Page 135 of Castle of the Cursed
“I told you it is a universe ruled by matter. If you need a body to cross over, it logically follows that you would need one to remain there.”
“So I have to take my sister’s. If I can even figure out how. That is the only way?”
Brálaga looks at her sadly. “How could you sacrifice if you have nothing left to sacrifice?”
Antonela feels her heart closing toward her family and any hope of reuniting with them. Which leaves her only one goal left: seize power and fulfill Brálaga’s vision.
They are her true parent, after all, and she will make them proud.
I elbow my sister in the gut, and her grip loosens enough that I free myself. “We can still be a family, the two of us—”
She tackles me, and we roll around, wrestling each other as two shadows, purple versus black. I knee her, but she twists away in time, and before I know what’s happening, she dives for my unconscious body.
“No!”
I race her toward it, but she turns in midair and punches me. One final memory slips in:
“I say you are fearless,” Prince Bastian says to Antonela.
“I know,” she says, sliding onto his lap. “The question is, are you?”
He makes a grunting sound, and I realize it’s a chuckle because he’s smirking. “Tell me, how will I return from Earth?”
“You will drink my blood,” she says, and he frowns questioningly.
“You want me to kill you?”
“Yes.”
He stares at her, and I know she’s stumped him yet again, but in a good way. He leans toward her, lips parted and fangs out, and she doesn’t move.
“Have you ever been kissed, human caster?”
She doesn’t answer verbally, but her body language says it all. Her spine is stiff and her jaw is clenched.
He pulls down her blue mask, and her breath catches. The Bleeder runs a finger across her lips, and she shivers.
“You have no idea what you are feeling right now,” he says, his face inches from hers. “It is called desire.”
His mouth brushes hers, and she leans into him, ever so slightly. Yet he pulls away before they kiss, sliding her mask back on.
“Perhaps after sating my appetite with others,” he murmurs to her, “I will choose to keep you.”
I pull out of her head right as Antonela and I crash to the floor.
“You have nothing,” she says, locking her hands around my neck. “Not even the Bleeder is yours. This body belongs to me now.”
I want to fight her off, but what future awaits me even if I defeat her? At least Antonela has a chance to make a difference in the worlds. I’m nobody. I have nobody.
If I “win,” it just means I killed my sister. I doubt I could live with that on my conscience anyway.
“Yes,” she says softly, seeing the change come over my expression. “Give in, sister. It is the right thing to do.”
Sebastián isn’t coming back. He’s home in his castle, back in his rightful place, and soon I will be another memory for him, like blue bear.
My parents, Felipe, and Bea all died so my sister might live. The only one left is Teo, and he doesn’t love me. At least Antonela will be wanted. Our uncle will care for her, something she’s never experienced.
She seems to know it’s over because she pulls away and dives for my body. I want to get up and race her, but I’m a vessel without a motor, and there’s no breeze to help me along. I tried so hard to find answers for my parents’ deaths, and they all led back to me, to this moment, my final sacrifice.
