A Light with a Sharpened Edge

[maloscuridad]

He's left them all sitting on the grass outside of the new Mortiz house–outside of his new home too–with books open around them. Rose sits with The Kingdom of the Adas while Alex bends her heads over a massive tome with an unmarked cover. Seven months ago, he was squatting in abandoned apartments, convinced that Alejandra Mortiz would kill him on sight if she ever saw him again. Last night, she and her sisters and parents practically adopted him. And now he's going hunting for something to help anchor their father's memories and bring them back.

And he might get another Deathday. It's not every brujo that gets a do-over with a new family. One that's not too broken to give blessings. There's a risk that they might not accept him. He's not a Mortiz by blood and the Deos have always asked for blood. There's a chance, though, that his magic might not eat him alive.

In Los Lagos, Nova thought he was falling in love with Alex. It was more than her power that drew him to her. That's true now too but the love he feels for her, for all of the Mortizes, feels more real than the cautionary tale romance he once imagined. It's the kind of love he's never felt for his biological parents or siblings.

It's hard to concentrate on the search in front of him when all of those thoughts are swirling in his mind. Even with the heat on the back of his neck, all he can think about is this family. His family.

It's why he swears so loudly when a cat jumps on his lap and meows for attention. Nova stands up quickly and the cat leaps indignantly away but he doesn't notice. His skin prickles from the blowing AC as he glances around the building. This isn't where he was just a second ago. This probably isn't even Queens.

This definitely isn't Los Lagos either.

A door behind a counter full of decadent pastries (not as good as his grandmother's he thinks, immediately and defensively), advertises a Supernatural Private Investigation service. For a bleak second, Nova tries to convince himself he's just misread the THA's door for his entire life but that's a lie too big for him.

"What the fuck," he finally says.

Comments

[formicine]

Blue's in the back, straightening up, when someone says, distinctly, What the fuck.

It's not the sort of rude what the fuck of a customer waiting for service, but a sort of stunned, suspicious exclamation, as if someone had walked in here expecting a clothes shop and gotten a cat cafe instead. Not that she hasn't gotten her fair share of those too, but the more pressing point is:

"We're not open," she says, coming to the doorway between the kitchen and the front and leaning on it, brow furrowed at the young man. He's tall, brown-skinned with light, quick eyes and dark tattoos. Ronan-like, in ways, sharp at the edges: her first impression of him strikes closer to her heart than she'd like because of it. Maybe younger than Ronan. Than the last Ronan she saw.

Blue has no idea who he is.

"How did you get in here?"

[maloscuridad]

She walks into the room and Nova feels the air change. It's like holding Alex's hand during a canto, except there's still a good six feet between them. She gives him a look as fierce as any Mortiz woman and her curls bounce kind of like Lula's. Nova doesn't relax, knows better than that, but he also can't help but be relieved that at least she feels like a bruja.

"I don't know," he says. "I was outside." Stupid thing to say, he realizes. Of course he was outside, that's where you come from to get inside.

"I was in Queens."

[formicine]

He looks at her a bit strangely, although if he really doesn't know where the fuck he is, Blue can't fault him for that. But it's almost with recognition, and that she doesn't know what to make of.

"Well," she says slowly, drawing it out so it's almost two syllables, and wiping her hands on her apron in what's more a gesture of pragmatic readiness than anything else. "You're not in Queens anymore." She's done the new person spiel a few times now, but it's never been inside her cafe. It feels a little aggressive of Darrow.

"I mean, I've been told it looks a little like New Jersey," she gestures at the city outside. "But it's not really. It's not really anywhere. People get picked up from wherever they are and put down here. I was in Virginia."

[maloscuridad]

He wants to say he got that from the accent alone but in addition to reminding him of Alex's power, something about the way she draws out the word and then tells him flat out feels similarly direct. That's not luck he feels like trying just yet.

"But it's not Jersey," he says, reading between the lines. Not that that makes it any better. If he's ended up in a grubby new dimension, that world should at least have the dignity not to bridge and tunnel him in a cardboard knockoff of Jersey. "Okay, cool. So how do I leave?"

Nova nods his head toward the sign. "Is that what that's for?"

[formicine]

Blue slides her glance to the door, confused for a moment as she comes around the counter. "SPI?" she says, furrowing her brow. "Oh. No, no-- they investigate supernatural stuff in Darrow. Not the supernatural stuff that is Darrow," she waves around.

"You seem like someone who appreciates bluntness so, uh. Yeah. There is no how you leave. You can't get out of Darrow by yourself. I mean, you can walk as far in one direction as you want, but you'll always end up back where you started."

[maloscuridad]

So there's supernatural shit, wherever he is. It shouldn't make Nova feel better, because they sound pretty much like THA with a different acronym, but it's still a familiar point.

"Supernatural stuff, huh? Is that what you're in charge of?" She's got to be a witch, at very least, to change the energy in the room the way she does.

"Don't need to talk fancy with me, bonita," he says, drawing out his own accent. "And there's always a way out of somewhere." Or a way into trouble. Nova's made enough portals, spilled enough blood, and looked away from the results.

[formicine]

She huffs a laugh. "I wish I was in charge of supernatural stuff," Blue says wryly. Maybe if she had any control over it it'd behave itself. Maybe she'd still have Gansey. Maybe a lot of things. "You're in my cat cafe. SPI is in the back."

Bonita. Ugh. It's only slightly better than doll. "Which part was too bougie for you, güey," she counters, "Appreciate?" She waves around. "Look, I know how you feel. I've been here for three years. And you're welcome to try. But it just..."

Blue sighs. "What's your name, anyway/"

[maloscuridad]

Nova puts a hand to his heart as if he's wounded, like his grandma hasn't spit worse fire at him. He's about to point out that a cat café is pretty much the very definition of bougie when the number settles and then he stares at her. "Three? Nah, that's not gonna work. I won't–"

He won't what? Stand for it? Maybe not, but also, Nova's pretty sure he won't live that long. How fast had his magic already been burning its way to his heart before he got the temporary do-over from the Devourer? The promised Deathday that the Mortizes had offered sticks a little harder in his throat.

"Noveno Santiago," he says, trying not to sound like any of the things he feels. Pissed off, defeated, afraid. "Nova."

[formicine]

The word just means dude in a way that sort of implies asshole, so his little wounded gesture just gets an eyebrow flicker from Blue. Then he looks legitimately freaked out, though, and she feels a little bad. She's never been the best at these introductions.

"Nova," she says. It's sort of a pretty name, both in its long form and its nickname, which annoys her, and she waves generally at her name tag. "I'm Blue."

She offers a truce of a handshake. "Look, I'm not good at this -- welcome wagon thing. And honestly, I've been here longer than a lot of people." Painful, but true. "Whatever gets you here just sends you back where you came from. As far as anyone knows. Maybe it won't be so long."

She glances up. "Whatever you're doing, back home, you're still doing it. Just, some other version of you, like you just split into different -- Novas. That part we know for sure, because sometimes people come from the same places, but from different times."

[maloscuridad]

"Blue, huh?" It's not the strangest name he's ever heard. He actually thinks it's kind of pretty but he also thinks she looks like she's the kind of person who'll kick his ass for saying as much. It's a thought that shouldn't make him smile but it makes him think of Alex. Nova leans over and shakes her hand for that reason alone.

Three years though. "I know that time is different between dimensions," he says absently. No time had passed between opening the portal and leaping back out of Los Lagos with Alex's family, sure, but that doesn't mean there was another Nova doing Nova things up in Brooklyn.

And none of that changes the fact that three years from now will find him pretty close to being cuddled into the bosom of Lady de la Muerte.

[formicine]

He smiles a little, instead of looking confused, and she's a little suspicious of that little smile to himself, but it's better than some reactions she's gotten upon sharing her name, so Blue doesn't say anything.

"You --" She pauses at that. "Have you traveled between dimensions before?"

[maloscuridad]

"Yeah, once," Nova says. He doesn't have any pride to how he says it; there's nothing to be proud of. He killed a rat, opened a portal, and had a hand in the near death of Alex, Rishi, the entire Mortiz clan, and Los Lagos itself. What's there to brag about?

Nova tips his chin up, a little defensively, but looks at Blue over his cheekbones. "So what are you?"

[formicine]

He sounds nonchalant, and Blue can't quite decide if it's defensiveness, not wanting to talk about it, or just finding that sort of thing normal.

"What am I," Blue says, with a slightly affronted tone. The question sounds offensive. But she should have expected this, really, this thing she suspects he's asking. No one in her life, much less here, is normal. A boy with cheekbones and eerie tattoos and pretty eyes and a vaguely annoying attitude is sure as hell not going to be, in her experience. But she doesn't love advertising her powers to strangers: it seems like a quick shortcut to being used. The grand majority of people don't quite know why they feel what they do around her, or it's not strong enough to notice unless she's trying.

"What are you, wandering into other dimensions?"

[maloscuridad]

She's definitely something, if that's how she responds. No what are you talking about or that's not how you talk to a person, just a question for a question. Fine, he can do it that way. It's not like he has much choice but to play along when she's got all the cards.

"I'm a brujo," he says. Slowly, cop-asking-for-his-ID slowly, Nova raises one empty hand and conjures an orb of light. It shouldn't be all that bright compared to the effort he's putting it, but it pulses faintly and Nova can feel warmth coming from it.

[formicine]

"A witch," she says, feeling like she's parroting, and watches, both impressed and somehow not surprised enough as he summons light above his hand. It's a little like the orb that Ronan brought with them into the caves, only she doesn't think it can be held.

She can't help but reach out towards it anyway.

"I'm a witch, too," she says, "or that's what they tell me. Or half a tree-light, or a mirror." Blue shrugs one shoulder. "Big psychic battery, is what it all boils down to eventually. Not everyone can feel it, but it's like the signal gets clearer around me."

She smirks dryly. "And attracts weird shit, sometimes."

[maloscuridad]

"A brujo," he corrects, a little protective of that title. It means something to him, if only within that community. They might use magic but they are distinct from witches, their magic completely their own. "All brujos and brujas are witches but not all witches are brujas."

That she's a witch doesn't surprise him, though Nova wouldn't have gone for that term right away. A tree-light or a mirror. Those are less familiar terms but he can sort of see it, feel it in the way she reflects and amplifies the power in the room.

Slowly, Nova tips his palm forward so that the orb is within touching distance.

'Does that make me the weird shit?"

[formicine]

"A brujo," she corrects herself carefully, not sure what it means but understanding enough to know it's an important distinction to him, and one that she has no experience with and shouldn't argue about. It does, though, occur to Blue that she would have no idea how to repeat that same sentence in Spanish.

She can almost see the gears turning in his head, and she reaches to touch the edges of the light. Her smirk curls upward.

"I don't know you enough yet to know if you're weird shit," she says. "Probably not the weirdest, I can tell you that much."

[maloscuridad]

"That's fair," he says. "I'm not even the weirdest thing in my family." Not in his blood family and not among the Mortizes either, not when he'd been taken into a family that boasted an encantrix, a magical hacker, and a girl who loved so fiercely that she raised the dead. After all that, one measly light show was pretty boring.

"So you're making this stronger," he guesses, keeping his orb afloat. "Without it all coming out of me." Good, maybe if he sticks around her, he'll live longer.

[formicine]

"Me either," she says with an amused smile. "Well, unusual for my family, but not the weirdest." She's not sure how she would pit them against each other. Probably Persephone was the weirdest. Gwynllian, certainly, if she counts. If he means blood family, certainly Artemus is the weirdest, and she's only ever heard about his particular weird.

"Sort of," she says. "I'm making it easier for you to do it. It's not that you're not using your power, it's that you don't have to use as much as you would normally to do-- this. I can't do things like this on my own." There are things she can do, but they're all a little more esoteric. "It's like the way your phone charges faster plugged into the wall than your computer." The best table at Starbucks.

[maloscuridad]

"If you ever end up in Brooklyn, somehow, I either really wanna see you in a room with some of my friends. Or not at all." If this is what Blue can make with his weak-ass power, then he's pretty sure the Deos themselves would tremble if she got anywhere with the Mortiz clan.

"She's the most powerful bruja pretty much ever." He'd say it with pride but he doesn't get to lay claim to that, not when he's the one that almost killed her and her entire family.