hitting on you. I’m just impressed that you aren’t tired yet.”

I am tired, but I won’t slow us down.

“If you must know, during the fall semester, I do indoor track,

volleyball, and weight lifting.”

“Weight lifting?”

“Don’t seem so surprised. It’s an easy class. The teacher is this

old meathead. He looks like a fifty-year-old Ken doll.”

“Gross, you think he’s hot.”

“I do not .” I can feel myself slowing down. Nova’s breath is

ragged. I know he’s trying to distract me, to make me laugh so we keep

going, and I appreciate that.

“It’s not like I bench two hundred pounds or anything. But I like

keeping my legs strong for when I run.”

“What about in the spring?” He looks over his shoulder at me

again. A crooked smile appears. “Outdoor track?”

“Yes. And pole-vaulting.”

“Damn, girl. I never would’ve guessed.”

“You can guess all day long. You don’t know a thing about me.”

He sucks his teeth. “I’m just saying. You’re kind of uptight. I

shouldn’t be surprised that you like sports where you don’t have any

teammates. I would’ve thought you’d spend all your time in the

library. But then I saw you in that dress.”

“Don’t try to flatter me, princess .” My voice is hard, but I

think my cheeks might be melting off, and I’m glad he isn’t facing me.

“And it just so happens,” he says, “I’m adding another five hundo

to our deal.”

“What?” I miss three rowing beats and now we’re scrambling to get

back in sync. My voice goes up an octave. “Why?”

“That’s how much my earrings and prex cost.”

“You know,” I say, “I did you a favor. You dress like you’re in an

R&B music video.”

“The ladies happen to love it.”

During my party, Mayi and Emma, even Lula, were drooling over him.

“How about,” I suggest, with a smile, “the next beast we come

across, I let it eat you?”

He shrugs, sweat dripping between his shoulder blades. That’s when

I notice the marks on his back. I’ve been so busy cursing Oros and the

skies and staring at the shore we’re rowing toward that I didn’t see

what’s right in front of me. Long, violent scars crisscross from his

neck to his lower back. I wonder when this happened. I wonder if he

would even tell me the truth.

“You could go back to Oros and give him your little moon,” he

tells me. “But you wouldn’t, would you? I’m going to let you in on a

little secret, Ladybird. If you can’t learn to sacrifice the small

things, you’ll never get the thing you’re after.”

I focus on the silver waves that undulate beneath us, the dark

shore that starts to take the shape of caves. One step closer to

getting to the labyrinth.

As we keep going, every face that I see in the wave fills my heart

with more hurt. I regret the choices I made that brought us here. I

regret putting my family in danger. I breathe the sorrow in the wind,

and its breaks my concentration.

“Alejandra-” the souls call to me, cut off by the wind.

“Alex,” Nova says. “What are you doing?”

I realize I’ve started to lean toward the water. The oar starts to

slide through the ring holding it in place. I lunge for it, but filmy,

silver hands reach up and grab it. I manage to grip the top of the

handle, but they’re so strong.

“Nova, I can’t hold it.”

“Let it go!”

The souls pull the oar out of my grasp. On the other side of the

vessel, the souls yank the other oar from my grip. The momentum makes

me fall backward. My head hits the ledge so hard I’m afraid to open my

eyes out of fear of seeing stars. What was it Oros said? If you make

it to the other side.

“Take my oars,” Nova tells me.

I step around him to swap seats and start to row. He unzips the

backpack and grabs the mace club by the handle. He swings upward and

smashes the first hand that tries to climb over the side.

“To your left!” I shout as another soul pushes itself over the

side. The spiked head of the club slams into its face, and it flies

back into the river.

“Thanks.” He turns to me with a flashing smile that doesn’t last.

His eyes widen when he sees something behind me. He jumps over my

seat, rocking us precariously. I try not to look back, to focus on

rowing, but his screams are distracting.

“It’s like Whac-A-Mole for the dead,” he says, panting more and

more with every swing.

There’s no way he can handle every one of them on both ends of the

boat.

“Keep them away with your light!”

He looks at his palm. The worry crease on his forehead is deeper

than ever. He shakes his head.

“My powers don’t work like that,” he says. “I can’t hold it for

long.”

“You have to!”

He stands, holding his inked palms up to the sky. He conjures a

light that halos his entire body. It pulses with energy, spreading all

around us.

For a while, it works. The light kisses my skin and warms the cold

breath coming from the silver river. Then he starts to weaken. He

grinds his teeth, like he’s holding on to a great weight. He falters.

And so do I.

My head throbs where I hit it. My thoughts are a messy stream of

faces. My family. Oros. The dead of the river. I can’t tell if the

voices I hear are in my head or not. Except for his voice. Nova says

my name. It’s a desperate thing, and I know if I don’t focus, we’re

lost. I row and row and row, despite the fire in my muscles and the

pain in head.

“ Alejandra. ” The voice I heard before comes again, like someone

searching for me in a crowd. I can almost see her. It isn’t coming

from the river of souls. It’s something else-someone else. When I look

up, hoping to see her familiar face, all I see is death.

The skeletal, silver face lunges at me. The boat has come to a

slow, painful drag. The withered creatures are pulling apart from

their eternal soup and clamoring for us. They cling to the oars as I

struggle to row. They cling to the top of the stern and the golden

dragon’s head at the bow.

Nova screams my name. With his magic exhausted, he picks up the

mace again and swings. I channel the magic inside me, but it’s

thinning and weak, and I can’t get ahold of it. What’s the point of

being what I am if I can’t use it when I need it to save my life?

The hungry soul bends over the side of the boat, its body a

disfigured, warped mass of bone. I can feel the cold of its being, the

angry force that keeps it moving. Those deathly hands reach for me,

inching closer to my skin. This can’t end before we’ve even started.

My voice is a horse scream and I grab the soul. I hold its skull.

It’s like nothing I would have ever thought touching a soul would feel

like. The skin on my palms bubbles and burns. When I close my eyes, I

see my mother wrapping her arms around me after I burned my hands on

the stove. I know that’s impossible, but I feel her now, warm and

comforting. And when I open my eyes, I know it’s the memory I needed

to channel my magic back from its hiding place.

Power erupts from my chest in a blast of fire. I can feel the heat

of it on my face. The magic rushes through my veins and lights up my

senses. With all my strength, I push the creature back into the river,

and it writhes and cries out in the terrible wail of the damned.

Above us, the sky crackles; the lightning looks more like the

sparks at the end of fried cables. Rain descends on us, hard and fast.

Without oars, the river is an angry rush that starts to push us off

our path.

“Alex-help me.”

My red, raw hands tremble. Nova can’t fight them all, and it took