out. Would water just make you get wet? Like maybe a rain cloud

following over your head?” My chuckle echoes to the top of the

mountain and gets lost there.

“No,” Nova says, like it’s the silliest thing he’s ever heard.

“Maybe your lungs would fill up with water. La Ola isn’t exactly known

for being even tempered. I’d rather take my chances with El Fuego

honestly.”

“You talk about these gods like they’re people,” Rishi says.

“They’re not actually flesh-and-blood people are they?”

“You can field that one, Alto Brujo,” I tell Nova.

He gives me a side eye over his shoulder. “No one I know has ever

seen them. We create our gods to look like us, don’t we? Only better.

The god of the butterflies would look like a butterfly, right? So our

gods have human qualities, but also the great power that makes them

individuals.”

“But how do you know?”

Nova sounds frustrated as he says, “I can’t explain belief. I just

have it. I know the power in me comes from somewhere. I know that the

magic in my veins is real. No, I can’t tell you that if I speak to the

Deos, they answer back with words, but there are other ways. When was

the last time Zeus came down for Olympus and hung out just to prove

his existence? Besides, the Deos didn’t create us to interact with us.

We’re just pawns moving across the board. There’s a checkmate waiting

at the end for all of us. At least, that’s what my grandma says.”

Rishi clears her throat. “The more you talk about her, the more

charming she sounds.”

“I’m not exactly easy to love,” he says.

As he says that, stones clatter overhead.

“Watch out!” Nova turns and pushes Rishi and me against a wall.

“I might’ve been wrong about the spiders,” Rishi whispers.

“Whatever it is,” I say, “we’re not alone. Come on.”

I lead the way, our boots pounding down the narrow path. We’ve

come too far to go back, and there’s no climbing up something so high.

“Alex!” Rishi trips and falls on something.

Nova helps her to her feet before I can reach her. He holds a ball

of light over them.

“Oh my Deos,” I gasp. There’s a skull at Rishi’s feet. I hold up

my hands and shoot flares of light down the path. For a moment, it

lights up as bright as day. Bones litter the ground. Some are

scattered. Some are entwined, as if they died together in an embrace.

I bend down and pick up the skull Rishi tripped on. I close my

eyes as an imprint of memory latches onto me. I’ve seen it happen to

Rose. When she touches an object at a garage sale or when we’re

walking in the historic parts of the city. She relives the scene the

way I’m doing now.

There’s a girl my age with dark skin and darker eyes. One minute,

she’s running through the Forest of Lights with a beautiful boy. The

next moment, the sky turns dark and he’s dead in her arms. The girl is

filled with anger and hate, and she runs into battle with her people.

The leader is a wild-haired woman with a crescent moon inked into her

forehead and hands that spark like lightning. The girl is ready to

fight the shadow creatures. The girl is ready to take back Los Lagos.

But when they reach the mountain pass, they are betrayed. The

Shadow Bruja knows they are coming. She has red eyes and a face as

white as the moon. Alta Bruja Kristiсe blasts the Shadow Bruja with

lightning, but the Shadow Bruja keeps going, striking down everyone in

her path. She rides a saberskin onto the path, the creature scaling

the walls. She leaves a trail of death behind her. Her pack of beasts

rips people apart with their claws.

The girl has one chance. She has a weapon of her own design-a

glove with a palm covered in metal spikes. The girl’s fist hits the

Shadow Bruja’s face. There is blood. A terrible laugh. The Shadow

Bruja in turn, rips out the girl’s heart. The Shadow Bruja devours it.

She devours every heart around her.

Kristiсe is wounded. She’s bleeding out. She’s lost everything.

She uses the last of her power to punish her traitors. She gouges out

their eyes and then curses them-for their outsides to reflect their

monstrous hearts…

The Shadow Bruja resurrects the blind men. She gives them power.

She binds them to the roots of the earth. She binds them to her.

I jump out of the memory and scream. I scream until I’m out of

breath. I scream until Nova has to shake me.

“Alex, what did you see?” Rishi asks.

But I can’t answer her. Shadows move around us and stones fall to

the ground as the mountain shakes.

“Go!” Nova shouts. We run down the path, but a hulking figure

jumps from somewhere above and slams into the ground, rattling the

earth.

We have to retreat. I grab Nova’s and Rishi’s hands and start to

run back the way we came from, but a second figure appears. They now

block our path in and out. One of them walks closer to us, and as it

steps into the light, I can see it. The creatures Kristiсe punished

and the Devourer saved.

His skin is the green of aging leaves, and his body is covered in

thorny vines that move like extended limbs. He raises his hand, and a

vine slithers out of the center of his palm. I can see the remnants of

the man it once was. Its face is distorted and black veins are visible

beneath its skin. In its open mouth are black gums and pieces of

broken teeth. Gouged eyes are a mess of torn flesh. They don’t need

eyes to see. The blind giants.

The giants charge at us from both sides, and the earth trembles

under their feet. They shoot vines from their palms to trap us. I

create a shield to stop them. I grit my teeth and reach for more

power. My arms tremble; my blood rushes to my head. Their vines are

laced with the Devourer’s dark power. It burns right through my

shield. I direct all my magic into an arrow of lightning. I aim it at

the nearest giant. It rips through its chest and electrocutes him.

“Now! Run ,” I tell Rishi and Nova. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Two giants replace the one I killed. They land feet from me and

close in. I dodge vines that want to pierce my heart.

Fire, the voice tells me.

Heat blisters my skin as I conjure flame. I close my eyes and hiss

at the air as I say the words of El Fuego, Bringer of Flame. “Rain of

fire! Birth of ash!”

I grind my teeth against the searing pain in my hands. I hold

balls of white-and-red flames in my palm. I blast them at two giants

that attack me. Their blistering screams become echoes as my fire

burns them to a crisp.

Vines snap around my wrists and pull me back. Another giant

appears from the shadows and takes hold of me. My muscles and bones

strain against the force. A six-inch thorn hits my shoulder. The pain

slices through me, and for a moment, all I see is red. Then, the

pressure is gone and I fall forward.

“I got you,” Nova says, coughing and wheezing the smoke from his

lungs. “I got you, Alex.”

He pulls me up.

“Rishi! Where is she?”

One of the giants is still alive. It crawls toward me, tripping on

the bones. Since it’s on its knees, I can look into its decrepit face.

My hands are wet and soft with blood pouring from my blistered palms.

I find the anger, the fear in my belly, and I scream it out into the

giant’s face. I’m a siren, a banshee, howling in the wind. All I have

are my hands and my power. So as the giant reaches me, I throw a punch

straight into its torso. My hand breaks through its meaty skin,

scraping against bone until I wrap my hand around its heart. I squeeze