Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera

Author:Kaela Rivera
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

17

The Cerros of the Past

I opened my mouth, stalled somewhere between horror and trying to fabricate an explanation, when I realized the figure in the doorway wasn’t my papá.

“Coyote!” I whispered. “What are you doing down here? Your wound—”

“Shh.” He placed a finger over his lips. “Your father is asleep.”

I buttoned my mouth. He gestured me inside, and I moved as silently as I knew how. If I listened closely, I could hear Papá’s light snoring from beyond the curtain separating his and Mamá’s bed from the rest of the main floor. I sighed. He only snored when he’d been drinking.

Coyote and I made our way silently up the ladder to my loft. The candles were already lit, so I was able to bask in the comfort of the light.

“You smell like blood,” Coyote said once I’d shut the loft hatch. He stared at my wound through the tear in my jacket sleeve. “How bad is it?”

“It hurts,” I admitted and settled on the floor. “But it’s not too deep. Hopefully it’ll heal fast.”

Coyote sat down beside me and slipped both hands under my wounded forearm.

Heat filled my ears. Wow, he was really close. “Coyote?” I asked.

“I can heal it,” he said.

I started. “What?”

“I can heal it,” he murmured.

“I don’t remember that power in the legends.”

“I’m the Great Namer,” he said. “Before Mother Desert and the other three creation gods sacrificed themselves so the world could begin, she gave me her voice. With it comes the power to create and to destroy.” A crease appeared in his forehead. “That means I should be able to Name your arm healed.”

I tried to meet his eyes, but he was focused solely on my wound. A trickle of gray filled his soul.

“. . . You don’t remember how, do you?” I asked.

His eyebrows fell lower. “No.”

I smiled and slipped my aching arm out of his hold. “It’s okay. Most people don’t get to heal their wounds with magical powers. I’ll be fine once I bandage it.”

Coyote watched me pull away. Inside his soul, colors tumbled around, trying to decide something. His throat jogged. “Cece, if I were—if I weren’t the Coyote from legend you grew up hearing about—if I weren’t the hero you’ve always admired . . .”

He stopped there. The gray stretched out of his soul until my ribs went cold. I placed my good hand over the freezing stone.

“I already know you’re not the same Coyote from legend,” I said.

His wide, gold eyes shot up to mine, catching the candlelight.

“You’re only thirteen this lifetime. It’s okay if you don’t have everything figured out yet. I sure don’t, and I’m almost thirteen.”

He smiled a little. “That means you’re still twelve.”

“Ugh! So? You can’t know that much more just because you were born a couple of months earlier.”

“Well, at least I know how to handle Little Lion better than you do. I heard you two in the backyard.” Coyote sat back, and his face lit up with a wide grin. “Sounds like you just missed getting on his good side out there.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.