“Take off the gloves too,” he commanded.
She was so frazzled that she’d forgotten about the heat sizzling into her skin. She tugged them free and flung them into the air.
“Okay,” he said. “Time to go.”
Chapter 44
Ignacio
They made it across the plank and up to a different perch, passing Tezcán’s mirrors as they hurried on. Voices emanated from the obsidian glass. His father’s. Camila’s. Gabriel’s. He heard a scream from within.
“Help me, son!”
Ignacio’s stomach clenched.Mother.
“Please! Help me! I’m trapped. I need you!”
It wasn’t her. Tezcán was making a desperate move.
Bastard.
Esmeralda disappeared as she clambered up the ladder that led to the catwalk and crawled onto the metal platform. He was right behind her but expected her to be halfway across the walkway by the time he made it onto the landing. Instead, he found her frozen in place.
When he stood behind her, he realized why.
General Keara was there, blocking the path to their only chance of escape. He moved around Esmeralda and put his bodybefore hers. He knew Keara had always intimidated Esmeralda the most. And rightly so. The general was a viper.
“Let us pass, Keara,” he ordered.
Keara flicked out her wrist and a baton with electrified prongs sizzled near her hip. “I am willing to do whatever I must to see you back in your father’s custody.”
“Like hell you will,” Esmeralda growled.
She leaned around Ignacio’s back and flung her slipper at the general’s face. The flimsy shoe bounced off Keara’s forehead with a comical thud.
Keara blinked.
Ignacio peered down at Esmeralda. Her face was splotchy, her lips cut and bleeding, but she shrugged with a humorous sort of glint. “I thought that would have a better effect. Worked with you the first time we saw each other again.”
He raised a brow. “That’s because you had a golden egg.”
Esmeralda sucked in a breath. “Watch out!”
Ignacio pushed Esmeralda further back on the catwalk before ducking to the right, just barely evading the general’s baton as she swiped her electrified weapon. Keara snarled. She swung again. Ignacio bent low, picking up Esmeralda’s shoe. He spun upward and used the slipper to smack the weapon out of Keara’s hand. The general growled in fury and punched Ignacio hard across the cheek. She punched him again with a left hook.
“Don’t let her bully you like that!” Esmeralda shouted.
“Easier said than done!” he snapped.
He lunged forward but the general feinted right. She held out her foot, and Ignacio tripped, landing hard against the metalrungs. Keara was on top of him in an instant. He used his weight to spin onto his back, pulling himself out of her hold.
He stilled when Keara took out her pistol and pointed it at his skull.
“You will comply,” she spat.
Something buzzed in the air like a thousand angry hornets. Keara’s mouth gaped open as metal prongs stuck into her neck. Her skin radiated as if she had been lit from within like a candle.Her eye sockets glowed. Her teeth too.
Ignacio felt the dull ache of electricity sizzling from her skin to his.
