“Soon, there will be no more Blackbird obsidian to connect us to Tezcán anyway,” Father said. “My troops have almostreached the far north. Between crushing the obsidian down to make weapons and the mirrors you use, there’s hardly enough as it is. We’ve all but drained Dos Palos dry. And when we have, what will you do?”
“We’ll widen our search. We find some other weak nation across the sea and take what is ours. The queen hails from Isla Cedros. We could force her to aid our endeavors.”
“There’s no guarantee the obsidian is anywhere but Dos Palos. You’d start a new war on a chance? So many lives have already been lost. For what? For what?! So that you can be an old man trapped in a young man’s body? So that I can have power and prestige but not a soul to share it with?”
“This is what all your fussing is about? Your wife?! We agreed she had to go.” The ringmaster stood, frustrated. “And now you have another choice to make. Which one of you dies tonight? Your son or you? I only need one of you to do my bidding outside the carnival.”
Father shook his head. “This ends with you and me. We’ve committed terrible atrocities. I let my wife die. I couldn’t look my own son in the face because of what I let happen. He won’t become like me and you. It’s over anyway. Look at you. You are aging as we speak. And your lead act is gone. My spy has taken Esmeralda far away from here. You won’t be able to pay Tezcán your bargainer’s fee.”
“No,” the ringmaster whispered.
The relief flooding Ignacio’s veins was immeasurable. Esmeralda was gone. His father had made sure she got away.
“Then he’ll have to suffice.”
Ángel stepped forward and snatched Ignacio by the collar. He grabbed the hand mirror from within his coat. The very one Ignacio had gazed into the day he clambered onto the caboose. Shadows whirled inside the black glass. Then Tezcán’s vile face appeared. His grin was hungry. Ravenous. Ignacio snapped his face away, but large mirrors were everywhere. Hanging near the exit. In the rafters. On some of the beams. He clamped his eyes shut.
“Ángel, stop!” Father tried to lunge forward, but his limbs were tied tight together. He fell on his side, grunting as he landed on his elbow.
A soothing calm crept over Ignacio’s skin as the shadowy mist oozed out of the smooth stone. “Look deep into my eyes,” the god whispered. Tezcán’s voice sank into Ignacio’s body. His pulse slowed.
“Enough of this insanity!” Father roared.
Ignacio gritted his teeth and tried to keep his eyes clamped closed, but his body was growing numb, his resolve melting.
“Pigeon.”
Ignacio’s eyes shot open.
He found Esmeralda inside the obsidian mirror, shivering in darkness.
“I’m so scared,” she whispered. “I’m all alone and there’s no one to save me.”
That wasn’t what Dovie would say or do at all. She was a fighter. She would be cutting her own path through the darkness.
“Please, Pigeon. Don’t fail me now. Please find me. Come rescueme.”
His stomach soured. She’d never speak like that.
“You aren’t her.”
He jerked his gaze away. The ringmaster grabbed him by the chin and forced him to face the mirror.
Ignacio slammed his eyes shut. “You won’t have me,” he growled. “And you’ll never have her. Your time is up.”
A scuffle sounded near the entrance to the tent.
“Unhand me, you asshat!”
Ignacio’s heart plummeted.
Esmeralda’s hands were tied together in front of her, and she was being shoved toward the center ring by the tailor. Jorge sported his signature goat mask and goat-hair shawl. In his hands, Father’s twin pistols.
“What are you doing?!” Father yelled.
The tailor said nothing.The rat.He shoved Esmeralda with the mouth of the gun, and they ambled forward. Ignacio thought he might explode with fury.
The ringmaster grinned. “Looks like it is your lucky day, nephew.” He released Ignacio and flung him to the ground. He raised his arms. “Jorge, what a lovely gift you have brought me.”
