Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera (online e book reading .txt) 📕

“Keep up, Cece.” He frowned and held out the torch. “Anyway, I was starving, and you fed me. So, I’m in your debt.”

I took the offering. Beyond the flame, he looked away.

“I’m guessing you don’t like to be in people’s debts,” I said.

He frowned even harder. “Especially Naked Man’s.”

I may have only just met him, but he didn’t exactly live up to the legend of the Great Namer I’d always admired. I guess it didn’t help that I’d always imagined him as a giant man with a coyote’s head, not as a scruffy teenager.

“Wait.” A flare of hope shot up inside me. “Does that mean you have to pay me back?”

He slouched. “You couldn’t have just let me save your life. No, you had to save your own life and mine.” He shook his head. “I don’t appreciate that.”

I gaped. “He was going to hurt you!”

“The point is,” he snapped, “now I owe you not only for the buñuelo, but also for stopping Cantil Snake.” He slouched. “This is turning into a really bad week for me.”

He thought his week had been bad? I’d lost my sister, my hair, and obviously any good sense I’d had before all this started.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “I’ll give you an easy way to pay me back. I need a criatura to enter the Bruja Fights.”

He lifted his white eyebrow again. “So that’s why you are here.”

“I need a criatura to enter,” I rushed ahead. “I have to win so I can get into Devil’s Alley—”

He turned his back. “Forget it. Whether you saved my life or not, I’m not helping a wannabe bruja.”

I lurched forward and grabbed his wrist. He tugged, and even that small movement sent me stumbling over myself. Holy sunset, he was strong! I dropped the torch and locked my arms around his elbow.

“Please, I have to save my sister!” I said.

He stopped. “What does that have to do with the Bruja Fights?”

I peeked up at him. He stared down at me, chin rigid. But he waited. Listening.

My heart shivered with hope. “I have to win the Bruja Fights so I can rescue my sister from Devil’s Alley. Unless you’re kidnapped by one of the leaders of Devil’s Alley, winning the Bruja Fights and being admitted as a bruja is the only way for a human to enter, right? Well, El Sombrerón stole my sister, and it’s my fault because”—my breath hitched—“I ran off and she came to get me. It’s my fault.”

Deep orange torchlight flickered across his unmoving expression. His free hand suddenly reached for my head. I winced, but it landed softly, balancing on my prickly hair.

“You shaved your head,” he said.

That’s right. I’d almost forgotten he’d seen me before, when my hair was long. It was eerie realizing this wasn’t our first meeting, however much it felt like it.

“I have to look like a bruja to enter the fights,” I explained. “But I—I don’t want to be a bruja. I just have to pretend so I can get into Devil’s Alley with the yearly bruja winners, and then get my sister back.”

He tilted his head, considering. The mannerism was so much like the curious, watchful coyote in the alley, I could finally see how they were one and the same. He didn’t say anything for a long time. I tried to hold back the tears filling my vision, but one leaked down my face. I didn’t brush it away, not daring to let go of Coyote’s arm.

His eyes grew cold and low. “If you’re the kind of person who’d cry over your familia, you won’t last in the Bruja Fights, let alone in Devil’s Alley.”

Heat rose in my cheeks, and I finally let go of his arm. I stood as straight as I could and lifted my head to meet his gaze.

“I know,” I said, and my voice wavered. “But I’m going to try. Whether you say yes or no, I have to try.”

He sighed. “Do you understand what you’re asking?”

I clutched my bag’s strap, trying desperately to keep more tears from falling. They slipped down my cheeks anyway.

“Your life will never be normal again,” he said. Flickering torchlight haunted his gold eyes. “Those who rule Devil’s Alley will test you in the Bruja Fights. And if we make it inside Devil’s Alley, El Sombrerón will never let your sister go without a fight to the death. And even if you managed to defeat him, defying El Sombrerón means defying El Cucuy, the king of Devil’s Alley.”

My breath froze between my lips.

“El Cucuy will not let you steal back what his second-in-command, El Sombrerón, has taken without punishing you.” He uncrossed his arms. “Can you risk your life, Cece?”

That was a big question. Could I provoke the most powerful criaturas in existence? I couldn’t even dance the Amenazante dance. I couldn’t even stand up to my father or explain myself to my mother.

But despite all that, I knew two things: Juana was my sister—and she needed me.

Coyote started to pull away. “Naked Man never changes.”

I caught his hand. “I’ll do it!”

My voice echoed through the stone tunnel. Coyote looked down at where my hand touched his. His mismatched eyebrows tugged together. My blood raced, and the hard, steady beat of my heart helped solidify my resolve.

“I will,” I said again, still clasping Coyote’s hand. “I will do anything I have to do to save her from El Sombrerón, or Ocean take me.”

His eyes widened. Thank the Sun god—he must know how important that oath was to my people. I trembled, looking up at him as tears filled my eyes again.

“You’re crying,” he said. “But you mean it. Don’t you?”

I nodded. “Sí.”

He turned his head away. “Maybe . . . I can put things right this time,” he said quietly.

I wasn’t sure whether he was answering me or talking to himself. To be safe, I said nothing and held on to him so he wouldn’t run away.

“Well,” he said, louder now. “You did save my life.”

I resurrected