Reina licked her lips and stepped back, unsettled by their proximity. “Get some supper started. Celeste’s going to be hungry when she wakes up. And bring us some warm water,” she commanded.
“I don’t like that he’s here. Do you trust him?”
Reina couldn’t tolerate the doubt—not now. “Javier listens to his brother, and if the caudillo wants Celeste to be safe, then that’s what Javier will do.” Of this, Reina was positive. Still, Maior’s disappointment radiated in waves. There was reproach in her eyes, that her worries were considered inconsequential.
Reina hated seeing it, so she grasped Maior’s hands, reassuring. “He won’t lay a hand on you or Celeste.”
Maior’s eyes wrinkled, unsure.
“Remember? I’m your protector.”
Maior nodded and returned the squeeze. “You’re going to take me to Apartaderos when this is over,” she said with authority, which Reina interpreted as her appeasement.
“I promise.”
Maior’s eyebrows ascended farther.
Reina nodded, humoring her by doubling down on the reassurance. A warmth embraced her upon realizing Maior trusted her so. And a small part of her craved more.
“I’m hungry,” she said to lighten the mood. “Aren’t you going to make that tripe thing?”
“Mondongo,” Maior corrected pointedly, but smiled.
Upstairs, Javier greedily took Reina’s bowl, quipping about her being in his debt after this. He dipped his index and middle finger in the green galio solution. Then he waved his hand, tracing a two-dimensional diagram in the air above Celeste. Reina was sure if her veins still pumped with that bismuto high, she would be seeing the circular diagram he transposed over Celeste’s chest as a manifestation of light. For a fleeting second, Reina’s curious gaze fell on Eva, who was pressed against the opposite wall, watching Javier with her brows crunched up in horror. But before Reina could make sense of it, Javier lifted his hand away from Celeste, drawing out a ghostly apparition in her likeness, which glanced about the room awake and very much confused.
The magic in her, Reina thought.
Javier slammed the heel of his palm onto Celeste’s chest, hard, forcing the spirit back into her body. And Celeste took a sharp intake of air, coming awake.
“Reina,” Celeste uttered in her throaty voice, drawing tingles in Reina’s belly.
At once, Reina knelt by her bedside, taking her clammy hand.
Celeste’s eyes traveled to Eva, then to Javier. “Javier?”
“It’s a magical reunion,” he drawled.
Celeste sat up. “Does that mean… you’ve brought me back to Sadul Fuerte?”
“No,” Reina said before any doubt could seed in Celeste. “We’re in Gegania.”
The white of Celeste’s eyes doubled in size. Confusion, then anger, warped her face. “You brought him here?”
“What, she wasn’t supposed to?”
“Celeste, please.” Reina had braced herself for this moment and for all the others they would have if Celeste didn’t agree to come to Tierra’e Sol of her own accord. “He doesn’t know anything. I just needed him to get you back to normal.”
The tension in her elbows eased, her lips a thin line of disappointment not thorough enough to voice. She leaned back on the plush down pillows.
“What’s wrong? I’m hurt you’re not happy to see me.” Javier chortled.
Celeste’s eyes were two cold stones in the Páramo light.
“I only came to help you cope with homesickness,” Javier continued, his teeth showing beneath a wicked smile. “Didn’t you once tell me you could see Brother in my eyes?”
She rolled her eyes. “Trust me, it’s not a pretty sight.”
He laughed, which in turn loosened Celeste’s lips into a small smile that told Reina she was all right.
Maior entered the room at that moment. She carried a basin with steaming water and a moist cloth. Except… when Celeste saw her, Celeste’s eyes doubled in size. Reina recognized the dangerous intent in them a second before Celeste flung the wool blanket off her.
“You!” She sprang out of the bed, and Reina was quick enough to block her before she could pounce on Maior.
Restrained by Reina’s grip, Celeste said furiously, “What have you done to mi mamá?”
Collectively, the room held its breath, a silence that was broken by Maior’s shocked question. “What are you talking about?”
“Look at her!” Celeste beckoned the whole room to look at Maior. “She has her. My mom. Why is she mocking me with her?”
“Hey.” Reina shushed her. She draped her arms around Celeste, knowing exactly what she was referring to. Reina squeezed her reassuringly, hoping some of her warmth could serve as an anchor for Celeste. For she could only imagine what a torture it must be. She wasn’t blessed—or cursed—with valco eyes. If she got sick of seeing the ghost of Do?a Laurel, all she had to do was let the bismuto run its course until her body was cleansed of it. Without it, nothing about Maior looked extraordinary. But Celeste didn’t have that luxury.
“You’re talking about the woman haunting Maior,” Eva said, breaking her silence for Maior’s benefit.
“How could you disrupt her rest like that?” Celeste jabbed an accusing finger at Maior as Reina helped her down to the bed and sat beside her.
“You all can see her right now?” Maior’s eyes burned with self-preservation. Some of the basin water dipped and splashed as she backed away.
Javier kicked off the wall. He flicked a careless finger above Eva’s bangs, flicking away the curls concealing the stunted valco antlers crowning her. “We’re valco. We can see geomancia, be it good or bad.”
“Don’t touch me!” Eva swatted his hand away. She stormed away to linger by the doorway instead.
“And we can clearly see the shade clinging to you.”
Reina’s gaze followed Eva, and she understood. Javier hadn’t married just anybody. He went and found himself a valco bride.
Meanwhile, Celeste was fixated on the poor human, clutching her blanket like she was reeling herself in from pouncing a second time. “I buried my mother, and you’re telling me you bound her soul so you could—you could take it for—for what, exactly?”
“Celeste—listen.” Reina took Celeste by the shoulders, forcing her to face her. This close, Reina could detail the speckles of silver drowning in the blueness of her eyes, the blemishes that weren’t there before, the exhausted rings under her eyes. “This wasn’t her doing. Do?a Ursulina forced her into it. I know because I took Maior to her. When I saw her again—” Reina shook her head. “Do?a Ursulina said she was a gift for Don Enrique.”
Shock was red in Celeste’s face.
“A brilliant move played by the most terrifying sorceress of Sadul Fuerte,” Javier said, more interested in inspecting his fingernails than in Celeste’s distress. “We’ve all heard of this kind of geomancia, or should I say ‘void magic.’”
Celeste’s fury erupted, a vein bulging in her neck as she screamed at her uncle, “They’re just tales!”