Page 78 of Castle of the Cursed
“How do I know you didn’t help your brother with the subway spell, just like you did the black fire?”
“I told you, the subway wasn’t a spell,” she says with a bite of impatience.
“How do you know—?”
“Because I’ve refused to do magic since Antonela died,” she says in a rush. “Teo needs his twin to perform spells. He hates me for keeping magic from him, but I thought it was for the best.”
“That’s not true because he did magic two nights ago,” I say. “He took my blood using your equipment, out in the woods, under the full moon. Felipe was there.”
She shoots up so fast, she knocks over her glass of water, and the liquid pools across the wooden tabletop. “When were you going to tell me this?” she demands, ignoring the spill.
“How am I supposed to trust you when you were forcibly drugging me days ago?”
“That’s not—” She sighs and shakes her head. “I’ll explain later. Right now, we need to find my brother. Maybe we should search the castle, then the woods—”
“No need,” I say, cutting her off. “I know where he’s been staying.”
Beatríz bundles me up like we’re going to the North Pole.
As we walk together to town, my gaze darts to every corner, expecting Teo to jump out at us. I catch Beatríz doing the same thing, so I know I’m not alone in my alertness.
“We should stop by the bookstore to check on Felipe,” I say.
“You said Arturo told you he went out of town.”
“But what if Teo—?”
“Felipe must have panicked after what happened in the woods, and he went to stay with friends out of town to avoid questioning.”
“If you knew Felipe,” I argue, “you’d know that anything to do with la Sombra can only draw him closer.”
Beatríz doesn’t answer me, but when we get to the town plaza, she swings open the door to Libroscuro. “Hola, doctora!” says a smiling Arturo. “Veo que ha vuelto del congreso. Muy bien.”
“Gracias,” says Beatríz, and I smile from her side, grateful she’s here to do the talking. “¿Está disponible Felipe para darle clases a mi sobrina?”
“No, sigue de viaje el chaval,” he says with an apologetic smile. “Por una vez que se toma un descanso, no se lo iba a negar.”
“Seguro. Bueno, hasta luego.”
When we’re outside, Beatríz asks me, “What did you get from that?”
“He’s still traveling, and Arturo didn’t want to deny him a longer break?”
“Good,” she says, sounding pleased with my translation. We reach the clínica, and she unlocks the door. Tension tightens my muscles.
We search the whole place in moments, but Teo is not here anymore. It’s only when we regroup by my computer that we find the five-word message he left us, on a sticky note he stuck to the monitor:
Help me bring Antonela home.
12 YEARS AGO
“LET’S GO,” SAYS MY SISTER in Spanish.
She’s shaking me awake in bed.
“Now?” I ask, my throat thick with sleep.
“Look.”
