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

through the canyon. “This criatura will be waiting in Devil’s Alley to see.”

El Silbón turned and faded away into the desert’s darkness. Panic crawled up my back. Everything about this felt different from what I’d expected.

I blinked, and the moment I opened my eyes again, Brujo Rodrigo stood before me. I stumbled back. Coyote grabbed my hand to steady me. I straightened up and met Brujo Rodrigo’s purple-black stare. He said nothing as he looked down his nose at the four of us.

“Where are the other finalists?” I asked.

“They’ve already come and gone by now,” he said. “You, Cecelia Rios, are the last to be tested. We’ll see if you’ll join the other four winners in Devil’s Alley tonight.”

“But I thought I was going to face off against them.”

His lips twisted up on one side. “No. You’ve already proven your power—you’re here to prove something else.”

“Prove . . . what?” My knees shook.

“Above all else, Cecelia Rios, a bruja must be loyal to El Cucuy and his Dark Saints.” He smiled. I almost stopped breathing. “You’ve made it to this final round because your tía vouched for you. But today, her word will no longer be enough. Today, you must prove that you are a bruja worthy of entering Devil’s Alley—or face the wrath of the Dark Saints.”

I struggled to keep my fear from flowing into my friends’ souls. “So I have to prove my loyalty?” I finally found my voice. “How do I do that?”

His smirk widened. “For your final test, Cecelia Rios, you will take the Mark of the Binding. If you’re successful, you’ll be allowed to enter Devil’s Alley. And if you fail, the Mark of the Binding will reduce you to ash.”

He spread his arms. His three criaturas dropped around him, first Ocelot, then Gila Monster, then Golden Eagle. Coyote and I jumped back, and Kit and Lion stepped up on either side of us to form a united front. My friends each glared at one of the criaturas. Brujo Rodrigo’s gaze narrowed on me.

“Are you ready to begin your last test, Cecelia Rios?” he asked.

I’d been lying a lot lately. But saying yes might have been my biggest lie yet.

Brujo Rodrigo’s smile tightened. Carefully, he and his criaturas stepped to the side.

Out of the darkness cast by the stones behind him, a creature rose. It towered high above my head, straightening out to loom over and consume me in its shadow. My heart froze. The hulking, terrifying being stepped forward. El Sombrerón finally stood above us all.

His presence swallowed any moonlight foolish enough to shine through the clouds above. My breath died on my tongue. He was here. Colors flashed through my chest—all of my criaturas’ emotions and my own—in a messy cloud of confusion and fear. He was part of the final test?

Brujo Rodrigo stood next to him. I’d thought he was tall, but the top of his head barely reached El Sombrerón’s shoulder.

“Kneel before El Sombrerón,” he said.

At first, I couldn’t move at all. Brujo Rodrigo’s face hardened. I quickly forced my knees to kneel in the dirt before the two of them. Coyote frowned, but he, Kit, and Lion followed suit. El Sombrerón tilted his head. His face was impossible to see, but I could tell he was watching me closely.

He extended a finger toward me. I held my breath. Every instinct inside me said to run. But I didn’t. The finger came to hover over my forehead. It twitched, and a claw extended from the shadows into sharp clarity.

“For you to become a true bruja who can enter Devil’s Alley, you must repeat after me the vow of the Binding,” Brujo Rodrigo said.

My breaths came faster now. But it was hard to calm down with El Sombrerón’s claw leveled between my eyes.

“Today, I leave behind who I am for who the Dark Saints want me to be,” Brujo Rodrigo recited. “I will shed my familia’s name. Tierra del Sol will no longer be my home. I will obey the laws of the Dark Saints above all others.”

I hated everything about this vow. But if I didn’t say it—who would save Juana?

“T-today,” I started, “I leave behind who I am for who the Dark Saints want me to be. I will shed my familia’s name. Tierra del Sol will no longer be my home. I will obey the laws of the Dark Saints above all others.”

El Sombrerón’s red gaze caught the moonlight as he extended his claw to my skin. I closed my eyes. His nail pierced the skin on my forehead, and the pain made me hiss.

Brujo Rodrigo continued: “I, and my soul, and the souls of any criatura I own, will belong to the Dark Saints from this point on until the day I perish. I, Cecelia Rios, abandon my old name to the one now given me by El Cucuy and his Dark Saints—Cecelia of Three Souls.”

Tears welled up in my eyes until I could feel the water in my soul, always so much stronger than the fire I was supposed to have been born with. I hated this. They couldn’t own me. They couldn’t own my friends!

“I—I—” My mouth wouldn’t form the words.

El Sombrerón began to draw a line down my forehead. He waited halfway, for me to finish the oath. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

The criatura who had stolen my sister was right here—what was I waiting for?

I shoved his hand away. Before his nail even left my skin, the pain vanished. El Sombrerón jerked backward. Brujo Rodrigo stared at me, mouth open.

Were they really that surprised?

“What?” I asked.

“Cece,” Coyote said. “You’re—glowing.”

I looked down at myself. Blue light shone from my deep brown skin and glowed from my nails and veins. I placed a hand to my forehead. The wound El Sombrerón had just carved on me was completely gone.

Brujo Rodrigo glared. “What is this?”

El Sombrerón pulled his silver guitar forward. “The Binding knows when someone is lying. She’s a fraud.”

“But no one’s ever glowed like that before,” Brujo Rodrigo