“You mean you’re like a zombie?” Rishi asks.
Aunt Rosaria smiles at her, and in that moment, my whole world makes sense. “I died in our world. There is no going back. But the Deos, they can make mistakes.”
I know she died. Her dead body fell on me. We mourned her for days. Then, I see something my seven-year-old self wouldn’t have noticed: the thick, red scar across her neck. I touch the keloid.
“You were—” The word is so ugly I can’t even say it. Murdered.
“It’s not something I ever wanted you to know.”
“My mom said that it was a canto that went wrong.”
“Oh, it did,” she says, laughing darkly. “When they found me, no one was more surprised than me.”
“Who found you?”
She frowns. “That is a story for another day. What matters is that it wasn’t my time. That’s what everyone says, don’t they? Everyone thinks they have another day, month, year to keep going. As if all of this world and the others were designed for them alone.”
“Maybe,” I say. “But you were the world to a lot of people. To me.”
“That’s why we mourn.” A sad smile appears on her face. “Death is the most sure but unexpected part about life. It’s almost up there with love. It’s bound to happen, but how and when—now that’s the tricky part.”
“Tricky isn’t the word I’d use.”
She brushes my hair from my face.
“Who broke your heart, nena? That boy you were with? I wish I could have been there to tell you to never trust a boy with star eyes. They blind you like a deer in headlights.”
I make a face and motion to where Rishi is standing with her arms crossed. “It’s more than that.” Then I realize something. “Why can I talk to you now?”
She settles into a cross-legged position. That’s when I see her feet are shackled to the ground. “Because your magic is gone. I’ve been trying to contact you for a long time. I’m your godmother, after all. I should have been there to guide your powers when they came. I should have been there to stop you from doing what you did.”
I swallow the bitter guilt in my mouth. My body craves water. Rain. My veins itch. She puts a hand on my arm where I’m scratching.
“Withdrawal.”
“So soon?”
“You’re never the same without it.”
“So now that I’m not a bruja, you can talk to me?”
“Don’t sass me.” She slaps the back of my head and Rishi snorts. “The reason I couldn’t talk to you was you. You kept your ears closed.”
“Me?”
“You didn’t want to listen. That’s why our bond was broken.”
“It didn’t help that every time you materialized, you looked like a corpse.”
“That was your fear making you see me that way.” She brushes her fingers through my hair, which is caked in blood and mud and La Mama knows what else.
“I didn’t want to think about you dead.”
“That’s the thing, my love. Even if you don’t think of the dead, the dead are thinking of you.”
“Sorry, but why are you trapped here?” Rishi asks.
“And what do you mean the Deos made a mistake?” I add.
Aunt Ro throws her arms up in mock surrender. The gesture is so familiar that I could cry. “You ignore me for years and now you want all the answers. Listen here, girl, the Deos gave me this chance. Even they believe I was meant for something great. Perhaps not in our world, but there’s still hope in this one.”
“You live in a literal prison inside the labyrinth of a demon witch who is about to kill our entire family. How can there be any hope?”
“We found each other, didn’t we?” She smiles, and it makes my heart break. I’ve missed her so much. This whole time, all I did was push her away. “Your godmother is supposed to guide you through your magical journey.”
“As in the fairy variety?” Rishi asks, and it feels so good to hear her voice twinkle with happiness.
“I could see glimpses of Alejandra throughout the years,” Aunt Ro says. “But Los Lagos isn’t like the realm of the dead or the paradise fields where the Deos live. It’s harder, almost impossible, to break out of here. I always wondered why they chose this land for me. The moment I woke here, I was in chains. I was furious. After everything they put me through. After everything I saw you go through. When I realized the Devourer was targeting you, I knew I had to act. The Deos act through us. They want us to save this land.”
“That was you I heard calling out to me when we were in the River Luxaria, wasn’t it?”
“You needed a push. Now that we’re together, we’ll set things right.”
I scratch at the inside of my wrist. I can’t stop shaking. “When the Devourer took my power, I wanted to die. I felt like there was no place for me anymore. And there won’t be—not without the others. I wish I’d told my mother the day my powers arrived, but I was too scared.”
“I should’ve been there to teach you.”
“It wasn’t your job. I had a mother.”
Have, I correct myself. I have a mother.
“You can’t be mad at her. She had a hard time. I watched you guys every day. You’re an amazing girl, Alejandra. Your mom did the best she could even if it didn’t feel like it was enough. She did the best she could.”
“I get it, okay? I’m afraid to face her now. She’ll know what I did. She’ll know about dad—”
“What happened with Miluna, with your father—that was not your fault! I’m going to tell you something about your mother, but you can’t tell her.”
“She’s being held captive by an evil witch,” Rishi says. “Alex couldn’t tell her even if she wanted to.”
“You certainly have a mouth, don’t you?” Aunt Ro winks at her.
“What about my mom?”
“You know, Alejandra, you’re just like your mother when she was your age. Impatient and bossy. Magic was different then. It was the eighties. Brujas were coming over from the islands to practice freely. We were wild back then. Careless. A lot of people we knew died from using too much or getting into nasty business. We were hunted. We went underground. Your mother wanted nothing to do with her gift after our dad was killed by hunters.”
“I didn’t know that. I thought Papa Renaldo died of a heart attack.”
“Caused by a hunter,” she says bitterly. “It was a different time. There’s a truce, a treaty now. The Thorne Hill Alliance they call themselves. But back then, your mom told me we were going to run away to the middle of nowhere. We could hide and never use our powers again. It was the day before my Deathday, and I was scared. Treaty or not, my powers were wild. The elements called to me. She feared for my life. Rightfully so, I suppose.”
“What made you stay?” I ask.
“Your father.” She looks pleased with the shock on my face. “That same night, we were at a social circle. We had to make the rounds, so our mom wouldn’t suspect anything. You always had to be one step ahead of her. She had the Sight, like Rose.
“So at the circle, there’s this handsome guy with big, gray eyes and creamy, light skin. Real fresh, you know? He spoke about all these hopes for all magical kind. How we needed to come together with not just brujos and brujas, but with the half-beings. I thought he was cute.”