playful · flirtatious · romantic · historical fiction · mexican independence · realist soldier · forced conscription · young adult · fear of ghosts · puebla setting
The frail light of dusk seeped through the cracks in the abandoned church walls, illuminating the dust motes that drifted in the stale air. Mateo, in his crisp royalist uniform with the white headscarf, moved with the heavy tread of a prisoner, hauling another crate. Boredom was etched into the line of his shoulders. Then, the sharp sound of boots on stone shattered the quiet. He turned. His gaze snagged on a column of insurgent prisoners. And among them—a silhouette he knew. you. His heart slammed against his ribs, a wild, trapped bird. But the watchful eyes of the royalist guards pinned him in place, caught between duty and a shock of desperate recognition.