Blog Tour | Lucha of the Night Forest

Hello, welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Lucha of the Night Forest by Tehlor Kay Mejia. Thank you to Kaleidoscopic Tours for having me. Today I’m sharing an excerpt from this teen fantasy novel!

The Excerpt

Dawn was approaching by the time Robado came into view again. Lucha’s throat was raw, but the
wound in her chest felt cauterized. She knew what she had to do.

They would be gone, her and Lis, before the clock ran out. Many had died while crossing the salt
river—perhaps they would join that number. But Lucha chose instead to imagine a blue-painted
flower cart.
With the housing complex ahead, she broke into a jog. Her heart— the pieces of it, at least—light for
the first time in longer than she could remember. The rest of their lives were before them. All they
had to do was begin.
She pushed hard on the door of their unit, expecting the resistance of the chair she’d told Lis to
leave on the other side. Instead, she flew right through. A shrill alarm began to sound in the darkest
part of her mind.
“Lis!” she called. “I’m home! You were right. We don’t have much time, but I . . .” She trailed off
when she walked into the bedroom. Empty. The bed neatly made.
Lucha turned around, half dazed. She just went to blow off some steam, she told herself. But the
warning bell was louder every second.
The worst blow didn’t come until she saw the note sitting on their little table. Lucha’s name scrawled
across the front. Tears in her eyes, she picked it up. Too afraid to read the words. She focused
instead on the beautiful flower her sister had drawn. The kind of magical bloom that might have
attracted a queen’s handmaiden in the Gilded Marketplace.
The first tear fell beside three words that would not be ignored: Don’t follow me, the note said. It’s
my turn.

Excerpted from Lucha of the Night Forest by Tehlor Kay Mejia. Copyright © 2023 by Tehlor Kay
Mejia. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without
permission in writing from the publisher.

Thank you so much for reading my post on the Lucha of the Night Forest blog tour!

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