Esmeralda’s eyes met Ignacio’s. He looked horrified.
His gaze flicked to Ángel, who was busy telling his ratas to usher in the next attraction. Ignacio glared at the ringmaster’s back. All the while, he heaved slab after slab to free Pilar from thewreckage.
Chapter 26
Ignacio
Ignacio carried Pilar’s fragile frame into the healer’s boxcar. Every instinct inside him urged him to run as fast and hard as he could to get her help, but he didn’t want to do any more damage to the young woman’s body.
There was no telling how Pilar was faring. Her bones were twisted at crude angles and deep purple bruises bloomed from her chest and abdomen. His mind replayed the massacre in Dos Palos. All those bodies open and bleeding on the grass.
Bile rose up his throat. Sweat pricked on his forehead. But he kept his focus steady. He wouldn’t let Pilar die.
Esmeralda and Gabriel followed close behind with a wailing Camila in their arms. Her cries were spine-chilling. And so was the face he’d seen in the mirror. The creature had smiled right before Camila’s strength gave out.
Ignacio must have been seeing things. Monsters didn’t exist. That was the stuff of fables. But hewasin a carnival known to make the impossible possible.
The healer rushed forward as they entered.
“Lay her here,” the woman said, gesturing toward an empty cot. “Gently.” Ignacio did as she commanded. Esmeralda and Gabriel laid Camila in the bed parallel to her sister. The healer pulled back her long braids and tied them with a bit of ribbon as she assessed them.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Camila was holding up Pilar, but then her wrist snapped,” Ignacio said.
It didn’t just snap. A moment before it happened, the cuffs she wore started to glisten. Then whatever shimmered within them sputtered out like a dying sparkler. That was when Camila first screamed.
The ringmaster burst into the boxcar. “How are they?”
In this lighting, Ángel appeared different. The shadows cast by the amber candles deepened the crow’s feet Ignacio had seen before. A few gray hairs had found their way into his curled mustache. He looked much older, as if the very weight of this incident had aged him twenty years.
The healer turned toward the ringmaster. “I can ease the pain and set the bones, but Pilar needs to be taken to a hospital. Immediately.”
“Surely there’s one in town. We can take her,” Esmeralda suggested.
“No,” Ángel replied sharply.
Ignacio clenched his fists when he saw Esmeralda flinch.
“What I mean is…this town does not have advanced facilities,” he said.
“Nuevo Campos is our next stop, yes?” the healer asked.
“It is,” the ringmaster replied.
“My sister is a physician there. We can take her—”
“The Sánchez sisters will remain in my carnival. Under my care.”
The healer balked. “But señor…”
“We’ll send a telegraph ahead asking for your sister to join us when we arrive. I’ll ensure she has the necessary tools.”
What a strange thing to do. Pilar needed a surgeon in a sterile environment if she was to survive. And time was not on their side.
The ringmaster’s gaze traveled to a looking glass on a nearby shelf.
Was he searching for something…or someone?
