Chapter 54 Ignacio
Ignacio
The ropes fell and Ignacio shot to his feet. He enveloped Esmeralda and squeezed her against his chest. “I love you.”
She peeled away from him. “I know, but we’ve got to get out of here.”
He nodded but noticed his father had yet to stand. His head was bowed low and his hand rested over his stomach. When he pulled back his arm, inky blood stained his palm.
“Father?”
“That damn bullet may have snapped my bindings, but now it’s lodged inside my gut.” The comandante met Ignacio’s gaze. “Get out of here, son. Go before it’s too late.”
But Ignacio couldn’t move. This man had committed the worst sort of atrocities, but he was still Ignacio’s father.
“Get him,” Esmeralda said. “I’ll grab Camila and meet you outside.”
Before he could argue against her plan, she bolted toward their friend, who was still lying on the ground.
The tent wobbled and rattled. Mirrors began to fall from the rafters.
Ignacio knelt, took his father’s arm, and wrapped it over his shoulder. Grunting, he forced his father to rise. His eyes cut to Esmeralda, who was nearly to Camila. He’d take his father out and then run back to help her.
“Quickly,” he spat. And the comandante obeyed.
They limped through the exit tunnel.
Tezcán’s face appeared within the mirrored archway. At first, it was a thousand small versions of the haunting mask. But then they became one massive face.
“Stop, Héctor,” Tezcán growled. His voice rumbled so low Ignacio felt it rattling within his core.
Father must have too, because he groaned in pain.
“You cannot break our bargain,” Tezcán said.
“I’m through with serving two masters. I will no longer be your or my brother’s lackey.”
“You will lose everything,” the god hissed.
“I do not care.” The comandante’s eyes met Ignacio’s. “I won’t let my son suffer for my mistakes anymore.”
“Then you have chosen damnation for you and your boy.”
The ground rocked. Father roared in anguish and his knees buckled. He clenched his belly.
Ignacio dropped beside him. “Come on, Father. We’ve got to keep going.”
“I can’t. But you must.” He grabbed Ignacio’s arm. “Go. Get out of here. Flee this country. Once the last of the mirrors breaks, everything we’ve built will be ruined. Our family will be exposed.”
“There is no we here. I tried to stop your vile war.”
“Whether you like it or not, you are my son. People will hurt you because of who you are to me.”
“I’m no one to you,” Ignacio snapped.
Father’s face contorted in anguish. “That isn’t true. You and your mother are—were everything to me.”
“Enough!” Ignacio barked. He scooped his father up despite his protestations and kept walking through the haunting hallway.
“I did meet your mother with the intention of stealing her title, but then I fell in love with her. How could I not? Your uncle grew mad when I told him I wouldn’t sacrifice her.
I tried to keep my past from her, but I kept finding little things she’d been given while on duty.
Pamphlets for the carnival. Books about Tezcán.
ángel was teasing me. Showing me how helpless I truly was to him. He was everywhere.”
Another firecracker detonated. The archway swayed. Tezcán’s screams pierced the air as the small mirrors lining the walls began to fall.
They needed to move faster. He had to get back to Esmeralda. She should be running out by now.
Through clenched jaws, his father said, “Your mother, clever woman that she was, figured out the clues ángel had left her. She learned of our deal with Tezcán. She wanted to help me, free me. She wanted to sever the magic that protected ángel. And she died for it. He is unstoppable. So, I did whatever he asked because I knew he might come for you next if I didn’t obey. ”
They were nearing the exit. People were gathered out front. Holding each other as the tent swayed and groaned.
“Why didn’t you just let me run away with Esmeralda back then?” Ignacio asked. “I would have been safe.”
“He would have found you. I thought it was better if Keara could watch over you while we tried to end him. But then you defected from the Blackbirds, and I knew my time was up. I turned my soldiers away from hunting the Defiant and slowed all active troops searching for the obsidian. I paid Jorge to infiltrate the carnival. With his help, we extracted Melanie the Marionette before he could sacrifice her to Tezcán. That left my brother weakened and desperate for a new act. I knew this was my chance. But I never wanted you here. I never wanted you to be part of what my brother and I have done.”
“And Esmeralda?”
His father said nothing.
“You were willing to let her be your pawn…again,” Ignacio snarled.
They finally passed through the entrance threshold and found the carnival in chaos.
Flames licked the rooftops of most of the tents and wagons.
Gondolas had snapped from their wires and crashed into booths.
Dawn was on the cusp of breaking. With the skies growing lighter, he could see that most of the glitter and gilded filigree that had once shimmered on each attraction had dulled.
Gabriel bolted forward holding a fuse box.
“Where are the girls?” he bellowed. “The entire place is about to blow!”