She was about to tear the card and envelope to shreds when something sparkled on the paper. Tiny firecrackers began to fizzle over the black cardstock. Her jaw dropped when words started to form.
She sucked in a jittery breath as the entire message came into view.
Dearest Esmeralda Montero, also known as La Paloma Blanca: Fortune Teller Extraordinaire—or should I say Renaissance Woman?
Congratulations! You are in the running to be the lead act in the most fantastical circus the world has ever seen. Now it is up to you to prove what you have to offer my enchanting, astounding, gloriously magnificent Carnival Fantástico. Be ready, darling dove, your first of three tests will come a-fluttering tomorrow.
With love and devotion,
Ángel Veracruz, your enchanting, astounding, gloriously magnificent ringmaster
She read it again, for good measure. Thrice. A fourth time.
“I got in,” she breathed.
Esmeralda squealed. She waved her hands in the air and stomped her heeled slippers on the floorboards as if she were a child being gifted a pony.
“I got in!”
She thought she might cry.
“What are you so excited about?” a sinister voice hissed into her ear.
With a gasp, she dropped the card and gift box and spun. She swung out her arm in pure reflex, and her fist connected to something hard and scratchy.
But no one was there.
Someone groaned.
Un fantasma? A ghost?
Esmeralda scrambled back until her knees bumped into her cot. She grabbed the first sharp object she could find, a hideous clown sculpture, and held it before her.
“Who’s there?” she yelled.
The space directly before her blurred like heat waves.
She gripped the statue tighter and held it like a club.
“Show yourself!”
The heat waves shuddered. Something popped. Then sparkling fog filled her wagon. Within the haze stood the figure of a short young man.
Esmeralda gaped. “Gabriel?”
Her friend and coconspirator rubbed his temple. “King’s toes, Esmeralda, you clocked me real good this time. I think I might faint.”
The tension in Esmeralda’s shoulders dissipated, and she lowered the clown weighing heavy in her hands. “Serves you right. You should know by now not to sneak up on me like that.”
Gabriel grinned as he flapped the fog away from his face. “I’ll gladly risk getting clobbered if it means scaring the daylights out of you.” He chuckled and put his arms up in surrender as she lifted the statue once more. “I’m teasing. I think I learned my lesson this time. But I wanted to try out this new tonic. Turns a person invisible for a whole twenty minutes. We can use this while you’re giving fortunes.”
“What are the repercussions, though?” Esmeralda inquired. Magic always asked for something in return.
Gabriel scratched at his fluffy curls. “I can’t remember.” He shrugged. “Must not have been terribly bad, then.”
She placed the clown on a small shelf and pulled off her cloak. The wings of her sequined costume sprouted out like paper fans. She was supposed to appear as the beautiful white dove she was named after, but the wings were too small and made her look more like a cherub than a delicate bird. It was a silly getup. Not nearly as fancy as those worn by performers inthe Big Top, but that might soon change. Glee filled her chest. If she completed all three challenges and was chosen to be the new main act, she’d have enough money to purchase all the costumes she desired.
“What’s that?” Gabriel asked. He jerked his chin toward the gift box on her cot. It had been left beside the letter from the ringmaster.
