Chapter 56 Ignacio
Ignacio
Ignacio whirled around to face the Big Top.
A lone form limped out of the entrance.
Camila.
His heart sunk.
“Where’s Dovie?!” he yelled.
Camila shook her head. “She…she said she would be right behind me.”
Ignacio started for the Big Top, but his father snatched his arm.
“Don’t. The entire arena is crumbling.”
“I’m not a coward like you,” Ignacio snarled. “I don’t let the people I love die.”
Ignacio tore out of his father’s grasp and bolted into the darkness.
“Please!” he heard Esmeralda cry.
Ignacio’s already fast pace quickened at the pure terror in her voice.
The moment he entered the tent he found her.
ángel was holding Esmeralda down. That blasted hand mirror in his clutches.
Ignacio tucked his head in and ran. But it wasn’t he who made it to the ringmaster first.
His father had somehow found the strength to run at full speed. He roared as he rammed into ángel, and the brothers went flying back.
Esmeralda scrambled to her feet and staggered forward. Her eyes lifted, and she found Ignacio. A sob escaped her lips, and he thought his heart might shatter like the stone underfoot. He never wanted to hear her cry like that ever again.
She crashed into him. Her arms wrapped around his neck as if he were her only hope in the world.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Ignacio said while the two brothers fought for dominance.
“Wait.” Esmeralda grunted as she bent down and plucked up the ringmaster’s mirror. “You must end it,” she said. “This is your family, after all.”
“No,” he replied. “You are.”
But he shattered the piece nevertheless.
The center beam cracked. Slowly, it began to buckle.
“Go!” Father bellowed. “Now!”
Ignacio scooped up Dovie and ran.
The tent fell as soon as they exited the hallway of broken mirrors.
Gabriel hit the fuse box and the tunnel exploded in a cloud of sparkling fragments.
Screams of horror rang through the cotton candy–colored sky as a plume of shimmering smoke blotted out the early morning sun. Slowly, everything in the carnival began to age. It was as if invisible hands had taken hold of the magic and were peeling back the facade.
The costume Dovie wore shifted from pearly white to a dingy shade of cream. The billboards that posted the carnival rules began to crack and splinter. Glitter that had fallen to the grass dissolved into the early morning breeze.
He gently placed Esmeralda down and they faced the wreckage together.
His father was in there. And Ignacio wasn’t certain whether he should be devastated or relieved.
Was it terrible to feel both at once? His father had done vile things, but he had loved Ignacio in his own sort of way.
Still, that didn’t mean he deserved Ignacio’s love in return.
Fingers slid into his hand and squeezed. Ignacio’s heart did the same.
He gazed down at the girl he’d loved for most of his life. And for once, she had nothing snappy to say, which made him chuckle.
“Are you laughing at me?” she asked, her nose scrunching.
Gods, I love when it does that.
“No. Well. Maybe.”
She scoffed but pressed in closer to him. And he didn’t dare complain.
After a long moment Esmeralda whispered, “Happy birthday, Pigeon.”
Ignacio’s eyes widened. He’d completely forgotten the date. Understandably.
Her arms wrapped around his torso. “I know what I shall give you for a gift.”
“Oh?” He hugged her closer to him. “What more could I possibly need when I have you here with me?”
She tilted her head up and grinned. “I was thinking a pet ostrich would do.”
Laughter burst from him. “Is that a gift or punishment?”
“Look!” someone yelled.
Something moved within the wreckage. A hand shot out from the edge. Father’s head and shoulders squeezed through the bottom. He clawed his way out. He reached back into the canvas and then pulled out the body of his little brother, who was no longer young or charming.
Father collapsed beside ángel, holding his still-bleeding stomach.
The few ratas that remained started for him, but Father shook his head.
He found Ignacio amongst the growing crowd.
For the first time in his life, Ignacio felt nothing when his father’s attention focused in on him.
He felt no fear. No regret. He didn’t worry his father would call him a disappointment.
Or stare him into submission with those cold eyes.
Because, seeing him now, he realized that his father was nothing but a weak man.
Father winced and held his hand tighter to his stomach. “You may know me as Comandante Héctor Olivera. Today, I was shown by my son how much of a coward I truly am. This man who lies here dead was once your ringmaster. He was my brother.”
Esmeralda sucked in a breath.
“I won’t be a villain any longer,” the comandante said. “I will confess, here and now, all of my and my brother’s crimes.”
Ignacio watched Esmeralda’s brown eyes darken as the full weight of ángel’s deceptions pressed against her. As his father’s revelations cut into her mind.
He was tired of seeing Dovie bear the burden of other people’s mistakes.
He turned to her and cupped her cheek. “Care for a stroll? I only got to hold your hand for the world to see once before on the boardwalk. I’d like to do that again.”
“But…our friends…”
“Are safe.”
She huffed a bewildered breath. “They are. We all are.”
“Come on,” he said. “Maybe I’ll even win you a prize.”
“I’m pretty sure all the games are destroyed,” she said.
“It was never about the games, Dovie. It was about playing them with you.”
“Oh yeah? And what happens when you lose?”
They turned their backs on the fallen tent and his broken father and all their past hurts, and strolled through what was left of the crumbling carnival.
“I won’t lose,” Ignacio said smugly. Before she could argue, he added, “Because I’ll be spending time with you.”
She giggled. “You’re such a sap.” His Dovie met his gaze. “I hope you never change.”