Alex sighs. “You don’t have to do that to yourself.”
“I can’t help it. I did this, Ale. I was just so angry. I thought I could take control of everything I wanted. I even used my power to make Maks want me again. Maybe the Deos caused that accident because I tried to use my power on me and Maks.” I lick silent, salty tears from my lips. “I made him kiss me because I couldn’t handle us being apart. What kind of a monster does that?”
My sister brushes my hair away from my face. She holds my face gently in her hands but her eyes are fierce. “You’re not a monster. The accident wasn’t your fault. The Deos didn’t punish you. You of all people know that your power doesn’t work like that. If Maks kissed you, it was because he wanted to. You were hurt and confused and you messed up. But you’re also loyal and kind and good. You’ve never been afraid to bare yourself. When I needed you, you were there, in Los Lagos, guiding me. Because you loved me. All my life I’ve wanted to love as fiercely as you love. So when I say this isn’t how your story ends, I mean it.”
I hold her hand tighter and take the strength she offers just by being with me and don’t let go until our stop.
? ? ?
When we get home, I’m half expecting the place to be wrecked. Nova and Maks aren’t exactly compatible. But when Alex and I walk through the front door, we hear the strangest sound.
Laughter.
“We have a PlayStation?” Alex asks.
Rose, Nova, and Maks are sitting on the couch.
“Bro, she is kicking your ass,” Maks shouts. He runs his fingers through his hair in a motion so familiar it brings butterflies to my stomach.
Rose’s thumbs move fast across the controller buttons. Every few seconds she grunts, like she’s coaching her player in real life.
“Yes!” Rose yells. She smiles so hard her eyes are nearly swallowed by her cheeks. “In your face!”
Nova curses but then laughs and hands the controller over to Maks.
I turn to Alex. “Is this more or less weird than the poison greenhouse we walked through?”
“For us?” she says, scoffing. “More. Definitely.”
The trio on the couch look over at us, like we’re the ones acting strangely.
“I didn’t know you had Street Lighting,” Maks tells me. “Your sister kills at it.”
“I didn’t know we had it either,” I say, walking around and sitting on the couch arm beside him. He places a hand on the small of my back, and for a moment, it’s enough to forget everything Alex and I have learned.
A moment.
“I found it in the basement,” Rose said, typing her name as the new top score.
“From the look on your faces,” Nova says, “my gran didn’t exactly have good news.”
He stands, and the smile vanishes from his beautiful face. I feel like I’m Lady de la Muerte herself, sucking the life out of a room.
“Any word from Mom and Dad?” Alex asks Rose, ignoring the question for now. I wonder what Nova would say if he knew the deal Alex struck for him.
“The baby won’t come out,” Rose says, turning off the game and switching to the local news. “I don’t know when they’ll be back.”
“At least they’ll be safe out there,” I say.
“What’s up?” Maks asks. “What did the witch lady say?”
Then Nova, Alex, Rose, and I say, “Bruja.”
Maks holds his hands up. “My bad, jeez. Sorry.”
Alex pushes aside the PlayStation on the coffee table and sits. She sets the bakery box beside her.
“Angela let us read a book detailing past incidents with casimuertos.” Her eyes flick to Maks. “It’s called The Accursed Book.”
“And?” Nova asks impatiently.
“She gave Lula a potion for her pain.”
Nova makes a face, supersuspect of us. “She just gave it to you? On top of letting you read that book?”
“No,” Alex says, but won’t meet his eyes. “We paid.”
“What did you give her?” Nova stands abruptly.
Alex blinks but doesn’t react to his outburst. She closes her hand into a fist to hide the index finger with the promise mark. “None of your business.”
“You don’t know her, Alex.” Nova shakes his head and paces across the living room. “Everything she says has a loophole or a trick. Trust me.”
“We got what we needed. Let me handle this.”
“What’s next?” Maks asks. “Is there a way to reverse this?”
I can’t look at him. I can’t tell him that there’s no way to reverse this. That the only way he’ll feel better, stronger, is if he consumes my heart.
“We’re working on that,” Alex lies for me.
“Wait, turn that up,” Nova says, pointing at the screen.
For a few seconds, I’m thankful for the break in answering questions. Alex raises the volume. It’s the same reporter we saw a few days ago except now his eyes are bruised with sleepless dark circles.
“Is that by your school?” Rose asks.
The reporter glances warily at the house across the street, and bright-yellow police tape ripples in the breeze. A dozen cops gather on the front lawn, one of them taking a witness statement.
“Behind me is Detective Hill,” Adam reports. “He has not confirmed the cause of death of the Maguire family, allegedly attacked by a group of assailants in the neighborhood just behind Thorne Hill High School. A neighbor reported hearing screams, but when the police arrived, the perpetrators were gone. The medical examiner is on her way, but sources confirm that there are no survivors. Police are canvasing the area. Detective Hill advises all to stay in their homes—”
“It’s the casimuertos,” I say, rubbing the painful spot building in my chest. “It has to be.”
Nova looks worried but not convinced. “There are tons of murders in this city.”
“It’s right by our school though,” Alex says. “What if it’s the others who went missing? We have to at least look into it.”
“What are we going to do if we find casimuertos?” Nova raises his voice. “If I see Vino? Smash his brain out or ask him to come quietly? Do we even know how to stop them? Because stabbing him sure didn’t.”
“We could—” Rose starts to say, but her voice is drowned out by Alex.
“Anything can be killed,” Alex says, and Maks flinches at the hardness in her voice. “I can sedate them with my power.”
Maks tugs on my arm. “We aren’t going to try to find a cure?”
“That’s not what Alex meant,” I say, rubbing the hand he rests on my knee.
“You shouldn’t be using your power out in broad daylight anyway,” Nova says. “We don’t need the THA or the hunters coming after us.”
Maks’s eyes dart from Nova to me. “What’s the THA?”
“Thorne Hill Alliance. It’s a supernatural group that’s supposed to keep the peace,” I say quickly.
“What if—” Rose says again.
“Also, I’m a little uncomfortable with the whole ‘smashing their brains out’ part,” Maks says, fidgeting on the edge of the couch.
“Where are we going to put them if we can’t kill them?” Nova claps his hands, frustrated. “I’m pretty sure your parents are going to notice a living room full of undead baseball players.”
“Soccer,” Maks corrects indignantly.
Rose stands up and stomps to the living room entrance. She takes a geode from a side table and slams it on the ground. The crystal splinters into pieces and leaves a fist-size scuff on the wooden floor.
“Can you all be quiet long enough for me to talk?” Rose asks.
“Then talk, kid,” Nova says, holding his hands up defensively.
Rose looks pleased with that, but Alex still frowns.
“Where did you park your car before you got on the bus?” Rose asks Maks.
He squints, struggling to search for the memory. The last time we were in that car, he was breaking up with me.
“School,” I say. “We parked in the lot and then got on the buses.”
“We can take his car,” Rose says. “We can put them in the garage.”