Page 101 of Castle of the Cursed
It’s Mom and Dad.
They’re at la Sombra, and my aunt and uncle are there, too. I see older people who must be my grandparents. They all look so happy and unburdened. I can hardly believe this is my family.
Antonela gasps when she spots me, and I realize she’s just discovered she has a twin.
It’s surreal to be watching a memory of my sister watching memories of us, and yet it’s also weirdly comforting to share this moment with her. I see the two of us running through the crimson corridors of la Sombra. I see Mom and Dad trying to dress us while we wriggle around in bed. I see us playing hide-and-seek.
Antonela seems to find real solace in these memories. She’s still constantly bullied in her classes, so she resorts to these spells more and more. She lingers a lot on Mom and Dad, and I’m sad she will never get to meet them.
When she’s studying, she focuses on finding an interdimensional shell that she can use to make the crossing home. Her predecessors tried all kinds of protective spells, yet Brálaga said none of them succeeded. Still, they didn’t mention how these predecessors failed, whether it was the crossing or their reassimilation on Earth.
Antonela keeps racking her brain for better ideas as the moons continue to fade, one by one. She spends more and more time in the company of memories, and together we watch younger versions of ourselves exploring the castle.
In one memory, a younger Bea and Teo approach my sister while she’s got her eyes covered. She’s counting off: “Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco—”
“Do you want to go to magic school?” asks Teo, who looks to be in his twenties.
“Yes!” answers Antonela at once. “Can Tela come, too?”
“No, this is just for you,” says Bea. “It’s something that will be only yours. Would you like that?”
Antonela looks like she isn’t sure. She frowns at our aunt and uncle, deep in doubt.
“I told you Nela was the wrong one for magic school,” Teo says to Bea. “Tela is the better choice.”
“Nuh-uh!” says my sister. “I want to go!”
“Then prove it.”
An obedient Antonela stands in the middle of the purple room. Teo and Bea take turns hugging her. “Be good at magic school,” says Bea.
“Learn everything you can,” says Teo. Tears are sparkling in his eyes.
Antonela looks from one to the other, probably wondering why our aunt and uncle are so good at playing make-believe. Then they walk to opposite ends of the room and begin to chant.
My twin looks uneasy. “What are you saying?” she asks, but they ignore her and keep chanting.
She looks like she’s trying to move, but she’s frozen. She can’t speak, can’t squirm, can’t scream—
Then black flames spring to life all around her.
When the memory ends, Antonela is breathing heavily, her expression more horrified than even when she was being bullied.
She’s devastated.
She looks like she’s just discovered that she was our family’s sacrifice.
Antonela is in the library, reviewing texts. There are only two moons left on her wrist. I look over her shoulder to see what she’s reading and gasp—
It’s the portrait of Sebastián from the book I buried.
“What are you doing in here?”
Antonela snaps her head up, and I spin around. Red struts over with Cyclops.
“A Bleeder can cross into any dimension,” Red reads out loud. “Their blood is the most powerful magical ingredient in all the realms. Yet it must be given willingly, which also makes it the rarest—why are you reading this? You think Bleeder blood will make you a real caster?” They laugh and toss the book to Cyclops.
The panoramic-eyed giant smirks and flips through the pages while Red hones in on my sister.
