“Let me through!” he barked to a gaggle of ladies who were too busy giggling to notice they were blocking the staircase that led to the float.
He scrambled onto the main platform, which was a smaller replica of the carnival’s carousel. He’d seen the original while shoving the ostrich cage through the grounds with Esmeralda.This version even had the ornate carvings of the menagerie animals and the mirrored ceiling. But the contortionist and the box she was trapped inside were positioned on the rooftop.
Ignacio clambered up the ladder and made it to the ridge in seconds. Three carnival hands were trying their best to open the bolt sealing her inside with a master key, but the lock wouldn’t disengage.
Anella banged ferociously on the glass. The panic in her eyes, the fear, set Ignacio into frantic action. He ran back to the edge of the rooftop, reached down, and snapped the top ladder rung clean off.
“Watch out!” he ordered.
The carnival hands jumped aside.
Ignacio bashed the lock once. Twice. Three times.
It should have broken already. But it held strong as if the bolt had been welded shut.
He reared back and smashed the metal pole onto it again and again and again.
Snap.
The bolt fell away with a heavy thud. He shoved the glass lid open and pulled Anella out.
She gasped and sucked in greedy breaths of air.
“Thank you,” she panted. Tears streamed down her freckledface.
“It was nothing,” he said. “I’m glad you’re—”
She flung her arms around his neck. “You saved my life.”
The audience who had gathered around the float cheered uncontrollably.
“You’re my hero,” she whispered.
“Please, it was—”
She popped onto her tiptoes and kissed him hard on the lips. Whistles rang out. The spectators applauded.
Ignacio’s cheeks warmed. Not because of Anella’s kiss but because Anella wasn’t the one he longed to be kissed by.
He eased back and offered a tight smile so as not to be rude. “You should see a physician to make sure you’re all right.”
She shook her head. “I can’t stop my act, or I’ll be out of the Running.”
But her body began to tremble against his. He knew this feeling. He’d experienced the tremors that ravaged the muscles after terror subsided.
“You should sit,” he said. “Take a moment to breathe.”
“The show must go on no matter what. Those are the rules.” She released him and stepped back, but her knees gave out. He caught her before she fell. More gasps echoed throughout the onlookers below. Their exuberant grins had started to fade. Thewhistles and cheers were quieting.
“No,” Anella whispered. “They aren’t smiling.”
A woman in the crowd yawned dramatically into her silk gloves. A few others joined her.
Anella gaped at them. “How can they be so cold?”
The parade started to move suddenly. The bells at the front of the procession clanged louder than ever, and the performers on the floats ahead of them carried on. Anella clung tight to his forearms as the crowd’s attention shifted away from her.
“No,” she cried.
