by Trudi Jaye
“No. They’ve settled down,” said Celestine softly, slurring and half asleep.
Sam tucked her head under his chin and closed his eyes. “Good night, Celestine.”
“G’night Sam,” she murmured.
Sam opened his eyes, and the unfamiliar surroundings caused a wave of panic along his body. For a moment he was convinced that Veronica had managed to capture him while he slept.
But then something warm and soft moved next to him, and he remembered. Celestine’s body was curled up against his, and his arms held her close. He wanted nothing more than to lean in and press his lips against her neck. Only the memory of what had happened last time kept him still.
Outside it was still dark, but early morning birds were singing, and he knew it would be time to get up soon. He lay watching the flowery curtain flutter in a faint breeze from the window. Celestine murmured and moved against him. Was she having visions in her dreams? He wondered if he should move away, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave the warm comfort of her arms.
He didn’t notice at first when she started moving next to him. But as she turned in his arms, snaking her hands around his waist, he smiled down at her. When she placed her lips against his neck, he pulled back.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m not getting visions,” she said with a small half smile. “I think Jack’s absorbing our talents. I thought I’d test it out.” She moved her hand up to touch his cheek, pulling his face back down to hers. She was warm and soft, still half asleep.
Their lips touched and Sam’s whole body felt like it was going up in flames. She was beautiful, her lips soft and malleable over his. He touched the side of her face, his hand running reverently over her velvety skin. He deepened the kiss, trying to let her know through touch how he felt about her.
It was like they were in a bubble, a slip of time where nothing and no one else mattered. Sam kissed her cheeks, her eyes, her neck, running his lips over her skin, losing himself in the sensation. When he felt her hands on his shirt, pulling it off, he looked down into her eyes.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
She nodded. “Never been more sure,” she whispered, slipping her hands inside his shirt and running her fingers over his body.
Sam groaned, closing his eyes and giving in to the sensation. All he knew was that he wanted to get closer to Celestine.
He wanted more.
Chapter 30
Pulling her shawl closer around her shoulders Celestine walked a little faster. Images were pulsing through her head now, and she didn’t know how to stop them. She didn’t even know who they related to. The early crowds for the sideshows and thrill rides were starting to fill the Carnival grounds, and with the new amplified version of her powers, she felt like she was seeing all possible futures for all of them.
Her head was full, and her stomach was rolling about like she was on a small boat in a big sea. It was too much.
While Jack was practicing his absorbing, it had been so peacefully quiet this morning that she’d almost forgotten she even had a problem. She had just been able to enjoy being with Sam. It had been sweet silence for a short period, but it made the return of all the noise and imagery even worse.
There was no way she could live like this. She didn’t know what she should do, but she had a horrible feeling it involved leaving the Carnival and finding a new home away from Sam.
Her steps faltered for a second and she only just managed to avoid tripping over her own feet. Instead of slowing down, her steps became faster as she blindly walked, trying to outpace her thoughts. She had no idea where she was going, but at the moment, all she needed to be was away. Jack had agreed that she couldn’t do her show like this, and she’d been given the day off. But now, all she had were the fearful thoughts of living the rest of her life like this. It would have been better to work through the confusion.
She left the bounds of the Carnival, trying to put some distance between herself and the crowds. Perhaps that would ease the pulsing images in her head. She longed for the quiet of the morning, for Sam’s arms around her, and his lips on hers. It had been beautiful and had held the promise of better things to come.
Then Sam had left to meet with Jack, and those promises had seemed false, and the possibilities had become limited. She couldn’t live with these images in her head. Which meant she couldn’t live with Sam.
She sucked in a sobbing breath.
Why had she let herself get so close to him? She’d always had a rule about keeping distance between herself and everyone else. It was how she’d survived so long. When had she started to let go of that idea? When exactly had Sam become so important to her? She shook her head. She couldn’t think of an exact day or moment, but he’d managed to worm his way into her life. And now the idea of leaving him behind was breaking her in two.
She wiped roughly at the tears streaming down her face. They didn’t solve anything. She was long past crying about this kind of thing. Her mother had cried, and where had that gotten her?
Celestine kept putting one foot in front of the other, stomping out her fears and her heartbreak. She knew what she had to do. But she didn’t want to do it.
She got to the edge of the field where the Carnival was set up and looked around. She could either go along the edge of the road or head for a forested patch in the distance. She chose the forest. She quickened her pace until she was almost running. It felt good to use her lungs, to stretch her body out of its usual routine. Perhaps she should take up running with Sam?
Except that she wasn’t going to be around long enough to do that. She broke into a sprint, her long skirts swishing about her legs. Sweat was running down her neck and her body didn’t have the spare breath to cry any more.
A streak of yellow and black swished past her, and Celestine smiled. Artemis.
She raced ahead, then stopped and turned around. She stood in front of Celestine, and meowed, rubbing against her legs when she came close enough. Celestine crouched down in front of Artemis and smoothed one hand from the top of Artemis’s head along her back and up her tail. The cat leaned into the pat and started purring. She head-butted Celestine’s knee and demanded attention.
The wooded area was only a few yards away, and it suddenly seemed dark and unforgiving. Celestine didn’t want to go in there. She sat down on the ground and crossed her legs. Artemis responded by jumping lightly to land on her legs and settled herself on Celestine’s lap.
Behind her the sounds of the Carnival drifted on the breeze. Laughter, shouts and the sound of the thrill rides wove through the air. Everyone was happy.
Except her.
In front of her, the wooded area waited. But she had lost the desire to lose herself among the trees. They seemed too dark, too creepy now. She didn’t understand what had happened between one breath and the next, but she was staying where she was for now. The images had left her head, and that was what mattered.
Movement to one side of the trees caught her eye. Two figures. One a lot taller than the other. At first she didn’t recognize them. But then Artemis growled.
Celestine felt her heart leap up into her throat as she recognized her brothers running toward her. She tried to stand but it was already too late. They had her in their control.
She couldn’t move, so she remained on the ground, stroking Artemis, who’d stood up and was arching her back and hissing. “It’s okay, Artemis. My brothers just want me to go with them. It’s okay.” She knew something was wrong, from the way Artemis was reacting. But she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was.
Smiling up at her brothers as they arrived, Celestine looked closely at them. They looked more worn and world weary than they had when she’d left them. Clearly it had been tough.
“You ready to come with us, Celestine?” asked her older brother, Alden.
“Of course,” she replied.
Artemis hissed again when Alden tried to lean down and pull her to her feet. She s
truck out with her paw and drew blood from Alden’s hand.
“Get rid of that ball of fur or you’ll regret it,” he growled.
Celestine pushed Artemis off her lap and stood up. “Go back to the Carnival, Artemis,” she said. “Go home.” She pushed the cat in the direction of the brightly colored tents behind them. Artemis stood her ground, hissing at her brothers.
“I’m going to kick her into the next life,” muttered Leptune, taking a step forward. Celestine cowered back, putting herself in front of Artemis. She didn’t want her brothers to harm Artemis. But she would hurt the cat herself if her brothers told her to.
“Go,” she said harshly to Artemis, pushing the cat away.
Before she could do anything to stop him, Alden aimed a kick at Artemis. The cat managed to leap out of the way, and instead of catching the full boot across her head, Alden’s foot grazed her side. Artemis meowed in pain, falling to the ground and then getting up. She backed away, watching all of them.
“Go,” said Celestine again.
This time Artemis turned and ran back to the Carnival, her yellow and black body streaking across the grass.
“Come on, Celestine. It’s time to go,” said Leptune.
Celestine nodded. “Sure,” she agreed. Her brothers knew best. They always had.
Chapter 31
“So, all in all, it was a successful experiment?” said Indigo from the computer screen. They were crammed into Frankie’s trailer for a video call with Indigo. She had the most knowledge about the way the Carnival worked, even more than Garth.
Jack nodded. “I was absorbing the whole Carnival. And I managed to control it, rather than letting it control me.” He was happier than Sam had ever seen him. This morning’s experiment had been a total success—in more ways than one. Sam thought of Celestine lying naked beside him. It had been glorious—no, she was glorious. He still couldn’t believe it had happened.
He wished he was still there with her, instead of here in this darkened room with Jack and Frankie. He wasn’t really sure why they needed him in on this, other than some vague idea that there should be a doctor present. The others all knew much more about the magic of the Carnival than he did, even Jack.
A knock at the door made them all turn. When Frankie opened it, Joey stood at the base of the steps, his face creased with worry. “Celestine isn’t in her trailer,” he said.
Sam rubbed at the goose pimples that appeared on his arm.
“And?” said Frankie.
“She said she’d eat some lunch if I brought it to her. She promised.”
“She’s probably just went for a walk and forgot. Her new powers are messing with her head a little,” said Jack, glancing at Sam for confirmation.
Sam tried to be calm about it, but something had felt off as soon as he’d seen Joey. A little ball of panic had burst into life in his chest. “We need to find her,” he said, already heading for the door. “Something’s wrong.”
Jack hesitated, then nodded. “All right. Let’s break off this meeting here. We were almost done anyway.” He turned to Indigo’s face on the computer screen. “We’ll talk later,” he said. “Joey, start searching the Carnival for Celestine. Use your other runners. Tell everyone we’re looking for her.”
Joey ran off.
“We’ll find her somewhere silly, hiding out,” said Jack to Sam. “I’m sure she’s fine.”
Sam was already out the door and striding back to Celestine’s trailer when Jack caught up with him.
“We’ll find her. The Carnival is connected to her. We just have to get Garth to do a search for her.”
“Really? He can find her?”
“He can give us some more information, certainly.”
They changed their direction and headed for the big top where Garth usually practiced in the afternoons. He often led a crowd of Carnival folk through the complicated self-defence moves that his father had taught him. They’d been passed down the Giftmaster line for at least a century and were designed to help with the practical craft of being a clown in the ring. But they actually served the dual purpose of helping people protect themselves when they needed it.
They strode into the big top, and Sam skidded to a halt. Instead of just two or three people, the class had expanded to about thirty. They were all doing the slow moves that incorporated Capoeira moves with Tai Chi and ballet.
Sam edged around to the front of the class. “Garth,” he whispered.
Garth looked over, his eyes the full black of a Gift in progress.
Sam barely noticed. “You need to do a search for Celestine right now. We think something has happened to her.”
“It can’t wait until we’re finished?” he said.
“No. She’s missing. Something’s wrong.”
Garth sighed and stood up. He gestured to one of the others to take over the class and walked to the side of the big top with Jack and Sam. “You think Veronica has her?” asked Garth.
Sam’s heart stumbled. “I was thinking her brothers had her.” It had never occurred to him that Veronica might have been behind it.
“We don’t know where she is. She could have wandered off and gotten lost, for all we know. But we need to find her, just in case. She’s not in her right mind at the moment.”
“Since the forced joining?”
“Yes,” said Sam shortly.
Garth winced. “I didn’t know she’d be affected like that, or I’d never have let her be a part of the ceremony.”
“None of us did. But we need to protect her.” Sam ran his fingers through his hair agitatedly.
Garth sat down on the bottom tier of the audience bleachers and closed his eyes. Sam felt a low-level hum, a prickling of his skin, and then Garth opened his eyes again.
“She’s not inside the Carnival grounds. I can tell that much.”
“Anything else?” Sam’s stomach felt like it was climbing out via his throat. What was she doing outside the Carnival?
“She’s fuzzy. Like she’s unconscious. I can’t get a good read on her.” Garth looked at Sam’s face. “I don’t think she’s hurt,” he said quickly.
“Then where is she?”
“I don’t know.” Garth shook his head. “I’m sorry, she’s just too indistinct to find.”
Sam started pacing. “What good is it to be part of this place, if we can’t protect her?” He glared at Jack and Garth. “I thought the Carnival was stronger than this. If we can’t even keep Celestine safe, how are we going to catch Veronica?”
Jack let out a frustrated breath. “That’s why we’re doing everything we can to research Veronica. We’re not going into an altercation with her blind.”
Sam felt like punching someone. “I’m going to search her trailer,” he said abruptly. “Something might be in there that will help us.”
“I’m coming with you,” said Jack. “With the kind of enemies we’ve got around us at the moment, I don’t want anyone rushing off on their own, especially not you.”
“Me too,” said Garth.
Sam almost growled at his honor guard, but he led the way to her trailer without saying anything. He opened the door to the small space, and her scent hit him in the face. He took a deep breath in. He would find her. There was no way he would let Veronica or Celestine’s brothers—or whoever the hell had her—hurt her.
“I’m going to look through the drawers in here,” he said pointing to her bedroom. “You two check in the front.”
At that moment, a streak of yellow and black raced in through the open door. Artemis leaped straight toward Sam, scrambling for purchase when she landed half on Sam’s shoulder, scratching his skin with her long claws. She was meowing and growling at Sam as he tried to pull the enormous animal off him.
“What the hell’s the matter with that cat?” said Jack. “I’ve never seen her like that.”
“Something’s wrong,” managed Sam, as he held the wriggling cat. The feeling was like a snake slithering over his skin now.
&nb
sp; Artemis stopped struggling and leaped down. She ran down the stairs and stopped outside, meowing and looking back at them.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that cat is trying to lead you somewhere,” said Jack.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” said Sam.
“She knows she’s not Lassie, right?”
“I’ll call her by any damn name she likes if she leads me to Celestine,” said Sam, already halfway out the door.
Sam raced off after Artemis, who was travelling fast through the Carnival. She looked back occasionally to check that Sam was still following but just kept running in an almost straight line through the crowds. They reached the edge of the Carnival and went out into the massive field that was behind the set up. It was empty.
Halting for a moment, Sam watched as Artemis raced across the long grassy field. “Is this what we should be doing? Chasing a cat?” he asked Jack and Garth as they ran up behind him. The three men stood at the edge of the grass.
“I’ve done stranger things since I’ve been with the Jolly Knight Carnival,” said Jack.
Sam nodded and started running again. They were across the other side of the field, and almost at the wooded copse when they finally caught up with Artemis. She sat very precisely in the middle of a flattened area of grass. Sam looked around, trying to find some kind of clue, something that would tell them if this was really where Celestine had been.
“This isn’t helping us find her,” said Garth.
Sam turned in a circle where he stood. “There must be something. Some clue.” He was beginning to feel desperate. A patch of yellow in the woods caught his eye, and he ran over to the edge of the tree line.
It was a piece of material. A yellow shirt.
Very like the one Celestine had in her wardrobe. He hadn’t seen her dressed today, but he’d bet money that it was from her shirt. “Here,” he said, lifting it up for the others to see.
