Page 86 of Fortune's Kiss
He was actually smiling.
When was the last time she had seen her father truly smile?
“B-but how …” She picked up the card, El Borracho, and let it slip between her fingers.Then she grabbed the calavera.It looked normal enough.A crisp white painted with colorful flowers and patterns.The most striking part was the bright purple mustache.But the longer she stared at it, the more the colors drained and dulled.A brownish liquid leaked from the mouth and dribbled onto her arm.It reeked of rancid spirits.“H—he’s alive …”
“Then he must have forfeited,” Alejandro said, voice soft and hesitant.“Did—did he suddenly stop being the person you knew?”
Mayté slowly nodded, too stunned to wipe her arm.“He lost our family’s fortune, but wouldn’t say what truly had happened.He would hardly say anything at all.He became a deadbeat, frequenting the cantinas and binging on drinks spiked with strange potions.Always accumulating new debts he couldn’t pay off.”
“Fortune’s Kiss stole away his drive and ambition.”
All the misfortune, the humiliation, burdens, fear of an unstable future: it was because of Fortune’s Kiss.
This place was supposed to be her salvation, but it was the very thing that damned her family.Her throat tightened as she held the frame and calavera to her heaving chest.All these years, she had gobbled up the lies of this place like sweet little corncakes.Now she was trapped—with poison eating away at her.The true price of entry was the house’s best-kept secret.She still remembered the way the people who decided not to compete seemed to be magically deluded into thinking they had been turned away.It was the only way to keep naïve fools like her coming in.She and Carlos came here to break the cycle in the only way they could imagine, but instead they were pawns destined to continue it.
Unless she did something.And she would.Somehow.She had lost enough to this cursed place.
Lo’s mother was surely among the pictures of those defeated.Mayté wasn’t sure if she wanted to look for her.Would telling Lo the truth behind her mother’s death give her closure, or just add to the torment?
Before she could decide, the doorknob jangled.Alejandro snatched her arms and pulled the both of them under the table just as the door opened.Alejandro practically folded himself over her, so he could snatch her long robe and pull it closer.The two of them were a tangle of arms and legs.Mayté’s heart pounded hard.Too scared to even breathe, she pressed her cheek against his chest.
A pair of long legs clad in white pants stepped into the room.Misterioso.He took a few steps, clearly looking around.But why wasn’t he leaving?This room wasn’t particularly big.
Alejandro let out the softest of curses and turned to the wall, pressing his hand into different spots.Soon the wall melted away, revealing an opening.A secret passage?He pushed Mayté toward the opening.
“Alejandro,” Misterioso growled.
Mayté’s heart dropped.Alejandro squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth.
“I know you’re in here.”Misterioso stopped in front of the table where they were hiding.If Mayté had reached out, she could have grabbed his leg.Dios, at any moment he could peer under there and see them.“I know you’ve taken my keys as well.Do you truly think it’s wise to poke your nose where it doesn’t belong?”
Alejandro shoved Mayté toward the tunnel.Go,he mouthed.
And you?Mayté mouthed back.
He shook his head harshly and glared, dark-rimmed eyes wide with urgency.Then, before she could stop him, he stepped out from under the table.
“I’m right here.I’m sorry.I just couldn’t wait to see what—”
Crash!
Mayté bit back a scream as glass shattered.She should have gone into the tunnel, but she peeked out from under the table just in time to see Misterioso yank Alejandro by the collar, pulling him from a pile of broken photograph frames and other shattered trinkets.Already Alejandro’s cheek glowed bright red.
“What were you doing in here?”Misterioso’s voice boomed.He violently shook Alejandro, slamming him into the table.More and more trinkets shattered.“You broughtherin here, didn’t you?You’re in on this too!ANSWER ME!”
He’s going mad.
Sickening chills ran down her spine.
“I—” Alejandro let out a strangled gasp when Misterioso grabbed his neck.Alejandro’s face reddened before slowly turning blue.
“If you’ve done anything to jeopardize the game, I’ll—”
“NO!”Mayté dropped the calavera and portrait and darted out from under the table and slammed into Misterioso’s back.“Let him go!”Frantic, she pounded her fists against his back, but he still wouldn’t release Alejandro.“Stop!Stop!”She reached up for his face, aiming for the eyes, and ripped at his mask, nearly pulling it off.
Misterioso howled, and Alejandro collapsed, coughing.
Mayté stumbled back as Misterioso dropped to his knees and frantically covered his face.
