They rounded the carousel. It was empty of laughing guests, the golden saddles of wooden animals abandoned. Ignacio had ridden on a carousel only once. The night he and Esmeralda snuck out of the manor and went to the boardwalk. It had been the best night of his life. Watching her laugh, holding her handin public, kissing her. Being free. It was perfect. And now that he and Dovie knew the truth about their love, they could have more of those nights. But he had to find a way to end his father’s reign first.
“Keep walking,” Father snarled. Ignacio didn’t even realize his pace had slackened. “Don’t dawdle, son, you know I hatethat.”
A thousand memories flooded in.
Father ordering him to continue with his fitness and tutoring regimen the day after Mother’s funeral, even though he was only seven.
Father nitpicking his messy room even though there wasn’t a speck of dust.
Father forever being cold.
Those memories Ignacio could handle. Knowing his father’s deceptions had cut Esmeralda so deeply, he could not. Nor could he forgive the lives lost in war. He thought about what Tezcán had said about his mother. That she didn’t die at the hands of Dos Palos spies. That he had devoured her soul. Who had given her to the god?
“What happened to my mother?” he asked.
“Shut up!”
Ignacio’s instincts begged him not to pry further. Every time he had as a boy, he suffered the consequences. But he wasn’t some timid child anymore. And he didn’t care about pleasing his father. He was a man now, and he deserved the truth.
“She knew you had affiliations with the carnival, didn’t she? Or worse yet, Tezcán.”
“Don’t speak that name,” Father hissed.
“Why? Are you afraid of him? What did you do to her?”
“Ican tell you.” The ringmaster stepped out of the smokey shadows. His sequined jacket was covered in ash and ripped at the seams. He’d lost his famous top hat, and his greased hair, now completely white, flopped in tendrils over his forehead. His face had aged dozens of years but those calculating blue eyes remained unchanged.
“I can tell you everything you need to know about your mother and what role your dear old daddy played in her demise,” he said.
“No, Ángel,” Father snapped. “Leave him out of this.”
Ángel? Father used the ringmaster’s first name so easily.
The ringmaster batted his lashes sympathetically. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that, Héctor.”
These two really did know each other.
“Your boy came to me on his own, even though you tried to keep him away from me all these years. I knew he’d find me eventually. Especially after I rescued his runaway sweetheart. I had that suit he and his love dove purchased from the tailor ready for him the moment I realized who Esmeralda was.” His eyes found Ignacio’s. “And now you are right where you belong. Remember the book you loved so dear?Imade sure you received that. BecauseIam not selfish.Iwant you to know your past. Now, do youreallywant to learn what happened to your mommy? You might not like it.”
The dagger pointed at Ignacio’s back flicked toward the ringmaster. “Knock it off, Ángel,” the comandante ordered.
“No.Youknock it off!” Ángel snapped. “You don’t think I know what you’ve been up to this last year, Héctor? You don’tthink I have my little spies as well? I won’t let you ruin everything we have built.”
“We?” Ignacio rasped.
“Weindeed,” the ringmaster said. “Would you like to hear a little tale?”
Father’s sapphire eyes filled with fear. “Ángel—”
“Once upon a time, your father and I were traipsing about in a foreign land. There, we found a field of bell-shaped flowers. Blackbird Penstemons to be exact.”
Ignacio couldn’t understand what the ringmaster was saying. “How do you even know my father?”
“Don’t rush the story, kid. Anyway”—he flicked a bit of singed confetti from his shoulder—“within this stunning array of purple blooms, we came upon a strange hot spring that billowed with puffs of white smoke.”
“Like the Valerio brothers,” Ignacio thought out loud.
The man’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Exactly like that.”
