All kinds of things. Adventure. Love. Gods. Monsters. You name it. I was little but I could take it.
Can you tell me one of her stories?
I’ll just mess it up. I can hardly remember them anymore.
Try anyway. Even if you get it wrong, I’m sure she’d be happy knowing you’re still thinking of her. I know I’d want my loved ones to think of me when I’m gone.
And who knows, maybe there was some sort of lesson she wished you to learn—and share.
Chapter 12
Ignacio
A rumbling purr emanated from underneath Ignacio’s ear, luring him awake. But awake was not what he wanted to be. He was so cozy. So relaxed. He shifted his body, nuzzling deeper into his unbelievably soft mattress. With a sigh, he drifted back to sleep.
Until something hot and rough, like wet sandpaper, slid over his cheek.
He frowned but wouldn’t let whatever it was interrupt his rest. When the strange sensation happened again and again and again, Ignacio had no choice but to pry his booze-heavy eyelids apart.
The world spun. He thought he might vomit. This had been exactly how he felt after he and the Blackbirds in training attacked that village. Like the edges of his vision were squeezing in. Like he would be sick all over himself.
With a shaky breath, he forced his eyes to focus on the pink dot directly above him until the dizziness waned. But thepinkdot wasn’t a dot at all. It was a moist triangular nose with long whiskers sprouting out on either side.
He didn’t understand what he was seeing. Never in all his days had he witnessed such a large cat. The massive feline bent down, and its wide tongue lapped over his forehead. Unnerved, Ignacio went still. His eyes traveled left, then right. Sleeping soundly around him lay three pearl-white tiger cubs. Ignacio’s gaze flicked to the beast hovering above him.
“Holy shit,” he mouthed, his pulse thundering.
He’d somehow locked himself in a cage with a tigress and her offspring.
The only comfort was the fact that he wasn’t already dead. But how did this happen?Whendid this happen? Last thing he remembered was entering that impossibly large speakeasy somehow stuffed into the caboose. And then being handed a drink. Well,several.
Ignacio shifted ever so slightly but accidentally pinched one of the cubs’ tails. It whimpered. The tigress’s ears flicked back.
“Easy girl,” he said in a singsong way.
The tigress hissed. That horrifying sound was all Ignacio’s body needed to set itself into motion. He shoved himself over the cubs and lunged for the cage bars. His fingers wrapped around the metal. He shook with all his might.
This wasn’t the same sort of rusted cage like the jailor’s cart. There was no getting out of this. It would only be a matter of seconds before the beast sank her claws into his back. He could picture it now. Steel-sharp daggers digging into his flesh, tearing him into shreds. And before he had a chance to take downhis father, before he had a chance to right his failures from battle, before he got to see Esmeralda again.
He shook the bars harder. “Help!”
Howls of laughter echoed from the shadows beyond. Young people with rolled-up sleeves, aprons, and dirt on their faces clapped each other’s backs and pointed at Ignacio as if him being eaten by a ferocious animal were hilarious.
“Let me out!” he roared.
A boy who appeared to be a year or two younger than Ignacio jogged forward. He sported a fedora that was tilted low over one eye. “Look behind you, cabrón!” he hollered.
Ignacio forced himself to peer over his shoulder. The mother tiger had one leg up in the air as she primped herself.
This brought out wails of laughter from the people outside the cage.
“Here,” the boy in the cap said, lifting a latch. The cage door swung open with a squeak. Some of the onlookers grumbled and called the young man a wet blanket for ending their fun. As the rest of the pranksters dispersed, Ignacio scrambled out. He recognized the boy. He’d been the one to offer Ignacio a drink when he first entered the caboose.Severaldrinks.
The boy—Gabriel, he had introduced himself as—checked the timepiece hanging from his pocket and started to walk away.
“Aren’t you going to lock up the cage?” Ignacio called afterhim.
“Nah. The animals are free to do whatever they like within the menagerie confines.” He gestured around them. Ignacio hadn’t even realized they were inside a colossal tent. Animalshe’d only seen in the storybooks his mother read to him when he was little milled about, munching on bones or grain while being groomed by their human keepers. Long oval mirrors hung on either side of the entrance. They reflected the sunlight from outside, making the tent appear as bright as a spring day.
