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

against the stone, the skin wearing away. “If El Sombrerón doesn’t end you for this . . . El Cucuy . . . will.”

In mere seconds, the third Dark Saint was nothing but a pile of dust and bones—a skull whose empty eye sockets still stared at me.

I backed up a couple of steps. “What . . . ?”

I’d never heard of this happening to a brujo. I glanced between his criatura’s soul stones and the ash he’d left behind. The wind smeared the soot across the desert stone.

When I looked up, Ocelot, the closest of Brujo Rodrigo’s criaturas, stood before me.

I met her yellow stare. Without his influence, she wore a sleek, adult confidence that was at once intimidating and comforting. I glanced from her to Gila Monster and Golden Eagle. The last two, older as well, stared at me without blinking.

Then I spotted the souls she was carrying—Coyote’s, Lion’s, and Kit’s. Hope made my soul sparkle blue. The color lit up my fingers.

Ocelot stared down at her old brujo’s remains. “They never warn the apprentice brujas about this before they enter the Bruja Fights. That when your soul learns to feed off the power of others, and it’s suddenly stripped of its sustenance,” she said, kicking his skull to the side, “you’ll find yourself empty, your own soul stone hollowed out.”

A chill ran through my skin. She was right. No one had mentioned there was a drawback to becoming a bruja, especially not one as bad as Brujo Rodrigo just endured. But it made sense. How could anyone not destroy their own soul in the process of torturing another’s?

“This monster has feasted on criatura souls for over a hundred years. It’s no wonder his own soul was nothing but dust without us.” Ocelot turned to me. Calmly, she offered my friends’ soul stones to me.

“I propose a bargain,” she said. Her expression was clear and sharp now without Brujo Rodrigo’s interference. “Let Gila Monster and Golden Eagle free, Cecelia Rios. I offer your allies—and my own soul—in return.” Her face was stoic but not unkind.

I stared down at her soul stone and the three scratches across its back. She was willing to give it to me to set Gila Monster and Golden Eagle free? That was so—kind. My soul stone gave a sharp spark of blue light, and the three criaturas took a step back.

I grinned sheepishly and slipped my soul into my pants pocket. I guess I needed to get a necklace for that soon. Pretty inconvenient.

“Thank you.” I faced Ocelot. “But you don’t have to bargain.” I placed the three souls into her palm. “I just want my friends back.”

Gila Monster and Golden Eagle surged forward and snatched their stones out of Ocelot’s hands the moment the trade was done. I stumbled as they rushed past me into the night. They left Kit and Lion dozing on the ground behind Ocelot, next to an unconscious Coyote.

Gila Monster and Golden Eagle vanished down the canyon, while cheering, laughing desperately, and even crying out, “Merciful curandera!”

I smiled a little and turned back to Ocelot. I reached for Coyote’s, Lion’s, and Kit’s stones. She pushed them and her own into my palm.

“Keep it,” she said. “Not in exchange for Gila Monster and Golden Eagle’s. But because you destroyed my greatest tormentor. For that, I owe you, young curandera.”

Her pledge made me think back to the first time I met Coyote. “I don’t want you to do this just because you feel like you have to. I’m going to fight El Sombrerón, and it’s going to be dangerous.”

Ocelot watched me for a moment. “This is my choice,” she said. “You freed me. And if you are going to fight El Sombrerón, I will stand with you all the more.”

Well—who was I to argue with that?

“Thank you,” I said. “I could use all the help I can get.”

She didn’t smile, not really. But her eyes implied one. “I imagine someone as strong as you could take him down all on your own.”

I let out a single laugh. “Well, I don’t know about that. But maybe I’m strong enough to know it’s okay not to be strong enough to do it alone.”

And with that, I placed their soul stone necklaces around my neck.

They rushed inside my heart like the feeling of coming home. I placed a hand over their stones. Each settled in my chest differently—Coyote like a warm fire, Lion like a hot storm, and Kit like sunshine on a windswept day. And now this new ally, a friend in the making: Ocelot was untilled soil crusted over with winter’s hail. Their souls filled my chest with the intensity of an earthquake and the peace of morning sun in the springtime.

It was a lot to take in at once. I swayed and fell backward, so my rear hit the ground. The world swirled for just a moment.

When it settled, Coyote was sitting in front of me.

“Coyote!” I said. In a rush, I threw both arms around him and laughed. He bent his head down, so his nose touched my crown.

“You’re okay,” he whispered.

He squeezed me and hugged me back. I smiled into his shoulder.

“If you two are . . . done . . .” Ocelot sounded uncomfortable about our open affection. I guess being stuck with a Dark Saint for so long would do that to a person. “We’re on a tight schedule from here on out. El Sombrerón will probably already be looking for Brujo Rodrigo.”

Coyote’s head whipped around, noticing the older criatura for the first time. He growled. Ocelot’s eyebrows lowered just a tad in response.

“Hey, it’s okay.” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Ocelot’s on our side now. You were asleep for a bunch of important stuff.”

As I struggled to explain, two pairs of footsteps approached. I glanced around Coyote and saw Kit and Lion staring at me.

“You’re awake!” I said.

Lion stiffened. “What did Brujo Rodrigo do to you?”

Kit stepped forward hesitantly. There was a soft pulse from his soul. It rang through my chest and buzzed in my pocket. The three of