It’s just the six of us in the living room. Even with Nova here, it feels right.
Ma presses her healing compresses on Dad’s welts. He explains what it felt like to hold the lightning in his hand again. Nova keeps calling Rose a magical hacker, and she kicks his shin. All the while Alex watches me, like she’s afraid I’m going to spontaneously combust. I know she’s only worried, but for now, all I want is to bask in this moment.
I want to tell my parents that I love them. I want to tell my mom that when I felt like I needed strength, all I had to do was think of her. I want to tell my dad that I’m grateful that he used his power. I want to tell Nova that he needs to be careful, that he’s got family if he wants it.
But I’m stopped by the sound of breaking glass.
“That came from the back,” Mom says, picking up the machete on the coffee table. Dad gets up and goes with her.
“Stay here,” they tell us.
Rose and Nova pick up weapons from the table too.
I hold the spear spike-side out and go into the hallway.
“Lula,” Alex tells me. “Stay together.”
“I have the spear. I’ll be fine.”
A cold draft blows in from the front door. I locked it after Rhett left. I know I did. I head straight for it to slam it shut, but a chill runs along my arms.
His voice behind me stops me cold.
“Hey, baby.”
I spin around, holding the spear out as a threat I fully intend on carrying out.
Maks stands in the entrance of my home. His skin is the palest gray, crisscrossed with scars that run along his face and arms like eels skimming beneath the skin. His eyes are stark white with bright-red veins.
I pull the spear back, ready to plunge it into his heart, but then I see them just over his shoulder.
My sisters and Nova held captive by casimuertos.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Maks says. “We dropped by unannounced for dinner.”
34
El Odio could not stand the world
but left his discord buried like seeds.
Beware the souls who eat his fruit.
—Tales of the Deos, Felipe Thomás San Justinio
“I should’ve let them kill you when you turned,” I say, and the bitterness on my tongue tastes so good.
“You’re not strong enough for that, Lula,” Maks says. “Isn’t that why you locked me up and then dragged me all over the city trying to keep my memories from me?”
“I didn’t keep your memories from you,” I say. “That was the magic.”
“Liar!” When he yells, his breath washes over me, rank and metallic. “Everything that’s ever come out of your mouth is a lie, Lula. You lied about being a witch. You lied about what you did to me.”
“Let them go,” I tell him.
But he just looks at me and laughs. “You did do one thing for me, Lula. You freed a part of me I didn’t know was there. That will always belong to you.”
“Screw you, Maks,” I growl. It’s clear he’s not going to play along, and I need a new plan. I turn to the other casimuertos and say, “You want the truth? Maks has been lying to you all. He brought you here to die.”
“What’s she talking about?” Derek asks, his rage deepening the red in his eyes. Beside him Irina cocks her head unnaturally, her white eyes boring into her brother.
“I can make you human again. Maks knew all along.”
All the humor drains from his face, and he growls at me. “Don’t listen to her! She said it herself. There’s no reversing this.”
“Lula,” Alex shouts. “Stop it! I can fight them.”
I look at her and shake my head. She’s still recovering from conjuring the elements. And this is a battle I have to fight myself.
“Nope. That’s what I’ve been keeping from you. In order for you to live again, you need one thing.” I tap the center of my chest.
There’s desire in their eyes. Longing. Not just for my heart. But for life. They shake with the need to consume. A casimuerto is never sated.
“You’re going to have to catch me first,” I say, and I run out the door.
? ? ?
“Good plan, Lula,” I mutter. “Have your psycho, dead ex and friends chase you around the yard.”
As I sprint down the porch and up the driveway, there’s a shock of white light from the inside of the house followed by a series of blasts. Dad and Alex, I think. I want to picture them fighting side by side, holding back the other casimuertos. We have always fought. They will keep fighting long after I’m gone.
When I look up to the window, I see more casimuertos flooding the house. I want to scream, but I see others too. Hunters and brujas and the blur of a vampire. My heart soars at the sight of them fighting back, and I use that momentum to keep running.
“You can’t run from me for long,” Maks shouts. “I can feel your pain, you know. That’s got to be, like, poetic or something.”
In the dark, I can hear his fists bang against the side of the house. I slip into the garage and hide beside a metal rack.
“Lu-la.” My name is a song on his lips. There was a time when he sang my name, when he sought me out because he missed me, when we couldn’t imagine being apart. That Maks is long gone.
I grab the rack and pull it forward as hard as I can. It falls with a loud crash that shatters the car’s windows and pins Maks to the floor. He groans but doesn’t stay down.
“You’re going to regret that.” He takes out his rage on the car, ripping the door off its hinges. He throws it in my direction but misses.
“All that strength and you’re a terrible shot. What happened to the MVP?” I don’t wait for him to answer and wedge myself through the back door.
Maks smashes his way after me, breaking through wood and glass with his fists. I sprint across my yard but I’ve got nowhere to go. I need a portal and I need one now. Find the spear. Free La Muerte. Destroy the heart and make the sacrifice.
It’s too quiet out here. I look over my shoulder to search for Maks, but he’s gone. I spin back around. A crushing pain fractures across my face. I try to hold on to the spear, but I fall backward and hit grass and loose stones. When my head stops spinning, I focus on getting my hands back on the spear. Maks swipes it in one fluid motion, his knuckles dripping with blood.
“You hear that?” Maks asks, his blue lips bleeding where the skin cracks. There’s the sound of thunder clapping and windows shattering. Someone screams, and I don’t know if it’s from my side or his. “That’s the sound of you losing. Isn’t that what you’re most afraid of?”
As if responding to him, my heart gives a terrible squeeze. I dig my fingers into the grass at my sides because it’s the only thing I can hold on to.
“I figured out why I was having all these weird emotions.” Maks taps his chest right where the white T-shirt is splattered with blood. “After the switch went off in my head and everything became clear, I could still feel you. Even after death, I was tied to you.”
“You’re nothing but a leech, Maks.” I push myself off the ground and keep a distance from him.
“I’m the leech?! I tried to get rid of you first. I tried, and still, we’re connected. You were so afraid of being left alone that you brought me back to life.” He flips the spear to examine the sharp, curved end. “I suppose I do owe you some gratitude. I loved you once, Lula. But between you and me? I’m too young to die twice.”
The fight inside the house is getting closer, moving toward the kitchen. A body crashes through the window and rolls across the back porch. Maks looks at the body facing down on the ground and shrugs. His face contorts as he puts all his strength into stabbing the spear through my heart.
Run. Fight. Hit. Scratch. My mind is a flip book of scenarios, but all I know is I can’t let him touch me.
There’s a scream, but it isn’t mine.