Esmeralda’s nose scrunched.
“ButI’d take all the aggravations in exchange for having my loved ones with me. Especially after what happened to my sister. We need each other. We gotta stick together because we are a family now.” She pointed at Esmeralda. “Whether you like it ornot.”
Esmeralda didn’t warrant this sort of friendship. She’d never done anything to be worthy of Camila. Or Gabriel. Or Pilar. Or Ignacio. She was snappy and rude. She was pushy and sarcastic. She had never been as good to them as they were to her. And that realization made her want to dig herself into a hole.
“We’re leaving,” Camila said.
Esmeralda’s eyes shot to her friend. “So Ángel kicked you out too.”
Camila nodded. “He said we could stay on until Pilar is healed, but I refuse to be here for a moment longer than I haveto.”
They were leaving her. She understood why, but that didn’t ease the hurt gathering between her ribs.
“Come with us,” Camila said.
Esmeralda blinked. “Me?”
“There are already so many mouths to feed in my grandparents’ house. What’s one more?”
“But…the carnival rules…I can’t leave before my year is up. And I couldn’t anyway because Comandante Olivera knows I’m still in the country.”
“Better to face him than what’s inside the carnival,” Camila grumbled.
“Why do you say that?”
Camila surveyed the area, but there was only the two of them. “Something happened the night of the accident. Remember the cuffs Ángel gave me and Pilar? They…This is going to sound nuts, but—”
“They burned.”
Camila’s light brown skin paled. “How did you know?”
“It happened to me tonight. And maybe to Paco too. He…He’s…he’s gone.”
A startled gasp came from Camila. She stood, limped forward, and grasped Esmeralda’s shoulder with her uninjured hand. “We’ve got to get out of here before something else happens. Come with us. Please. Your officer can come too for all Icare.”
“He’s not an officer, actually. Turns out Ignacio is also a runaway.”
“Then he’s one of us.”
One of us.Us.Esmeralda was part of anus.
Even after she’d been nothing but a wretched friend, Camila still wanted her around. Esmeralda’s heart squeezed tight in her chest.
Living in a home sounded absolutely lovely. But it was too good to be true. So long as she was wanted by the law, she would never be at peace. She would bring only trouble to the Sánchezes. Ignacio would as well.
“I can’t come,” she admitted.
“You’re in danger, Esmeralda. I think we all are. I was so lost in the magic and enchantments. In the glitter and chaos. But I see through it now. There’s darkness here.”
Esmeralda thought about that thing watching them from within the black mirrors. Something truly was wrong with this place. But even so, she couldn’t put her friends at risk.
“The moment I exit these gates, I’m doomed. And I’ll bring you down with me.”
But if Ignacio found the evidence he needed to expose the comandante’s war crimes, if he took away the power Comandante Olivera had over the country, she might have a shot at a life outside Carnival Fantástico’s shimmering enchantments.
“When are you planning on leaving?” she asked.
“As soon as possible. Gabriel is rigging up a motorized chair for Pilar as we speak.”
