Your father did that, Florence said, pointing to Mercedes’ mutilation, her horrible face. Your father also killed my son and never told me where he hid his body. He thought he had arranged your salvation, and his revenge. He also took away the girl, who was of blood. He always had contempt for us, always wanted to destroy us, oh, you could see it in his eyes, those yellow eyes, like a reptile’s. I trust that he is watching, from wherever he is, and he can see that we have done it. We have the medium he wanted to take away from us, we have you in spite of that efficient sign he marked you with. He always was more talented than intelligent. I feel sorry for him. A medium has too much responsibility. They are all dangerous, they all go mad.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” repeated Gaspar.

His grandmother came closer, and the words hissed from between her teeth:

“He didn’t want you to know anything, he hid your inheritance from you. Better that way, better. I think mediums should merely be instruments. Still, I’m going to tell you something, wise you up a little. I can’t stand those puppy-dog eyes of yours.”

Gaspar observed her skull. She was nearly bald. Very short shocks of hair spiked up from a barren desert. And the missing lips. She didn’t look fully human, and maybe because of that he didn’t find her horribly ugly, but rather interesting, like a fantastical animal.

“He never told you this, of course, but what the Order wants, and what you can give us—what you will give us, because we will force you—is immortality. I see you, Florence, shaking your head. Everything has to be exact with this woman. Really, we refer to it as maintaining consciousness on this plane. Keeping consciousness alive. That is achieved, as the Darkness has dictated, by transferring it from one body to another.”

Esteban came into the room as Gaspar stifled a laugh.

“What’s the Darkness?”

“It’s what took Adela,” Esteban answered, and Gaspar stopped laughing, covered his eyes with his hands, murmured you’re all crazy.

“There you go, you heard it straight from your father’s friend. Though your father also lied to you your whole life. We know you can open the Darkness like Juan did, and you’re going to do it for us. The Darkness tells us how to make that transfer and remain alive forever. Your father tried it with you, don’t you remember? It’s like the kid is retarded, don’t you think, Flo? What a shame, my only grandson is an idiot, and on top of that he lost little Adela, who did have promise, now that was a girl with character. Well then.”

Mercedes sat on the leather sofa near the window and turned up the room’s air conditioner with a remote control.