Act One - City of the Damned — Chapter 22

Stumbling home from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, David Martín’s brief sense of enchantment fades into nausea and pain. He reaches his tower study, leaves Lux Aeterna on the desk, and, resigned to his worsening illness, takes codeine before trying to rest. At the door he finds a cream envelope sealed with an angel emblem: Andreas Corelli invites him to dinner on Friday the 13th at a villa by Güell Park.

Believing he may not live that long, David retreats to the gallery and fixates on Cristina’s old photograph album, clutching an image of her as a child with a stranger. Exhaustion drags him toward a seductive darkness, but an inner voice refuses to let him go.

Over the following days, David drifts in and out of consciousness, occasionally hearing knocks and voices, tasting blood, and perhaps wandering the city. In a nocturnal vision, he finds himself near Santa María del Mar under a frozen curtain of rain and light as a foul, cold presence stalks him from behind.

At the brink, the girl from the photograph—Cristina as a child—seems to guide David away from the threat and back to the tower house. When he wakes, the seven days have passed and dawn breaks on Friday, 13 July, the day of Corelli’s summons.