Chapter Text
Bruno's head rang like a bell as he tossed his spackle bucket aside and watched his final vision come true.
And Mirabel!
She was still reaching up into his mother's window, still trying to save The Candle.
His tower was seconds from crumbling on top of her. She was going to die!
“No...” His eyes began to glow. He didn't know what he was doing. How could seeing the future help in a situation like this? And yet… for a single moment everything he knew darkened, slowed, and began to shift like sand. The world became a vision… or a vision became the world?
Then Bruno's heart fluttered like a flame going out. His Gift was gone. Not just set aside, waiting to be picked up again, but gone. Its absence left him collapsed on all fours, gasping for breath.
By the time he got his bearings back it was over. Casita was a ruin… The magic… The Miracle… Mirabel…
Bruno sank forward, his elbows on the ground and his face in his hands. The single rat he managed to escape with was squeaking in concern on his shoulder, but he couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t hear anything other than his quick, shallow breath and his thundering pulse.
“What have I done?” he keened. “What have I done?!”
There was another voice nearby, but it didn't matter. Let them find him. Let him be held accountable.
He continued to repeat his question under his breath until he was suddenly yanked up from his ball of misery and attacked…
Wait… no…
The hands on him were gentle: touching his head, his arms, under his ruana.
They grabbed his face and forced him to meet their owner’s big scared eyes.
“Tio Bruno!” A sharp whisper. It was a young woman. Huge eyes, prominent ears, curly hair in a red bow.
“Dolores?"
His niece threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. "Gracias a Dios…” she breathed. “I couldn’t hear you. I couldn't tell if you got out or if you were hurt or… or…”
Swallowing a heavy lump, Bruno put his hands on her shoulders and gently, carefully pushed Dolores off of him. “Never mind me! The others? Mirabel?”
“Everyone is fine,” she assured him. “Casita protected us.”
He closed his eyes as the tension and terror of the afternoon finally released its grip. He took his first good deep breath in what felt like hours.
Dolores cut his moment of relief short by grabbing his hands and trying to drag him to his feet. “Now come on. There's no time.”
“What are you… what?” He stared up at her dumbly.
“We need to get back to the others before Albuela… before something else happens.”
“Oh…” Bruno blinked as his brain caught up with his ears. “Oh nooo…” He snatched his hands away and scrambled backwards, tripping over himself as he got to his feet. “No, no, no, no, no. Not happening.”
Dolores let him get some distance and waited while her uncle knocked frantically on the nearest tree.
“I’m not going back without you.” It was amazing how much force could come from such a quiet voice.
With a flinch and a gasp, Bruno said, “I’m sorry, but I can't!” He peeked at his niece from under the curtain of his hair, and the fear and agony in his eyes was heartbreaking.
But Dolores, in the last few hours, had finally put together the missing pieces of the puzzle that was her Tio in the walls. She was the only one who truly knew what he had been though, what he was still going through. And despite it all, she knew he wasn't about to abandon his family.
He was physically incapable of it.
As gently as possible, she said, “Mirabel did all she could to save our home and yet, she’s the one who'll get the blame. And it is terribly unfair to ask more of you after… everything, but Tio Bruno, you might be the only one left who can help her. You're exactly what this family needs. You just have to see it.”
Bruno's face pinched from having his own words thrown back at him, then he groaned and rubbed his eyes. “Fine,” he said, defeated. “You win. Lead the – woah!”
He was already being pulled along: once again caught in the iron grip of a niece on a mission.
They were making their way around the rubble when they heard the frantic calls for Mirabel.
“They’re looking for her? I thought you said she was fine?!” hissed Bruno.
“She was! I…”
Her uncle’s wrist slipped from her grasp, and when Dolores turned to question him, she was alone.
“Dolores!”
And now Camilo was clambering over the rubble towards her.
“Do you know where Mirabel is?” he asked as he slid off a broken wall to land next to her. “She disappeared. We're pretty sure she ran away ‘cause, you know…” He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at the ruins.
“I haven’t heard her,” Dolores softly replied. “Or seen her.”
Camilo's head dropped forward and his shoulders rose. A moment later he snapped back up into a casual posture and a reassuring smile. “Right. Okay. Well, everyone else is out front planning a search party. You should head there.”
He spun on is heel and ran in the direction opposite to where he had told is sister to go. Dolores figured he was circling the grounds for any sign of their missing cousin.
She turned around and Bruno was behind her.
The way she jumped and squeaked caused her uncle to wince back as well.
“Sorry, sorry…”
“How did you…” Dolores cut herself off. Stupid question. “Why did you hide from Camilo?"
Bruno cringed and fidgeted before admitting, "I changed my mind. The others can't know I'm here.”
Oh he did not like the way her eyes narrowed at him. Quickly he added, "Yet! The others can't know I'm here yet! If Mirabel's run away, we need to focus on finding her before she gets too far, and-and-and… me magically turning up is just gonna cause a distraction that we don't have time for.”
Dolores sighed. He was right, and it hurt her that this poor man couldn’t just come home already.
Picking up on her distress, Bruno said, “I’m sorry, kid. I’ll look too. A-and as soon as Mirabel is found, I’ll turn myself in. I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know.” Dolores gave him a small, sad smile. “See you soon, Tio Bruno.”
He smiled back and nodded, then put the hood of his ruana up and ran off into the jungle with an agility a man his age had no right to possess.