I’d do whatever it took to save you.
I appreciate that sentiment but don’t worry, I’m capable enough to save myself.
What ifIfell? Would you catch me?
I fear you would squish me into the soil. And then where would we both be?
How about this?
I’d come running with antiseptic and clean all your wounds.
I’d prefer it if you kissed the pain away.
Why, Pigeon. What a scandalous thing to say!
Chapter 49
Esmeralda
“Ignacio!” she yelled.
They’d lost each other the second they exited the Fun House as people rushed to flee from the flames and bubbling tonics.
Esmeralda tried to stand on her tiptoes and search for the boy she loved, but there was no use. He’d disappeared.
“Ignacio!” her voice cracked. She knew she should run like everyone else. The fire would catch hold of those jars soon. But she wouldn’t go anywhere without him. “Pigeon!”
Hands gripped her around the meat of her bicep and yanked her through the beastly throng. She bumped into torsos and elbows and—perhaps not so strangely—a few tentacles belonging to an octopus. With a grunt, she felt herself being flung behind an upturned cart of churros.
Arms draped over her shoulders and forced her against the cool grass just as the first vessel within the combustibles tent detonated. She smelled smoke and dirt and—strangely—bubble bath.
Another jar exploded. Another. Until all she could hear waspop, pop, poplike popcorn in the kettle. Glass and pure heat soared overhead. Whoever held her to the ground grunted in pain.
When the blasts finally slowed, the arms shielding her let off. She raised her face, expecting her savior to be Ignacio but instead it was a frazzled Gabriel.
His shirt had holes burned into it. Soot covered half his face. And a bit of his dark curls appeared to be smoking on top his head.
“I may have gone overboard on the fireworks,” he said, breathless.
“You think? You were supposed to cause a distraction while we snuck into the Fun House, not turn the entire carnival into an inferno.”
Gabriel half grinned. “That’s the greatest distraction I’ve ever seen, if I do say so.”
“Where’s Camila?”
“Safe inside the healer’s boxcar with Pilar.”
“Has she improved?”
He gulped, and her stomach soured.
“She’s aged by another couple years,” he said.
Esmeralda inwardly slumped. “Breaking the mirrors didn’t work.”
Wood groaned and snapped from the direction of the Fun House. Gabriel and Esmeralda peered around the cart. The final pole holding one side of the tent up crumpled in on itself in a tangle of beams, canvas, and sparkling magic.
They gawked at each other.
