Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

"OKAY," I SAY, ONCE WE'RE in the library. "We can stage it here."

I get the syringe from my hoodie pocket and uncap the needle. Then I drop to the floor, my limbs sticking out at odd angles, thigh concealing the weapon in my right hand. A shadow falls over me, and I feel Sebastián's chest pressing down.

"What—?"

"Shh," he whispers, his lips by my neck.

I gasp in pain as his fangs bite down, drawing blood. He doesn't drink, only punctures my skin to make the scene more convincing.

He licks the blood off his teeth. "Delectable," he whispers before vanishing. I let my head loll to the side so some blood trickles across my neck.

"He's almost here," Sebastián whispers. "Take smaller breaths."

I can just make out the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, but I'm looking away from the entrance so I don't see Teo walk in. But when I hear his sharp intake of air, I know he's seen me.

"?Pero es de día!" But it's daytime!

I open my eyes to see that Teo isn't staring at me.

He's gaping at Sebastián .

The shadow beast lifts my uncle by the neck, and I leap to my feet, shouting, "Stop!"

Teo glares at me, seeming more upset by my signs of life than his own impending doom. He looks like he would speak, except his throat is being crushed.

"Put him down," I say to Sebastián. " Please. "

To my surprise, the Iron Prince obeys me. Once Teo is on the ground, he stumbles back against a bookshelf.

"Antonela said we would not be able to see or touch each other," he says, staring warily at Sebastián. "What's changed?"

La Sombra's seeds are rewriting the rules.

Neither of us says it, but I know Sebastián and I are both thinking it. He can appear in the daytime. He can step out on the tower's balcony. And he can interact with Teo.

If the plants' healing qualities can curb the sharp edges of a spell… maybe they can do the same for a curse. Is that why Bea wanted me to take them?

"You're the one with all the answers," I say to Teo, holding up the syringe threateningly. "You tell us."

"If you keep me here, she will know you're alive," he threatens me back.

"But she won't know Sebastián is here," I say, crossing my arms, "waiting to strike as soon as she walks through the door."

Teo's lack of retort exposes his concern, and Sebastián presses him, "Why is she afraid of me?"

"She fears no one," says Teo, squaring his shoulders like defending Antonela makes him more powerful. He looks at me, and I see no love in his eyes. He's Antonela's champion through and through.

"Your sister is going to be the first Earth-born bruja, and our bloodline will be the most important that ever lived." His brown eyes beam bright with Felipe-like fanaticism. "I know it's hard to hear, but she is a marvel. After all she's been through to survive, are you going to let her die, just so you can play house with a creature who doesn't belong here? What happens when you grow old or sick or he gets bored—?"

" She killed your sister! " I roar, reaching for any trace residue of love for his twin. "She killed Bea! Your twin who loved you and was willing to give up everything just to save you—"

"But she wouldn't give me the one thing I wanted."

"You mean magic ?" My eyebrows are at my hairline. "You read the journals, you know the entries better than anyone, and you still don't get it? She was protecting you! Don't you see? Look what you've become!"

I shake my head in disgust, and I hate that tears burn my eyes because he doesn't deserve them. "You chose the wrong ally, Teo. Whose body do you think Antonela will use next, after…?"

I can't even finish the sentence.

"Bea may not have accepted it," he says, filling in her name for me. "But from the moment we sent Nela to the other castle, we owed her our submission."

He is unflinching in his devotion. He is Antonela's loyal soldier to the end.

"What about me?" I hear myself ask, and I didn't expect to sound so young.

"You got to live ." His eyes grow Felipe-like again in their intensity. "You traveled beyond this castle, this town, this country—you got to cross the ocean and grow up free of this place's shadow!"

"So, this is it then?" I ask, my voice still small. "You've chosen sides, you love my sister, and now you want me to die. No pity or help for me. Is that right?"

I hate that it hurts.

This man with my aunt's face, my mother's brother, has yet to express a single ounce of love for me. Yet he's willing to die for my sister—the girl he murdered.

"I'm sorry, Tela," he says, for the first time actually sounding it. "You deserved better."

"I'm not asking you to betray Antonela," I say, boxing out Sebastián and moving in to make the conversation feel more intimate. "All I'm asking for is a chance. I deserve to fight for myself. For my life."

As I say the words, I realize I couldn't say them with the shadow beast's gaze on me. Not with how careless I've been about my life around him.

I came to Oscuro feeling so cavalier about surviving the Subway 25, convinced I was an oversight that could be corrected at any moment. And thirteen days later, I'm fighting for a future I could never have envisioned.

"What is it you think I can do for you?" Teo asks me, and I have to blink a few times to clear the moisture from my gaze.

"Explain to me why my sister can't possess me like she did Bea."

"Magic is inherited in pairs. You share power as a unit and are meant to keep it in balance. Antonela can only inherit your body if you are gone and the body still functions."

Something isn't right.

I think back to what she revealed to me about the spell: When Bastian drains you, he will return to his realm, and I will be released into your body. Then the same spell that took our parents' lifeblood will return it to me.

"If Sebastián kills me," I say, frowning, "how will my body still function?"

Teo looks like he's said too much, but I can't let him go silent now. "He doesn't need to drain me then," I theorize out loud to gauge my uncle's reaction, his face close enough to read. "The spell is triggered to send Sebastián back home when he drinks just enough of my blood to stop me, but not kill me."

Teo's eyes widen for a flash, just as his twin's did when I exposed her secrets. "There must still be blood in your system for Antonela's regeneration spell to work," Teo admits, and the shininess of his eyes betrays his excitement to share this knowledge.

"Magic that is only possible because she sacrificed my parents' blood," I remind Teo. "She killed both your sisters."

"Why is she afraid of me?" Sebastián moves in again, and between us, we're completely blocking Teo's path.

"She's not," says my uncle.

"Lie again, I dare you," says Sebastián, glaring at Teo in a way that makes me nervous. "What happens if I drink Antonela's blood while she is in possession of a body?"

Teo doesn't answer.

"Estela, leave." Sebastián's shadows spread across the bookshelves, his darkness expanding as his stare narrows on Teo's neck.

"Okay," I say, and I step back like I'm going to obey. "Goodbye then—"

I walk toward the exit, hoping my uncle gives us something right now, because I trust Sebastián to go through with his threat—

"Wait!"

I stop and turn to see that Sebastián already has my uncle's neck in his jaws. He retracts his fangs and lets Teo speak.

"If—if you drain a body in Antonela's possession, the spell breaks, and you return home."

Sebastián looks at me. That's why my sister ran from him.

"She can't risk you leaving," confirms Teo. "You are her only chance for success. If you take that from her, she will take the whole world from Estela. She will publicize Felipe's death, tell everyone where to find the body, awaken la Sombra's bloodlust—"

Teo's head slumps to the side.

I didn't even see the injection go in. Sebastián tosses the empty syringe to the floor, and I guess I should be grateful he stabbed my uncle with a needle and not his fangs.

"Antonela will just use him as another vessel," he warns me. "It is not in your best interest to let your uncle live."

I know he makes a valid point, and he's only thinking of our survival. Yet I can't help wondering if he's also looking for an excuse to rip into a fresh vein and drink.

"I had more questions to ask him," I say. "I wanted to know about the Book—"

"He is not going to help you defeat your sister. He serves her now. We should keep reading the journals to see if anyone else wrote about the Book… or perhaps you can reach out to Felipe's family and ask them directly?"

"No way can I talk to them! It was hard enough lying to Arturo today. I kept thinking of Felipe in the forest asking me to forget the black smoke and run. I should have agreed then—"

There's no water in the fountain.

Felipe said those words to me right before Teo struck. I thought it was gibberish from the fear, but what if it was a clue about the Book?

"I need to go to the town plaza," I say, my mind whirring. "I think that may be where the Book is hidden."

Sebastián looks out the window, and I'm sure he's going to tell me it's not safe, my sister could intercept me, I shouldn't leave his protection—

"It won't get dark for another couple of hours," he says. " Hurry. "

I nod, glad I've earned his trust. But has he earned mine? I glance at Teo, worried about leaving him here. Sebastián looks at me like he can read the fear on my face. "I will not kill him while you are gone."

I could do without the while you are gone part, but I take the small assurance and run.

When I make it to the plaza, I'm relieved to see Gloria feeding the pigeons as usual. Yet as I approach, I feel a punch to the gut because she's Felipe's great-grandmother, and she doesn't know he's gone.

"Felipe no está, angelito," she says to me. Felipe is not here. When I get closer, I see the wetness on her cheeks.

My tongue feels numb, and I don't say anything.

"Ha regresado tu tío," she says, one corner of her lip pulling up in a sneer. Your uncle is back.

I nod in assent. "Estoy buscando algo. Es un libro." I tell her I'm looking for a book.

"Me imaginé," she says, as if my request makes perfect sense. "Mi marido me dijo que algún día podría venir alguien a buscarlo. Desde que regresaste a Oscuro, me imaginé que serías tú."

Her husband told her that one day someone might come looking for the Book. She says ever since I returned to Oscuro, she imagined it would be me. Her husband was most likely the great-grandfather who told Felipe about Brálaga magic. He must have told his wife, too.

"?Dónde está el Libro?" I ask for the Book.

She points to the oxidized statue of Brálaga holding the pitcher that should be pouring water. I climb onto the lip of the fountain, and I get as close as I can to the coppery figure, then I reach a hand inside the pitcher.

It's empty.

I glance back at Gloria. Her finger is now pointing down.

I look in the fountain's pool. It's empty save for leaves, feathers, dirt, and other small debris. There are cracks along the inner bowl walls, and some of the fissures are thick enough to stick in my hand. I flop onto my belly and reach down, digging inside the gaps to feel for the Book.

I keep moving around the pool, shoving my hand into each fracture, but I don't find anything. I'm just about to look up at Gloria for another clue, when my fingers close on something hard and thin. I pull it out into the late afternoon light.

The Book.

It's real.

I open the red cover that bears the castle's crest, and I find a wispy, withering piece of paper with a note written in ink too faded to make out anymore. But I remember what it says from Lala's entry. This is the note that told her to take the Book far from the castle and entrust it to someone not of Brálaga blood. It's the reason Felipe's family became the Book's keepers.

I flip through the ancient, stiff pages, but they're all blank. I turn them faster, expecting the paper to cut my skin and my blood to unlock a coded message, but nothing happens.

This isn't magic. It's an ordinary book.

My heart plunges with disappointment as I leaf through empty page after page—until at last, I strike ink.

The message is one sentence long:

Para atrapar un espíritu. To trap a spirit.

I turn the page and find a diagram made of three stacked boxes:

The first contains a small round portrait of a person's face.

The second features two elements, side by side. On the left are five black seeds from the jardín de sangre, and on the right are three red drops that look like they're meant to be blood.

The third box shows two figures with an air bubble above them that says in perfect calligraphy: No hay luz en Oscuro .

I stare at the diagram for as long as I dare, until the sun hangs too low in the sky. Then I carefully place the Book back in its hiding place.

"Gracias," I say to Gloria.

"Que Brálaga la bendiga," she says, tears still rolling down her cheeks as she stares in la Sombra's direction.

May Brálaga bless you.