Page 26 of Castle of the Cursed
I’m not going to get any answers by making enemies with my own mind. If this hallucination represents a repressed part of my self, I’ll get further as a friend than a foe.
“But I—I think I can help you,” I say, my voice trembling as he moves closer. “I have a source who knows a lot about this castle’s supernatural history. Tomorrow I can ask him about spells.”
The silver eyes are so near, they’re all I can see. “Arrogant of you,” he murmurs, “to assume you have a tomorrow.”
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. My heart is racing again, and I can’t deny there’s something inviting about its song.
“W-we should be working together,” I say, nerves fraying my voice as his shadows eclipse all the light.
“If something happened to us, to both of us, at the same time—that must mean we’re connected.” I have no idea what I’m saying; my only plan is to keep him talking. “At least tell me your name?”
“What for?” he whispers, his mouth by my hairline.
“So I’ll know what to call you. Or at least I’ll know who killed me.”
I wince as my mind twinges with a spasm of discomfort. Is he going to end my life with a brain aneurism?
“You know well,” he says, pulling back to look me in the eye, “my name is Bastian, bruja.”
“I don’t know you, and I’m not a witch,” I insist without breaking his gaze, emphasizing each word. I don’t remember ever naming the shadow beast, so I’m not sure where Bastian came from. “Is that short for Sebastian?”
“You tell me,” he says, still scrutinizing me as hard as I did Beatríz at dinner. “You must know who I am if you brought me here.”
Is he admitting he knows I’m manifesting him? “I don’t know you, so I’m not going to call you that,” I say, refusing to cede more ground to this frustrating figment. “I’m going to call you Sebastián.”
I meant to say Sebastian, but for some reason I pronounce it with a Spanish accent. The shadow beast doesn’t answer, and my mind twinges again, like someone is wringing my brain’s folds dry.
“Stop that!” I say, rubbing my temples. “If you kill me, we’re both dead. Your only chance is to work with me.”
A faint heartbeat begins to sound in my mind, but it’s too calm to be my own. I only hear it between every third beat of mine.
“What are you doing to me?” I ask as the overhead light flickers, producing a strobe-like effect. A wave of lightheadedness crashes over me, and I blink away the dizziness.
“I have not yet begun,” he says, giving me more space. “What is it? You look green.”
“There’s something out there.” I lunge for the bedroom door and yank it open. The heartbeat sounds louder in the hall.
I follow the pulse and feel Sebastián’s presence sticking to me, his shadow darkening the walls as I hurry down the stairs and pass the dining hall. Thankfully, Beatríz isn’t there.
The heart’s beating is growing louder with every step.
“Where are you going?” asks Sebastián, as the red-tinged lights around us flicker again.
“Are you messing with me?” I ask him.
“Is this real or part of the performance?” he shoots back.
“Don’t you see that?”
“See what?”
Either I’m getting played, or I’m the only one seeing something again. Neither option is good.
We reach the fork where the castle bifurcates, and I look from one crimson corridor to the other. The passage that leads to the mirror room is dimly lit, but the one I took last night to the cathedral is flickering.
“What do you see?” asks Sebastián as we cut down the east wing, through the string of barren rooms.
“The lights are flickering.” As I say it, the blinking stops.
