Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron

Author:Rena Barron
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780358394679
Publisher: HMH Books
Published: 2020-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Cue the Dark

Maybe Papa’s staff got it wrong. A broom closet couldn’t be the gateway into the Dark. But a cool breeze undercut the smell of bleach and vinegar that stung my nose. It came from behind a row of mop buckets against the back wall where we didn’t see any vents.

I wrinkled my nose as I stepped inside. I thought about how the metal detector at the community center had transported us to outer space. Nothing happened in the closet except for me bumping into some spray bottles on the floor. When I inhaled again, I caught a hint of fresh grass and trees. This room was definitely more than it appeared. We just had to figure out how to get the gateway to open.

“Let’s see what happens if we close the door,” Frankie suggested.

She and Eli crowded into the room with me, and if not for the breeze, it would’ve gotten hot in there fast. With the door closed, it was completely dark, and I clumsily tried to find a light switch, without luck.

“Hey, watch your elbow,” Eli said. It could’ve been mine or Frankie’s. I couldn’t say.

“Watch your knee, will you,” I shot back.

“Maybe the light switch is outside the room,” Frankie said.

“Give us light,” I whispered to the staff. It glowed so bright that I squeezed my eyes shut. “Not so much.” I winced, and the light dimmed to a soft glow.

“Ugh, that thing has a mind of its own,” Eli said.

“I wish I could dissect it,” Frankie added. “I’d love to see how magic works.”

Eli laughed. “Not to sound too gross, but someone might say the same about you.”

Only Frankie and Eli would get into an argument in a broom closet about dissecting a stick versus a person. While they argued, I turned over the staff in my hand. The magic hummed, and the symbols moved. It wasn’t like when the sun hit the staff and they shimmered. This was different. They danced around the surface of the wood, and I could see them inside my head too—like I had double vision. The leopard, the tree, the lion, grass, sand, stars, suns. Too many symbols to keep up with. I thought about the crossroads and how there must be so many things I didn’t understand. The orishas had kept a whole magical world a secret.

Without warning, I was suddenly in two places at once: in the closet with my friends and in the gods’ realm. This wasn’t the same place the orisha council had shown us with the minigalaxies. Instead, the white shimmering symbols from Papa’s staff floated in the black space around me. I gasped when I saw no floor under my feet, but I didn’t fall.

“Are you guys seeing this?” I asked.

“What . . . the symbols moving on the staff?” Eli said. “Um, yes.”

“No, the gods’ realm,” I said as the symbols spun around me.

“Then no,” Frankie said. “It must be a part of opening the gate.”

In the gods’ realm, I traced the complex symbols in the air with my fingers, drawing curves, loops, and circles.

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