Labyrinth Lost (15 page)

Then she pulls out a spear and drives it through the center of his hand.

Hide me in your sombra,

mother of the dark.

—Rezo de La Oscuridad, Lady of Shadow and Dark Deeds

Agosto's screams fill the silence of the Meadow del Sol.

The Devourer walks past him, her movement like the rattle of a snake, each footstep reverberating in the deepest parts of my heart. She advances toward me like a turbulent storm.

“You're the one causing all the trouble,” she says, stopping a couple of yards from me. Her posture is calm, the same stoicism I found in Madra but none of the patience. I can feel the magic that fractures around her. I can feel that it's stronger than me. “Speak, child.”

This is why I'm here—to confront this creature and save my family. But standing before her, I've lost my nerve. My mouth is dry and my body is frozen. I can't even reach for my magic.

The Devourer floats up from the ground and flies a lap around me. The black tendrils of her hair lick at the air around me. She breathes deep, a wolf memorizing her prey.

“I have something that belongs to you,” she whispers.

“They aren't
things
,” I snap.

“So you do have a tongue,” she laughs, standing closer to me still. The sky is lightening into a brighter blue. The moon and sun show themselves. “I'm going to enjoy ripping it out.”

What am I supposed to do with Nova and Rishi helpless on the ground? I could run. I could leave them behind. Nova would do it if it came down to us versus him. At least, that's what I tell myself.

The Devourer looks at my friends and clucks her tongue as if we're a joke to her. “This is what you've brought to challenge me? You don't know the way of Los Lagos, Alejandra Mortiz. Power comes at a great cost, yes. But what is the price of banishing it? Did you stop to think that your power is connected to your blood—the living and the dead that are tied to you? I thought I was getting your power, but then, they tried to protect you. I can feel their essence in the Tree of Souls. What can you give me in exchange for your family?”

My life.

I don't say it aloud, but it's all I have. She knows it. She mocks me when she says, “Would you like to make a trade? You for them? Why would I when their power is so
delicious
? Why would I when I can have all of you?”

Nova pushes himself to his knees. He looks up at the Devourer like he's in a dream. He starts to crawl to her. I grab him by his shoulders and pull him back.

The Devourer laughs darkly, moving past him and over to where Agosto is whimpering from the spear through his hand. The Devourer pulls the spear free and Agosto's scream is so loud, every bird hidden in the circle of trees takes flight.

“Come on, encantrix,” the Devourer says. “Show me what you've got.”

I reach for the mace handle in my backpack. It's too cumbersome and heavy to be comfortable, but it's all I've got now that my powers have recoiled from me.

The demon witch tilts her head to the side and says, “Curious.”

“Alex,” Rishi groans on the ground. “I feel sick. I can't see.”

“Get down!” I shout at her.

I step forward and swing the mace. The Devourer is quick as a shadow and moves back before I can complete my swing. She laughs and hits me in the gut with the butt of her spear. I fall to my knees, the wind knocked from my lungs until it burns.

“Pathetic,” she spits. “You are the encantrix descendant of the Great Mama Juana Mortiz?”

Her movement is frantic. Her hands shake. There's something wrong with her. A tick to her face, like she's talking to someone I can't see.

I take this moment of distraction and swing the mace at her kneecaps. She falls forward, catches herself on her palms, growling. She throws her spear on the ground. As she stands, she pulls on her magic. She raises her hands to the sky, and the wind picks up and howls around us.

“I was promised the power of a savior,” she says, “but all I got is a girl.”

“I'm sorry,” I whisper to my family. I backpedal, scramble on my elbows to get away from her. “I'm sorry.”

But the blow never comes. Agosto stands behind the Devourer. He pulls on his chains, slings them around the witch's throat, and pulls tightly. The clouds above us start to shrink as she scratches his arms with her long, hooked nails.

The Devourer makes a terrible choking sound. The rest of the meadow is completely still, the other adas hidden except for Rodriga. She pulls her chains on top of Agosto's. Together, they keep the demon bruja restrained. I can see her eyes glow red with fury beneath the bone mask.

“Go!” he shouts. “I can't hold her for long.”

“Agosto—”

I drag Rishi to the edge of the meadow before my arm muscles burn and I can't go any farther. Nova staggers toward us, and I fear I truly will have to leave them behind.

Fight
, the voice in my head growls.

Lula's done all my fighting for me. Ever since we were little, she was the one to step forward and punch girls or boys who threatened me. Rose fights the visions in her head every day. My mother—my mother is the strongest woman I know, battling the sadness and grief that comes with raising children alone. All I've ever done is run from things that scare me.

A deep growl shudders through the trees. The Devourer has recovered, and then there is a terrible crunching sound. Agosto's and Rodriga's screams pierce me right down to my bones. I tell myself that they were trying to keep us there for the Devourer. But I saw the desperation in Agosto's eyes. The chains that make him a slave to the creature. They're trying to help me.

There might be hope yet
, Rodriga said.

I pull Rishi and Nova behind a tree. I cover them with giant leaves and then run back into the meadow.

The Devourer flips Agosto and Rodriga over her shoulders. The adas are tangled in their own chains. I raise the mace to strike, but when I swing, it slips out of my grip. The Devourer's blast slams into my chest and I land on my shoulder.

“Your heart gives you away,” the Devourer tells me. She turns around to face me. “It's like a warning bell the way it beats so loud. So scared. I'll gladly rip it out for you. Save you the trouble it'll give you down the line.”

“Funny,” I say, pushing myself up. “I was going to say the same thing about your mouth.”

I pull on the anger and fear I've felt all my life. I pull on the hope that always feels like it's slipping away. My magic surges through me, fills me with a power stronger than ever before. I blast the Devourer in her stomach. She deflects it with a wave of her hand, but I catch the worry that sparks in her red eyes.

I find myself smiling because I put that worry there. I'm not running.

Unlike so many times before, I call on my power willingly. It's an instinct I can no longer ignore. I'm a wild thing, shooting sparks from my fingers. My throat burns from screaming as the Devourer slaps me with the force of her power. It stings cold all over, and I fall and freeze. I shudder as my magic warms me, my muscles seizing as they thaw.

My vision is filled with red. The Devourer stands over me. Black wisps trail at the ends of her long fingernails.

“You're strong,” she whispers in my ear. “But I'm stronger.”

I flip to the side, narrowly missing her foot to my face. I jump for the silver handle hiding in the blades of grass. I wrap my magic around the mace until it looks like a weapon made of lightning. I swing it at her head. The Devourer's face snaps to the side. Her hand goes to her mouth, where a thin line of scarlet blood runs down her chin.

She touches it, holds out her fingers to examine the red droplets. Is that fear I see in her eyes?

A sinister laugh makes me jump. Agosto crawls on his elbows toward us. One of his eyes is swollen shut. I can't tell where all the blood is coming from, and then I see the hole in his head where one of his horns has been ripped out.

“You are weakening,” Agosto says. “How long since you've fed, Xara?”
Zah-rah.

“I don't answer to a mortal's name.”

“Gods don't bleed,” I say.

The Devourer turns her rage on Agosto. He won't survive a second round. I can already feel my muscles cramping from the recoil, but I try to ignore the pain and stand between them. My power pulses at the center of my palms, ready to strike.

The Devourer hesitates, then tilts her face toward the light that comes from the sun and moon. What she sees seems to please her. She places her bloody finger to her lip and smiles a cruel smile.

“The difference between you and me, Alejandra, is that I've lived a long, long time.”

“That's not the only difference,” I say.

“It's my turn to shape the galaxies. And you're so focused on mourning your lot that you don't see how insignificant you are in the end. Don't worry. You will
beg
me to end your pain soon enough.”

She conjures a great, black cloud. I run toward her, screaming at the top of my lungs as I blast my power at her. It booms like thunder and pierces a hole through her cloud.

She's gone.

I release the magic I've built up into the sky, and I relish knowing that I drew first blood.

She is the light in the hopeless places.

She is the sky when the night blazes.

—Rezo de La Estrella, Lady of Hope and All the World's Brightness

My mother used to pray to La Estrella, the daughter of La Mama and El Papa who birthed all the stars in all the galaxies. For a little while, after my dad's disappearance, my mom erected an altar for her. She bought a statue of a woman with skin like the night sky, eyes silver like stars, and a blue dress draped around her body. She bought fruits and candles and a starling bird in a cage. It took up an entire wall in the kitchen and none of us were allowed to touch it.

But then the candles burned, and the bird got sick, and the food rotted, and one morning, we woke up and the starling was dead. That was the day my mother lost hope and donated the statue of La Estrella to someone else that needed it.

Here, in the Meadow del Sol, as the adas emerge from their hiding places, as the Faun King kneels before me, I collapse. The brightening sky still sparkles with fading stars, and so I pray to La Estrella.

“Forgive me,” Agosto tells me, crawling toward me. He takes my hand in his. His shackles drag behind him. He can't stand up, and for the first time, I notice the terrible angle of his broken leg.

I take a deep breath and get on my knees, fighting the recoil that wants to crash over me. I dig my left hand into the dirt and feel for the pulse of the land. I take energy from it, let it filter through me and into Agosto's wound. The gash closes and the blood dries. The swelling around his eye decreases, and before I can move to his ankle, he pulls me into a tight embrace. He's so big, so muscular that I'm surprised at how gentle his touch is.

“Forgive me,” he repeats.

I shake my head. It's not that I'm not forgiving him. It's that I can't speak right now. My power is on autopilot, searching for his broken bones. I hiss when I hear the snap in his ankle. Then comes Rodriga. The adas have made a bed of flowers for her. There's a gash in her side, but it isn't fatal. Her hand has been torn off. I shut my eyes.
So much blood
, I think.
There's always so much blood.

Blood is life
, Nova said.

I let out a shaky breath and heal her. For a long time, the salamander girl stares at the stump where her hand should be.

“You came back,” she says. “Even after everything.”

“Yeah, even after you threw that wine at me. It's a good thing I'm already filthy.”

Rodriga laughs, then winces in pain.

There's a noise off to the edge of the meadow.

“It's just us,” Nova says, walking in with Rishi.

“Thanks for joining us,” I say.

“I feel like I've been hit with a sledgehammer,” Nova says. Then, when he sees Rodriga's wound, his face blanks.

“How does your foot taste?” Rishi asks him, heading straight to the center of the meadow where I'm surrounded by the adas.

When I turn around, there are more of them, all chained to the trees that create the meadow ring.

Nova walks silently behind Rishi. “What happened?”

“While you were sleeping off your drunk?” I stand, and suddenly all the adas stand too. I take a step closer toward Nova, and they follow.

“That's normal,” Rishi says.

“Not fair, Alex,” Nova says. “I didn't know what their food would do to us. We're in Los Lagos, not their fairy realm.”

I don't know why I'm picking a fight with him, especially now.

“It doesn't matter,” I say. I turn to Agosto. “What do you know about the Devourer? You called her by her human name.”

“There is much to tell, encantrix. Perhaps we should wait until you are…better?”

I don't know what he's talking about until the recoil slams into me. My knees buckle, and I swear my head is splitting open. Rishi lunges for me, and I lean all of my weight on her.

“No.” I shake my head. “Now.”

“Very well.” Agosto raises his hands and the ground trembles. Grass and flowers grow thick and twist into a tall chair. Agosto motions for me to sit.

“Do you know why the creature feeds?”

“Because it's hungry?” Nova says darkly.

Agosto looks him up and down. His lip curls, but he composes himself. “Because the need for power is endless. You feel it too. Your power is free in the meadow.”

“Does the meadow do something to us? Does it make our power grow?” I wrap my hands around the roots of my chair. My magic connects with the essence in these living things, and it calms my nerves.

Agosto shakes his head. “No, but the meadow allows you to put away other worries long enough to let your magic come forward. Look at how you bested Xara.”

“Who's Xara?” Rishi asks.

“The Devourer's real name,” I say.

“Long ago, that was her human name,” Agosto says. “She was just a bruja then, banished here by the Deos for a crime we'll never know. She simply appeared. Some, bewitched by her beauty, pledged allegiance to her. I admit, I was one of them. Others staked their claim on their own lands and shunned her. The Bone Valle used to be the Valle Azul, a sect of brujas and brujos that dedicated their lives to the ancient ways lived there and in the mountains. They saw the Devourer as an intruder. The more land she possessed, the more the tribes defied her. The witches were the ones who planned to kill her. One of their seers saw the threat. But they did not act in time. Overnight, the sky was red and the earth was scorched. The Valle Azul became a desert, their bodies left in heaps.

“She claimed the heart of the land as her fortress and raised the labyrinth around the Tree of Souls. You see, the tree feeds the land. Without the life of the tree, the land cannot be replenished.”

“What happened to you guys?”

“I disobeyed her.” There's a quiet shudder that passes through the adas. “We were one of the first to welcome her, but the more land she burned and sucked the life out of, the more I feared. We allied with the avianas and remaining tribes. We lost. The birds stay in their caves. The starlarks hide beneath the earth. As for us, she wouldn't let us get away. There are entire generations who will never know what it's like to roam Los Lagos freely. They'll never know what it's like to sleep under the shade of the Forest of Lights or run through the Valle Azul. Yes, Xara spared us. But our lives are a punishment every day and every night.”

“Why didn't you let her take me?” I ask. “Your job was to hold me here until she arrived, wasn't it?”

Agosto looks down. He tilts back and forth, like he's adjusting to the absence of one horn.

“Because you remind me of someone,” he says.

“Who?” I press.

“An Alta Bruja of old. Her name was Kristiñe. She wanted to return Los Lagos to the way it was before Xara started feeding off the Tree of Souls.”

“Hold on,” Rishi says. “Why don't your Deos stop her? If they created this land, can't they just undo what she's done?”

There's a snicker. “Do your gods grant easy wishes?” Rodriga asks.

“The last time I checked, they were busy.” Rishi's cheeks are pink with embarrassment. “But something this evil has to catch someone's attention.”

“It's gotten her attention,” Rodriga says, pointing to me. “The Devourer sends her demons to search for great power because she can't do it for herself. She found you. You wear the symbol of El Papa on your chain. The Deos chose you for this.”

“This was just a gift from my father. Not the Deos.” I shake my head. “I've never been the bravest or best bruja in my community. I'm just a girl.”

“Don't say that,” Rishi says. “Look at everything you've done.”

“Encantrix,” Agosto says, trying to get my attention to focus. “To free your family, you must release them from the tree. The tree is the key to Xara's defeat. You have the power and the freedom to challenge her the way none of us have before, and perhaps once you save your family, you will free Los Lagos as well.”

I press my palm to my chest. Feel my heart racing. If my family were with me, they'd say that this is my destiny. A few days ago, I would've brushed off the thought that fate weaves the strings of life together. Today, I'm one step closer to making amends for my betrayal. The Devourer wants to hurt me, but I can return that favor. It's more than just the Tree of Souls. Her destruction reaches this meadow and the avianas. Where will she go when there's nothing left to destroy?

I hold out my hand, and Agosto takes it. I hold his dark stare with my own, and for the first time since we arrived, I feel like I'm on the right path.

I walk with him to the center of the meadow, where the banquet tree table is now empty. Since I broke the glamour, the source of the chains is in plain sight. There's a spike staked deep into the wood.

“I've tried, encantrix,” Agosto says, tugging on the metal. “I try every day.”

“But I haven't.” I wave my hand over the wood. The traces of the Devourer's power writhe against my own.

I rub my hands together, and a ball of blue energy burns between my palms. I pull power from the soles of my feet, the pit of my stomach, and my fast-beating heart. I picture the Devourer's face, hidden under a mask of death, and I let my power go. The table splinters into a thousand bits, and blue flame rains down. A sharp pain stabs my heart, and for a moment, I can
feel
the Devourer's wrath.

Agosto struggles to breathe. He looks down at his hands in wonder. The manacles come undone, and the chains fall to the ground. The adas weep from joy. They embrace each other. They kiss my hands and feet. They run past the circle of trees and shout at the top of their lungs.

“Now,” I tell Agosto, “show me the path to the labyrinth.”