I smile, and Nova gives her a long look.
The wind whips around us, like it’s pushing us back to where we came from. My stomach is in a thousand tangled knots. I wet my dry lips, savoring the crisp air. The earth is dry in patches and bright green in others. Stone paths cut across the land, creating a patchwork quilt. As much as I want to laugh at Rishi’s joke, I have to wonder: Where is this mountain?
“When I was little,” I say, “my dad used to say, if he ever lost me, he’d just follow the starlight we leave behind.”
Rishi turns to me with sad eyes. “You never talk about your dad.”
“I don’t know where that came from. He was talking about us running around the supermarket or the mall. Still. I just remembered.”
Rishi takes my hand in hers but lets go when Nova wedges himself between us. “Well, Captain, it’s not dark enough for starlight.”
I purse my lips. “Says the boy made of light.”
“I’m not made of light,” he counters. “I conjure it.”
I roll my eyes and step closer to the edge of the cliff. The way down is steep and rocky but not unmanageable. It’s quiet here except for the rush of wind and Agosto’s heartbeat in my ears. I can still feel his essence from healing him, a side effect of touching someone with my power. Like when I tried to hurt Nova back home. It makes me think of what the Devourer said to me, that she could hear me because of the fear in my heart. Why can’t I feel a trace of her power?
“It’s strange,” I say.
“Which part?” Rishi asks.
I point to the horizon. “It’s not hot here, but the air on the horizon ripples like there’s a heat wave.”
“Wouldn’t that be the Bone Valle?” She squints and holds her hand like a sun visor over her eyes. “If I didn’t want someone to come into my lair and I was this powerful bruja, I’d make sure no one would see it.”
Look twice. Nothing in Los Lagos is what it seems. The land is fluid, yes, but even if the Devourer destroyed the mountains of Las Peñas the way she’s destroyed so many other things, we’d still be able to see the labyrinth.
I raise my hands and feel for the glamour on the land. I remember Mayi from Lula’s circle uses her powers to change her eye color and straighten her nose all the time. But sometimes, when I look at her from the corner of my eye, or between blinks, the glamour reveals itself. That’s small magic. Magic used for vanity doesn’t end well, my mom would say.
Even from miles away, I can feel the ripple of magic across the land. I relax my eyes, and for a fraction of second, the ghost of a mountain ridge appears. Then a force pushes against me, like a punch to the gut. I gasp for air and stumble back.
“What is it?” Agosto asks, rushing to my side.
“What do your bruja eyes see?” Rishi asks dramatically. Then she gives Nova the finger when he snickers at her. So much for their truce.
“It’s there. It’s hidden behind a glamour.” I take Agosto’s outstretched hand and pull myself up.
“What should we do?” Nova says. “We could walk straight for it. When we get closer, you can pull the glamour.”
I shake my head, unsure. If I can feel its strength from here, I don’t know if it’ll get any better. “What if I can’t?”
“I beg your pardon,” Agosto says, “but pulling the glamour won’t be enough. This is what the Devourer wants. Walk straight to the mountain and be unable to pass. Walk around it and end up in the Bone Valle. Disrupt her magic, and she’ll come right at you, and I fear she’ll take greater precautions now that she knows she underestimated you. You should make for the Hidden Path.”
“Um,” Rishi says, raising her hand as if we’re in the middle of class. “Okay, but how do we make it the Un-Hidden Path?”
“Before our rebellion, Kristiñe created the path through the mountain to let other tribes pass. Their plan was to attack unseen. But their own people betrayed them, and as they crossed, the Devourer ambushed them from both sides. The Alta Bruja, leader of the tribe, used the last of her power to curse her traitors with immortal life. Gouged out their eyes and buried them beneath the earth. The Devourer found them and dug them up. She healed their bodies by linking their life force to the earth. She called them her ‘blind giants,’ guards of the labyrinth.”
“How can they guard anything if they can’t see?” Rishi asks.
“They don’t need eyes to find you,” Agosto says darkly. “Sight is the most easily fooled of all our senses.”
I look at Nova, who stares at the horizon. I wonder what’s going through his head right now. He looks more worried than I’ve ever seen him before.
I follow the twisting trails down below with my eyes. We could get lost no matter what. Los Lagos is as much a labyrinth as the Devourer’s maze. As the sun and moon start to reach their peaks in the sky, nudging closer to eclipse, their light bounces off the henge below.
“Head for the temple. Alta Bruja Kristiñe erected the circle of stones and called it the Heart of the Deos.”
“Why’s it always the heart or the eye of something?” Rishi asks. “You notice that? There are so many body parts that don’t get enough love, like earlobes and belly buttons.”
“Rishi.”
She shrugs in her I’m-only-just-saying kind of way.
I find myself touching my necklace to feel the familiar weight of knowing I was connected to someone—the way I used to when I missed my dad. I’m starting to get that feeling back.
“I take it you’re not coming with us,” Nova says to Agosto.
The Faun King shakes his head. “I must return to my people. Take them to safety. I fear Xara will retaliate soon.”
He takes my hand and presses it to his lips, then his forehead. “I hope to see you again, encantrix.”
I don’t wait to watch him go. I take off, running down the hill.
• • •
The temple is bigger than anything it seemed from up the hill. The stones are great pillars weathered by wind and rain. I press my hand against the groves and dips in the stone, the carvings of different moon phases and constellations. Sparks flare between my fingers.
Night falls as the moon and sun pass each other across the sky and set. Stars emerge behind thinning clouds.
“This is incredible,” Rishi says, standing in the center of the temple with her hands stretched toward the sky. “My parents do all the ceremonies in the world, but I never thought I believed in anything. After this, I might have to reconsider.”