Cami’s breath caught in her throat.

  Esmeralda was a ghost.

  Tomás took an instinctive step back. “No… that’s not possible.”

  But the evidence was there—the way Esmeralda’s skin seemed too pale, the way her feet barely disturbed the dust, the way the wind whispered around her like it carried secrets.

  The little foal pressed close to her, unafraid. The Pampaloosa foal.

  “How long have you been here?” Cami’s voice came out hushed.

  Esmeralda lowered her gaze, stroking the foal’s neck. “Since the fire.”

  A lump formed in Cami’s throat.

  She gnced around the burned ruins of the Estrel ranch. The ghosts of the past weren’t just in the stories—they were woven into the nd itself.

  Tomás’s face was pale. “You said someone set the fire. Do you know who?”

  Esmeralda’s fingers curled into the foal’s mane.

  “I remember the smoke,” she whispered. “Screaming. My father’s voice—telling me to run.” Her lips trembled. “I tried. I made it to the stables. I wanted to save them—our horses.”

  The wind stirred, lifting strands of her midnight-dark hair.

  “I remember someone grabbing me.” Her voice turned tight with pain. “I couldn’t see his face, but I remember his hands. Rough. Calloused. A deep scar across his palm.”

  Cami exchanged a sharp look with Tomás. A scarred palm—it was a clue.

  Esmeralda closed her eyes. “He locked the stable doors. The horses screamed. And then… the fmes came.”

  A deep silence followed. The only sound was the restless shifting of the foal beside her.

  Cami’s fists clenched. Someone had done this on purpose. Someone had trapped Esmeralda and the horses, condemning them to the fire.

  And they had gotten away with it.

  For decades.

  Tomás exhaled slowly. “If we find out who did this…” He hesitated. “Will it set you free?”

  Esmeralda met his gaze, her dark eyes holding an emotion Cami couldn’t quite pce.

  “I don’t know.” She ran a hand down the filly’s silver neck. “But I do know this—it wasn’t just one man. There were others. Someone wanted the Estrels gone. Someone wanted the Pampalosas erased.”

  Cami’s jaw tightened. They had to find out who.

  She turned to Tomás, her heart pounding with purpose.

  “We’re going to uncover the truth.”

  Tomás hesitated, then nodded.

  Esmeralda’s ghostly form shimmered in the moonlight. “If you do… be careful.”

  The wind howled through the ruins, whispering warnings in the night.

  Because whoever had set that fire had never been caught.

  And if they were still out there—

  They wouldn’t want the truth to surface now.