“Survival of the illest,” he says, but his laugh is forced. “I’ve never been much good at being anyone other than who I am. Even if it got me locked up. Even if it kills me in the end.”
“What happened?”
He shrugs. I hate when he shrugs.
“Girl was in trouble. I tried to help her from getting mugged. Someone called the police. She couldn’t really tell me apart from the people trying to hurt her.”
He won’t look at us. He’s startled when Rishi is the one who takes his hand to give him comfort.
“The marks have only gotten worse recently.” He holds up his hands. The black marks are as dark as ink. No wonder he has so many tattoos. What better way to cover up his magical ones?
“I told myself I’d figure out a way to reverse it.” He holds his hands up to the flames. “While I was in juvie, these guys showed me there was a way.”
“Is that why you need the money?”
He looks down at his feet and nods.
“I promise I’ll help you,” I tell him. “After all of this, I’ll do everything I can.”
“I don’t deserve that,” he says. “Besides, if I burn up in Los Lagos, then you don’t have to pay me at all.”
And that does it. It hits me in the gut that he’s not here for me. Not truly.
“I’m sorry, that was a stupid thing to say,” he says.
I put on a smile and shake it off. “Well, you’ve made up for it by cooking dinner.”
“Hold up,” Nova says. “I confessed a secret. It’s Rishi’s turn.”
“A nice Guyanese girl like me?” Rishi winks. “Alex already knows all my secrets.”
“I doubt that,” Nova mutters.
“I am sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” I tell Rishi. “I was afraid you’d see me differently. You were the one person that made me forget about my magic.”
“I love your magic.” Rishi holds my stare. Her eyes flick to my lips, then back to my eyes. “I should tell you that you look different. Good different. You walk with your head up and your eyes are brighter. You wear the magic on your skin. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
I always used to say that magic transformed Lula. I didn’t think it would do the same to me. But the more I use my power, the more I feel it changing me.
Nova clears this throat. He takes the rabbit off the fire and rests it between the three of us. “You guys ready to eat or what?”
“Wait. Give me your hands.” I hold out my hands for them to take. I do something my mother used to when I was younger. “Thank you, La Mama, for this meal and for lighting our path. El Terroz for the bounty of your rich, strong earth.”
“And La Estrella,” Nova adds, “for a new hope.”
“And to Alex,” Rishi says, “for this adventure.”
• • •
We keep on going.
I find the stone path again easily. Or perhaps it finds me. The farther we walk, the more Los Lagos starts to feel familiar. The sky is violet, and there is not a skyscraper in sight. The grass is tall and yellow, and wild beasties scurry underground. It is unlike anywhere I’ve ever been, but somehow it reminds me of home.
You are the blood of my blood, Mama Juanita told me. She believes my power is enough.
Every now and then, I turn around to make sure Rishi and Nova are keeping up. Rishi’s face is flushed, but if she’s tired, then she doesn’t complain. Nova is quieter than usual, his bipolar eyes searching the sky. I go to check my watch for the time and realize my watch is long gone. The moon and sun are inching closer as they pass each other in the sky. The eclipse is approaching, but so are we.
“I’m coming for you,” I whisper, and hope the wind will carry that to my family.
We stop once more to drink water and eat the rest of our rabbit. But I can’t sit still for too long. When the moon and sun set, I pull light from the stars and create three glowing, green orbs, so we don’t have to walk in the dark. My skin tingles, and I know we’re close. We rest again, so I can heal the blisters on Nova’s and Rishi’s feet. When I’m exhausted, my green orbs are extinguished like candle flames. I’m the only one who can’t sleep, and so I try to make shapes out of the stars. I wonder if the Devourer can feel us approaching. I think of the one way she can hurt me—my family. I envision all the different ways I want to hurt her.
“I’m coming for you,” I whisper before I fall asleep.
The very second the sun and moon rise again, I wake Rishi and Nova up and we keep going for another half cycle.
“It’s up ahead,” I say.
“I can feel it too,” Nova says.
“I know I’m not a witch or anything,” Rishi says, “but this place is making my skin crawl.”
“Is something finally scaring you?” Nova asks her.
“It was bound to happen,” she says.
I take her hand and squeeze, just to let her know that I’m here. I shut my eyes and let the mountain speak to me. Like the rest of this land, it has a voice. It calls to me, magic to magic.
La luna, the voice whispers in the Old Tongue.
“The moon,” I say. I step away from my friends and line myself up with the moon. I step on the next stone, and when it sinks, a wave of energy crashes over me. A moonbeam connects to my necklace, shooting a prism of multicolored light into the glamour. The veil falls away, revealing a mountain range that glitters like stars and stretches higher than the Empire State building.
“The entrance!” Rishi says.
The prism of light that beams from my necklace illuminates a rift in the mountain that would be easy to miss in the dark. It looks as if El Terroz took his golden ax and created the gash himself.
When we stand at the entrance, the prism flickers and goes out. I struggle to bring back the light, exhaustion pulling at my life force.
“I’ve got it,” Nova says. He releases a ball of light over his head and blows on it. It floats ahead of him.
“Ready?” I whisper to Rishi.
For the first time since we’ve journeyed together, she looks nervous. I hold her hand and walk with her, a promise that I won’t let go.
In turn, she stays close and whispers, “I would follow you into the darkest dark.”
31
They say El Corazón has two hearts:
the black thing in his chest and