“So what happened?”
“My sister set a curse on me, on this island, on the Calibans.”
“Are you a Caliban?”
Mayra laughed. She stopped walking and faced me. The candle shook forcefully in my hand as I took her in this time. She looked different, her skin darker, the sockets around her eyes even hollower, but more terrifying than anything else, she looked just like my grandmother. I swallowed, taking one step back, then another. It could be a coincidence. A lot of women on Pan and the surrounding islands looked like my grandmother. We were all Caribbean, after all. Something about Mayra’s expression, however, begged me to recognize her.
“You see me,” she said. “Finally.”
“I don’t understand.” My voice shook as the candle spilled out of my hand and toppled over the grass.
“Stupid girl.” Mayra threw something on the candle quickly, dust, sand—whatever it was ensured that the light was gone. “Are you trying to burn us all to death?”
“Are you a Guzman?”
“I am. I was. I denounced that name long ago, just like my sister denounced me.”
“Who’s your sister?” I could barely get the question out, my voice a whisper against the crashing waves.
“Maria Guzman.”
My grandmother? I brought my hands up to my mouth, cupping it as if to keep from screaming, but there was no scream lodged in my throat, there was nothing other than shock, and shock seldom held a sound. I stared at Mayra. Mayra Guzman, a woman I’d never even heard of, but was my grandmother’s sister. I searched deep in my memories for that name and came up blank. I searched for old pictures, anything that I might have seen and overlooked, but there was nothing.
“I held you when you were a baby. You won’t remember. I watched you as you walked home at night. You won’t remember.”
“The yellow eyes,” I whispered.
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
“Why did you watch me? Why did you visit after you’d been banished? How?”
“Carnival. It’s the only time of year we can roam as we please.” She smiled sadly. “Men, like River, are able to travel and roam the world as they please until it’s time for, as you call him, the Devil, to collect. Women aren’t as 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.