Mi conejita. [Camilo x Female Reader]

Part 36 - Problems

Lying on the ground is the body of Maria Cordoba.

With a dagger in her chest.

Made of Moonstone.

You feel your knees give up as you collapse to the ground. Strong hands pull you back up and hug you tightly. Camilo. You sob into Camilo's ruana, re-entering the warm peacefulness you had left moments ago. You feel a rush of emotions as you realize Camilo is crying as well. You wrap your arms around him and attempt to calm the both of you. "It's alright, I'm fine," Camilo whispers into your hair, his voice shaking with every sob.

"No. None of us are alright," you respond, your voice little more than a croak. It breaks on the last word and you lapse into a fresh round of tears. 

"It's not your fault," Camilo tells you, resting his chin on the top of your head. 

"But it is," you respond sadly. The door opens and Mirabel comes running in.

She screams at the sight of Maria. "WHAT THE HE-"

"Mirabel," Camilo says. "Go make sure everyone is not near the body. We'll deal with this. And get someone to bring Juan."

"Juan?" Mirabel asks. Camilo nods into your head. You hear the sound of Mirabel running back out. 

"Come on, lets go sit down," Camilo tells you. He leads you over to the corner of the room, where two chairs are conveniently placed. The two of you sit down, and you bury your head into your hands. 

"What are we going to do?" you ask. Camilo shrugs. 

"Her parents ran away a long time ago, so she was the last Cordoba," Camilo tells you. 

"They ran away to join the Seeker."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do." The door opens and Juan walks in, gasping at the sight of Maria. Camilo nods at you and you push your concentration forward, breaking past the barrier and into Juan's mind.

What is happening? What did Alejandro do? And is that Moonstone? 

"AHA!" you yell. "YOU DO KNOW!"

Camilo puts a hand on your shoulder as Juan's head turns over to you. "What?" Juan asks.

"You know what Moonstone is."

"How did you-"

"I can read minds," you calmly state. Juan stares at you.

"So you are the girl. For a second I considered if it could be Maria," Juan whispers. You glare at him. He raises both hands into the air. "Okay, okay. Alejandro told me what Moonstone could do. He said that if I ever needed to defend myself, I should just find some Moonstone."

"Where do you find Moonstone?"

"Alejandro said I'd know when I needed it. That's it, I swear. I'm on your side."

"Mhm," you whisper. "What do you think we do next?"

Juan shrugs. "Come up with a lie? I don't know. But we can't worry everyone else yet."

You lean backwards in your chair. Juan looks at Camilo. Camilo nods, and Juan leaves. "Camilo," you whisper. "What do we do?"

Camilo shrugs. "Go back to your house, okay? I'll deal with this."

"No," you say firmly. "I'm helping."

Camilo shrugs again and gestures for you to follow him. You follow him outside of the room, into the courtyard, where the Madrigals are comforting a shaking girl. "She - I -" the girl whispers. Camilo walks over to them, but you can't hear what he is saying. The girl gets up to leave, after being reassured everything is alright, and eyes turn to you. 

"Maria. She-" you whisper. You can't come up with a convincing lie, so you sigh deeply before letting Camilo continue.

Camilo glances at you before whispering something to the Madrigals. They all gasp at the same time and nod. "We'll cover this up," Alma says. 

Camilo leads you back to Maria's body, where you pull the Moonstone dagger out of her. "I'll keep this," you tell him.

"Okay. Let's fix your arm."

You nod and follow Camilo to the kitchen, where a plate of arepa lies on the counter, presumably made by Julieta. You take one and eat it, ignoring the strange feeling inside of you as you eat. 

Camilo feels your arm. "Okay, all good," he tells you. "What are we going to do for the next six days, now that this happened?"

Your fingers start to tingle. "I dunno," you say. Camilo leads you out of the kitchen and up to his room, where the two of you sit on his bed.

"I'm scared," Camilo finally admits. You nod.

"Me too. But we gotta do this. For the encanto."

"Yeah," Camilo says. His face lights up. "I got you something," he smiles, "I was gonna bring it to you earlier, but your father kinda..."

You blush. "Yeah, sorry about that." Camilo hands you a gift box. You open it and find a crystal necklace.

"It's a colour-changing necklace. The colour changes whenever you want."

You smile and hug Camilo. "Thank you!"

The door opens. "Hate to interrupt," Dolores says, peeking in, "But you gotta come see this."

You go downstairs and find Alma holding up a note.

The note is signed with the same infinity mark that was on the cave.