Page 136 of Castle of the Cursed

The last thing I have left to lose in this world.

My life.

I let my head roll over, and a tear spills out as I watch Antonela’s black smoke hands prop up my head and yank open my mouth—

Then I see him.

Sebastián is sitting by my body. He doesn’t seem able to see me or Antonela in our shadow forms. He’s holding my hand and Antonela’s picture, chanting words I can’t hear. But I know what he’s saying.

No hay luz en Oscuro.

I stare at my shadow beast in awe, this creature of darkness, remembering how he said I awoke in him a gentleness, something he doesn’t want to lose. If there can be softness even in the hardest of iron hearts, then the chant is wrong.

There is light in the dark.

I have been missing my parents for months. My grief has consumed me, this curse has damned me, the undead haunt me—and yet, in the midst of all this death, I found new life. I fell in love.

I guess some flowers only blossom by moonlight.

My sister’s shadow form is dissipating into a cloud of smoke so she can enter my body, but I vault over and tackle her to the ground before she can shift forms.

A future with Sebastián awaits me. If our blood-bond held, so can I.

“Let go!” she shouts at me, but my embrace of her only tightens.

“Bast will never be human,” warns my sister, as I let my love for him invade every inch of my shadowy being, and I feel like I’m transmitting my warmth to Antonela not as memories but as emotions.

“He is a monster, and that will never change!” she says, but her voice sounds weaker, and now I know the power I have that she fears. My hope. My resilience.

She hates that I can see the light in a creature of the dark like Sebastián… or like herself. That I could forgive Bea. That I could fight for my life even when it seems I have sacrificed it all and have nothing left to anchor me.

That is humanity’s true magic—our unabashed ability to hope. And Antonela can’t kill me without killing that first.

I shove her away from me suddenly and clutch the picture from Sebastián’s hand, which has a few drops of my blood on it.

He looks stunned when it disappears from his fingers.

Antonela is already melting into a cloud to make for my mouth again—and right before her shadowy torso scatters, I shove the photograph into her black-smoke heart.

“NO!”

She screams as the fumes that make up her spirit begin to swirl and retreat into the photographic paper, which swallows her presence until there’s not even a wisp of smoke left.

I feel a wave of lightheadedness, and when I blink, I’m lying on my back, my hand enfolded in Sebastián’s. I’m no longer made of purple smoke but flesh and blood.

“Estela?” he asks as I sit up. I look at him, and he searches my gaze. In a lower register, he asks, “Antonela?”

“No,” I say. “Estela.”

He pulls me into his chest and embraces me. “It is done,” he says, holding me as I cry. “You are safe, and we are together. For the rest of your life, I am yours.” He kisses me on the head. “Happy birthday, my blood-bound love.”

I blink a few times, sniffing and covered in snot, my heart rate still not settling. It can’t really be over, can it?

I look around and spot the bloodied photograph of a smiling five-year-old Antonela baring her chipped tooth. I already know where it’s going to stay—hidden under the loose stone in the purple room, until the day I figure out how to save her.

“Does this mean,” I say, wiping my nose on my arm, “that now I can live with my monster prince in our cursed castle?”

“Yes, princess,” says the shadow beast, baring his sharp teeth. “Welcome to your happily ever after.”