Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

I SEE A MILLION VERSIONS of my sister, all overlapping, like a timeline splintering into a collage.

And I'm reminded of "El Aleph," a short story by Dad's favorite Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges. The Aleph is a point in space that contains all of existence, a window to the universe that's unfiltered and undistorted. It feels like I'm looking into it now.

Antonela is a little kid in some scenes and a preteen in others. I try focusing on a single iteration, and my mind hones in on a specific memory.

Antonela is joined by other young beings who appear to be of different species, yet they all wear the same gray cloaks. This seems to be some sort of school.

I would barely be able to keep my greedy eyes off my sister, except that she and the others are packed in a gathering hall that can best be described as alive .

The walls are bloodred and sentient, like a body organ. Black veins branch across them, seemingly connecting the castle's various chambers.

There is a palpable excitement in the air, and I hear some of the whispers.

"I cannot believe we are going to meet Grandparent!"

"Our lessons have never been disrupted for anything ."

"What do you think is happening?"

I understand it all as if they were speaking English, but something tells me I'm tuning in to la Sombra's magical audio setting and not the original language.

A tall hooded being sweeps onto the stage in a black cloak.

They say nothing, and yet the entire hall quiets, the being onstage commanding every molecule of air in the room. Their face is concealed, but their energy is boundless, and even I can feel the electricity they produce. It's like standing in the presence of a being so powerful that gravity warps around them.

And without explanation, I know who this is—

Brálaga .

"It does me good to see you, my grandchildren."

Their voice is hard to describe. It is even more otherworldly than Sebastián's and defies all labels and classifications. It is a voice that belongs to the ocean and the sky.

"Your faces filling this hall brings me great satisfaction. You have made me proud with your efforts in your training, and now I am honored to announce that your graduation approaches."

Whispers break out, and it's clear none of the students have heard this word or concept before.

"This castle exists outside of time and space," says Brálaga, and as I look from Antonela to the others, their confusion seems to only deepen. "You are unfamiliar with these concepts because this castle is all you know, and you have been following the same routines your whole lives. This is your world, and none of you knows what it looks like from the outside. You have never breached its walls."

I have never seen a more silent or confused audience in my life. Everyone seems dazed, as if they did not know there was such a thing as before or after —just an infinite present.

"I built my home as an interdimensional haven for my descendants," Brálaga explains. "You have seen how outsiders are constantly trying to break in. When a foot or a fist or a tail punches through the beating walls of our home, we wrestle it back. That is why you, my grandchildren, must train and make yourselves strong. Yet a few of you, the best of you, will be chosen for a different mission. You will join me beyond the castle walls."

The silence reaches a deeper volume, and the room grows quieter and louder at once. As I study Antonela and the others, I can tell that until now, this castle was everything. Nowhere and nothing else existed.

Now—just like that—everyone feels the pressure and hope of chasing a goal.

This is their first experience of time .

"Those who are chosen will no longer go by grandchild, " says Brálaga. "They shall be given their own name."

Talking breaks out, and when I look back at the stage, Brálaga is gone.

A classmate with fiery crimson hair and feathery wings that stick out from their cloak leans toward my sister and says, "No way you get chosen."

"They could get chosen," says a boulder-like being with one panoramic eyeball. "As the worst Brálaga grandchild of all."

The two of them snicker. I hate them already, but I can't deny that my sister's human body isn't all that impressive compared to the others here. All she has that looks dangerous is her jagged front tooth. She's even physically smaller than her classmates, giving off runt-of-the-litter vibes.

Despite all this, Antonela puffs out her chest and says, "My blood is the same as yours."

Red glowers. "You do not belong here."

My sister seems to have heard this taunt before because she doesn't appear hurt. If anything, she looks intrigued .

Almost like after hearing this insult too many times, she started tuning it out. But with Brálaga's announcement, the words hit different.

Less insulting and more promising. And I can almost read the question on Antonela's mind— What if I don't belong here?

In the next scene, my sister is with a couple dozen kids, all of them bigger than her. They're in a round room with mirrored walls, staring at their reflections.

Her classmates have similar physiologies to humans, but with otherworldly features that Antonela lacks. Beyond the fact that some have wings or scaly skin or horns, everything from their expressions to their movements to the way they speak gives off more savage vibes, like Sebastián.

As they stare into the mirrors, the students' reflections begin to morph. Red turns their tresses into black vipers, while Cyclops grows a second eyeball on their head. Their physical bodies don't change, just their reflections.

"Is that your glamour?" asks a tall hooded figure who towers over everyone. They wear a black cloak, but they keep their hood up, veiling their face. I assume they're the instructor.

I only realize they're referring to my sister because everyone else is staring at her, too. In the mirror, my sister's reflection has barely changed.

All she's managed to do is fix her chipped front tooth. She looks like me .

"I can help," says Red. With a flick of their hand, a gash slices across my sister's cheek in her reflection.

Antonela gasps, lifting her palm to her face. When she pulls it away, there's blood on her fingers. The redhead actually cut her.

"I can help, too," says Cyclops. With a tilt of their head, a horrible snapping sound fills the air, as Antonela's right knee bends at a painful angle. She cries out in agony and falls to the floor.

"Stop!" I shout, running over to shield my sister with my body, but no one can see or hear me.

Another student shears off her hair, while someone else blinds her in one eye, turning the brown iris white.

I look to the hooded figure in desperation, but the instructor watches stoically, as if this is part of the lesson.

I have to turn away from my sister's suffering because standing powerless as she's tortured is more than I can stand. I'm going to tear my eyeballs out if I don't get out of here right now. I don't want to see more. I want this to end—

"That is enough."

The students disperse, and the instructor approaches Antonela, who's writhing on the floor, bloodied and bruised and bald. As they move their hand across my sister, she begins to heal and revert to her original form.

"You are not a naturally gifted spellcaster," says the instructor. "I would advise you to focus your energies on perfecting one technique. It is better than being terrible at everything."

Antonela stays on the ground, her breaths shallow, eyes wide from the trauma.

"It was for your own good, you know," adds the instructor in a lower register, without helping my sister up. "We must cure you of your humanity before it kills you."

I don't want to see anything else. I don't need to watch more scenes like these to get the picture. I want to end the spell and leave this place as soon as possible.

But if I do, I'll never know the rest of Antonela's history.

After what she's endured, the least she deserves is for someone to bear witness. As her twin, I owe her this much.

So I kneel beside her. Even if this isn't happening right now and she can't sense me, I don't want to leave her alone. I search her eyes, expecting to find her expression distant and defeated—but to my surprise, she seems focused and determined.

She looks like me when I've found a new lead.

My sister begins staking out a particular door that I learn is a place called the Atrium.

It seems to be off-limits to students, since only larger beings in black hooded cloaks ever go through the door.

Her hood over her head, Antonela stands in front of a thick black vein that cuts across the fleshy red wall, her gray cloak almost blending in with the background. She watches as instructors come in and out of the Atrium.

She waits until the hall has completely emptied, then she peels away from the wall and steps into the open. It looks like she's going to try the Atrium door—

There's a flutter of movement nearby, and Antonela freezes.

Someone else is here, and they seem to have materialized from thin air, like they were concealing themselves with a glamour. Antonela ducks, and I hope she hasn't been spotted.

Not one but two someone elses step up to the Atrium door—Red and Cyclops. They approach quickly, like they're attempting the same break-in as my sister.

Cyclops grabs the doorknob. When they twist, blood drips down their hand. The door doesn't budge.

"My turn," says Red. Their blood joins their friend's on the doorknob, but again it does not twist.

"What are you doing here?"

We all stiffen at the instructor's voice, even me, and I'm not technically here.

"Nothing," says Red quickly.

"Only full-fledged casters can open this door, and as talented as you may be, you have more to learn," says the instructor. "Now go!"

My sister waits until the hall is empty to take off. Yet as she peels away from the wall, the wall pulls her back.

A pair of hairless arms wrap around Antonela's torso. An outsider trying to break into the castle.

She sucks in her lips to keep from shouting as she summons her strength to break free. I see the effort on her face as she struggles, yet she is not as strong as the others, and her body is starting to go through the fleshy wall—

My sister bites down on one of the arms, and blood squirts out, her pointy tooth breaking through the skin. As the grip around her loosens, she wrestles her way free, then she breaks into a run.

Red and Cyclops are right that Antonela will never be chosen.

My sister is aware of this, too. I know her thoughts as clearly as I do my own. The only way she's getting out of here is through the Atrium—and for that, she will need an instructor's blood.

Antonela and her classmates are with their hooded instructor in a forest of limb-like foliage. In lieu of flowers and leaves, they sport mushroomlike growths that look like tumors and teeth. The forest is a vast and wild version of the jardín de sangre.

My sister is the first to shoot into the foliage, escaping the pack as quickly as she can. She knows exactly where to go, navigating the woods like it's a neighborhood she has visited many times.

Antonela slows down when she approaches a small bush made of fingerlike plants studded with flowerlike black mouths. She extends her hand slowly toward one of the black bulbs, and when she is close enough to touch, the black lips part and bite down on her index finger.

Blood trickles from her skin, and as the mouth sucks it, like a mosquito, Antonela uses her other hand to snap it off the vine. Then she grips the black lips and twists them shut, sealing in the ball of blood.

I know what she's thinking: now she just needs a way to get close enough to an instructor to get a sample of their blood. That way she can use it to open the Atrium door.

Antonela drops the bloated mouth, and it bursts on the ground. She approaches the same plant again, and this time she catches a mouth-flower unawares, before it can bite. She stuffs it into her cloak pocket, where it can't cause any damage.

As she spins to leave, she comes face-to-face with Red.

Cyclops is there, too, along with the rest of their friends. "Where were you so eager to go?" asks Red.

Antonela shrugs and tries to go around them, but Red's entourage blocks the way.

"Show me," Red insists.

My sister takes a step back, and from the way her gaze darts around, it's clear she's going to run—

Two classmates come up from behind and grab her arms, so she can't move. She struggles against them. "Let me go!"

Red smiles as they reach into Antonela's cloak. "Let us see… what are you hiding in— Ow! "

They fling the black mouth off their finger, blood squirting the air, and it lands out of sight. Red rounds on my sister, glowering and revealing pointy fangs.

"You did that on purpose!"

Antonela gets blasted into the air like a rocket.

Her classmates cheer, and as she cries for them to stop, they divide into teams and toss her between them like a ball. Red's team "misses" and she crashes on the ground.

Before she can catch her breath, my sister is flung back into the air and tossed again and again and again.

Until she loses consciousness.

Antonela awakens in a recovery room in what looks like an open coffin.

She sits up, registering where she is and what is happening. Her body is bruised and bandaged, but still she rises.

She leaves the room and makes for the Atrium again, only this time, she does not hide. She openly stares at the door, like she is past caring about getting caught.

Antonela reaches for the doorknob. She does not even flinch as thorns break the skin of her hand, blood trickling out as she twists…

And the door opens.