Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
Lo
Lo lingered in front of the door to the Banker’s chambers. She could have knocked. Should have. He had the power to destroy the house.
But she didn’t trust him.
What if this was a trap? A play in his game. She refused to let herself fall as his pawn. And who was to say that she even needed him? “Give me the power that the Banker has. Show me how to get it,” she softly demanded and mentally willed it until her temples throbbed.
For a moment nothing happened, but then the red door at the end of the hall glowed bright. Like rubies dipped in starlight. That was where her answer led. She moved toward it.
With every step she took, the house rebelled against her.
The lights flickered and the floor shook underneath her feet, causing her to stumble.
The corridor shifted before her eyes, sometimes looking decrepit and destroyed, and other times filled with thick smoke making it hard to breathe.
But the one part that never changed was that door. She had to get there.
Finally she reached the door and pulled. To her surprise, it opened!
This was it. Her answer to destroying this damn place. She rushed through the threshold.
Only to find herself back in the same hallway. The same door behind her.
“No.” She tried to go through the door again, but it was the same result. The house creaked and groaned, but she swore someone was whispering in her ear.
Turn back.
Give up.
“Never!” she yelled. “I don’t care about the price, just let. Me. THROUGH!” With a growl, she pushed her way through the door once again—and stepped into a new room.
It was dim. Candles flickered along the walls. There was a scent that was disturbingly familiar. It grew progressively darker the deeper into the room she got. The candles’ glow grew weaker and weaker.
She could sense someone in the shadows.
He stepped forward.
Her heart froze.
Her father, Salvador de León, stood before her. Blood gushed from his head and throat, but he was alive, breathing, and sneering in that nasty way she knew all too well. “Surprised?”
Lo stumbled back. A bloody puddle formed under him, growing larger and larger by the second.
“Did you really think you could kill me so easily?” Her father came closer, shoes squelching through the blood. “Did you really expect Fortune’s Kiss to solve all your problems?”
Lo was stuck in place. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
“I’m just surprised you’ve lasted this long. A girl like you doesn’t have the wits for these games. Someone should have killed you by now.” He lunged for her.
Lo screamed and stumbled back. She turned and ran in the other direction. Pounding footsteps chased after her.
The room stretched before her, on and on. It felt endless. She passed the same candles on the wall. The same doors.
No! No matter how fast she ran, chest heaving and lungs burning, she wasn’t getting anywhere. Yet every time she looked back, her father was closer, arms outstretched and deranged grin growing.
If he caught her, he would kill her.
Lo stumbled to the nearest closet door. She bolted through it and slammed herself against the door, pressing it shut. Her father pounded against the door, trying to force it open.
She couldn’t stay like this forever. Eventually he would overpower her.
She searched for another escape, but when she glanced back, the candles flamed to life.
She wasn’t in a closet at all, but a room in the hacienda.
She was back home. “HELP! SOMEONE HELP!” she cried out as the door jiggled. Her father was forcing his way through.
But her sisters didn’t come running down the stairs. No servants dashed in from the kitchen. No one was coming to save her.
The door flew open, narrowly missing her face. She stumbled, but managed to stay upright and ran as fast as she could. She knew this place by heart, but of course so did her father. His fingers grazed the back of her gown, nearly taking hold of her.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!” She rushed through the kitchen, then into the dining room.
Her father sprinted ahead around the table, blocking her way.
Lo backed away, and he did the same. Each time she tried to move around the table, he mimicked her movement.
“Run as much as you want, but you aren’t getting away,” he shouted.
“And once I catch you, you’ll never leave my sight ever again.
” He smashed his fists against the table, knocking over empty glasses and plates.
Their shatters on the floor were as loud as gunshots.
“You’ll marry Juan Felipe and it’ll be a grand wedding.
” Church bells echoed through the room. “I told him to do whatever is necessary to make you submit. Oh, but don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll calm down once you start birthing children. Even Loretta did. For a little while.”
Lo gripped the table as a wave of nausea washed over her. The wail of a newborn baby grated inside her ears. Had the births of her and her sisters broken Mamá’s spirit? Or had her father tried to use them as leverage for Mamá to stay? The room spun.
If she married Juan Felipe and had his children, the cycle would continue.
And she would rather die than have that happen.
“Now get over here!” Her father flipped the table. Lo scrambled away from the shattering glass and thudding chairs.
He snatched her arm and slammed her against a shelf. A huge pot fell inches away from her and shattered. This was the spot where she had killed him. He was supposed to be dead.
“STAY AWAY FROM ME!” She pulled the letter opener out of its place in her bodice. She plunged it deep into his chest.
He stumbled back, releasing her. Lo yanked the dagger out. Blood sprayed everywhere, but she stabbed him again and again.
This was for the years of torment he had put her through. Stab.
This was for brainwashing her sisters with his conditional love. Stab.
For making Mamá his prisoner. Stab.
It was his fault she had left. His fault Lo was like this. His fault she was broken.
Stab.
Stab.
STAB!
At some point they both ended up on the floor, in a puddle of his blood.
Suddenly the room changed. She was no longer in the hacienda. The soft orange glow from hundreds of candles revealed that she was back in Fortune’s Kiss, red door once again looming before her like a prize earned with blood. The body didn’t belong to her father. Another man lay dead at her feet.
Lo gasped and clutched the bloodied letter opener tighter.
She couldn’t stay here. With trembling fingers, she pulled open the door and rushed through it.
Warm humid air curled around her as she stepped onto pearlescent tiles. Waterfalls flowed from the walls into a large pool. Milky beams of moonlight drifted down through the glass ceiling, reflecting off the water like a mirror.
Her shoulders drooped. There was nothing in here that could help her destroy the house. And yet—she couldn’t take her eyes off the pool. Her breath hitched and her heart raced. Something about it drew her closer.
She took off her shoes and descended the steps leading into the water. She dipped her toes in and felt her anxieties and rage swirl into something else: a delicious warmth that enveloped her skin. With a sigh, she closed her eyes.
A flicker of light caught her eye. On a nearby table, golden hair pins glimmered in the moonlight. There was no time to question it. She quickly pinned up her curls, then stripped off her dress and tossed the bloodied mess aside before descending into the warm waters.
This felt good. She could have stayed until the dark sky brightened with dawn’s pinky-golden glow. She was at ease. She wore no mask. Felt no need to pretend she was anyone or anything other than what she was right at this moment.
Gently she wiped the blood from her skin. Tendrils of pink swirled around her, and the waters carried it away.
As soon as she was certain that every last bit of blood had washed off, she looked up and gasped. The room had completely changed. Warm candlelight bathed the space, and altars surrounded her. The waters had turned gold. Glittering. Perfect.
She couldn’t quite understand it, but in that moment something inside her had changed. She knew things she didn’t understand yet.
Everything felt right.