by Leanne Leeds
“Wait a minute—are you saying my parents know about all this? That’s impossible! They’ve never said anything, I’ve never seen anything in their minds that would give me even an inkling of this!”
“And with a psychic block, that’s entirely possible. Your folks may not even be aware of what’s locked in their mind. What we are would be known at birth, Charlotte. Unless magic hid it.”
What Aidan was telling me was stunning, a conspiracy to hide children going back to the beginning of my life and Aidan’s life. Yet it didn’t fit with what I knew.
“But I didn’t get my powers, my major powers until I was the ringmaster. I mean, that’s the only reason I’m in this role at all with this whole paradigm shift thing. It could have just as easily been someone else. It may not even be me. It could be Gunther. There are two circuses left. We are both thirteenth generation circus witches.”
Aidan crossed his legs and set down his drink.
“There are some things you don’t understand yet about the circus powers,” he began.
For the next two hours, Aidan explained the origin of the circus powers, the reason for the circuses, and how the mysterious circus powers were tied to the magic that animated the angry, vicious leadership of Mina World.
“You know all this from your own power to read the past?” I asked Aidan once he was done.
“My power, and I suspect your power as well, works in degrees. If I’m trying to read your history, I can see snippets and flashes and moments of all those you have been connected to. It’s like you are the center of the wheel, and as the spokes move away from you into the wider world, I can follow them.”
“How far?”
“Ah, there’s the limitation,” he said as he tilted his head. “The further away I go from you, the less information I can access. It’s not an unbroken road from point A to point B. It’s a bit like a puzzle, really. I only understand as much as I do because you have been at the center of the culmination of the prophecy. Mina World has directly confronted you, and she is part of the other half.”
“She’s confronted me multiple times, actually,” I told him with a sigh.
“Now, keep in mind, I know what I know, but I don’t know what I can’t see. I don’t even know if there is more. To me, it seems like a complete story, but because of how this works, there may be things I’m not aware of. People you haven’t come into contact with yet, or who are too far from you for me to get a clear picture of them. Aspects that haven’t been set into motion yet.”
“People’s histories that you can’t read,” I said.
“Precisely,” he nodded.
“I can’t believe we’re sitting here and talking about this,” I told him as I got up to put the empty glasses in the sink. “I mean, it seems bizarre that you’re here at all, much less calmly explaining my own paranormal history to me. I swear, my life just gets weirder and weirder.”
“I think if I didn’t have the power that I did, I’d probably be dealing with this a lot worse,” he smiled. “I’m supposed to be a help to you, a reference, and I guess sometimes a guide. I wouldn’t be very good one if I were laying on the floor babbling incoherently because I’m freaking out over the fact that ghosts exist.”
“Or witches,” I added.
“Or kelpies, magical circuses, the Witches' Council— I mean, take your pick. This would be a lot to take in. Luckily, apparently, I already did. I just didn’t realize it was locked within me. Or remember, I guess… I don’t know, you know what I mean.”
I nodded and walked back toward Aidan, who was still sitting on the couch.
“I know I haven’t really said this yet, but I’m thrilled you’re here.”
“Me, too, Charlotte,” he told me quietly. “I really missed you. And honestly? I wasn’t doing all that well with my human life, truth be told.”
“You’re dating a hot cop. That’s not doing too bad,” I pointed out.
Aidan gestured for me to sit down on the couch. His calm and confident expression wavered, and the slight smile he had worn since he got up off the ground turned into a frown. He sighed.
“We barely have a relationship, really. I mean, we do? But there’s just no depth to it. Kyle is… Kyle is cute, and he can be nice. We get along for the most part, but we do a lot of stuff that just… doesn’t involve communicating at all.”
“Oh my,” I breathed.
“Not like that!” Aidan protested. “I mean, going to see plays or movies where we don’t really need to talk about anything. Just experience something sitting side-by-side, then he drops me off at home, gives me a kiss on the cheek, and it’s over. It’s over a month that we’ve been dating and I still don’t know that much about him. We don’t talk, and so it all goes nowhere.”
“How about your job? How’s that going? It must be horrible working with Bobby after everything that happened.”
“I left it after… well, you know,” Aidan said. “Bobby was such a jerk after Tabitha dumped him. He blamed me. It never occurred to him at all that it was his reaction to my being gay that caused Tabitha to leave him.”
“No, it wouldn’t occur to him, would it?” I had never liked Bobby. Aidan coming out just demonstrated why I never liked Bobby.
“I left the bank within a couple of weeks. It just became impossible for the two of us to work together. Bobby couldn’t manage to be polite, he blamed me for everything, and I just didn’t want to deal with making a complaint to the bank about how he was treating me. It was easier just to go.”
“So where you working now?”
“The Police Department, actually,” Aidan said. “I do forensic accounting. If someone’s embezzling, committing fraud, I use my quite boring but useful accounting skills to figure out where the crime is.”
“That sounds more exciting than investment banking.”
“It is. I like puzzles, so it was a perfect fit for me,” he nodded. “I met Kyle when he and I were working on a case. We seem to get along really well, and he was really interested in what I was doing, which was cool. What I do is boring, even when it’s exciting,” Aidan laughed.
“If you enjoy it, it doesn’t matter if it’s boring. Won’t be boring to you.”
“Anyway, that’s pretty much been my life,” Aidan said. “Won’t be all that much to leave, I guess. One mostly failed relationship, and a job where the major player that I should be able to convict I’ll never be able to because no prosecutor or judge will allow the evidence in.”
“Who’s that?”
“Anthony Drake,” Aidan responded with more of an edge to his voice than I’d ever heard before from him. “I swear, that guy has more law enforcement in his pocket. He is like Teflon. Nothing sticks to him.”
“You worked on a case where he was the subject?”
“No, I’ve worked on cases where people were kicking back to him. For some reason, once I trace the money up the chain and hit Anthony Drake or one of his shell companies, every investigation gets shut down within twenty-four hours. It’s the most frustrating thing about my job. I won’t be sorry to walk away.”
“Wow,” I said. “I guess it was job security, at least.”
“Not the kind I wanted. I think I was getting ready to quit even before this happened. There’s only so many times I could deal with hitting that wall. I realized a couple of weeks ago I was never going to be able to get him. Even if I got him, no one would’ve used the evidence to bring Drake and his cronies up on charges—much less convict them of anything. I was just spinning my wheels.”
“I’m so sorry, Aidan. That must’ve been really frustrating.”
“It was. I’m excited to get on with all of this,” he said as he waved his arms. “You going to give me a job? I could do the books for the circus.”
“I don’t know that we have books…” I told him slowly.
“Do you make money?”
“Well, yeah, I guess,” I responded.
“Then you have to have books.”
&n
bsp; “Talk to Uncle Phil about it. He’s probably been doing them. Are you gonna tell Kyle you’re joining the circus?”
“Oh wow, I am, aren’t I?” Aidan exploded with laughter. “I’m running away to join the circus. How funny is that? There’s something to mark off my bucket list. Aidan Parker running away to join the circus.”
“I’m glad it’s making you so happy,” I responded. “I hope you’re still happy after living in a yurt for a week. I have a futon in my room, you can bunk with me until we figure out where you’re going to stay more permanently.”
“I don’t think it’s going to make Ethel Elkins happy.”
“I think you’re probably right about that.”
“Mind if we interrupt?” Gunther asked as he stuck his head in the great room.
“Hey, we were just chatting. What’s up?”
“The reason Tiffany Drake was here was a little more complicated than she present—”
“They don’t need to know about all this! You just stop!” Tiffany screeched from somewhere behind him.
Gunther winced but continued.
“…than she presented to us. Your dad and I discovered some information on the lookup screen. Can we come in?”
“Do you have to bring Tiffany?”
“I heard that!”
10
Gunther looked like his energy had been drained dry by the demanding, argumentative young ghost. He sat down into a wingback chair next to us with a sigh.
“Forgive me for intruding, but I can see in your past that you don’t always look like this,” Aidan told Gunther. “Are you all right?”
“Tiffany seems to have an unlimited amount of energy as a ghost,” Gunther told him. “She also has an unlimited amount of questions, an unlimited amount of demands, and an unlimited amount of complaints.”
“Look, circus boy, I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to. The best way for you to get me out of here is to help me. You’re looking in all the wrong places!”
“What’s that all about?” I asked him.
“Your father typed on the box that comes up with the human information?”
“A computer? You mean the Internet?” I asked Gunther slowly as Aidan chuckled. Gunther’s eyes jumped over to my friend with a frown.
“I’m unfamiliar with the proper terms in the human world,” Gunther responded somewhat defensively.
“No problem, Gunther. I didn’t mean anything by it, sorry if the way I said that came off as…”
“Condescending?” he asked.
Aidan’s grin faded as he looked back and forth between Gunther and I.
“Sorry, I’ll try not to do that. You’re right, you haven’t had any experience with this. Anyway, what did you guys find on your search?”
“The sorority house has a fundraiser once a year. The one that Tiffany kidnapped the dog from?”
“You can’t kidnap a dog! It’s not a person. A dog is property. At best, I stole a worthless piece of property. It was just a mutt, not some expensive show dog.”
The three of us stared at the heartless girl with undisguised disgust. Though the animals that inhabited both the circuses were mostly shapeshifters, knowing those shapeshifters and their animal natures had given Gunther insight into the personalities and feelings of the animals that inhabited the human world. I grew up in an animal shelter rescuing abandoned creatures from irresponsible humans. Aidan was just an animal lover. All three of us were repulsed by her statement.
Tiffany, however, was oblivious to our reaction.
“I’m just going to ignore anything she interjects so I can get through this without getting angry,” Gunther said as his face tensed. “The sorority house’s major donor is Anthony Drake. We came across an invitation for a fundraising dinner that honored him for all his contributions.”
“Honored him personally?”
“Well, his company,” Gunther said.
“And I told this idiot that couldn’t have possibly happened,” Tiffany said as she set herself on the coffee table in the center of the three of us. “My father would never have given money or supported a rival sorority. Especially not that sorority!”
“What’s wrong with that sorority?” I asked her.
“Alpha Omicron Kappa. I mean, is that not the stupidest name you ever heard for a sorority?”
“It’s three Greek letters which are pretty usual, isn’t it?”
“I can’t believe I have to explain it to you. Yes, it’s three Greek letters. A O K? They were the first sorority on campus to accept disabled people and stupid people and…”
“Wait, do you mean people with developmental and physical disabilities?” Aidan asked.
“Isn’t that what I just said? The a-okays are slow, and always messing up the games, and the library was all messed up because of a stupid ramp…”
“Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute… You stole a dog from a sorority whose members include people with developmental and physical disabilities that have managed to go to college? Do I have this right?”
“You have it right,” Gunther sighed.
“What? What’s the problem?” Tiffany asked, crossing her arms.
“Oh no,” I whispered, staring at Aidan. He stared back and said nothing. What he said when he was in his hazy trance came back to me like a slap upside my head.
“Oh no, what?” Tiffany asked.
“When you kidnapped the dog, was it wearing anything?”
“Like a sweater?”
“Like anything. A collar, a placard, anything.”
“It had some stupid like harness jacket thing like it was going to go swimming or something.”
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” I said as I stared at her, horrified. “You stole a disabled person’s service dog? What is wrong with you?”
“It was just a stupid dog!”
“I don’t understand what this means. What’s a service dog?” Gunther asked.
“In the human world,” Aidan said once he realized I was too shocked and horrified to speak. “Dogs can be trained to help human beings that are born with or develop various health problems. Sometimes those health problems prevent them from being able to do everything in life that they want to do independently. The dog helps them, supports them. Ensures that even with a disability that human can live a full life.”
“What a remarkable bond they must develop with one another,” Gunther said appreciatively. Then his face froze as he realized the full magnitude of what Tiffany had done. He turned and stared at her, disgust spreading across his face again. “I agree with Charlotte. You were a horrible human being. Why would you do such a thing?”
“I wasn’t thinking about it! It was a joke!” she shouted. Gunther continued to stare at her. “Stop looking at me like that!”
“I honestly can’t believe someone didn’t kill you sooner,” Gunther mumbled.
“Don’t you start getting judgmental on me, circus boy,” Tiffany snapped as she jumped to her transparent feet and placed her sparkly fists on her hips. “You all promised to help me. Doesn’t matter what I did. I can’t undo it. There’s nothing to be done about it now.”
“That is a shame,” I told her. “It’s a shame that some things can’t be undone. Because if this could, I would undo it in a heartbeat.”
“I do have to wonder why you are so eager to move on from here,” Aidan asked.
“Because it’s dirty and boring and I don’t like any of you people!”
“If I were you,” Aidan responded slowly. “I would be seriously concerned about just what eternity waited for me. Considering who you were in life and all.”
“What do you mean?” Tiffany asked him suspiciously.
“Just that the universe tends to prefer balance in all things. When things are out of balance, people and paranormals both can suffer. I can say without question, Ms. Drake, that you lived your life quite out of balance.”
“Oh my God. Getting whacked in the head with a paver stone wa
sn’t enough suffering? Really?”
“The act of death? You don’t even recall it, do you?”
“N-no…”
“When the universe comes to balance the scales, Ms. Drake? I have a feeling you will be acutely aware of it. As aware as the girl is of her pain over her lost companion, as aware as the dog was of its pain over abandoning his companion due to your actions. The past comes for us all, Ms. Drake. Eventually.”
I shivered at Aidan’s words and Gunther looked pale.
Tiffany Drake, however, rolled her eyes and disappeared from the great room.
“Aidan?” I said quietly.
“Yes?”
“You’re kinda super creepy now. Just a little.”
“Sorry about that.”
“No problem. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t know about that,” Gunther exhaled.
“Well, I can certainly take a stab in the dark and guess why someone would want to kill her,” I told Aidan and Gunther. “I think we have to go over to the a-okays sorority house. It sounds to me like that’s where our most likely suspect is.”
“Don’t you think the police are probably there?” Gunther asked.
“Aidan, you are the police. What you think?”
Aidan shook his head no. “Kyle is assuming that Tiffany was killed because of something her father did. I’ve seen this before. He’s a good detective, but he’s got a blind spot when it comes to Anthony Drake. I don’t think it would occur to him that anyone would kill a nineteen-year-old girl because of something she did.”
“Do people often kill over dogs in your world?” Gunther asked.
“No. Probably more often than we like to think, but not in general, no,” I told him. Looking at my watch, I realized it was already mid-afternoon. That didn’t leave me a lot of time to go do anything and then get back before sundown.
“How far is the sorority house, do you think?” I asked Aidan.
“In this traffic? At least forty-five minutes.”
“That means it would take an hour and a half just to get there and back,” I told him. “If we leave now, I don’t think I’ll be able to get back onto the grounds of the Magical Midway until tomorrow morning.”
