Benny shrugs, his expression not revealing anything, and we take off for the nearest ghost. I talk to a bunch of them, but they are completely useless. Not one of them even hints at a possibility.
Two hours later, we’ve only spoken to half the ghosts. I kick at a tree and immediately regret it. I can’t believe no one has any answers. We head down the main freak show aisle. Lorena and Giselle stand outside the fortune tent, chatting. Giselle looks at her worshipfully, and Lorena looks bored.
Benny leans down and whispers in my ear. “Can we go back to your boat now?”
I shake my head. “We need to talk to the rest of the ghosts.”
“Callie,” a voice calls. I turn and find Juliette waving frantically. She shoves through the crowd and rushes up to me. “There you are. We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
I rub my forehead. “Sorry. I’ve been busy tonight.”
She’s got this goofy grin on her face, and I’m not sure what’s going on. She only ever gets that grin when she has something crazy to tell me.
“It’s okay. But I have a surprise for you.”
“Jules…not tonight. I’m sorry, I just…” My words die as a girl steps out from behind Juliette.
Maddie flings herself at me.
Chapter Four
I extricate myself and stare into the bright blue eyes of my little sister. My Irish twin.
“What…what are you doing here?”
She should be home in California, having fun on the beach after an all-day surfing session.
She smiles from ear to ear. “I’ve come to rescue you, silly.”
She’s really here. All of her. Her blonde curls, her multicolored fingernails, her wide grin with a gap in her front teeth. Why is she here?
I look around her. “Did you come by yourself?”
“Yeah. Mom and Dad will be so mad, but I couldn't let you rot here. They’ll be fine when I come home with you though.”
Dread drops into my stomach. It takes far too long for me to pull my thoughts together and then even longer to get the words to come out. Maddie’s smile falls just a bit, her eyes searching mine.
“We have to get you out of here.” I grab her hand and drag her toward the docks. Juliette and Benny fall in step with us.
“You know that won’t work,” Benny says softly.
“She’s not trapped here,” I growl. “She didn’t draw the stupid eight of swords. She can leave.”
“Not until after sunrise.”
That may be true, but she’s going to be on the first boat out.
We stop in front of the empty ferry dock. Elias must be waiting on the other side. Just for once, it would be nice for him to be here during the circus. I bite my lip and resist the urge to yell out.
Maddie tugs at my hand. “What’s wrong? I thought you would be happy to see me. I came a long flippin’ way to see you. And Mom and Dad, well, you know how they are….” Her voice is sing-songy but irritated.
I rub my face and take her in again. She’s my favorite person in the whole world, and I don’t want her here in this hellhole with me. “You know I'm trapped here, right? I thought my letters made that pretty clear.”
She rolls her eyes and bounces on her toes. “No, you’re not. I’m taking you home. These people have Stockholm syndromed you.” She puts both her hands on my shoulders. “We can leave. You can leave. We just have to wait until the ferry comes back.” Her smile returns full-force.
She loops her arm through mine and pulls me down on the dock so we can sit and wait. I’m reminded starkly of the time I tried to escape on my own. Maddie will be able to leave after sunrise, but I won’t. She’s not trapped here. Not unless she did something stupid already.
I look into her excited face and force a grin. “You didn’t visit the fortune teller, did you?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve been trying to find you. I found Juliette wandering around and asked her if she knew you, and she got all excited. I thought you said she died. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but we’re going to get you home and get you help.”
I let out a sigh. “Okay. We’ll wait here, and then when the ferry comes back, we’ll get out of here.”
Juliette crouches down in front of us. “I hate to burst your bubble, but, love, you aren’t getting out of here anytime soon.”
I give her a look. “I know that. But Maddie is, and so we will wait here.”
Juliette stares at us for a moment, and then I can see that she gets it.
“Right. Benny, will you wait with us?” Juliette asks, settling in front of Maddie.
I catch his eye, and I know he understands. My mind races through the possibilities of what could happen if Maddie gets stuck here.
“Sure.” He sits next to me and grips my hand.
Maddie looks around me to him. “Will you be coming with us?”
Benny purses his lips. “No. I will stay on the island.”
Maddie rolls her eyes. “Of course you will. The way Callie talks about you, I thought maybe you loved her, but you’re probably part of the problem. This whole thing she has about not being able to leave the island.” She looks me dead in the eyes. “Mom and Dad will make sure you get some serious therapy. You’ll get over this. I promise.”
I should argue with her, but what would I tell her? That I drew a dumb fortune, and now I’m stuck on the island. Then I made a deal with the leader of the island to prevent my friends from getting killed, but he double-crossed me, and so I killed him, and there is no way in hades that I can get out of here. I have too much responsibility. Not that she’d believe a word of it.
She thinks I’ve lost my mind, but it’s safer for her to believe that than the alternative. Because as soon as the ferry comes back, I’m shoving her onto it and getting her off the island even if that means hurting myself, and hopefully she’s smart enough to not come back.
We hang out on the docks and chat about gossip from back home. I can’t let Maddie go back to the circus and make a fatal mistake like I did and get trapped here forever. I’m a nervous wreck the whole time, but finally, the boat comes into view.
Elias whistles his sinister tune as I step onto the boat with her. “Let’s sit here,” I say, waving at a bench near the front, and she sits. “I’ll be back in a second.”
I go to the back of the boat and find Elias. “My sister is on this boat. Please, please, please make sure she doesn’t get off. I can’t leave obviously, but she needs to be taken back to the mainland and not come back. You understand that, right?”
He puffs on a cigarette and just stares at me. “Where is she?” he asks.
I point to where she sits, the only one on the boat right now, and he glances her way.
“She thinks I’m coming with her, and she’ll panic when she realizes I’m not going back. Do not let her get off the boat until you hit the mainland.”
He nods slowly. “Yes, boss lady.”
I glower at him. “Don’t call me that.” I huff and march back to Maddie.
“I have to get a few things. I don’t want to leave all my clothes and stuff. I’ll be right back. Promise.”
She grips my hand. “No. I’ll come with you.”
“Just stay here. You’ll slow me down. The boat will leave soon. I need to hurry, and I can’t be worrying about you. I’ll be back, I promise.” Lies, all lies.
She clenches her fists. “Okay. But if you aren’t back when we leave, I’m jumping off the boat.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. If she attempts to jump, the zombies or the gators could get her. There will be a lot of people. She won’t be able to.
“Okay.”
I hope Elias keeps her on the boat. If he doesn’t, she’ll be stuck here until the new moon, and I can’t let her be here until then. The island prevents anyone from leaving in between the moons.
Benny follows me off the docks. “You okay?” he asks.
“No. If she stays here, she could die.”
“She’ll be fin
e. Elias will make sure of it.”
“You sure? He’s not exactly fond of me.”
“Come on, he likes you.” Benny grabs my hand, and I come to a stop. “Where are you going?” he asks.
“I don’t know.” I grip my hair. “My baby sister. How did she get here?” I look around. I should find a place to hide and watch.
“Shh, come here.” He embraces me, his arms warm around my back and his heart pounding under my cheek. I wonder how that’s possible. He’s dead. But I don’t want answers tonight. I just want my sister to be okay.
Benny strokes my hair. “She’ll be fine. You can write her a letter once she gets back home and ask how she got here.”
“She’ll try to come back,” I mumble into his chest.
“Not if you tell her you couldn’t leave the love of your life.”
I grin and pull back. “She’s going to be so mad.”
“But alive.”
“Alive.”
I walk into the trees where I can watch the boat but can’t be seen. People are filing onto it, and Maddie is dutifully sitting in the third row, watching the docks carefully.
Benny looks at the sky, now nearly light. He dips his head down. “We’ve only got a few minutes left. Let’s not waste them. You can watch the boat leave after I’m gone.”
Chapter Five
I wander back after Benny disappears, and the boat has left. Maddie didn’t try to jump, thank goodness.
I desperately need sleep. The last two weeks have been exhausting, and now the full moon has passed, and I’m no closer to finding any answers.
I should’ve found them last night, but Maddie put a dent in those plans.
I have no clue what I’m going to do, but the ghosts don’t listen to me, and I have no reason to think they will in the future. Which means people will keep dying, and I’ll be some figurehead who can’t do anything.
The birds still hang out on my porch even though I don’t need them anymore. I shoo them out of the way and collapse onto my bed.
My mind is racing, and I can’t seem to shut it down, but I’m exhausted. I try to think about Benny’s kisses, hoping it’ll relax me a little, but it does just the opposite.
Ugh. This is impossible.
Someone pounds on my door.
I jerk up, sending Raptor flying, and fling open the door. Elias stands there, Maddie cowering next to him.
“What the hell?!” I shriek. Elias shrinks away from me. This cannot be happening. Maddie should be on the mainland getting on an airplane.
“She hid out on the boat and came back with me. I didn’t have nuthin’ to do with it.”
Maddie drags me out of the boat and turns to Elias. “Now, you listen here, ferryman. Callie and I are going on that boat of yours, and you’re taking us back.”
I let out a sigh. “Sorry, Mads, you’re not going anywhere. Thanks for trying, Elias.”
He gives a nod and lopes back over to his boat.
Maddie looks after him. “Wait. Take us back.”
I tug on her hand. “This is useless. Come on.”
I don’t know what I’ll do, but one thing is certain. I’ll make sure Maddie doesn’t end up dead. She’ll go home at the new moon for sure. I’ll show her exactly what the island is capable of and make sure she understands that I can’t leave.
Maddie looks around my little boat. “It’s cute. Now. We have to get out of here. Seriously, Mom and Dad are going to freak out.”
“I have to tell you something, and you won’t believe me, but I promise I can prove it.”
She rolls her eyes. “I know what you’re going to say. You can’t leave, and people are trying to kill you. You’re not trapped here. It’s all in your head.”
“Just listen.”
I tell her the whole tale. From getting stuck here, to the many times I almost died, to Juliette dying, to killing Samuel and kissing Benny.
She listens intently. “Well, this is easy. I know exactly how to tell if you’re BSing me. Which you are, but I know how we can see for sure.”
I rub my hand across my face, exhausted. “What’s that?”
“You can really do magic? Prove it.”
I hold out my hand and conjure fire. Maddie watches with wide eyes as I make it change colors. Then I put it out. She doesn’t say anything.
“Do you believe me now?”
“What…what else can you do?” Her voice shakes.
I change her clothes because I know she’ll enjoy that and make two ice-cold Cokes appear on the table in front of us.
“What is this place?” she asks with real fear. She doesn’t reach for the Coke, and she doesn’t even look at her clothes.
“Exactly what I told you. And if you don’t get out of here, you’ll die.”
“But…but not until the new moon, right?”
“Right.”
She gives a slow nod, and I can tell she’s trying to process everything. It’s a lot. But at least she understands the stakes now.
“Come on, let’s sleep, and I’ll give you a tour of the island after we get up.”
We climb into bed together, and she lies next to me stiffly. She’s probably completely freaked out by now and doesn’t want to believe a word of what I told her. She will come to accept it though.
I know one thing. After this, I’m not eating or sleeping until I figure out how to stop the ghosts from killing.
Maddie cannot die.
Chapter Six
After I get out of the shower the next morning, I find Maddie at my kitchen table, her eyes all red.
I put on a pot of coffee and sit next to her. “You okay?”
“I thought you were full of crap. I’m so sorry. This is all so much to take in.”
I sigh and put a hand over hers. “I know. I denied the magic aspect for a long time. It wasn’t until I saw a zombie crawl into the lake that I finally admitted it to myself.”
She looks out the window into the swamp. “There are zombies?”
Oops. I must’ve left that out when I told her everything.
“Yes. But they don’t come out. They are the bodies of the ghosts. Just don’t go into the swamp.”
Her eyes fill up with tears, and she looks much younger than her fifteen years. “I just want to go home.”
I draw her into a hug. “I know. We’ll get you there in two weeks, I promise. And I won’t let anything happen to you in the meantime.”
She sniffs and pulls away. “Okay. No more freaky magic stuff either.”
My poor sister. I thought she’d be more excited about magic. I guess being fascinated with fake magic does not mean she’s okay with the real deal.
I giggle. “No promises. But, hey, want to do something cool but totally normal?”
Her eyes widen. “What?”
“A surprise. Come on, shower. I’ll get breakfast together, and then we’ll go see Luke.”
“Is he really as weird as you said?”
I chuckle. “Yep. And he runs Benny’s favorite part of the circus.”
“Not yours?”
“No. But you’ll love it. Up. No more questions. Get ready.”
Maddie stands outside of Fiona’s cage and squeals right in my ear. “Oh my gosh. I love tigers.”
“I know.”
Luke comes out from behind the cage. “Who’s this?” he asks and sets down a bucket of meat.
“This is my sister. She came to rescue me and got stuck for a couple of weeks. Maddie, meet Uncle Luke.”
She holds out her hand, her face all smiles. He takes it. “Two of Tara’s girls on my little island. Who knew?”
“Can I pet Fiona?” Maddie asks.
He scratches his chin. “You know the last time Callie tried that, she got scratched up pretty bad. Maybe let’s start with Bob.”
“Who’s Bob?” she asks.
“Who do you think? He’s the bobcat. He’s very friendly.”
Luke leads us over to Bob’s cage and lets him out. He runs for Luke, wh
o wrestles with him for a second. Then he runs over to me and waits for pets. He knows I don’t like to wrestle. Maddie sidles up to me, and Bob sniffs her. She crouches down in front of him, and he puts a paw on her knee, and she collapses to the ground. Bob climbs right into her lap and licks her face. She giggles and digs her fingers into his fur. I take a few steps back and motion for Luke to join me.
We walk away but are still close enough that we can see Maddie and Bob.
“Can you keep an eye on her?” I ask.
He rubs the back of his neck. “Sure. But why? I would think you’d want to hang out with her.”
My heart tightens when I look over at her. Bob has knocked her to the ground, and she’s giggling.
“I do. But I have to learn how to protect her. She’s gonna die if I can’t control the ghosts.”
“Isn’t that what you spent the last two weeks doing?”
“Nothing works. It’s so frustrating. It’s almost like I’m not actually in charge of them. Everything I’ve read makes it seem like they should be easy to control, but it’s like the ghosts don’t respond to me at all.”
He scratches his chin. “Maybe you’re not the Obeah woman.”
“I did the spell. I can feel them attached to me. They just don’t listen. Samuel is dead, so who else would be controlling them?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I was just suggesting that maybe you’re looking at this wrong.”
I let out a breath. Samuel’s puppet comment floats around in my head. I didn’t tell Luke about that. Maybe he’s right.
No. If he’s right, then there is zero way for me to save Maddie. Because someone else is pulling the strings.
I won’t let her die. Not now. Not ever.
“I’ll look into it. Will you watch Maddie for me?”
“Yeah, of course.”
I head over to Samuel’s boat, and I stay holed up in his library for the next ten days.
On day eleven, I take a slightly different tack and cast as many protection spells as I can on Maddie. She’s irritated with me by the day of the new moon, but she puts up with all of it. Some of the spells have some unpleasant side effects like itchy spots or a purple haze surrounding her.
Circus of the Dead: Book 3 Page 4
