Fables & Other Lies - Claire Contreras Page 0,65

lucky. He is a man after all.” She pursed her lips. “During Carnival, I visit my sister, though I stopped letting her see me years ago.”

“Don’t you hate her for what she did?” I felt myself frown. I know I would and with everything I’d heard about her while here, I definitely was questioning what I thought I knew.

“I did in the beginning. When the island broke apart. When we were physically banished. I learned to forgive her. It was either that or fully give into his will and I wouldn’t lose more of myself to him.”

“Why are the Calibans involved?”

“Nicolas was best friends with Wilfred the first and was counting on Wilfred to help us be together. Of course, unbeknownst to us, Maria was already pregnant with your father.”

“She set the curse when she found out,” I whispered.

“Wilfred was driving Nicolas over to the Manor that night. He’d packed a bag and left a note. Maria must have suspected because she showed up before they even arrived. I wasn’t there, but she’d laid traps, worked a fire, and had already started burning my belongings, his belongings. Wilfred tried to intervene but only made matters worse. She took her anger out on him. Threw torches at his back, the fire burned through his clothes. It was awful.” Mayra’s voice seemed far away now, as if she was experiencing everything, but there was no emotion in her voice as she recounted the scene. “By the time I got there, Nicolas had left. To this day, I don’t know how or why he left.”

“Maybe he wanted her to calm down. Maybe he loved her.” Even though I didn’t remember my grandfather, I’d seen pictures of them together and they seemed happy.

“He despised Maria. They were only married because our father and his had come to an agreement. Marriage was still a business transaction back then.”

“She loved him,” I said. “Otherwise, she wouldn’t have cursed a friend or her own sister.”

“She was jealous of me.” Mayra laughed. “It doesn’t matter. That night, I bargained with the Devil and he turned me into this. I can’t die. I can’t sleep. I can’t find peace. I just roam. I roam and I sleep with married men, lonely men. Some I send back to their wives, changed, broken, looking for me in the woods most nights. Others, the terrible ones, I feed to him.”

“Is that what you’re doing now?” I licked my lips. “Feeding me to him?”

“It’s the only way. It’s the only way to break free of this.”

I nodded, looking into the darkness, closing my eyes to listen to the waves. Somehow, I’d suspected it would come to this. That I was too tied to this land to ever leave it. I hadn’t made peace with it, but I’d find a way to before I met the Devil. It was the only way, and in exchange, my mother would live, River would live. I opened my eyes and looked at Mayra. Her eyes were now glowing, as if the candle had burned into them. I wasn’t afraid, not really, but seeing that made me shiver.

“Will he kill me?” I asked.

“No. I suspect he’ll make a bargain. It’s what he does. It’s all he knows.”

“Why me?”

“Why not?” There was a sadness in her tone. She reached out and grabbed my arm, not forcefully, but with enough grip that I knew to start walking beside her again. “You’re the purest thing that’s stepped foot here in a long time. An uncorrupt soul is a rare find.”

“What will happen to you?” I wobbled, nearly tripping on a rock. She held me tighter so that I wouldn’t fall. “Will you be free?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what freedom looks like. I never have.” She let go of my arm when it felt like we reached steady, flat ground. She took out another cigarette and lit it. “How was it, life far away from the island?”

“It was nice.” I eyed her warily. “Maybe your freedom will buy you time away from here.”

“Maybe.” She seemed to smile at that.

Panic rose deep inside me when the terrain switched from damp grass and rocks to wet sand. Wet sand meant the water was much closer than I originally thought, and with the week coming to an end it also meant it would rise soon. Maybe Mayra’s plan was to kill me herself. Maybe all of this was a ploy to take revenge on my grandmother for what she’d done. Finally, she stopped