Page 20

CHAPTER 20

Carolina

The carriage ride home had been tense. Carolina didn’t even want to turn in her papá’s direction, less she be burned by the irritation in his gaze. He hated time being wasted, and that was exactly what their afternoon at the Montéz abode had been. Lalo never showed up.

Carolina glared out the dark window. With the clouds still thick, she couldn’t see the setting sun. She clenched her legs together to keep her knees from shaking. She’d been scolded enough times to know better than to fidget in front of her parents. Instead, she chewed on her lip discreetly. Gnawing away at it to calm her nerves.

Papá rubbed his finger and thumb down his thick mustache, something he did whenever he was getting ready to say something that was sure to make her furious.

“Eduardo Montéz is not the man for you, mija.”

Her spine stiffened. “You didn’t even get to speak to him.”

“I do not need to. What can a scholar do for my daughter? You need a man of means, not of ideals.”

“You’ve conveniently forgotten that his family owns a profitable business. You only wish for me to be with someone who will do and say whatever you wish. Someone who will take me far from Del Oro, like Rafa.”

“Del Oro isn’t safe,” Mamá chimed in. “It never was. Rafael will protect you from such dangers and treat you as a queen.”

“Bad things happen everywhere, Amá. Look at the newspaper.” She gestured toward the article about people who’d died in the ciudad. “Besides, there are sedientos in the cities. Did you know that?”

Papá and Mamá shared a startled look.

“Who told you such nonsense?” Papá asked. “There have never been sightings so far south.”

“Sending me away won’t help anything but your wounded pride over your godson losing a duel you encouraged. Evil always finds a way in. If it isn’t sedientos, it is people.”

“Some distance will do you good. You’ve never listened to anything I have said or commanded. Perhaps you will listen to Rafael,” Papá said.

“So that is what this is all about? Your control. But what about me? You have never listened to a thing I have said either. You have never believed in me and what I can do. I can fight, Apá. I can ride as hard and fast as any of my brothers. I am capable. Abuelo supported it, why can’t you?”

If Lalo, a boy she had tried to kill, a boy who hardly knew her, could trust her, could believe in her abilities to help, why couldn’t her own parents?

The carriage came to a sudden stop.

“Se?or!” one of the cocheros yelled.

They had halted outside the gates to their hacienda. Everything was still. The lanterns that flickered at either side of their entrance were snuffed out, and the guards that were usually there were gone.

“Come quick!” el cochero hollered.

Papá moved at once. Carolina scooted after him.

“Stay here,” he commanded.

“But…”

“I said stay put, Carolina.” Papá dashed out of the carriage.

“Come,” Mamá said, tugging Carolina next to her. She raised her arm and pulled a small pistol from the lining of the roof. She pointed it at the door.

“Should you be handling a gun in your state?” Carolina asked.

Mamá scoffed. “There is nothing stronger than a woman with children to protect.”

Carolina wouldn’t argue with that. She’d once been chased by an angry hen after disturbing her nest. The bantam had kicked Carolina in the ankles until she climbed up a tree.

The ladies waited in silence until they heard footfalls pounding through the tall grasses. Mamá held her weapon at the ready. The door swung open, and Papá’s frame filled the space. Mamá sighed, but her relief was short-lived.

“Joaquín!” Papá yelled. “To the casa. Hurry!”

The reins snapped, and Papá jumped into the carriage just as they lurched to full speed.

“What is it, Luis?” Mamá asked, clutching Carolina’s arm.

Papá ran a hand down his face. “The guards, they’re…they’re dead.”

“Dead?” Mamá gasped. “How?”

Carolina’s pulse raced. Icy dread clawed up her spine. Lalo was missing. Lalo had been left to roam. By her. Please don’t say a sediento. Please don’t say a sediento. Please…

“It was a…” He shook his head. “It was another sediento attack.” His eyes flashed to Carolina. “This is exactly why I want you gone.”

“But my brothers and uncles and cousins get to stay?”

“Yes,” he growled. “Because they follow my orders. You do what you want, and because of that people get hurt. Or worse.”

Carolina recoiled, the guilt over Abuelito resurfacing. She didn’t have the energy to argue. Her muscles, her bones, her heart had frozen over in fear as a realization dawned on her.

Lalo had killed the guards.

Oh gods. Oh gods! Her brothers!

“Hurry, Joaquín!” she screamed. Hot tears burned her eyes.

Before the carriage stopped, Carolina and her father bolted out and up the steps toward their home, leaving Mamá with the drivers. Please let them be all right. Please let them be all right. They burst through the doors and skidded to a stop as soon as they entered the foyer.

Carolina let out a small cry and clamped a hand over her mouth. Her two youngest brothers, Adrián and Marcos, were there, sword fighting one another with wooden weapons.

The twins stiffened. Their handsome little faces motionless with shock. They weren’t allowed to play such games inside the house. Normally Papá would reprimand them or send them out to the horse stalls to clean the dung. Instead, he scooped them up in his big arms and squeezed them so tight, they dropped their wooden weapons.

“You’re safe,” Papá said, breathlessly.

“Sí, se?or,” both boys replied.

Papá set them down gingerly. “Where’s everyone?”

“Nena is getting us some sweets for being good,” Marcos beamed. “Our uncles and brothers left in a rush.” Carolina had three uncles and fifteen boy cousins who had all been allowed to join the guard. The twins were the only boys under the age of fifteen, so they stayed home with all the women in her family who hadn’t been invited to any hunt.

Papá sprinted to the kitchens.

Now it was her turn to pull her brothers into a crushing hug. They squealed and complained. They smelled of dirt and sweat, but she didn’t care. She nuzzled into their scents. Their warmth. Their squirming, vigorous bodies.

Her decisions could have led to their demise. The very thought had tears streaming from her eyes and falling into their black curls. How could Lalo do this? Why did he lose control again?

“Ay, Carolina,” Marcos complained, shoving himself away. “Enough. What is wrong with everyone?”

“We just…” Carolina wiped at her face. “We missed you.”

The twins rolled their eyes.

“Nothing strange happened while we were away?” Carolina’s gaze darted around. From here she could see Luz Elena dozing off in a rocking chair. As she breathed, her belly pushed the baby blanket she was knitting up and down.

“Nope. Nothing,” Adrián said. He snapped his fingers. “Oh. I remember. Your husband was here.”

“My what?”

“The boy Papá caught you smooching.” He wiggled his eyebrows and made a kissing face.

Her heart raced faster. “Did my fiancé say anything else before he left?” Like he was readying to slay their guards.

“I don’t think so. He’s kind of strange, no?”

“He’s a dead man, that’s what he is,” she grumbled through her clenched jaw.

The boys’ eyes widened.

“I warned him. Papá killed him, right?” Adrián asked.

“No.” But she was going to.

This whole ruse was a terrible idea. What was she thinking? That was the problem. She wasn’t. She’d been so caught up in trying to prove herself, in trying to keep her papá from offering her hand to someone she didn’t love, that she’d proven Papá’s point. Her selfish decisions hurt people. She’d begged Abuelo to teach her how to fight, and where was he now? She’d forced Lalo to pretend to be hers, and guards were killed because of it.

Papá’s boots clicked on the tile. Sweat ran down his forehead. “Everything and everyone are accounted for.”

Mamá and the cocheros entered the house, along with Carolina’s five older brothers, her cousins, and her uncles. They spoke above one another, their voices competing over who got to tell their story first.

“A sediento was killed near the schoolhouse this morning,” Domingo, the oldest of her uncles, said. “We had just finished burning the body when gunshots came from the gates.”

“We ran to investigate and found our men dead. Their pistols were still hot in their hands,” her brother Manuel said.

“Something dashed away from the gates of the hacienda,” another brother—Sergio—added.

“Damn thing was faster than any creature I’ve seen,” her uncle Vicente said.

“We raced after it, but couldn’t keep up, even on our swiftest horses,” her uncle Malaquías noted.

Carolina could scream. She had trusted un vampiro in her own home, allowed him to walk this earth, and look what he did.

The alarm bells sounded from the bell towers to the east, right where Lalo would have gone if he was running toward his home.

Carolina clenched her fists at her sides.

She was never going to let that beast of a boy slip away again.

“I will kill you, Lalo Montéz.”