What was happening? Last thing he remembered was kissing Carolina goodbye and then…He shot up. His head spun in circles. Black dots flashed in his vision. But then everything cleared. There, beside him, in Tía Morena’s gaudy room, sat Fernanda.
Her hand went to her chest. “Oh, thank the stars.”
She smacked him hard in the shoulder.
“Ouch.” Lalo rubbed his arm. “That hurt.” He stopped. Grinned. “Thathurt.”
His fingers went to his jugular, feeling for a pulse. It was there. As strong and resilient as ever.
He smiled so hard his cheeks burned. “I’m alive!”
“I ought to slaughter you here and now for putting me through this.” Fernanda was fuming red. Her hands were readying to smack him once more. “What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t want to live out the rest of my days as a sediento. I wanted to protect you.”
“So you decided to put yourself in grave danger?” She hit him again. And he gladly let her.
“Saints, that feels wonderful.” He laughed with the whole of his chest and dodged another blow.
“How are you human again?” Fernanda asked. “None of this makes any sense.”
Nothing did, truly. But that was the world he lived in. It was weird and mysterious and confusing. Messy and loud. And he would enjoy that always. Because he was alive. And he was in love.
Lalo threw the blankets off his body and jumped out of bed.
“Where is she?” he asked his sister.
Fernanda gasped and covered her eyes. “You can’t go out without any pants on.”
He was wearing nothing but a long nightdress with bears on it. A bit humiliating, but who cared?
“The hell I can’t. Don’t you know when to live a little?” He kissed his sister on the forehead. “Where is she?”
Fernanda’s smile was as big and as cheerful as he’d seen it in months.
“She’s in the garden.”
“Thank you.”
And with that, Lalo was gone.
He raced down the hallway. His heart thumped hard against his chest. Dozens of portraits whizzed by. The Fuentes ancestors could stare at his barehumanass all they wanted, but he had a feeling they were too busy making their way toward el Cielo.
Lalo turned toward the staircase that would lead him to Carolina. He took a deep, utterly human breath, then he smiled. “Time to find my love.”
CHAPTER 52
Carolina
He was going to beall right. She just knew it. She and her family rode like the wind on their way back as soon as she felt a single thump of his pulse. Gone were the chupasangres and any hint of sedientos in the woods. She had nothing to do but to speak to him the entire journey home.
“You better come back to me, Lalo, or I will wreak havoc on you in the afterlife. If you don’t wake up, so help me, I will spit on your prized books.”
She didn’t know how to speak sweetly, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t recognize it was her if she did. So she kept threatening him until they laid him down to rest in his bed.
For a day and night, she and Fernanda had taken turns staying by his side. She read that ridiculous note he had left behind in the desk.
Carolina, I think I might like to kiss you,it said.
