The Fortune Teller's Daughter (28 page)

Then Lily
squeezed my hand, leaned into me and whispered, “It’s show time,” as the
trapeze bar snapped.

For a moment
the two acrobats flew towards the one that should have been there to catch
them, but wasn’t.

The audience
held their breath. So did I.

And then
they were falling.

And
colliding with Micah.

Who lost her
grip.

And all
three tumbled headlong into the mirror of ice.

__________________

The sound of
breaking bones was no sound at all. It was felt,
snapsnapsnap
inside my
chest. I started screaming until I’d gone hoarse, until there was no air left
in my lungs and it was just me clutching my chest,
snapsnapsnap
, trying
to hold it all inside.

They lay
perfectly still on the ice, surrounded by snow, angel wings fluttering broken
at wrong angles, indistinguishable from the arms at wrong angles.

And legs.

And necks.

The crowd
went ballistic, bodies stampeding for the door, not wanting to help, just
wanting to get away as fast as possible. All the bodies going one way and only
a few going against the tide. Artom. Addy.

Me.

Only I made
it just a few steps down the bleachers before Lily yanked me backwards, pulled
along by the force of the people spreading around us.

“You!” I
screamed and shoved the blonde beauty backwards into the bleachers. She
stumbled in surprise, caught by the snugness of her dress. “
Paramour
!” I
yelled, “
Inamorato
!
Amour
! Those were Castel’s words you
traitorous, lying, bitch!”

When Lily
struggled to get on her feet, swearing and stumbling over her words, I hauled
off and punched her in the mouth.

Addy knelt
beside the tangle of angels as Artom unknotted them. Big, burly Artom, all
shoulders and arms, handling delicate bones and hearts.

“I…I think
she’s alive.”

His voice
rumbled as he lifted a single body into his arms, a single bird more feathers
than girl.

Micah.

“Get her out
of her Artom! Go! Both of you get to Mama George! Castel’s coming! Go now!”

The
strongman and the tiny acrobat didn’t hesitate to heed my words. They ran for
the back exit in time for me to turn back to deal with my traitorous Courtesan.

I squared my
fist and prepared to knock her out, but it was too late.

“That’ll do,
Serafine.”

Castel
filled the doorway, bigger than I remembered him, larger than life, flames
dancing in one open palm. He wore his grey coat again, his head bent so I
couldn’t see his eyes.

I realized
what I’d known since the night on the subway. Why he looked so familiar.

The man I’d
seen walk into my mother’s tent hadn’t been wearing a grey suit.

He’d been
wearing a grey coat.

“You.” I
stumbled down a step, feeling the weight of it sink through me. “You killed my
mother. It was you.”

It was
Castel who’d come to my mother’s tent. It was Castel who’d placed the coin in
her hand after he’d strangled her. It was Castel who’d vanished into thin air.

Like magic.

“Ah, the
fortune teller? I thought you looked familiar. I never forget a set of pretty
eyes.” He shook his head. “She was impossible to kill. Always saw me coming.
Always one step ahead of me. I couldn’t get to Eli as long as she was around
telling him when to run. She was the first I went after.”

“She always
saw you coming.” I shook my head, all the answers and all the puzzle pieces falling
into place. All the running, the crappy motels, the shady apartments. Never
staying long enough to meet people, to be found out. Running not because she
was plagued by wanderlust.

Running
because we were hunted. Running to keep us safe.

I stared at
Lily, a perfect gloved hand clutching her bleeding mouth and staring at me with
such poison in her eyes. I shook my head. Everything fit. I had been so wrong
for so long.

“I see
you’re already acquainted with my new assistant. Good. Now it’s time for the second
act.”

Before I
could react, Lily shoved me away from her.

I tripped
back, fell an impossibly long time before striking the bleacher beneath us,
first across the shoulders, then across the back of my head.

All the
nerves across the back of my neck fired painfully, bright shocks of pinched
electricity stunning me for too many seconds. When I reached to steady myself,
to get off my back, Castel’s shadow fell across me and it was too late.

*  *  *

Eli

Galaxy was
on fire.

He heard the
screaming first, the panic he remembered viscerally from years ago when he’d
seen innocents running for their lives. Now there were children. Now there were
families.

Eli and
Alistair ran out of his wagon to see the smoke in the sky, caught beneath the
canopy of trees, bringing early night to the day. He could smell the smoke.
Could taste the ash of burned canvas and wood.

Sera.

He got
halfway to the fairgrounds when one of the acrobats, the smallest of the
troupe, a girl named Addy with wild stricken eyes, came running for him as fast
as her little legs could carry her. She didn’t seem to see anything and nearly
crashed into him when he went to stop her.

“They’re
dead,” she cried. “The trapeze broke. Micah and Tamor and Io. They fell. They
fell. They all fell!”

Alistair
grabbed the hysterical girl by the hand. “Go,” he said. “Go find her. Stop
Castel before he burns the whole place to the ground.”

The Magician
wanted to grieve. He didn’t know any of them well but Micah was Sera’s. She was
her shadow, her twin, her friend. He wanted to grieve but there wasn’t time.
They were out of time.

Castel had
come.

The Galaxy
burned steadily, the heavy, fire retardant canvas burning slower than the main
stage tent had the first time Castel had come. He knew, though, that he would
not find them in the Galaxy. That wasn’t Castel’s style. He knew where they’d
be waiting. Castel wanted to make it a show and there was only one stage for a
magician.

The lights
were on inside the magician’s theater, the lanterns leading up to the door
crackling ominously. The tent flaps blew open as he approached and he walked
inside without fear. He would not fear his brother.

Castel leapt
to his feet on the edge of the stage, delight mingling with the crazy streak
he’d nurtured all these years. “I do love a good entrance, brother.”

“You called,
I answered.” Eli opened his arms. “Let’s trade.”

At center
stage Castel had placed a long, narrow platform chest high. He’d covered it
with a black sheet used in illusion quick changes. And on top of the sheet he’d
posed Sera on her back, her head canted to the side to suggest he’d knocked her
out. Her head was bleeding, though he couldn’t tell from the back of the
theater how bad it was.

Her hands
were bound.

And sitting
in the front row, legs crossed beneath her expensive satin gown, looking
positively bored to tears, was Lily.

“Why am I
not surprised to find you here?” he asked as he approached the stage where
Castel waited.

Lily leaned
her head back and smiled lazily up at him. “I like bad boys. What can I say.”

Castel
clapped his hands together and paced the front of the stage. “Now that you’re
here, we can get on with the show. Here’s the trade - you unlock our power, and
she dies quickly and we’re even. No more tricks. If you don’t remove the lock
you put on us, then I’ll make her suffer.” Castel shrugged easily. “She’s
really a decent girl. I like her. She’s sharp. I don’t want to torture her.”

“You won’t
torture her and you won’t hurt her. You and me and no one else. You want someone
to pay.” Eli put his hands on the edge of the stage and hoisted himself up.
“Then I’ll be paying that debt.”

Castel
winced. “I don’t like her that much.”

“Those are
the terms. She leaves here unharmed, or you get nothing.”

His brother
tapped a finger against his chin. “I kind of thought you might say that.”

Before he
could reach him, Castel grabbed the sheet beneath Sera’s body and yanked it
free.

The platform
wasn’t a platform at all. It was a water coffin. Used in death defying escape
artist tricks.

Eli launched
himself across the stage to reach her, but he never had a chance.

The lid
disappeared, dropping her into the water. Her eyes snapped open and she had a
half second of wild terror to realize where she was.

The lid
reappeared. By magic.

He heard her
scream underwater and slam her bound hands against the glass. The crack he
heard was more likely bones breaking than glass.

The Magician
had one hand on the coffin when his brother appeared at his side, rapier in
hand, flames licking up the edge of the blade.

“Shall we
see if you still eat fire, brother?”

And then
Castel rammed the blade through his side.

__________________

Drowning
wasn’t a good way to die.

I tried to
breathe. That was my first mistake. It wasn’t that I thought I could breathe water,
it was that all I knew how to do to stop the burning in my lungs and at the
back of my head.
Take a breath.
That’s how people lived. By taking a
breath when their body demanded it.

The water
was ice cold. It went into my throat burning. The back of my nose and my eyes,
everything ached from the cold and the airlessness of drowning.

I kicked and
I punched and I rocketed my body against the sides as hard as I could. There
was no leverage in the tiny box, no space to get momentum. I managed to get it
to shake and slosh but it didn’t tip. It didn’t crack. I bloodied the water
beating my fists against the glass.

My vision
went sideways and little pops of color went off across the back of my eyes and
I thought, that’s it.

This is
how it ends.

I stilled.

But the tank
did not. It rocked harder, gaining momentum, first one direction than the
other, teetering on the edge of its platform.

With one
more heave the glass coffin tipped. I floated in nothingness for the second it
took to hit the ground, for the glass to smash and the water to go rushing away
from me and out of me.

Hands
grabbed me, small hands, weak hands. They caught me under my arms and dragged
me across glass, slicing up my skin as I coughed and wracked and sucked
painful, burning gasps of air. For a second or two I felt like I blacked out,
losing awareness on my knees, coming to on my back, going out again and coming
to crouched over someone’s feet as they shook me.

“Get up, get
up, get up!”

I rolled
over and found Katya kneeling beside me frantically trying to untie my wrists.

“Eli,” I
coughed. “Where is he?”

She pointed
towards the stage from the curtains where she’d drug me.

The two
magicians stood off from one another, although one look told me Eli was
injured, one arm gripping his middle, staggering, bleeding. He had one hand
held out, fingers spread towards his brother who held a rapier and looked
unfazed.

“Katya, the snow
globes.” I rolled to my knees and the girl helped me onto my feet. “The ones
the acrobats use. I need one. Can you get me one?”

“Yes, but…”

“Run. Run
very,
very
fast.” I shoved her towards the back of the stage and through
the velvet curtains.

Castel
whipped his arm towards his brother and Eli fell, crashing into the glass and
water with such force I could feel it through the floorboards of the stage. He
groaned and rolled to his side, clutching at the wound in his side that weeped
through his fingers. Red. Red as the stage curtains.

I slid to my
knees in the water and glass, grabbed a shard between my hands and began to saw
at the ropes frantically. I would be no help if I didn’t get to him.

Castel
strode towards his brother until he was towering over him. Eli stared
unblinking into the eyes of his twin.

Castel who
killed my mother.

Eli closed
his eyes. He swallowed painfully.

As soon as
his eyes closed Castel thrust the sword into him.

I blinked.

Eli
disappeared.

The sword
struck wood.

Eli
reappeared behind his brother, snaked an arm across his throat, and yanked him
back off his feet.

The rapier fell
from Castel’s hands as he fought to ease the pressure of Eli’s arm across his
windpipe. The water on the stage made it hard for him to plant his feet and
stop his brother from dragging him backwards across the stage.

“You can’t
kill me,” he wheezed. Eli tightened his hold.

“I’ll do
what I have to to keep mine safe.”

Castel
snorted for air, scrambled and clawed at his brother’s arm. Eli closed his eyes
and for a moment I didn’t think he could kill him.

And I didn’t
want him to.

When it came
to physical strength, Eli would beat his brother every time.

Half the
hemp rope broke. One more strand. The glass cut into my fingers, drew sharp,
ugly lines of blood. The glass became slippery, hard to maneuver.

The more
panicked I became, the harder it was to keep hold of it.

“Sera!”
Katya appeared running down the aisle full tilt, one of the acrobat’s snow
globes clutched in her arms. She got halfway to the stage when Lily pounced her
and the two girls went crashing to the floor.