CHAPTER NINETEEN

Learning to Forgive

Danya froze. She couldn’t let Violet take the fall for her. The duchess could hurt her! But before she could race back, Violet pushed herself to her feet and spit her wad of gum into her hand. When the duchess made another grab for her, Violet mashed the gum into the duchess’s hair.

“Take that!” she yelled.

The duchess shrieked and grabbed for the gum as the police station doors flew open and several officers raced into the parking lot.

“We’ve gotta go, Snap,” Pia said, tugging on Danya’s arm. “The duke will tell.”

“Yeah,” Danya said, and started to run. But as they made their escape, she couldn’t help turning everything that had just happened over in her head. Violet just saved them from the duke and duchess. But that didn’t make any sense. . . . She’d been planning to turn them in for the reward money before! She’d only helped them in the first place to get a story.

Pia skidded to a stop in front of a gas station and grabbed hold of Sancho’s reins, pulling him to a stop as well. “I think we lost them,” she said, huffing as she caught her breath.

Danya frowned, chewing on her lower lip. “Did you hear what Violet said?”

“I’m confused, too,” Pia admitted. “But at least we got away.”

Danya nodded. “I guess we should figure out how to get to the real Palace now.”

“Smart move. I’ll go inside and see if they can give us directions. You should stay out here with Sancho, but maybe you should hide or something in case Violet comes past. They could still catch us.”

Danya climbed down from Sancho’s back and pulled him around to the side of the gas station, which was hidden from the street by a couple of dumpsters. As Pia pushed open the door and disappeared inside, she patted Sancho’s neck.

“Thanks for the warnings, buddy,” she said. “Sorry I didn’t listen.”

Sancho huffed and pushed his nose into her curls, tickling her neck.

Still, there was one thing that Danya couldn’t get out of her head. Why had Violet helped them? It didn’t make sense. And that thing she’d called after them—turn yourself in, there’s something you don’t know. What had that meant?

Pursing her lips, Danya pulled Sancho back around to the front of the gas station, where there was an old pay phone next to the sliding glass doors. She pulled a few quarters out of her pockets and stuck them in the slots, then quickly dialed her parents’ number.

She held her breath as the phone rang and rang and rang. Then there was a click.

“Hi, you’ve reached the Ruiz residence,” said her mother’s recorded voice. “We’re not home right now, but if you’d like to leave your name and number . . .”

With a heavy heart, Danya hung up the phone. Sancho licked her cheek.

“Where are they?” she asked him, sniffling. She’d so wanted to hear her mother’s real voice, to say she was okay and she’d be coming home soon. And what about her dad? Had the bald man already come looking for Sancho? Danya wanted to promise him she’d pay him back—that he wouldn’t have to worry about the bald man’s money after all.

Sancho shook out his mane and pawed at the parking lot. Danya buried her face into his mane, wondering where her parents could possibly be and what on earth Violet knew that she didn’t.

Danya had started to wipe her eyes on her sleeve when the gas station door swung open and Pia stepped onto the sidewalk, carrying two hot dogs and balancing a bright blue Slurpee in the crook of her arm.

“What’s the matter?” Pia said, seeing Danya’s tearstained face. “Didn’t I make it the way you like? Double mustard and relish, no ketchup.”

“It’s not that.” Danya’s voice cracked, and another tear formed in the corner of her eye. She’d made a mistake by running off with Sancho—a really big one, she could see that now. She would still do anything and everything to save Sancho, but in trying to protect him, she’d hurt everyone else. She’d hurt her parents by running away, and she’d hurt Pia by being so focused on her own problems that she hadn’t seen what was going on with her best friend.

And Sancho . . . Danya looked down at her pony. He sat in the middle of the sidewalk, swishing his tail like a happy puppy and staring up at her with those big brown eyes. Sancho trusted her, and what if, after all of this, she wasn’t able to save him? What if she’d made so many people unhappy and it was all for nothing?

The thought tugged on her heart, making her feel painful and raw. She clenched her eyes shut, trying to push the bad feelings away. But as the darkness closed around her, all she saw was black smoke against the blue sky. She heard fire crackling in the distance and Jupiña’s terrified whinny.

“Danya, you’re trembling!” Pia grabbed Danya by the shoulders. Danya’s eyes flew open, but the smell and feel of the fire stayed with her. Why couldn’t she shake that memory? Was it because she felt just as lost and helpless now as she did then?

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Pia demanded, her eyes wide with concern.

“There’s something I’ve never told you,” Danya answered in a quiet voice.

Pia narrowed her eyes, waiting.

“Remember . . . remember when Sancho’s mom died?”

Pia frowned. “Of course. It was just last summer when it was so hot, right? There was a wildfire. Danya, what’s wrong?”

“It was my fault.” Danya stared down at her sneakers, unable to meet Pia’s eyes. “I’d been playing with this magnifying glass in the backyard. Sancho and I were looking for tiny villages, you know, like in Gulliver’s Travels? When I held the magnifying glass up to the sun, it burned a hole in the grass, so I stopped. But then I left it there, and Sancho and I ran off into the woods to play.

“I didn’t realize anything was wrong until . . . until I smelled the smoke.” Danya’s eyes watered, and she wiped at them with the back of her hand. “Sancho and I tried to make it back in time, but when we reached the pen, the fire had spread and it was . . . it was burning.”

Danya sniffled, squeezing her eyes shut so she wouldn’t see the disappointment in Pia’s face. “It was my fault that Sancho’s mom died. If I hadn’t left my magnifying glass, nothing would have happened to her. I tried to get back to the stable in time to get her out. But I couldn’t.”

Sancho made a sniffling noise, flattening his ears against the back of his head. He leaned against her leg, but Danya just stared at her sneakers. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

Pia reached for Danya’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Danya, you don’t know the magnifying glass started that fire. It was so hot that summer that fires started all the time. My mom said one started near the highway because it was so hot the grass burst into flames. And if you’d been by the stable, you probably would have been hurt, too,” Pia said.

Danya looked up. She hadn’t thought of that before. “You don’t think it was my fault? But the magnifying glass . . .” Pia shook her head before she could continue.

“Your fault? It was a horrible accident. It was nobody’s fault.”

In order to get the fortune you seek, you must forgive yourself. . . . Danya still wasn’t sure the fortune-teller was right about that. She didn’t know if she could ever forgive herself for what she’d done to Jupiña. But after revealing her big secret to Pia, Danya felt light in a way she hadn’t since before Sancho’s mom died. Maybe she could try telling her parents what happened, too? If Pia didn’t think it was her fault, they might not, either. Danya turned the idea over in her head, but even the thought made her feel anxious. Pia could just be trying to act nice, after all.

Danya sighed and scratched Sancho behind his ears. He licked her wrist with his long, scratchy tongue. Maybe she had reconciled a past harm. She might start believing in this hero’s list after all.

“Maybe,” she said. Pia gave her a one-armed hug, handing over the hot dog covered in mustard and relish.

“Well, the evil duke and duchess were right about one thing,” she said. “Apparently the Palace is right around the corner. The clerk gave me directions.” Pia motioned to a napkin poking out of her pocket.

Danya nodded and stared down at her hot dog. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. “Did you spend the last of our money on these?”

Pia shrugged, taking a big bite of her hot dog, which she’d covered in mayonnaise and rainbow sprinkles. Gross, Danya thought. “We have to keep our strength up. And anyway, we’re almost there.”

Danya took a bite of her hot dog, then tore off a chunk of the bun to feed to Sancho. Pia was right—the money didn’t matter right now. Danya no longer had to worry about how much they spent or what they were going to eat next or where they were going to sleep. They’d come all this way, and now they were almost there. Her grandmother’s house was right around the corner. Now all she had to worry about was Sancho.

The mustard-covered hot dog turned in Danya’s stomach, making her feel sick. What if this was all a mistake? What if her grandmother didn’t want to help after all? What if she didn’t even want to meet Danya?

Pia noisily sucked Slurpee up through her straw. “Snap?” she asked, her lips and tongue dyed bright blue. Her mouth split into a wide smile, and she hopped in place. “We’re going, right?”

Sancho pushed against her arm with his nose, and Danya shook her head, forcing herself to take a deep breath. They’d come all this way. Mistake or not, they had to see the rest of the adventure through. She shoved the hot dog in her mouth and plucked the napkin from Pia’s pocket.

“Of course we’re going,” she said, studying the napkin. “Now where is this place?”

Pia leaned over her shoulder, motioning to a wiggly black line stretching across the napkin. “All we gotta do is follow that road there for half a mile. You think there’ll be a drawbridge? Or those, like, pointy things on top of the towers?”

“Turrets?” Danya asked. “No, Pia, it’s not a real palace. It’s just a condo. It’ll probably look like an apartment building.” She stared down at the hastily drawn map covering the napkin. It showed a path that cut past the main street and curved onto a tiny road a few blocks over. Danya studied the scribbles, then glanced up to take in her surroundings.

“We need to head that way,” she said, pointing to a road lined with manicured bushes and trees that cut through the main street. “According to this, the Palace is two blocks down, on the left.”

Pia popped off the lid of her Slurpee and took another gulp. “Onward!” she shouted, pumping a fist in the air.