Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

WHEN I GET BACK TO la Sombra, I relay the spell to Sebastián by re- creating the diagram in my journal.

"I think the first drawing represents a picture of who we're trying to trap," I say, seated at my desk. "Then I have to eat a bunch of seeds and sprinkle my blood on the photo." I point to each drawing as I list off the steps. "Finally, we have to resurrect my aunt so she and Teo can chant No hay luz en Oscuro ."

"Was there any indication of the spell's location?" asks Sebastián, either ignoring or not picking up on my sarcasm.

"Isn't it just the castle?" I ask.

"A trapping spell needs anchoring to an object or a room," he says, standing over my shoulder. "A photograph alone will not possess that power."

Great. Another riddle.

I think back to Lala's journal entry. She wrote that the being who gave her the Book came up from the ground, but where was she…?

On her way to the jardín de sangre. I don't think she'd made it to the cathedral yet. Which means she was right above—

"The purple room," I say out loud. "That has to be where la Sombra's gateway to other worlds is located. It's where my sister crossed over, and it's where the being with the Book burst into the castle."

"It's the first space I remember," says Sebastián faintly, like he's deep in thought. "The crossing to this dimension is hazy, but that room stands out to me as the gateway."

"Its power must be why the purple room is hidden in the first place," I say. "I need to lure Antonela there so I can use the Book's spell to trap her."

That's where all this started, and it's where it has to finish.

"We are trapping her spirit, " Sebastián corrects me. " Para atrapar un espíritu means your sister must be in noncorporeal form."

"You mean I need to get her to leave Bea's body?" I ask, and Sebastián nods in assent.

There's only two ways that's going to happen: either Sebastián destroys her current shell, or Antonela has to believe she can move into mine. "We'll have to fake my death again," I say.

"Your sister will not be as easy to fool as your uncle. She risks too much entering the castle prematurely. She will not do so until she is sure the spell has broken."

"Then how do we convince her?" I ask, turning to face him.

"We will have to put on a good performance. I have to drink enough to weaken you, so she will believe the spell has sent me home and I am no longer a threat."

"Unless you actually disappear," I say ominously. "We have no idea what amount you need to drink to end the spell keeping you here," I point out. "Not to mention the fact that we're missing a key ingredient for this trapping spell— my aunt. And I'm not sure how I'll convince Teo to help—"

"You cannot," says Sebastián matter-of-factly. "He will die before he gives up on Antonela. I will be the one doing the chanting."

I frown at him. " How? You're not of Brálaga blood."

"I will explain later. First, we must get you those seeds."

We hurry down the stairs in silence, but as we're crossing the mirror room, I can't hold in the words anymore. "Teo said you can go home without killing me if you drain Bea."

"I know."

We reach the fork in the hallway and cut toward the windowless cathedral. "What do you think about that?" I prod.

"I think I already said I choose you over everything."

His words still warm me, but I can't help saying, "If you're staying because you don't want to hurt me, this is your chance to go, pain-free."

I don't slow down. It's like I can only have this conversation on the move, without having to meet his eyes.

"Estela," he murmurs, keeping pace with me easily. "Look at me."

I don't know why I can't. I quicken my pace as we cut through the string of barren, doorless rooms, toward the jardín de sangre.

"Tell me how you feel," his voice whispers in my ear. "If you want me to go, I will go."

I stop moving when I'm on the red rug, atop the purple room. Sebastián stands before me, his silver eyes piercing mine, fishing for the words that won't surface.

"I love you," I say at last, my voice thick with unshed tears. "And that makes me afraid that I'm going to lose you."

"You will not," he assures me without skipping a beat, "because I love you, too."

His statement is a symphony, and I will my eyes not to well with water.

"Yet at the moment," he says, embracing me, "I am more afraid of losing you."

The walls blur as he transports us to the cathedral. When he sets me down before the stone wall, I search the rocks for the right one. After a few seconds, he points it out to me.

I spill my blood to open the secret door to the shed, and I pull on boots to head out to the jardín.

I can hardly think of the hope I felt sprouting in here just two days ago, when Bea showed me this place. Now that future is gone, uprooted by Antonela, just like my old life with my parents.

Sebastián gives me a handful of seeds before ripping into a blood bag from the small freezer. After swallowing, I use the canister to blood the garden, the way I saw Bea doing.

I approach the plants that resemble legs and arms with toe-like flowers and drizzle blood over them. A wave of dizziness hits me, and I wonder if I took too many of those seeds.

I turn toward the tiny trees with bone-like trunks and tonguelike leaves, when I see the foliage start moving around me.

"Do you see that?" I ask Sebastián.

"Yes."

The garden is rearranging itself, the plants coming together to create a passage that ends in darkness.

"I think it wants us to follow," says Sebastián, and I nod in assent, too awestruck to speak. I feel the thrill of adrenaline, but I'm not afraid because I can't imagine anyone more powerful than the shadow beast. I feel safe at his side.

As we step down the passage, the foliage begins to entwine, until the lattice of body parts looks more like a cave wall.

There's light up ahead, and we approach a bonfire with the reddest flames I have ever seen. They look like they're made of blood.

"Welcome."

I look up in alarm as a tall hooded figure appears. Yet when I see them, some part of myself relaxes, as if they are intimately familiar to me.

"Who are you?" asks Sebastián.

They pull their hood back, revealing silver hair, and I gasp on recognizing my ancestor. "Brálaga!"

"Estela," they say, beaming. "Prince Bastian. It is an honor to make your acquaintances."

"The honor is ours."

I stare at Sebastián in shock. He sounds and even looks humbled . As if he knows who Brálaga is and respects them.

"Happy eighteenth birthday, Estela," says Brálaga. "I have met your twin, and I hoped to also meet you. It had been a few Earthly centuries since the last human crossed over to the other castle, and my curiosity was piqued."

" Centuries? " I echo in surprise.

"Your ancestors ended this tradition generations ago, after collecting enough data to determine this path led only to chaos and destruction—in the short run. Yet your uncle understands the need for sacrifice and was willing to continue the experiment."

"You mean he cursed us," I say, crossing my arms.

"From your perspective it seems like a curse. From mine, it is the price of evolution—and his gamble has nearly paid off. Your sister has come the furthest in re-corporealizing on Earth as a human-caster hybrid."

"That's what you want?" I ask. "For her to pass on her power to the next generation of Brálagas? You're trying to colonize humanity with your blood—"

"I already have. Now all that is left is for one of my children to reach up for my fire and bring it down to share with the others."

"You think Antonela is your Prometheus?"

"She has been most impressive," they say. "Using a Bleeder to cross dimensions? And of all Bleeders, she convinced the prince ? The plan itself is quite ingenious, but that Antonela actually executed it merits great admiration."

Their expression reminds me of how Sebastián— Prince Bastian —looked at my sister in her memories, and it makes me feel the same way I did then. Jealous.

"Of course," Brálaga goes on, "Antonela could not have predicted, nor could anyone, that in lieu of killing you, the starving Bleeder would fall in love!"

They chuckle, and the temperature in the air seems to rise, like they're beaming solar heat into the room. "It is quite a delightful tale."

I look around at the walls, wondering how Brálaga plans to crush us. I get closer to Sebastián to signal him to get us out of here. "If your hopes ride on Antonela's plan," I say to them, "then I assume you have come here to help her?"

"I do not interfere."

"I don't buy that. You could be waiting centuries again for the next human, and they might not even make it this far." I nudge Sebastián, but he doesn't move. I look up at him, and he frowns at me like I'm a misbehaving toddler in a movie theater.

"You assume Earth's linear timeline, and the pressures of a ticking clock," says Brálaga with a sympathetic smile. "I do not experience existence that way."

They come closer, and a bench grows in the center of the cave, large enough for the three of us to comfortably share. They sit first and pat the spot beside them for me to join. Sebastián remains standing, but I take a seat, if only to see my ancestor from up close.

They have a slight glow around them, and I wonder if this is even their real form. If I reached out, could I touch them, or would my fingers go through them?

"I no longer remember my beginnings," says Brálaga once we are side by side. "I do not recall the organism I once was, but by now I no longer think in the self-serving way you assume. I am no longer an individual. I have morphed into a new entity that transcends a physical shell. I am partly this garden, I am partly this castle and the other castle, I am partly all the Brálagas in the world. I am partly you. And constantly, I am expanding. I do not know what I am evolving into, or what happens next, just like any of you. Yet at this moment, I am a grandparent in awe of two human beings—and a Bleeder."

Brálaga looks at Sebastián. "You have surprised me, and that is hard to do."

"What happened to the other twins?" I ask, greedy for answers to my questions. "Matilda and Josefina? Araceli and Isabel? They only journaled once."

Brálaga nods, their expression grim. "Humans are very delicate," they begin. "It is an easy thing to forget when you have been raised in the other castle. Josefina drowned Matilda, thinking she could revive her body, but as drowning is a natural death, Josefina died on the spot as well. Isabel tormented Araceli by possessing and killing those around her, which had an unexpected and devastating effect—Araceli killed herself, thereby also killing Isabel."

I wonder how they will sum up my fate when this is over. "Do you know about the Book?" I ask, and Sebastián moves in, resting a hand on my shoulder. Something about the reaction makes me tense, as if the question has just endangered me.

"There will always be those who fear progress because they cannot see past the sacrifice it requires," Brálaga says, not exactly answering my question.

"The being who delivered it claimed your plan would destroy Earth," I say.

"Growth is death," says Brálaga, without elaborating. "I know you have many more curiosities, but as the hour of your battle nears, I must ask you to limit yourself to a few final questions."

I can barely breathe at the mention of my battle . Yet I force my gut to unclench, and I try to focus on this last chance to interview Brálaga. There is something I want to know about that only they can explain, so I ask, "What is la Sombra exactly?"

"A carnivorous castle," they say with a small smile, and the cave walls around us flutter with shadows.

As the animation unfolds, I see hundreds of silhouettes together in what appears to be the windowless cathedral. This looks like a party. As the figures cluster together to converse, dance, and eat, something starts to happen at the far end of the room.

By the back stone wall that leads to the jardín de sangre, the ground begins to dip. A gap widens between the floor and wall that looks like a mouth opening—

The celebration turns to hysteria as guests are sucked into the castle's belly.

"This soil is connected to the other castle, my home dimension, which is constantly trying to expand," explains Brálaga, their tone almost mournful. "If la Sombra were to feed on too much blood, the connection could become so strong that it swallows your reality. Yet that is not my intention for your world. While it is true that many will die if Antonela is successful in corporealizing as the first Earth-based caster, she will also be the mother of a new evolution of powerful earthlings."

" Will she be successful?" I ask, not expecting them to answer.

Brálaga's gaze slides from me to Sebastián, lingering on the shadow beast. "Why spoil the ending when it is so near? We will find out soon enough. I will be watching."

"What happens if Antonela and I die and Teo takes off?" I blurt. "There won't be a Brálaga left at the castle!"

"There are Brálagas everywhere, child. See for yourself."

Black veins surface across the cave, and I'm reminded of the other castle's walls. The veins draw a map of Earth's seven continents, and bloodstains pop up across each one, pooling mostly in Europe and the Americas. It looks like some sort of census map.

"Just as you did not know about this place, others are unaware of their Brálaga blood. Yet when I need to call on another branch of the family, I do."

The bench beneath me disappears, as does Brálaga. The cave walls and the census map are replaced with the foliage of body organs. The plants start to grow, until they're crowding our space and about to crush our bodies—

"Time to go!" says Sebastián.

His grip closes around me, and everything blurs as he whisks me away to safety.

Sebastián deposits me in a chair in the dining hall.

In just two weeks, this castle has managed to upend everything I thought I knew about the world.

He sets what's left of Beatríz's tortilla in front of me, and my appetite curdles at the memory of us cooking together. "You knew who Brálaga was," I say to Sebastián.

"Everyone knows Brálaga, the self-made god," he says, passing me silverware. "I still cannot believe we met them."

Self-made god. That's a term I never heard before.

Thinking of the way Brálaga looked at Sebastián when I asked if our plan will work, I ask point-blank: "What aren't you telling me?"

It takes him so long to answer that I almost get upset, until I realize he's nervous. I've yet to see the shadow beast like this.

"Among my kind, there is no stronger bond than the one forged in blood," he says, his voice taut. "The blood-bond is an eternal vow that means you are mine, and I am yours."

I catch a barely detectable quiver in his voice.

"You said it's for procreation," I say, halfway between statement and question.

"Not exclusively," he says. "It is also used when two Bleeders want to bind themselves to each other forever."

My heart seems to triple in size, threatening to crack its cage.

"If you were my blood-bound," he goes on, his voice as deep as a velvet night, "your blood would imprint on mine, and mine would imprint on yours. Bleeder blood will give you a boost of power for facing your sister, and our bond will hopefully keep me with you even if the spell breaks."

My chest feels too full to speak. Is Sebastián proposing ?

He takes my hand, but my whole body has gone numb, and I can barely feel his grip. "With your Brálaga blood in my system," he says, "I could perform the chanting required for the Book's containment spell. I would also have access to Brálaga-only spaces. Though I do not have a twin, my power more than equals that of two humans."

He's proposing to protect me. "Are you serious?" is all I can think to say.

"Must I repeat it a third time?" he whispers, pressing a kiss to my hand. " I choose you over everything. "

"But what if—"

"If your life were not in peril?" he injects. "Yes, I would still want you to be my blood-bound."

"Thank you," I say with a small grin. "But I was going to ask, what if I become one of you?"

His smile is like two stars colliding, and I feel blessed by the sight. "That will not happen. As I explained, Bleeders are born, not made. Once your sister believes I am gone and leaves her body to attempt entering yours, I can return and begin chanting."

"Unless the bond doesn't keep you here," I can't keep from saying. "Depends on if our love is stronger than her magic."

"I believe it is." His eyes are still giving off light. "After reading an entire bookshelf of romance novels, I gather this is how your kind does it."

Sebastián drops down on one knee, and I think I'm going to faint.

"Estela Amador Brálaga, will you be my blood-bound?"

The smile on my face is so monstrous that I can barely form the word. " Yes. "

His mouth meets mine.

I savor different flavors in his kiss tonight, many of which I've never tasted, and when I open my eyes again, we're standing in the lunar temple, surrounded by the words No hay luz en Oscuro . The day's dying light shines through the stained glass windows, illuminating all eight stages of the moon.

He brings my hand to his face. "With this drink," he says, "I seal my vow to honor and protect you."

I wince as his fangs break my skin and sink into my wrist. After he drinks my blood, he brings his own wrist to his mouth and bites.

"Your turn," he says, blood dripping down his chin.

I repeat what I heard him say: "With this drink—"

"Start with my name."

"Sorry, right. Um, Prince Bastian, also known as Sebastián."

He arches a brow as he offers me his wrist.

"With this drink," I say, "I seal my vow to honor and protect you." Then I press my mouth to the puncture wounds on his skin and suck.

New worlds explode on my tongue.

I had been expecting to taste metal, but instead I savor more unfamiliar flavors that are mind-blowing to behold. The kiss was just a shadow of Sebastián's taste, and when I look at him, I feel a shuddering in my body, a yearning to be closer.

Our mouths crash together.

I'm not sure when our shirts come off, but our chests are skin to skin, and I feel every part of him. His body thrums like a supercharged engine, purring with power yet taut with self-restraint.

"Can you take off your pants?" I ask.

He looks at me steadily as he warns, "Bleeders do not wear undergarments."

Blood rushes to my face, and his gaze strays to my cheeks.

"Consider me warned," I say, but when I take in the full breadth of him, I wonder if our bodies are even anatomically compatible.

His fingers stroke my inner thigh, inching higher with every caress, until he's stimulating me where I'm most sensitive. As his mouth finds my jawline, an irrepressible smile overtakes my face, and I reach down with my hand and grab him.

Sebastián's kiss stalls with surprise, and now my mouth overpowers his, enjoying the advantage. But before we get more carried away, I say, "I want you to promise me something."

He must hear the emotion in my voice because he slows down and meets my gaze. "What is it?"

"This could be the last thing I will ever ask of you. Will you do it for me?"

"Anything."

"If by some miracle I survive, and you see any signs of Antonela in me"—I swallow to clear my throat—"kill me."