air, and stops where Agosto is crouched. “You never learn, do you?”
Then she pulls out a spear and drives it through the center of his hand.
25
Hide me in your sombra,
mother of the dark.
—Rezo de La Oscuridad, Lady of Shadow and Dark Deeds
Agosto’s screams fill the silence of the Meadow del Sol.
The Devourer walks past him, her movement like the rattle of a snake, each footstep reverberating in the deepest parts of my heart. She advances toward me like a turbulent storm.
“You’re the one causing all the trouble,” she says, stopping a couple of yards from me. Her posture is calm, the same stoicism I found in Madra but none of the patience. I can feel the magic that fractures around her. I can feel that it’s stronger than me. “Speak, child.”
This is why I’m here—to confront this creature and save my family. But standing before her, I’ve lost my nerve. My mouth is dry and my body is frozen. I can’t even reach for my magic.
The Devourer floats up from the ground and flies a lap around me. The black tendrils of her hair lick at the air around me. She breathes deep, a wolf memorizing her prey.
“I have something that belongs to you,” she whispers.
“They aren’t things,” I snap.
“So you do have a tongue,” she laughs, standing closer to me still. The sky is lightening into a brighter blue. The moon and sun show themselves. “I’m going to enjoy ripping it out.”
What am I supposed to do with Nova and Rishi helpless on the ground? I could run. I could leave them behind. Nova would do it if it came down to us versus him. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
The Devourer looks at my friends and clucks her tongue as if we’re a joke to her. “This is what you’ve brought to challenge me? You don’t know the way of Los Lagos, Alejandra Mortiz. Power comes at a great cost, yes. But what is the price of banishing it? Did you stop to think that your power is connected to your blood—the living and the dead that are tied to you? I thought I was getting your power, but then, they tried to protect you. I can feel their essence in the Tree of Souls. What can you give me in exchange for your family?”
My life.
I don’t say it aloud, but it’s all I have. She knows it. She mocks me when she says, “Would you like to make a trade? You for them? Why would I when their power is so delicious? Why would I when I can have all of you?”
Nova pushes himself to his knees. He looks up at the Devourer like he’s in a dream. He starts to crawl to her. I grab him by his shoulders and pull him back.
The Devourer laughs darkly, moving past him and over to where Agosto is whimpering from the spear through his hand. The Devourer pulls the spear free and Agosto’s scream is so loud, every bird hidden in the circle of trees takes flight.
“Come on, encantrix,” the Devourer says. “Show me what you’ve got.”
I reach for the mace handle in my backpack. It’s too cumbersome and heavy to be comfortable, but it’s all I’ve got now that my powers have recoiled from me.
The demon witch tilts her head to the side and says, “Curious.”
“Alex,” Rishi groans on the ground. “I feel sick. I can’t see.”
“Get down!” I shout at her.
I step forward and swing the mace. The Devourer is quick as a shadow and moves back before I can complete my swing. She laughs and hits me in the gut with the butt of her spear. I fall to my knees, the wind knocked from my lungs until it burns.
“Pathetic,” she spits. “You are the encantrix descendant of the Great Mama Juana Mortiz?”
Her movement is frantic. Her hands shake. There’s something wrong with her. A tick to her face, like she’s talking to someone I can’t see.
I take this moment of distraction and swing the mace at her kneecaps. She falls forward, catches herself on her palms, growling. She throws her spear on the ground. As she stands, she pulls on her magic. She raises her hands to the sky, and the wind picks up and howls around us.
“I was promised the power of a savior,” she says, “but all I got is a girl.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to my family. I backpedal, scramble on my elbows to get away from her. “I’m sorry.”
But the blow never comes. Agosto stands behind the Devourer. He pulls on his chains, slings them around the witch’s throat, and pulls tightly. The clouds above us start to shrink as she scratches his arms with her long, hooked nails.
The Devourer makes a terrible choking sound. The rest of the meadow is completely still, the other adas hidden except for Rodriga. She pulls her chains on top of Agosto’s. Together, they keep the demon bruja restrained. I can see her eyes glow red with fury beneath the bone mask.
“Go!” he shouts. “I can’t hold her for long.”