Labyrinth Lost
(Brooklyn Brujas #1)
by Zoraida Córdova
by Zoraida Córdova
YA Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Hardcover & ebook, 336 Pages
September 6th 2016 by Sourcebooks Fire
Summary
Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.
Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin.
The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…
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Praise for Labyrinth Lost
“This work is a magical journey from start to finish... A compelling must-have for teens”
–School Library Journal, STARRED review
“Córdova’s (the Vicious Deep series) magic-infused, delightfully dark story introduces readers to an engrossing, Latin American–inspired fantasy setting and an irresistible heroine”
–Publishers Weekly
“A brilliant brown-girl-in-Brooklyn update on Alice in Wonderland and Dante’s Inferno. Very creepy, very magical, very necessary.”
—Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper
“Labyrinth Lost is more like reading Paradise Found. Zoraida Córdova brings us a new generation of witches, enchanting and complex. And every page is filled with magic.”
—Danielle Page, New York Times bestselling author of Dorothy Must Die
Córdova’s world will leave you breathless, and her magic will ignite an envy so green you’ll wish you were born a bruja. Delightfully dark and enchanting. An un-putdownable book.”
-Dhonielle Clayton, author of The Belles and Shiny Broken Pieces
“Córdova’s rich exploration of Latin American culture, her healthy portrayal of bisexuality and her unique voice allow this novel to stand out among its many peers.”
–RT Book Reviews
“Cordova draws inspiration from Ecuadorian, Spanish, African, Mexican, and Caribbean folklore and mythology to craft a page-turning tale about a young bruja unsure of her place in the world.”
–Bustle.com
“Córdova pulls elements from Greek mythology and Spanish and Latin American legends to craft a memorable world in Los Lagos, a supernatural realm that is as fascinating as it is threatening. The history and customs of Alex’s family’s type of witchery are also carefully constructed, giving readers a complete world to sink into with satisfaction and wonder.”
“Córdova pulls elements from Greek mythology and Spanish and Latin American legends to craft a memorable world in Los Lagos, a supernatural realm that is as fascinating as it is threatening. The history and customs of Alex’s family’s type of witchery are also carefully constructed, giving readers a complete world to sink into with satisfaction and wonder.”
-Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“This succeeds with its lush use of Latin American mythologies, an unexpected love story, and, above all, in Alex’s complicated relationship with her family. Alex is a necessary heroine, and this dark fantasy nicely”
-Booklist
Excerpt
1
Follow our
voices, sister.
Tell us the
secret of your death.
—-Resurrection
Canto,
Book of Cantos
Book of Cantos
The second time I saw my dead aunt
Rosaria, she was dancing.
|
Earlier that day, my mom had warned
me, pressing a long, red fingernail on the tip of my nose, “Alejandra, don’t go
downstairs when the Circle arrives.”
But I was seven and asked too many
questions. Every Sunday, cars piled up in our driveway, down the street, and
around the corner of our old, narrow house in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Mom’s
Circle usually brought cellophane--wrapped dishes and jars of dirt and tubs of
brackish water that made the Hudson River look clean. This time, they carried
something more.
When my sisters started snoring, I
threw off my covers and crept down the stairs. The floorboards were uneven and
creaky, but I was good at not being seen. Fuzzy, yellow streetlight shone
through our attic window and followed me down every flight until I reached the
basement.
A soft hum made its way through the
thin walls. I remember thinking I should listen to my mom’s warning and go back
upstairs. But our house had been restless all week, and Lula, Rose, and I were
shoved into the attic, out of the way while the grown--ups prepared the
funeral. I wanted out. I wanted to see.
The night was moonless and cold one
week after the Witch’s New Year, when Aunt Rosaria died of a sickness that made
her skin yellow like hundred--year--old paper and her nails turn black as coal.
We tried to make her beautiful again. My sisters and I spent all day weaving
good luck charms from peonies, corn husks, and string—-one loop over, under,
two loops over, under. Not even the morticians, the Magos de Muerte, could fix
her once--lovely face.
Aunt Rosaria was dead. I was there
when we mourned her. I was there when we buried her. Then, I watched my father
and two others shoulder a dirty cloth bundle into the house, and I knew I
couldn’t stay in bed, no matter what my mother said.
So I opened the basement door.
Red light bathed the steep stairs.
I leaned my head toward the light, toward the beating sound of drums and sharp
plucks of fat, nylon guitar strings.
A soft mew followed by whiskers
against my arm made my heart jump to the back of my rib cage. I bit my tongue
to stop the scream. It was just my cat, Miluna. She stared at me with her
white, glowing eyes and hissed a warning, as if telling me to turn back. But
Aunt Rosaria was my godmother, my family, my friend. And I wanted to see her
again.
“Sh!” I brushed the cat’s head
back.
Miluna nudged my leg, then ran away
as the singing started.
I took my first step down, into the
warm, red light. Raspy voices called out to our gods, the Deos, asking for
blessings beyond the veil of our worlds. Their melody pulled me step by step
until I was crouched at the bottom of the landing.
They were dancing.
Brujas and brujos were dressed in
mourning white, their faces painted in the aspects of the dead, white clay and
black coal to trace the bones. They danced in two circles—-the outer ring going
clockwise, the inner counterclockwise—hands clasped tight, voices vibrating to
the pulsing drums.
And in the middle was Aunt Rosaria.
Her body jerked
upward. Her black hair pooled in the air like she was suspended in water. There
was still dirt on her skin. The white skirt we buried her in billowed around
her slender legs. Black smoke slithered out of her open mouth. It weaved in and
out of the circle—-one loop over, under, two loops over, under. It tugged Aunt
Rosaria higher and higher, matching the rhythm of the canto.
Then, the black smoke perked up and
changed its target. It could smell me. I tried to backpedal, but the tiles were
slick, and I slid toward the circle. My head smacked the tiles. Pain splintered
my skull, and a broken scream lodged in my throat.
The music
stopped. Heavy, tired breaths filled the silence of the pulsing red dark. The
enchantment was broken. Aunt Rosaria’s reanimated corpse turned to me. Her body
purged black smoke, lowering her back to the ground. Her ankles cracked where
the bone was brittle, but still she took a step. Her dead eyes gaped at me. Her
wrinkled mouth growled my name: Alejandra.
She took another step. Her ankle
turned and broke at the joint, sending her flying forward. She landed on top of
me. The rot of her skin filled my nose, and grave dirt fell into my eyes.
Tongues clucked against crooked
teeth. The voices of the circle hissed, “What’s the girl doing out of bed?”
There was the
scent of extinguished candles and melting wax. Decay and perfume oil smothered
me until they pulled the body away.
My mother jerked me up by the ear,
pulling me up two flights of stairs until I was back in my bed, the scream
stuck in my throat like a stone.
“Never,”
she said. “You hear me, Alejandra? Never break a Circle.”
I lay still. So still that after a
while, she brushed my hair, thinking I had fallen asleep.
I wasn’t. How could I ever sleep
again? Blood and rot and smoke and whispers filled my head.
“One day you’ll learn,” she
whispered.
Then she went back down the
street--lit stairs, down into the warm red light and to Aunt Rosaria’s body. My
mother clapped her hands, drums beat, strings plucked, and she said, “Again.”
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