Dovie. I am a coward. I let innocent people die. I couldn’t even protect you from my own father. I’m a failure.
Ignacio dropped the parchment and jumped to his feet. His chest heaved as more of his deepest insecurities were laid on the page.
I am a bore. I am too uptight and too serious and could never make you laugh like Gabriel. Of course you’d never love me. Look at me. I’m a disappointment. I broke the promises I made to you. I let you go.
Disgust churned inside his stomach at seeing his twisted thoughts on display. He had half a mind to flip the desk. But he knew this was but a portion of who he truly was. He was more than these thoughts. More than the negative voices inside his mind.
He snatched up the paper and folded it shut. This wasn’t simply enchanted ink. This was a weapon. It toyed with the mind. And it was such a deep and convincing fake that anyone could be tricked. He had been.
This must be why his father and the ringmaster were incorrespondence. Father coveted whatever terrible magic lay inside the ink. He could use it to pretend to be anyone he wished. He could pretend to be the king himself.
A whistle sounded. The train was nearing the next stop.
Ignacio cleaned off the desk. The second he had a chance he would send his findings to the Defiant.
He stuffed the inkwell under his bed and sat heavily. His knees bounced as his anticipation grew. His father and the ringmaster were working in tandem. But then why would Father ask Ángel to send Ignacio back unharmed? What sort of power did the ringmaster hold over Father? That was simple to answer. The ringmaster knew Father was using enchanted ink to prevail in the war.
But there was more to it. There had to be. He thought back to the Sánchezes’ accident, and the fire breather’s, and Anella’s. Every time the same glinting properties were there.
The glue that sealed Anella in the glass box was incredibly strong. The stitches woven through the Sánchezes’ cuffs and Esmeralda’s gloves burned hot. Surely, whatever happened with Paco came from this enchantment.
Had he seen anything like it during his training with the Blackbirds?
Esmeralda had spoken about canisters of gas used on the front lines that sucked the air out of a person’s lungs. Could they be made from the same enchantment?
The locomotive was beginning to slow. Even from within the thick walls of the boxcar, the cheers of excited admirers of the carnival could be heard.
That beastly creature in the mirror played in his mind. There was a connection. He just couldn’t figure out how or why.
Ignacio stood. Normally he would fix his sheets to ease the growing tension. But he left them as they were. They reminded him of her. And they reminded him that it was okay to not be so rigid all the time.
He put on his boots and marched toward the door. With a grunt, he pulled the heavy metal ajar.
“There he is!” someone yelled.
A dense crowd had formed in the valley that rested just beyond the city of Milagro. People held up signs and cheered as they waited for the train to stop.
“It’s Paloma’s noviecito! Paloma Amor!”
Of all the stage names to be given, Paloma Amor had to be the worst.Love Dove.That should have been a crime. Wincing, Ignacio raised his hand and waved, causing a group of young women to scream and swoon.
The second the train came to a complete stop, he jumped down and landed on golden grass with a crunch. He needed to find Esmeralda right away. But the crowd swarmed him like flies to honey.
“Are you and Paloma truly in love?” a woman holding a teacup-sized dog asked.
“Will you perform again tonight?” queried a man with a single spectacle resting on one eye.
“Will you be taking your shirt off for our parade, or was that a one-time thing?”
Ignacio’s head snapped to the young man who had asked that last question. The young man winked.
“I’m sorry,” Ignacio said. “I really need to go.”
He tried to weasel himself free from the horde without being rude, but they wouldn’t let him escape. His eyes flicked upward, searching for help. He spotted Gabriel, and a tiny monkey of all things, sitting on top one of the boxcars sharing a caramel apple. Gabriel laughed and shook his head before disappearing.
Thirty minutes later, Ignacio was exhausted from the impromptu meet-and-greet and had somehow lost two buttons on his shirt. He rubbed the back of his neck as he walked toward where Esmeralda’s wagon should have been in the train procession, but it had already been detached and moved.
It truly was a wonder how quickly the carnival formed.
