Kicking out her legs with more force than necessary, she swung harder.
She called out to the crowd as they turned down another street, “Follow me! Get in line! Carnival Fantástico is a wild time!”
Ignacio’s hand smacked the wooden plank, holding her in place.
Her eyes widened, but she forced an exuberant grin. “What are you doing?” she asked through her smile.
“We need to talk, Dovie.”
“It’s Paloma Blanca, payaso,” she said in a singsong way. She raised her voice so the revelers nearby could hear. “Paloma Blanca, Fortune Teller Extraordinaire! Some even call me a Renaissance woman, for my gifts know no bounds!”
She placed her toe on his chest and nudged him back, but he didn’t let go. “Scram, you stubborn ox.” She shoved him harder.
His fingers wrapped around her ankle to stop her. The warmth of his touch did something terrible. All her defenses cracked. The anger. The hurt. They tried to break through. They tried to reach out to the boy she once loved. To be soothed by him. But they were her wounds to carry.
“I wish I never laid eyes on you,” she snapped.
“Yeah, well, the feeling is mutual.” He let go of her ankle and held on to her swing on either side of her hips. “But we made a deal.”
She leaned forward so their noses almost touched. “Consider it broken. If you need help, go back to Anella’s float.”
Dammit.She hadn’t meant to say that.
“Is that what you want?” His eyes bore into her. “To leave you to impress that rat of a ringmaster?”
“Don’t you dare call him that,” she snapped.
“He doesn’t care about you. He just cut Anella from the Running for stopping the show. For something she couldn’t control. She nearly died!”
“Quiet down,” she hissed. The spectators still following the parade were casting her curious glances. They had departed from the city limits and were now rattling up a dirt road toward the carnival grounds. With the buildings no longer holding the sound in on both sides, the noise of the bells and hooves clomping dispersed, and anyone nearby would easily hear them.
“You don’t care, do you?” he said. “You don’t care about the danger you might be in.”
“I’m not arguing with you.”
“Why not?” he asked. “Talk to me. I haven’t seen you in a year. We used to care for each other.”
Someone eavesdropping in the crowd gasped. People were starting to chatter. Her first instinct was to glare at them all. To yell that they should mind their own business. But now knowingAnella had been cut for forgetting the cardinal rule cemented the fact that Esmeralda couldn’t rest on her heinie now. People were taking notice of her,truenotice of her, forthe first time. She needed to show she could adjust to the crowd at the drop of a hat. This was her shot. And Ángel could still be watching.
They were nearing the carnival entrance, where the onlookers would stop following and gather to wait in line. She had to give the audience something that would make them desperate for more.
She flipped her hair over her shoulder dramatically. “I only have room in my life for the spirits that guide me. I have given myself, my heart, and my life to the cause of telling the dear guests at Carnival Fantástico what fortunes fate has in store for them.”
She didn’t need to see Ignacio to know what sort of face he was making. His fingers digging into the plank of her swing was enough. He was furious.
“That is the answer you have for me? That’s all you can say?” His tone was unexpectedly void of anger. Void of any emotion at all. “After all we—”
“There is nowe,” she spat. She quickly regained her composure. “Paloma Blanca belongs to the carnival alone.” She raised an arm and blew kisses to the crowd. “Come and see me, friends, for I have many more futures to share!”
The parade rambled through the gates of the carnival, and the crowd that had assembled behind it was ushered toward the ticket line.
Her smile faded at once, and she slumped. Entertaining droves with her charisma alone was rather draining.
She peered down at Ignacio and found his eyes cold and closed off to her. A bit of her spirit broke when seeing him this way. She had fallen in love with him because of the words he wrote on those paper doves. He was so open and honest and free with his heart. He’d tell her whatever was on his mind.
I love you.
I feel like I cannot breathe without you.
