body shivers.

Madra runs to the guard and examines her face. “Jesla? What is

it?”

All over the cave, the bird women flap their wings and hoot and

caw for their fallen sister.

Rishi holds on to my hand, and I squeeze. A sense of familiarity

and comfort washes over me.

“Madra,” two more avianas whimper before falling to the ground.

Madra lifts her face to the dark endlessness of the caves. Her

mouth shifts into the golden beak of a hawk. Her cry is loud and full

of pain.

Now’s my chance to take Rishi and get out of here. But then, what

about Nova? How will we find him? How will we get out?

Madra sweeps the first aviana that fell, the one she called Jesla,

into her arms. She gives instructions to take the others into the

caves below.

Then she turns to Rishi and me. “You two! Stay here.”

With a great flap of wings, the avianas disappear farther into the

caves.

• • •

“Tell me everything,” Rishi says.

She leads me to a stream flowing inside the caves. The water glows

blue, reflecting the phosphorescent green moss clinging to the side of

giant boulders. She fills up a waterskin.

I’m so thirsty. I lower myself at the water’s edge and drink as if

there isn’t enough of it on this earth to quench my thirst. It’s the

purest water I’ve ever tasted, and when I’ve had my fill, I sit back

on the cool stone. Rishi sits across from me. Her nose ring sparkles

like the gems in the cave wall behind her. I want to touch her face to

make sure she’s really here. But I hesitate. My magic flutters in my

stomach again. I reach for the loose strand of hair falling over her

face and tuck it back. Rishi is here .

“It’s so good to see you.”

She purses her lips and scowls. “Nice try. I’m still mad at you

for standing me up.”

“The Ghoul Ball,” I say. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she says. “Just don’t do things to be sorry for

. Now that you don’t have a choice, tell me. What the hell is going

on?”

So I tell her about my family. About the magic of the brujas and

brujos that exist in the world. About my Deathday and how I tried to

send my powers back to where they came from. I tell her about Nova and

how he’s helping me. When I’m all caught up, she just stares.

“Wow,” she whispers.

“Wow?”

“This is so cool.”

“I don’t think cool is the word I’d use.”

“Alex, you’re crazy. Why would you give up your powers? Imagine

all the things you could do!”

“You don’t get it.” I pull my hand from hers. “Magic destroys.

It’s only brought my family pain and death and loneliness. I thought I

could break the cycle. Instead, I made things worse. I know what I did

was wrong. I didn’t think about the consequences. That’s why I’m here

to fix it. But I can’t do that without Nova.”

We’re quiet for a long time, listening to the hooting whispers of

sleeping birds in nests high above and the ribbit of frog-like

creatures that catch bugs from the stream.

“Your turn,” I tell Rishi. “How did you get here?”

“By the time I realized you weren’t coming, I called your house.

No one answered, so I decided to just go yell at you myself. So then I

pulled up to your house and there’s police circling the block and an

ambulance. The doors and windows looked broken. They put that yellow

tape up all over the place. I went in through your neighbor’s yard and

climbed over the fence. The tree in your yard was doing this really

weird thing, like it was breathing from the giant hole in its trunk. I

could hear you screaming when I got real close. You and that guy.

Also, where did he come from and how come you haven’t mentioned him

before?”

“Wait, wait.” My head is swimming. “You just jumped in after me?”

“Of course I did,” she says. “I thought you were in trouble.

Really, Alex, how could you not tell me about this? I knew your family

was into some weird stuff, but in my head, it was like voodoo or

Santeria or like Scientology or something. This is real magic. You are

really magic.”

She says it with such furor that I don’t want to contradict her.

“When I jumped into the tree, I thought it would lead me to you.”

“Nova said portals are unpredictable. A one-way trip.”

“I don’t know anything about that. I just remember I started

falling through the sky, over this silver river. I lost a lot of

feathers on the way down. One wing is a little loose.” She shimmies

one shoulder to show me. Then, in a low voice, she quickly adds,

“Madra caught me before I fell in the river. They made me an honorary

aviana because of my wings. I told her I needed to find you, but she

said it isn’t safe out there.”

“She’s right,” I say, sounding more like Nova than I’d like. “We

have to get you home. I’ll find a way to get Nova and get out. Then

we’ll figure out a way to make a portal for you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she says. “I came because I thought you

were in trouble. You made a snake come out of a boy’s throat for me.

I’m not going to leave you in some Neverland dimension with a guy you

don’t even know. Look into my eyes and tell me you don’t want me

here.”

I make an exasperated sound. “I do want you here.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that if you get hurt, I wouldn’t be able to stand

it.”

“So you care about what happens to me but not about what happens

to that guy you’re with?”

“His name’s Nova,” I say. “I hired him as my guide.”

“Well, that’s fine because I’m here for free.”

She smiles smugly, and I can tell I’ve lost this argument. Rishi

might be almost as stubborn as Lula.

“So it’s settled,” she says. “Did you bring any food? There isn’t

much to eat around here.”

“It’s in our backpack. But Nova was carrying it last.”

“I think I saw where it fell.” She takes off in a sprint, her

black wings bouncing against her shoulders.

I take this second alone to compose myself. I press my hands on a

boulder of shimmering stone. This land has a heartbeat. It’s faint,

but I can feel it. It helps calm my fried nerves a little. What am I

going to do to get us out of here? What if the avianas never let us

leave?

Get a grip , I tell myself. You are taking Rishi and Nova and

you’re going to keep going. I reach into my back pocket for the map,

but when I can’t find it, I realize Nova must have it.

“Over here!” Rishi shouts from the other side of the cave. She

holds the backpack in the air.

I return to the dais, where molten feathers litter the ground.

There’s blood where the injured avianas fell. When I was hurt by the

maloscuro, Lula and my mother healed me. Maybe these creatures have

their own healers. The scars on my chest burn at the memory of that

hideous, grinning face, those bloody claws.

We find a spot that’s relatively clean to sit and eat. I munch on

a protein bar while Rishi tears into the bag of beef jerky. Avianas

fly down from their nests in their bird forms and stand around us like

seagulls at the beach. I remember the hunger in their eyes. Some of

them have lost all their feathers. I can see their rib cages poke

through skin, and my hunger goes away.

I take the two loaves of bread, the beef jerky, and the apples. I

leave them out on the dais.

“Go on,” I tell them.

They swoop down on the food in a mad frenzy. It’s gone in seconds.

Rishi smiles at me. I forgot how much I missed her smile, like

there’s an infinite well of happiness inside of her. I forgot how good