Page 116 of Castle of the Cursed
My spine digs into the metal banister, and I gasp, my gaze blurring with pleasure. I moan as his touch intensifies, my body throbbing like a pulse, until the stirrings of release shoot through me. “You’re… spectacular,” I whisper.
“I hope to always make you feel this good, Estela,” he murmurs into my ear, as he unhooks my arms from the gargoyle’s wing. After untying the ropes binding my wrists, he sweeps me off my feet, and by my next breath I’m lying on my bed.
“I will bring you—”
“I don’t want to eat,” I say, cutting him off. My stomach is too full of emotions to digest anything else at the moment.
Bea is dead. Antonela is a monster. Sebastián is mine. As much as my brain tries to process these facts, it doesn’t seem to be working as fast as my heart. “Can we just lie down for a little?” I ask him.
He joins me on the bed, and I snuggle into his side. His arm closes around me, and neither of us says anything for a while, my breaths the only sound in the room.
After Mom and Dad died, I didn’t think I would ever recover any sense of family, but in the past couple of days with Bea, I had hope for the first time. That hope grew exponentially in the seconds when I thought I might actually recover my sister.
So much hope extinguished in a single meeting.
I think of Antonela growing up in the other castle, and Beatríz growing older in la Sombra, and Sebastián being trained for leadership in his mountain throne—and it occurs to me that all three of them have been trapped in a castle that doubles as a cage.
I have been so much freer than them, and yet I have always longed for a home.
My mind drifts to the four girls on the subway train. I used to try not to think of them because their fate seemed too cruel. Yet now that I have seen other horrors, I can complete the thought that began over seven months ago, when Dad caught me staring at them.
I wasn’t just curious about the girls’ lives.
I was jealous.
I craved what they had, but I was terrified of my parents seeing that I wanted a more traditional life. It felt like a betrayal to them to desire what we didn’t—or maybe couldn’t—have. I didn’t know about our residency issues, but I was aware we didn’t have a lot of money.
“College.”
As soon as I say the word, it feels like I’ve dislodged something that got caught in my throat years ago.
Sebastián rolls onto his side, giving me his full attention.
“I was going to take my GED,” I say, staring at the ceiling, feeling like someone else has taken control of my vocal cords. “My parents never brought up the next step after that, but it was all I could think about. We were subletting a place in Asheville, and I hid the college brochures in the boxes of my morning cereal because my parents didn’t eat that stuff.”
I haven’t thought of us in that Asheville place in so long that I feel a pang in my chest.
“I didn’t want to break up our trio, but I dreamed of going to college and moving into a dorm. I’d have my own room, and friends, and access to a school library. I could finally stand still and feel rooted somewhere. I guess the lesson is be careful what you wish for,” I add, my voice dropping out.
Sebastián presses a kiss to my wrist. “Thank you. For sharing that with me.”
“What about you?” I ask. “Is there anything you wanted for yourself back home?”
After a moment, he says, “Blue bear,” so soft I’m not sure I heard it.
“Before you, I had only cared for one being,” he says, “whom you called blue bear. All young Bleeders get one as our first kill. He is our first meal once we begin to hunt our own blood, only I chose to keep mine alive. Whatever instinct impelled me do that, my father made sure to strangle it. There is no room for softness in my world, especially not among royalty. It is a weakness I was born with that I was sure had been crushed. I never dared want anything for myself again.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“My father’s will is the only one that matters where I am from. He has been pressuring me to find a mate and perform the blood-bond, but with someone of his choosing. That is the real reason I accepted your sister’s offer. I could handle loneliness alone, but to share it with a stranger sounded insufferable.”
“What’s the blood-bond?” I ask.
“An exchange of blood between mates that serves as the basis for procreation among my kind. Bleeder offspring are rare, and conception depends on the strength of the connection.”
“So only Bleeders who are in love can get pregnant?”
He chuckles. “Love has nothing to do with it. There is a special sac in which we must deposit our blood, and then we bury it in fertile soil where we regularly feed it more of our blood. Only the most powerful blood-bonds can produce a child strong enough to climb out from the ground.”
