Page 87 of Fortune's Kiss
Alejandro leaped up and snatched Mayté’s hand, dragging her back under the table to the tunnel.“We need to gonow.”
We.That was the part that mattered most.
“Stop!”Misterioso roared.
She snatched up the calavera and her father’s portrait just before Alejandro pushed her into the tunnel.
“You can’t run—”
Alejandro closed the secret door, muffling the rest of Misterioso’s words.Clutching her father’s portrait and calavera to her chest with one hand, Mayté crawled as fast as she could.They were safe.But for how long?
EIGHTEENLo
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 solveallyour 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.
