Bruja Born

by Zoraida Cordova

“Seven of them,” I say.

  “Seven that were recorded,” Angela corrects me. “Death makes people desperate, and our history is long.”

  “What about Death herself?” I ask.

  “What about her? She’s a goddess, born from the shadows to keep the world in balance. Even from the gods themselves.”

  “The Book of Deos doesn’t have much information on Lady de la Muerte, but you have a whole shrine devoted to her. Your statue is closer to her likeness than any I’ve seen.”

  Angela watches me for a moment as if seeing my future right before her eyes, and by the look on her face, it doesn’t look good. “Lady de la Muerte has collected so many lives as a product of my work, it is only fitting I choose her as the patron of my magic. She is a reminder that everything ends, even the reign of gods. Even this world.”

  “She wants me to find her spear,” I say. “In The Accursed Book, it said she used it to kill some casimuertos. It’s a divine weapon, isn’t it? Where did it come from?”

  “Her spear was made from the dregs of the elemental Deos. There’s a rhyme about it in the Book of Deos, if I remember correctly. As for your other problem, here.”

  She takes something out of her pocket and sets it on the counter beside the pastry box.

  “What’s this?” I ask. The tiny bottle is corked tightly. The liquid is black with tiny flecks of silver.

  “An elixir for your pain.”

  Alex takes it from me and sets it back on the counter. “We can’t. My mother will make something when we get home.”

  Angela turns her dark gaze on my sister. “That is not for you to decide. It’s for her. She said it herself. She has to free La Muerte. Can’t do that and walk around the city almost dead herself. Besides, I grow the kinds of herbs your mother, La Mama bless her many talents, has never heard of.”

  “I have nothing to offer you,” I say.

  “You don’t have to. La Muerte and I have a score to settle and I can’t do that if she’s trapped. Consider it a gift.”

  I want to say that when it comes to magic, nothing is just a gift. Gifts of power come with blessings or curses or sometimes both. I want to say that I’ll return her kindness by being nicer to Nova. But my insides are as twisted as my tongue, and so all I can do is take the tiny glass bottle and say, “Thank you.”

  “Just remember,” Angela says. “The casimuertos consume because they are never sated. It’s the thing that makes them the most human, even though they are unnatural to this world. Do not fail her.”

  So I’ve been warned.

  “Thank you, Doña Angela.”

  “Don’t thank me yet.” She pushes the pastry box toward Alex. “Take this for your parents with my blessings.”

  Alex doesn’t talk back.

  We’re halfway outside when the bells jingle overhead. Outside the sky is darker. The streets empty. An unseasonable chill in the air.

  Angela calls out to Alex one more time, and we stall at the doorway.

  “Tell Nova to come home. When he’s ready.”

  • • •

  We take the train back home. We don’t talk. Alex holds the pastry box in her lap and stares out the window at the graffiti on the subway walls. I reread the pictures of the book she took on her phone but nothing stands out. Then I take out the small potion and shake it between my fingers.

  “Are you going to drink that?” Alex asks.

  “I’m still feeling the side effects from the other potion,” I say, clearing my throat in the process.

  Alex nods quietly. There is nothing quite as sobering as the truth. “I can keep healing you. You don’t have to.”

  I can’t keep having my sister suffer the recoil of healing magic for me. “I will. I just…I think it’s going to get worse, and I want to save it for when it does. I can manage this.”

  She looks at me like she wants to disagree, so I change the subject.

  “Find the spear, free La Muerte, destroy the heart, and make the sacrifice.” I rest my head on her shoulder, a hard weight pressing down on my chest.

  “I’m going to save you,” Alex says. “This isn’t how your story ends.”

  I don’t want to tell her that she’s wrong about one of those things. “Until we can find the spear, we need to make sure no one else gets hurt. We can’t tell anyone about what we read. Especially not the parts about me dying.”

  “Agreed.”

  The train rattles more than usual, and the b-boys jumping around in the car rethink their busking strategy. I’m afraid Lady de la Muerte is going to appear out of nowhere again, but the last time I saw her she looked about as healthy as I do. At the next stop, the car empties out.

  “I should’ve listened to you.” I rest against her because my body feels drained. “To Ma. To everyone.”

  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.”

  “And what, keep them hostage?” Maks asks. The pink is gone from his cheeks, and his eyes are starting to fade to a milky blue. He’s going to need to eat again and I can’t help but edge away from him.

  “Keep them where they can’t hurt anyone else,” Alex says, and her body tenses like she can read my thoughts. “There were twenty-five bodies missing from the hospital morgue that day, and you’re the only one whose location we know.”

  Maks breathes hard and fast, opening and closing his fingers into white-knuckled fists. “I don’t understand why this is happening.”

  Nova leans forward, rubbing his hands together as if he’s getting ready to fight.

  “I think I can,” I say, and all eyes are on me. “Every story in The Accursed Book starts with a bruja or brujo trying to save someone from the dead. I know the way our magic works, and the combination of our three powers, the binding canto I used to tether your life to mine, and Lady de la Muerte appearing—it all just clashed.”

  “But why are there others like me?” Maks asks, and it pains me that he looks so lost.

  “Because they were all supposed to die too,” Rose says. “Everyone that was supposed to cross over got pulled into our canto.”

  “I can end this,” I say.

  “How?” Nova asks. “I thought you said there was nothing in the book.”

  “There wasn’t,” Alex cuts me off, the anger in her eyes silencing me. “What she means is she has to be the one to free Lady de la Muerte. That’s how we end this. But right now, we have to do what we can, and that’s get the casimuertos off the streets.”

  “Can this Lady Muerte bring me back?” Maks asks.

  “I don’t know,” Alex lies again.

  There’s a static quiet—Rose cleaning her glasses, Nova cracking his black-inked fingers, Maks scratching his chest raw, and Alex’s pleading stare transfixed on me.

  “Let’s start with Rose’s idea,” Nova says. “It’s the best plan right now. Follow the places where the latest attack reports are.” Then something dawns in his eyes. “Better yet, how did you find Maks in the first place?”

  “A thread,” I answer, placing my hand over my chest. “I can’t control it. It hasn’t happened since.”

  Nova scratches the back of his neck and looks at Alex. “Without your power, we’ll need weapons.”

  “Not my first magical rodeo,” Alex says and leaves without another word. She takes a right in the hall, toward the kitchen. I can hear the squeaky basement door open and slam, followed by her heavy footsteps going down.

  “What did Alex trade with my gran?” Nova asks me, looking over his shoulder like he expects my sister to materialize at the sound of her name.

  “That’s for
Alex to tell you, if she wants,” I say, leveling my eyes on his. “You really think I’m going to betray my sister for you? Boy, bye.”

  Before he can respond, Alex runs back in, a black sports duffel slung over her shoulder and Dad’s old machete in her hand. She lets the bag drop on the ground, metal clinking and clanking against the floor.

  “Where did all this come from?” I ask.

  “After my mess last year, I’ve been trading cantos for weapons.” Alex unzips the bag. “Take your pick, y’all. We’re going zombie hunting.”

  22

  El Papa was no fool.

  He noticed the way La Mama pulled away.

  The way she leaned into El Cielo, unburdened by shadow.

  And so his jealousy gave birth to La Amargura.

  It was the beginning of the end.

  —Tales of the Deos, Felipe Thomás San Justinio

  The five of us take the train to Thorne Hill High. Maks watches me as we catch the N train and sit down. Aboveground, the sunset casts an orange glow over the city. It even makes Maks look less gray, less undead.

  “Is this what you do all the time?” he asks me.

  “No,” I say, placing my hand on his thigh to stop it from bouncing nervously.

  He twitches slightly every few moments.

  “I just remembered something,” he says. “I dropped you off at that yoga place in Williamsburg. Were they really yoga classes?”

  I turn on the yellow subway seat to face him. “You have to understand. We aren’t allowed to tell people about our secret.”

  “Why?” He isn’t defensive. He’s calm. Too calm. The calmness of when I discovered him and brought him home. “With your powers, you could help people. Like, the way they healed you? What about the people who can’t find a cure elsewhere? Alex is like a superhero. She could catch bad guys. She—”

  “It’s not that simple.” I drag my thumb gently over his cheek.

  “I don’t understand,” he says. “How come you made the exception to heal me?”

  “You weren’t the exception,” Alex says.

  I turn my head so fast I almost give myself whiplash. “No one is talking to you.”