Labyrinth Lost Read Online Free PDF

me, “If you hold your breath, Alejandra, your panic attacks will get worse. Breathe and you will see how much easier it is to make sense of your emotions.”
    She was wrong then and she’s wrong now. There is not enough air in the world to calm me down. So I do the only thing that makes me feel better—I clean. I attack the dishes with soap and a sponge. I run the soapy dishes under water. I place them on the drying rack so hard I break one. I grip the sink and try to rationalize today’s events.
    I couldn’t have done that to Ivan. It had to be Aunt Ro’s ghost. But why would she do that? Why would she point at me? Aunt Rosaria hasn’t shown herself to any family member since her death. Not even on the night of the Waking Canto. My mother’s circle blamed me. I broke the enchantment with my midnight appearance. They would never find the true reason for my aunt’s death. They’re afraid she’s lost to the realms beyond the veil. But if she’s lost, why appear to me when I didn’t even summon her?
    The back door slams shut.
    â€œWhy didn’t you wait for me?” Lula asks. She drops her backpack and stares at me. Her face is a mixture of awe and glee.
    She knows.
    â€œToo many people,” I say, turning up the water even though it’s already sloshing over the sink and onto the floor. She lets me wallow in my guilty silence. “What happened to Ivan?”
    She walks across the kitchen and leans against the wall beside me. Her cool, gray eyes watch as I scrub away the remnants of chicken parm from two nights ago.
    â€œOh, he’s fine. Animal control had the snake cornered, and then it did the most curious thing.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œIt vanished into smoke. Poof. ”
    I chance a glance at Lula. Her curls are wild and her pouty lips glisten pink. Then I look at myself in the mirror on the kitchen wall: tangled, sweaty hair; bags from sleepless nights under my big, brown eyes; the sickly green pallor to my tan skin.
    Lula lets out an excited squeal and hugs me. She bounces up and down, then leaves a sticky kiss on my cheek.
    â€œHow did you do it?” she asks.
    I shake my head. I rinse the plate in my hands. I grab for another glass to clean. I breathe. And breathe. And breathe. And Lula bounces around me, doing a bruja dance of joy.
    â€œDo you know what this means?”
    â€œRose gets to eat all the ambrosia?”
    â€œSmart-ass. This means the three of us finally have our powers!” If she had peacock feathers, they’d be proudly displayed. “This is huge! Think of the things we could do. Why aren’t you more excited?”
    â€œBecause I made a snake come out of a boy’s throat!”
    â€œYou conjured , Ale! I mean, he’ll probably have nightmares for a few nights, but the snake disappeared when you did. What did he do to you?”
    He broke Rishi’s nose. He attacked me. He had the same red eyes Miluna had on the day…
    â€œI wonder the extent of your powers.” She keeps going, pacing around the kitchen table. “Maybe you’ll learn to heal, like Ma and me. Pa could control weather a little. Do you remember? Before his disappearance—”
    â€œDad left ,” I shout. The glass cracks in my hand. “He left us.”
    Lula stops her frantic pacing. I stare at myself in mirror again. You are not a bruja. You are a girl who needs to get far, far away, where the blood dreams can’t follow .
    â€œYou don’t know that,” Lula says. Her bottom lip trembles and her stormy-gray eyes are glossy with tears.
    But I do know that. I was there.
    Everyone has a theory of why Patricio Mortiz, benevolent brujo and loving family man, disappeared without a trace. Some think my father was taken by the kind of people who still hunt people like us. But there was no struggle or ransom note. I know in my heart that he left because of the magic inside me. No matter how