by Tess Oliver
Up the side a quarter turn and around. When I’d first learned how to ride in the sphere, I had a problem with dizziness. It was easy to lose direction inside a round world. Now flying upside down was second nature. I wasn’t human, hampered by the usual constraints of gravity, when I was in the sphere. I could defy nature. Halfway up and back down and again. The momentum gaining with each pass. I tended to block the crowd out completely once the bike had climbed to halfway up the side. It was easier to just concentrate on my ride without worrying about anything going on around me.
Four more passes three-quarters of the way up, and I circled completely around, with my head and the top of the bike pointing straight down. My speed increased and the bike roared beneath me. My muscles had warmed now. I was in a perfect rhythm. Up and around and down. As the bike raced down the side of the cage, my stomach lurched up and down. The bike rounded the sphere again.
The crowd usually kept up a pretty persistent roar throughout the performance, but as I came back down the side of the sphere, the thunderous cheers sounded different. Quieter. Less like cheers and more like shocked gasps. I had to focus on my wheel placement in the cage. Pulling my attention away from my ride would be dangerous. I circled again. As I rolled around and came down the side, the acrid smell of smoke wafted toward me. It was subtle enough for my mind to register what it was, but I didn’t give it much thought.
My bike headed up the curved side and a thunderous roar rattled the sphere. My mind told me it was just a boisterous crowd cheering and hollering. But as I passed down the side, a brightness in the distance nearly blinded me. My attention was thrown off. I headed into the next turn too slow. As the front wheel headed up the side, I let off the throttle and made a sharp hairpin turn around before the bike headed upside down. The tires shimmied sideways down the wall, jarring my jaw so that my teeth snapped together. I managed to hold onto the handlebars as my bike rolled to the bottom.
I looked around and blinked twice to make sure I hadn’t been knocked unconscious. My heart leapt into my throat. I’d been rolling around in my own little world, The Enchantress in her Death Sphere, completely unaware of the nightmarish scene outside my cage. Glowing, red flames shot up high into the night sky, their terrifying brilliance muted only by the ever-thickening veil of black smoke. Full chaos and panic swept along the midway like a tornado leaving nothing standing in its path. Carnival attendees raced toward the exit, paying little heed to the weaker or slower moving patrons.
The sphere was locked from the outside. I was stuck inside until someone released me.
Smoke burned my eyes. Suddenly, that horrid night, the night when my mother died flashed through my mind. I grabbed the steel bars of the sphere. “Help!”
I spotted Dodie, hunched over and moving at his usual snail’s pace, across the yard. But as the steady stream of people ran for the exit and their automobiles, they carried poor, frail Dodie along with them.
“Help!” I yelled again. The sphere was as much wood as it was steel. All it needed was a good spark, and I would suffer the same grisly death as my mother. I yanked off my leather glove and tried to push my hand through the gap in the steel mesh. It was no use. Small as my hands were, they didn’t fit.
“Charli!” My name shot over the heads of people pushing and shoving their way to the exit.
A cry of relief bubbled from my lips as I saw Jackson pushing his way through the press of bodies going the opposite direction. He looked ready to tear some heads off by the time he’d freed himself from the stampede. He raced to the lock and flicked it open.
I jumped out of the sphere and into his arms. “I was sure I was going to die alone in that stupid sphere.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you. When the first flames broke out, I ran toward the tents to make sure Gideon and Rose were all right. They were already on their way out. I turned back to find you. Plowing through the confusion was like running against a herd of angry bulls.” He blurted the words out and then kissed me, hard, as if we’d been separated for years.
It nearly alarmed me at how quickly Jackson had taken possession of my heart. My whole life was going up in flames, real flames, and none of it mattered as long as I was in his arms.
The flames lapped closer to the risers around the sphere. “We need to go.” Jackson pulled his coat off, and I pulled it around my shoulders.”Everything is going up like kindling. We’ll be next if we don’t get down that midway.”
“Wait, I know a quicker way out.” I led him between the trucks parked at the back of the carnival. Small explosions, crackling wood and hundreds of car motors being cranked filled the smoky night air behind us as I pushed past the final wagon, the place where the dry food supplies were kept.
Our path, illuminated only by the dancing glow of the flames behind us, was not an easy one. The fields behind the carnival were still scarred with the remains of the ditches once used to irrigate the corn crops. With pure angst pushing us along, Jackson gripped my hand pulling me as far from the billowing cloud of smoke as possible. This was no ordinary smoke but a thick mist that carried with it a choking, poisonous odor.
We ran for a good distance before turning back to watch as the Starfield Traveling Show dissolved into a massive pile of ashes. The breeze coming off the mountains provided enough energy to move the well-fed flames across the entire carnival.
I wasn’t completely sure why the shock of it hadn’t hit me yet. For the first few minutes, I stared at the brilliant flames almost as if I was watching a colorful fireworks display. But this wasn’t a celebration or festival. This was my home, my livelihood, the very whole of my existence disintegrating into melted puddles of canvas.
In the distance, we heard the clanging bells of a fire truck. But looking at the fiery landscape, it seemed nothing more could be done. The fire would stop when there was nothing more to fuel it.
“Did you see Buck?” My voice sounded strange to my ears. The weight of what had happened was just reaching my senses. My knees started to wobble.
“To be honest, Charli. I haven’t seen Buck since the fight ended.”
I nodded weakly. A particularly brilliant flame shot up, and I wondered absently if the fuel barrels had gone up. “If it weren’t so awful, it would be breathtaking, wouldn’t it?” My voice wavered. Jackson put his arm around my shoulder.
I stared straight ahead, suddenly so tired from the horrendous day, that I could barely move a muscle. It felt as if the life was flowing out of me. My family, the people I spent every hour of the day and night with, would be scattered and broken, no longer a family but a group of people united and divided by one common cause, the carnival. My own future was disappearing like the puffs of smoke floating like misty clouds over the nightmarish scene.
Then I saw it— the famous Death Sphere, the ball of metal and wood where The Enchantress enthralled the crowds with mystifying motorcycle stunts, had been caught up in the rambunctious blaze. As the glittering yellow flames rolled down the curved wooden skeleton of the sphere, I breathed in a long, slow sob. “It almost looks like some gigantic ornament or lamp that might be hung from the tall ceiling of a palace.” Another drawn out sob. “My bike— I should have saved the motorcycle.” Tears mixed with the stinging smoke, causing my eyes to burn. But I didn’t wipe the tears away. I just stared through them as I watched it all shrink down into a mound of glowing ashes.
Jackson tightened his hold on my shoulders. As comforting as his embrace was, the horrible spectacle in front of me was too much. My head spun and a swirl of blackness coasted through my mind, blotting out the bright light of the fire. I heard Jackson say my name, and I felt his arm grab me as I collapsed into darkness.
Chapter 21
Jackson
I looked in on Charli. The creak on the door, a squeak I’d been meaning to fix for months, woke her. She peered up from her cocoon of blankets
. Her eyes and nose were pink from smoke and crying, but she still looked beautiful.
“Didn’t mean to wake you. I made some eggs. But I have to warn you, I’m way better at kissing than I am at cooking.”
She smiled and sat up. Her copper hair tumbled all around her face and shoulders. With the exception of her highly impractical sequined costume, all of her clothes had been destroyed. She’d pulled on one of my shirts to sleep. Thinking of her naked body wrapped in my shirt was far more erotic than any silky female undergarments. “Well, since you are an exceptional kisser your food must still be quite palatable.”
I opened the door, a wooden spoon dangling from my fingers. “Maybe I used the wrong comparison. If you don’t mind some rubbery scrambled eggs, then come on out. Rose and Gideon are already eating.”
She swung her bare legs over the side of the bed. She reached for her black ankle boots, the ones she’d used on the motorcycle and the only shoes she had left. She pulled them on without lacing them and stared down at her attire. “I’m ready for a church social, don’t you think?”
“Trust me, a church social is the last thing I’m thinking of when I see you standing there in my shirt. Even with the boots. In fact, the boots make it that much better.”
I walked over and hugged her. Yesterday had been one unbearable heartbreak after another, ending with the destruction of the carnival, an event that was still hard to grasp. The only thing making the catastrophic end to the night worse was not knowing what had happened to Emma. Seeing now the true scope of what Griggs was capable of, I held out little hope for the girl. But I didn’t say a word to Charli. She had been shaken to her core and didn’t need anything else to add to it.
Rose smiled weakly at Charli as we walked into the kitchen. I walked to the coffee pot to pour her a cup as she pulled up a chair across from Rose. I put the cup down in front of Charli, along with a plate of eggs.
“Some night, huh?” Gideon asked wryly and then seemed to remember the gash on his mouth. “Ouch, shit.” He pressed his hand against it to stop it from bleeding again.
“If I’d known it would be that easy to shut you up, I would have smacked you long ago,” I quipped, hoping to lighten the bleak mood at the table.
“Yeah, you and what army?” Gideon muttered, hardly moving his lips.
Rose giggled. “Hey, that’s pretty good. We could get you one of those creepy looking dolls, and you could join a vaudeville act as a vent— ventri—” Rose waved her hand. “Never mind. Ruins the whole idea when I can’t even pronounce the damn thing.” She propped her elbow on the table and dropped her face, resting her forehead against her hand. “Hell, did all this really happen? Poor Buck, poor Dodie, poor us.” She lifted her face and reached across for Charli’s hand. Charli removed her fingers from the cup she’d been cradling and took hold of Rose’s hand.
“We’ll figure something out,” Charli said. “The most important thing now is getting Emma back.” Her golden brown eyes sparkled with hope as she peered up at me. It was all I could do not to look away from her expectant face. I swallowed hard to push back the dread I was feeling and nodded very unconvincingly. I sat down next to her.
“Where is your brother, Bodhi?” Charli asked.
“He and Noah left early this morning to head over to the carnival site and help with the clean-up.” Buck and most of the others had spent all night combing through the rubbish, looking for anything salvageable. Far as we knew, Griggs and his men never showed their faces. Not even to check out their handiwork.
“That’s really sweet of him,” Rose said.
A laugh spurted from Gideon’s mouth. Again, he pressed his hand against the gash. “Those boys are hoping they’ll come across something valuable, or at least valuable to them, in the ashes.” Gideon leaned back against his chair. He peered at me from beneath swollen lids. “What do you think will happen to Griggs?”
“Surely, the police will arrest him.” Charli straightened. “Then he can lead them to Emma.” She turned to me, obviously hoping for a better answer than I had to give her.
Coward that I was, I stared down at my plate rather than see her beautiful, sanguine face. “Most of the law around here are on Griggs’s payroll one way or another.”
“What do you mean on his payroll? Do you mean the police are working for a gangster?” Charli asked.
“Not working directly for him.” I finally worked up the courage to look at her. “Let’s just say they are paid to not work against him. They look the other way most of the time.”
“Bribes?” The sweet optimism that had sparkled there a few minutes earlier had turned to disbelief. Her thin shoulders sank, and she stared sadly down at her untouched plate of eggs. “You have to be wrong, Jackson.” Her bottom lip trembled as she looked up at me. “This isn’t just bootlegging or an illegal betting pool. They’ve destroyed the entire lives and futures of at least a hundred carnies. They are damn lucky no one died in those fires, but still, what they did was so grave, I can’t imagine the police will just ignore it. And then there’s Emma.” Her voice dropped off.
Rose sniffled at the mention of her friend’s name.
“Charli has a point.” Gideon looked at me for confirmation.
“There will have to be some kind of proof. I talked to Buck last night while we were waiting for the firemen to finish dousing any burning embers. He said he’d asked around and no one saw how it started.” Something had been pecking at me like an angry hen. The last time I’d accused Buck of doing something bad, Charli had stormed off in anger. But this seemed like a question that had to be asked. “Did Buck have the show insured?”
She blinked at me. “Not sure. Why do you ask?” Then it seemed to dawn on her. This time there was no anger. There was just anguish and sadness. “I just can’t believe he’d purposely set the place on fire. And right in the middle of a busy night. I need to go see Buck.” She shot up from her chair and then seemed to remember her lack of clothing. She sat back down hard on the seat. “I don’t even have any clothes.”
I got up. “I think I can find you some pants that will fit. Ma always stored all of our old clothes in a trunk. I’m sure I can find them. Bodhi used to be scrawny and skinny.”
She crossed her arms and lifted a smooth brow at me. “So, I’m scrawny and skinny?”
“No, you are spectacular and perfect.” I leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“And, you sir, are a liar, but go get me the pants. I can’t confront Buck dressed in nothing but your shirt.”
The trunk with the old clothes was in a corner of the cellar. I sorted through them to a pair of worn denim jeans that were small enough for Charli. I heard the vibrating motor of Noah’s old car through the cellar window. I climbed back up the splintery ladder with the dusty smelling jeans.
I reached the kitchen just as Bodhi and Noah pushed in through the front door, both looked as if they were being chased by a monster. Bodhi looked around the room with wide eyes, apparently not expecting Rose and Charli to be sitting at the table. His face was blanched white, and his chest heaved with breaths as if they’d run all the way here. Noah shrank back behind Bodhi, not wanting to be seen.
“Christ, Bodhi,” I said, “you two get into some kind of trouble? Did Buck catch you trying to run off with some carnival souvenirs?”
Bodhi stared hard at me. He was trying to tell me something, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
I smiled. “That’s all right,” I said, putting on a performance for our two already fragile guests. “You’re embarrassed. I’ll walk outside with you, and you can confess.” Without waiting for his answer, I put an arm around his shoulder and walked him back outside. We didn’t stop until we got far enough from the house that no one inside could hear. By the time we reached the car, my stomach had knotted into an iron ball. Something bad had happened.
I glanced back at the house to make sure no one had followed, then I turned to Bodhi and Noah. “What happened?” I asked.
“That girl, the one who was missing—” Bodhi looked close to throwing up.
“Emma?”
“Yeah, that’s her. She showed up today.”
For a brief second, I felt relief, but the look on my brother’s face wiped it away.
“She was dead, Jacks. Noah and I were sweeping up trash right in front of where the entrance was. An old beat up box truck, a truck I’d never seen before, pulled up to the lot. The back doors flew open, and they dropped out what we thought was just a rolled up rug. Then the truck raced away.” Bodhi swallowed hard to keep down his stomach contents. “She was dead.”
Noah’s eyes widened as he glanced at something over my shoulder. “Jackson,” he whispered.
I turned around. She’d walked up so quietly, I hadn’t heard her footsteps. Charli’s face was stone white. She crossed her arms around herself to control the shivering. “Jackson,” she said quietly, “who’s dead?”
Chapter 22
Charli
Rose had been nearly inconsolable as we rode back to the carnival site. Joey and Dodie had gone to fetch the police. Buck and the others were standing huddled around, crying and holding each other for support. I was relieved to see that Gypsy and Rusty had been led to safety. The two animals were as much a part of the family as the humans.
I’d gone to bed wondering if the previous day had just been a bad dream, but it seemed the nightmare had followed us right into the next morning. And this, the gut-wrenching news that poor little Emma, an unwitting participant in it all, was dead, had been the final blow. I’d always lectured her about giving her heart away too quickly and trusting men she barely even knew. But, here in Virginia, at the base of the mountains that were eerily blue one second and majestic and purple the next, I had finally seen the world through her eyes. I now understood what it was like to fall for a man and, without hardly knowing him, hand him your heart with no questions asked.
