Page 72 of Castle of the Cursed
“I have tried so hard to resist my attraction to you,” he says when we pull apart. “May I kiss you?”
“Ye—”
His mouth consumes mine.
There’s nothing cold about him anymore as our tongues tangle, and heat blazes up my middle. I feel his hands grip my waist, and suddenly I’m seated on the counter, closer to his height.
As we kiss, his fingers graze up and down my sides, making me tingle all over. His featherlight strokes grow longer, traveling down my hip bone and scaling the rungs of my rib cage. His caresses stop when they reach the bottom of my bra and the waistband of my pants.
It’s like my entire range of physical sensation has narrowed to his touch. Wherever his fingers are, goose bumps grow.
We kiss until my mouth goes numb. And for the first time since my parents died, I don’t feel alone.
I’ll do whatever it takes to hold on to Sebastián and keep Prince Bastian from returning.
I feel different in the morning. Like I’ve shed my old skin, exposing a fresh layer that’s still sensitive and raw to the world.
A small smile tugs on my lips as I think of Sebastián, and I arch into a stretch as a massive balloon swells in my chest—
Pain flashes through my arms, and I remember Teo. The balloon pops.
I jump out of bed and head to Beatríz’s room—still untouched. Teo said he led her away from here, but how could she not have left me a cell number to reach her? She has a landline in her room, so she could at least call from a public phone to check in.
I dart downstairs to check the kitchen. “Beatríz?” I call out as I search.
When I don’t see any sign of her, I head back to my room. I need to take notes on everything that’s happened if I’m going to work this out, so I go to my bathroom to retrieve Dad’s leather journal from my period drawer—
I take it you haven’t found the journals yet.
Teo’s words come flying back to me, and I still on the staircase landing.
What did he mean? What journals?
My hunger for breakfast battles my thirst for knowledge, but since I don’t know where to start my search, food wins. I make myself pan con tomate while I consider where to begin.
The most obvious location is the library, since it’s where texts are shelved. And Felipe made a good point about the ceiling being flat when the tower is arched, so there’s solid secret room potential. I review other possibilities in my mind: Beatríz’s bedroom (already searched), the secret wing with the dungeon (where I’m not eager to go back), the purple room (didn’t seem to be anything left to find)… but my mind keeps jumping back to the library.
It’s the most logical answer, and yet it almost feels too simple—until I remember the tattoo on Teo’s neck.
His most prominent ink happens to be of the tower. Could be coincidence… but Dad had another word for those: clues.
By the time I make it up the tower stairs, I have to catch my breath. I rest in an armchair in the tower as I survey the spines surrounding me. Sebastián said he read every book here; if he’d seen those journals, he would have told me, right?
So, what could he have missed?
My eyes land on the only modern device here, the tablet. And I wonder if it’s not broken. Maybe it just needs to be unlocked.
There’s a nail poking out where the tablet is affixed to the shelf. Remembering the way I accessed the purple room, I prick my finger until blood trickles out, then I press my hand to the screen.
I jump back as the wall starts to tremble, then I laugh out loud. This is la Sombra, after all—when in doubt, Brálaga blood is always the key.
My chest swells with excitement as two shelves slide apart, and books rattle against each other as a narrow stairwell is revealed.
Oh, no. More stairs.
When I’ve climbed up the last step, I pass through a small opening in the wall into a round attic with a cone-shaped ceiling. Felipe was right: I’m at the peak of the tower.
Bookshelves are built into the curved walls, stuffed with journals. It would probably take years to read them all, and I might have no idea where to begin, except there’s a letter on the only furniture here: a small table and a chair.
