Page 42 of Castle of the Cursed
“This is for you,” he says. It looks like everybody brought me a dish to take home. This is enough food to sustain me for at least six months.
“I got it,” I say, reaching for the handle.
“I’ll walk you.”
“I can manage—”
“Parental orders.” He starts rolling the cart uphill toward la Sombra, and I have no choice but to follow.
We’re quiet the whole way. I lag a few steps behind to make the point that I’m not interested in his company. The only sounds come from the occasional hoot of an owl and homes where people are still finishing dinner or watching television. They’re eating a lot later than Beatríz and I do.
When we reach the end of the residences, all that’s left is the steep slope up to the castle gates. “I can go alone the rest of the way.”
Felipe ignores me and keeps walking, without slowing. He goes right to the hidden door in the gargoyle-guarded gate and opens it, wheeling the cart through, then he holds it for me. I start to get a creeping sensation he’s not going to turn around at the front door. Especially since he knows I’m alone tonight.
Well, technically. He doesn’t know about Sebastián.
At the thought of the shadow beast, my stomach does a small flip. I don’t know what worries me more—that I’m about to see him, or that he won’t be there.
Especially since we’ll be alone.
As Felipe lugs the cart up the sloping garden, I say, “Thanks for walking me, but you can go now.”
Ignoring me, he cuts across the overgrown foliage and up to the massive doors with the gargoyle knockers. I hang back on the grass with my arms crossed, unwilling to produce the key until he leaves.
He blows out a loud breath. “I’m sorry, Estela. I know I went too far tonight. It’s just the thought of losing you is unbearable.”
“The only way you’ll lose my friendship is by saying the things you said in your room. That crossed a line.”
“You’re right, and I’m sorry.” He steps away from the cart and comes down to where I’m standing. “I hate to leave when you’re mad. Let me come in and help you put the food away—”
BANG.
Before I can turn him down, the door rattles in its frame, like a gargoyle is knocking from inside.
Felipe turns to me with wide eyes. “What was that?”
BANG.
The gargoyle knocks again.
“Castle’s cursed, remember?” I bite my lip to avoid laughing as I step up to the door, which quits quaking as soon as I fit the key into the lock.
“Buenas noches!” I call back, pulling the cart inside. “I’ll get this back to you tomorrow.”
I shut the door behind me and look for Sebastián, barely repressing my laughter—but my humor evaporates when I realize he’s not here.
A solitary candle burns on the floor, in the middle of the entrance hall.
I spot another one farther down, and the glow of more candles in the distance. My heart starts to beat a different melody, gentler than the heavy bass drum of fear.
I’m not sure what I was expecting after last night, but it wasn’t this. I pull the cart along as I follow the golden trail, blowing out each light as I go. I’ve seen enough of Dad’s arson investigations to know that too many house fires start with an innocent candle.
I leave the food in the kitchen to sort later, and I keep following the lighted path. It ends just beyond the dining hall, at a bookshelf built into the wall of a crimson corridor.
The final candle is on the middle shelf. I pick it up to illuminate the furniture’s details, trying to find a clue as to what’s next. I spot a small hole in the side of the wood, like the indent of a missing screw, and I press my fingertip in. There’s a click, and the bookshelf unhinges from the wall, like a door.
On the other side, a single candle illuminates a crumbling wing of the castle. There’s no furniture, the paint is soiled with bruises, and pieces of wood and stone litter the floor. If the doorless rooms in the east wing look like they’ve been abandoned for a decade, this wing might not have been touched for a century.
