The Fortune Teller's Daughter (25 page)

He rolled
his sleeves as he paced, talking with his hands and smiling every few seconds.
In that moment, on stage with an audience of just one, he looked frighteningly
like Eli. They had the same sharp way of rolling their sleeves up, the same way
of pacing instead of standing still where the audience could analyze their
every twitch. For a moment he didn’t look like the psychopath on the train. He
looked…

Normal.

And the
effect worked. I relaxed without realizing it until later.

“Olivia. She
was our assistant and she wasn’t just a pretty face and a great pair of legs.
She performed with us, doing the daredevil acts that required certain peril to
pull off the magic. She lived for the show, the lights, the applause. She and
Eli were both such attention seekers. And she was beautiful. Caramel skin and
oh, eyes that could hypnotize.”

He
mmm
ed
and closed his eyes for a moment to revel in the memory of his dark skinned
goddess, and then the moment was over and he went back to pacing. “But more
importantly than all that, she was mine. All mine. We were going to be married
in the summer, the first carnival wedding in years. She was my paramour. I had
stars in my eyes and little fucking animated birds singing where ever I went.
That was love.”

Something in
the pit of my stomach wakened and crawled sickly up into my throat. I didn’t
need to hear the rest of the story, didn’t want to know the rest of the story,
to understand how it was all going to fit together. Castel was crazy,
certifiable lunacy. But if the story went the way I feared it would go, then his
mental state was worse than just crazy. It was justifiable.

“She sounds
lovely,” I murmured.

He nodded,
stopped, and leaned against the gate. “She was. Rook brought in special guests
one night, investors he was hoping would let us expand. He wanted a full night
time revue, not just the one burlesque tent. I was to stay on the magician’s
stage while Eli and Olivia had main stage to …” he gestured for a word,
“impress. The trick was, my brother would drop Olivia into a giant fish bowl,
bound. She’d perform this underwater dance, very beautiful and very dangerous.
While she twisted around and showed off her beautiful body, Eli would change
her hair color, her skin, her costume. She’d become a mermaid before everyone’s
eyes. For the finale as soon as she freed herself, she’d be swept up in a
whirlpool and he’d make her disappear.”

Castel
turned so that I could see his face, the honest, sincere grief that had
transposed him into something else. “He wasn’t watching her, he was watching
the audience. Performing to them, expecting her to do the act as we’d done it a
hundred times before. But something went wrong. She didn’t get out of her
bindings or she ran out of air too soon. I’m not sure. He didn’t realize she
was in distress when he made her disappear. And the girl who was supposed to
show up with towels backstage where she reappeared was running behind. By the
time anyone found her, she was already gone.”

I closed my
eyes. It was dumb to lower my guard in front of him, but I couldn’t help
myself. She deserved a moment of silence.

When I
opened them again, he was watching me unblinking, his arms slung through the
bars.

“It was an
accident.”

He scowled.
“It was negligence, which is worse. If he hadn’t been playing the showman,
seeking for his applause, she wouldn’t have died.”

“Castel, it
was an accident. You said it yourself, you’d done the trick a hundred times. He
must have trusted her to do it the same way one more time.”

He jerked
back, shock overwhelming his features. “So it was
her
fault?”

 “No!” I
pushed off the tree and came halfway to the fence before I realized what I was
doing and stopped short. “I’m saying it was no one’s fault. They closed down
the carnival for her. That has to mean something.”

“Oh,
sweetheart.” He came back to the fence line and snaked his hand through to hug
himself to the gate. “If only that were true. Oh no. They opened the gates a
few days later. Within a couple of weeks, Eli was back on stage.” His canines
flashed again and the devil filled his eyes once more. “They didn’t close the
carnival down until I set the big top on fire and burnt it to the ground.”

I took a
step back. “What?”

“One death
was enough for a couple of days off. But twelve deep pocketed investors was
enough to ruin them. Before Olivia and Eli took the stage, Rook gave them a
gift each, for good luck. A carnival boon.” Castel gestured and produced a
small gold coin between his fingers.

My mouth
fell open and all I could see was that coin. I knew it immediately, recognized
its grooves and shapes and bright yellow gleam. It was not worn down like mine
and I could see that what I’d mistaken for a C was actually a crescent moon
with a raven perched on its bottom curve. I moved a little closer and he held
it out to me.

“What is
that?” I asked.

“A
Soul
.
Carnival money.” He turned it so the sunlight drifting through the canopy could
catch the gold and wink at me. “Very hard to come by. Very rare prizes. Someone
gifted with a
Soul
is offered a single boon from the carnival. A small
wish. Not riches or immortality - a peek into the future, an unanswerable
question answered, a moment of pure joy, a single memory forgotten. Such a gift
so that Rook could secure more money.” He softened as he gazed at the coin. “It
didn’t help her when she needed it. I realized when I found it tied in her
braids that I was so tired of carnival magic. It’s selfish magic. And I wanted
to destroy it.”

He lifted
his eyes to mine, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin. The
Soul
.

“Would you
like it?” he asked quietly.

I wasn’t
thinking, lulled by his quiet, sad story, his voice so much like Eli’s. And the
coin, the coin that tied the carnival to my mother’s death there in his
outstretched palm. I reached for it.

As my
fingers closed around the metal, warm from his hand, he snatched a handful of
my hair and yanked me hard into the fence.

I cried out
and squirmed but he laced his fingers into my thick hair and held on tight. His
face leaned in intimately close to mine and for a moment all I could think
about what the reptilian way his mouth had pressed to mine.

“Let me go,
Castel. You don’t want to do this.” I braced myself against the iron to relieve
some of the pressure. The hair ripped in his hands, brought tears to my eyes.
After a moment, he softened his grip but didn’t let go.

“On the
contrary. Now that I’ve told you my story, I need you to relay a message for me
to my brother.”

“Fine,” I
gulped and flailed for his hand, found it in my hair and wrapped my hand around
his wrist. “Let go please, you’re hurting me.”

He was quiet
for a moment, staring where my hand touched his. “You’re brave. I like that
about you, Serafine. It’ll be very difficult for me to take your life
eventually, but even is even. If he cares about you, though I hear he may love
you, oddly enough. If he does, then we’ll be square. I won’t have to kill my
brother and between you and me, that would be a relief. I don’t want to lose
the only other person in the world I ever cared about. You’d be giving us a
gift, really. Saving his life by offering yours.”

“You’re
crazy,” I whispered and he tightened his grip until I cried out.

“Maybe.
Having your heart shattered will do that to a man. I need you to take a message
to my brother. I want you to tell him that if he unlocks our power, I’ll be
merciful. If he refuses, I will make it last for days and there will be nothing
left of this beautiful mind of yours when I am done. Now, go.”

Castel
released me with a shove and when I spun around to face him, he was gone,
leaving his grey coat blowing in the wind.

__________________

Eli

He had to
tell her about Castel.

She deserved
to know. Being with him meant becoming Castel’s target, the one thing that
could make him and his brother even. If Castel took Sera the way he’d
accidentally taken Olivia, it would destroy him. He’d never understood how
losing her had unmade Castel, but now the damage was so obvious, so
catastrophic. There was an inevitability to it that made his chest constrict
painfully. If Castel knew, he’d never rest until they were even, until they’d
both gone mad with grief.

Eli rubbed
the keyhole on his wrist and settled back into the blue couch on his stage and
waited for her to come to him. One more perfect night. That’s all he asked. One
more.

Castel was
coming. He could feel him gathering all their shared power to him.

Just one more perfect night. That was all he asked.

He closed his eyes and imagined her the way she looked
the night she slipped soundlessly into his wagon to find out the secret of his
tricks. The way she’d looked kneeling on his bed, the moonlight coming in to
strike silver across her pale skin. She had no idea how she’d looked to him
then, how otherworldly and extraordinary. He’d known as he watched her that
there was something there, something in her blood that spoke to him, that made
her undeniably one of the
Imaginaire
, even if it his theory was
untenable. With her long hair spilling down her shoulders, her soft, ample body
pressing against her t-shirt, tight in the most delicious places, she’d
beguiled him into believing that she wielded more power in one captivating look
than he’d ever had at his fingertips. 

He did not deserve her.

As if summoned by his thoughts he heard her footsteps
and opened his eyes to find her at the top of the theater, the late afternoon
sun striking her in golden light. She smiled eagerly when she had his
attention. She slowed her steps and he stood to meet her, loving the way she
gazed up at him. He wished he really could read her thoughts, all of them, so
he wouldn’t have to worry about her so much.

“What, no flowers? Or chocolates? Or diamonds? Perhaps
I have the wrong tent.”

The Magician reached down for her and pulled her up
onto his stage, holding on longer than necessary.

“One night and already so demanding.”

“Have we met? Because I’m pretty sure I’ve always been
demanding.”

“Don’t I know it. Fine.” He gestured and pulled petals
one at a time from the air, blue and purple like stars that floated between
them. She watched him magic them into existence just for her, a smile built on
child-like wonder shaping her mouth into a perfect peach bow. With the last one
conjured, he blew them into his outstretched hand where they put themselves
back together to form one of the carnival’s orchids, blue and white and purple.

He offered her the flower and she took it with wide,
appreciative eyes. She inhaled its subtle scent and, fascinated, ran her
fingers across the velvet petals.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted one of these.”
And then, just to be on the safe side, she added. “Showoff.”

“I am a magician, Serafine. If you can’t make it seem
impossible, it’s not worth doing.”

“Oh. Really.” She got that look in her eye, the
challenge accepted gaze that made him a little nervous, and sidestepped his
arms when he tried to capture her again. “Let’s test that theory, oh great and
powerful illusionist.”

“Sera,” he warned but she’d already crossed half the
stage and on her way she’d pulled up her long hair, twisted it into a messy bun
and slid the stem of the orchid into it to hold it in place.

And then the damnable woman picked up the hem of her
shirt, pulled it over her head, and pooled it on the floor at her feet.

“Let’s see, what was that you said about illusions?
Ah, yes. Illusion is only a very romantic form of desire.” As casually as she
brushed her hair, she shimmied the cotton yoga pants down her hips to leave
them, and her shoes, on the floor by her shirt.

She kept walking away as he stalked her, predatory and
confounding, teasing prey. She sidestepped the blue couch in nothing but her
lacy black bra and high cut red panties. He could see the shape of her against
the black back wall, all her softness and voluptuousness, sweet and innocent
with a wicked smile.

“It teases with infinite possibilities.” She mimicked
his first performance for her down to the words, filling him with an odd sense
of pride that, even then, she’d listened to every word he’d said.

Sera drew her fingers down the line of her bra,
leaving a red flush against her sensitive skin. Her body blushed easily to his
hungry gaze, everything she did he analyzed, followed. It made his mouth water
to taste her, but it stole his voice.

And then the tease pulled her bra straps down, worked
her arms through them until her breasts fairly spilled from their confines. She
turned her back on him them to unclasp the fabric restraining them and dropped
it onto the floor.

Coyly, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “It
creates pleasure without touch, isn’t that what you said?”

“Brat, get back here.”

“No.” She pressed her lips defiantly. “Come get me.”

He growled at the taunt, overwhelmed by the desire to
tame his wild little lion. She begged for such control.

As her smug little smile replaced the sweet one, he
disappeared and reappeared in front of her in the split second it took her to
realize he’d gone, before she even turned around to find him there beside her.
He scooped her nearly naked body into his arms and kissed her into submission.