“What does that mean?” I’m tired of everybody knowing more than me. “What don’t I understand yet? Because I’m dying! This thing is getting ready to replace me—and, meanwhile, a bug-eyed vampire from 1915 kidnapped my parents and threw Adriana’s brain at me like a ransom note tied to a brick!”

“Mijita?” Straightening in her chair, Ximena shoots an alarmed look at her granddaughter, and Adriana squirms uncomfortably.

I’m not done yet, though. “He wants me to take a blood oath and join his apocalyptic death cult so he can call the shots when this thing finally does a Kool-Aid Man through my actual soul, so if there’s something I don’t understand, it would be awesome if you would explain it.” I’m breathing so hard my hands tingle. The fact is, she’s had lots of time to volunteer explanations … and she hasn’t, which is an explanation itself. “There’s no way to stop this thing, is there?”

Her expression stricken, Adriana grips my hand. “Of course there’s a way, there has to be—there’s always a balancing force in magic! If this thing is from the magical world, then there’s a magical solution, right, Abuela?”

“We’re not talking about hexes and charms, here, Adriana,” Ximena says gently, and my friend’s fingers dig harder into my flesh. “Vampires have a magical cause, too, but if there were any way to ‘solve’ that problem, sorcerers would have discovered it eons ago. Balance is about equilibrium—systems keeping each other in check.”

“So what’s the bottom line?” I demand, my voice gritty with exhaustion. There’s an 80 percent chance she’s going to tell me I need to die—and a 20 percent chance she’ll tell me to shut up and incubate faster, because she’s pro-Ascension—and I’m just waiting for her to say it either way.

Ximena sets her coffee down again and stands up, pacing restlessly to the window. “Don’t get mad, but I’m going to answer that with a story.” She turns to face us. “I was about your age when my abilities started to manifest. We knew there was sorcery in our bloodline, so my parents weren’t shocked, and they knew where to find people who could help me learn about my gifts.” Absently, she runs her fingers through the fronds of a potted fern. “That’s how I ended up here, in Fulton Heights. I moved in with some family friends and started mastering my element. The Nexus amplifies magical power, and training under it is like being an athlete preparing for the Olympics.