Page 112 of Castle of the Cursed
“I do not expect convincing you will be easy,” says Antonela. “Yet now that you have manifested me in this dimension, I have other options available.”
Her words settle into my stomach with a thud. “What do you mean?”
“I cannot return to Earth without a body. As I cannot take yours without Sebastián first taking your life, I will have to commandeer a temporary one.”
“I knew this was a trick!” says Bea, rounding on Teo. “What have you done?”
One look at my uncle’s face says he already knew this spell would require a sacrifice. “I’m sorry,” he says to his sister, and for the first time, he sounds it.
Antonela faces Bea and Teo. “But which one to pick?”
“You’re not using their bodies, either!” I say.
“My possession will kill you,” Antonela goes on, addressing Bea and Teo, “but at least your deaths will be instant.”
“Don’t touch them,” I say, my heart in my mouth.
She turns to me. “So wasteful, but it must be done. I cannot exist on your plane without a shell. You and I are already bound, so I cannot touch your body while you are alive.”
“Please don’t do this,” I beg. “I saw your life at the other castle. You deserve so much better. Give us a chance. Let’s be a family. We will help you. We can work together, find another way—”
“I am going to teach you the most important lesson Grandparent taught me,” she says, as her body expands into a blanket of black smoke. “Only when you sacrifice everything will you have nothing to lose.”
“NO!” I cry out as the smoke spreads over my aunt and uncle, like a storm cloud.
“I offer myself to you,” says Teo, falling to his knees and closing his eyes. “Antonela, use me—”
“Stop that!” says Bea, shaking her brother. “What are you doing?”
“Antonela, please!” I shout up at the smoke. “Don’t do this!”
The smoke swirls into a funnel over our heads.
“Get up!” says Bea to Teo, but he stays on his knees, keeping his eyes shut.
“It’s what I want!” he insists to her. “Let me go!”
The smoke strikes down, like a hurricane touching land, and I scream—
“Bea!”
My aunt is struck by the smoke, and her neck falls back, her body convulsing.
“No!” shouts Teo.
I grip Bea’s arms, trying to shake my sister loose from her body. My aunt looks at me, terrified, her mouth opening and closing as her frame keeps shaking.
“Don’t do this, Antonela!” I beg. “Not her, please!”
Bea’s eyes roll up, and I cry, “Fight! Don’t give in!”
Teo looks frozen as he watches me try to keep his sister alive. Her body is heating up like she’s fighting off an infection—and I gasp as black spots sprout in her corneas, the smoke spiraling inward…
“Please, Bea, resist!”
The black reaches her irises.
I squeeze my aunt’s body as if I could drain my sister out of her—and watch helplessly as smoke consumes every fleck of brown.
