“Who?”
“General Keara. I saw her at the tailor’s. She’s coming thisway.”
The box in her grasp clanked to the floor. General Keara terrified Esmeralda. Esmeralda was the comandante’s errand runner and spy. General Keara was his hound. And she was always happy to sink her teeth into her prey. Ignacio’s gaze flickednear her feet where his tin box lay. He blinked, then shook his head as if to say that didn’t matter right now.
“We need to hide,” he said.
“We?Whywe? That’s your father’s second-in-command. She’ll never get you in trouble becausedaddywouldn’t allow it.”
Esmeralda, on the other hand, could be sent back to the cold cell she’d only barely escaped from. Her heart sputtered.Stay calm, she told herself.So long as you’re inside the carnival, General Keara has no claim over you.But if she didn’t get the lead role, once her year was up with Carnival Fantástico, that would be a whole different situation. Esmeralda had broken the law by running away before her indenture was completed, and then again when she and Gabriel broke free from the transport cart that was shipping them off to war. From all she knew about the comandante, he wouldn’t forget or forgive those acts of defiance.
“I haven’t spoken to my father since defecting,” Ignacio spatout.
Esmeralda froze. “You deserted the Blackbirds? But…you’re an officer. I stole your badge.”
“The badge isn’t real.”
Her jaw dropped.
He ran a hand over his cropped hair, something he’d always done when trying to formulate the right words. His arm fell to his side as if in defeat.
“You were right,” he said. “About everything. My father is a warlord. He and his Blackbirds are not battling Dos Palos because Dos Palos is trying to harm us. They are infiltrating Dos Palos because there is something within the lands he wants.”
Voices sounded from outside the front of the wagon. Gabriel was arguing with someone who was demanding to be let inside. General Keara. Esmeralda recognized that voice so clearly.
Ignacio rushed forward and grasped her by the arm. “We’ve got to go.”
Burning heat seared into every part of her skin he touched. It seeped into her muscles, her tendons, her marrow. And she craved it. She was desperate for more. For his warmth to cover her and shield her from the world as it once had.
The notch in his throat bobbed.
Did he feel that still-burning flame too? Did he look at her and long for what had once been?
She met his gaze. Praying. Hoping. Searching for a hint that he felt something. Anything.
“She can’t know I am here,” he said. “Someone inside the carnival has information I can use against my father.”
Just as suddenly as the heat came, it disappeared. Ignacio didn’t care about protecting Esmeralda anymore. He didn’t feel the embers of love still smoldering. He was only worried about himself.
His hands on her felt suddenly suffocating. She tore herselffree.
The voices outside grew louder. Gabriel and General Keara were at the wagon’s front door.
Esmeralda closed her eyes and exhaled. “Leave.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Scram. Go before she finds you. Clearly, she knows who I am already, or she wouldn’t be trying to get inside. It’s too late for me to hide, but she might not know you are here.Find your information and wipe your conscience clean of your father…and of me.” Her words hurt to even say.
“The latter is not what I want,” he whispered angrily.
His confession nearly leveled her.
“I won’t leave you,” he said.
Her brows pinched together. “You said that once before.”
The entry handle wobbled. Despite Gabriel’s protestations, the door squeaked ajar.
