Page 76 of Castle of the Cursed
“The fire was Teo’s idea,” I say, studying Beatríz, whose fingers go limp in mine. “It was a spell to send my sister to the other castle, where the original Brálaga lives. And you went along with it.”
Beatríz pulls her hands away, and I think she’s going to take off again. “We were teens,” she says, staying seated, “younger than you are now, when we found the journals.”
“What exactly are the journals?” I ask.
“Spells. The magical compositions of our twin ancestors, the ones who managed to pull something off. They recorded the successful spells for posterity. Only some of our ancestors warned that the power came at a price. They said once they opened the door to magic, they couldn’t close it. They called it a curse.
“At first, Teo and I were thrilled. We had always felt there was something special about this castle, about us. It made sense that we were destined for power, and the first thing he wanted to try was the spell for crossing to the other castle. He didn’t care that the letter specified age five. We tried igniting the black fire again and again, but it never worked for my brother. I thought it meant the other realm wasn’t real, but Teo was sure it was real and we were just too old. He was devastated.”
Beatríz squints, like she can almost see the past from here. “He lost interest in everything. He dropped out of school and disappeared into drugs for years, until…” She blinks, and her eyes meet mine. “Olivia said she was pregnant. With twins.”
Goose bumps race down my arms, and I realize that moment sealed my sister’s and my fates.
“My brother convinced me that since twins weren’t born into our parents’ generation, we’d missed our birthright, but it wasn’t fair for you and your sister to miss yours. I still didn’t believe in the other castle, but I loved Teo more than anything. I was born a few seconds after him, and the joke in our family was that I was his Sombrita—little shadow. Whatever he did, I did.”
She exhales long, like she’s letting out old fumes along with the words, her eyes shimmering with moisture.
“He had changed so much since we discovered those journals, but with the birth of you girls, we all felt we were seeing the old Teo again. Energetic, excited, hopeful. I didn’t want us to lose him. I figured we’d just go through the motions, that’s all—that nothing would really happen.”
Her voice grows rough, and she clears her throat. “When the full moon rose, you girls were playing hide-and-seek. You were the one hiding. You were always so good at that game.”
The tears brim over her eyes.
“So we took Antonela.”
Hearing my twin’s name, I feel something restored to me. It fills the hole in my heart that had burrowed too deep for anyone to reach, buried beneath tissue and wounds and walls.
“Antonela,” I whisper, and gasp at the familiarity of the word on my tongue. A muscle memory.
“Your mother was inconsolable,” Beatríz goes on. “She tried having us arrested, but all traces of the spell had vanished, and there was no evidence beyond the blackened walls. There was no body.”
She finally drops her hands to her lap. Her cheeks are slick with tears.
“Only Teo believed we could bring her home. He assured Oli that we needed to do another spell, but it required your blood. Olivia panicked and disappeared overnight.”
The air between us has hardened so much, it’s difficult to draw breath. “D-did he do a spell,” I whisper, “on the day of the subway—?”
“Impossible,” she says so quickly that I know she’s already considered it, too. “He isn’t anywhere near that powerful.”
“Then what killed my parents?”
“The curse!” She hisses the word, like it tastes foul. “After your sister died, Oli ran off with you, Teo went to a dark place again, and our parents’ health began to suffer. They died soon after, and I took over the clínica. I finally had to get Teo professional help, which left me alone here. We never should have set that fire. We cursed ourselves.”
Part of me wants to forgive her and recover some of the family I lost, but I can’t. She’s still lying. “You left me for five days, without a note or checking in. That wasn’t the curse. It was your choice.”
Her expression hardens, and she doesn’t meet my gaze. “My brother called me five days ago and said he was in trouble, that the curse was bearing down on him and I would likely never see him again. He told me he would be gone by morning, so I was in too much of a rush to be rational. I stopped at the clínica to pick up syringes in case he needed to be sedated, and I realized I forgot to leave you a note, so I wrote a message on the door.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“I lost my cell phone the second day.”
“Why didn’t you try me from a public phone to the line in your bedroom? Or to the bookstore?”
“I don’t know!” She springs to her feet, and I jump to mine, too, blocking her exit.
“I do! Because you didn’t know if you were coming back,” I answer for her. “I had taken your place at the castle, and you were going to ask your brother to run away with you and leave the Brálaga legacy behind. But since you couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t call the cops, you had to ditch your cell phone to avoid being tracked. So you communicated with him on a disposable phone instead.”
Her eyes grow wide with shock. She doesn’t say anything, and I know I’m right.
