by Dyan Chick
Terra raised her eyebrows. “You didn't think this was a natural drug, did you? Why do you think it's been so hard for your police to stop it? It's not made in any way they can trace. There's only one person who makes this and he must be stopped."
I sucked in a breath, not wanting to believe it. But I knew how much money could be made from this drug. If the circus was making it and selling it, they would have unlimited funds. It explained how they financed the elaborate performances and the parties.
"I know who you are.” Terra leaned in closer to me. “You have the power to change all of this."
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm nobody." I wasn't anything special, especially not in this new world I had discovered. Who was I in a world full of magic?
She leaned back in her chair. "You're safe here, we're all friends. You don't have to hide who you are, Sayge."
My forehead wrinkled in confusion. Until yesterday, I'd never even heard the term Sayge used in this way. I wasn't sure what Terra thought, but I wasn't anything like the woman who had healed my injuries. There was nothing unique or special about me. "You have the wrong girl. I'm not a Sayge."
Terra slammed her hands not the table and the whole room jumped. She took a deep breath. "Listen, child. I'm trying to be nice. Don't make me do this the hard way."
"I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. I'm not a Sayge," I said. "I would tell you if I was."
Terra rubbed her temples. "Fine. We do it the hard way. Boys!"
Several large men in black tuxedos walked into the room. I noticed that the people sitting around the table were shifting in their seats and they seemed to hold a collective breath. These men were not bringing more food.
My fingers tightened around the edge of the chair. I knew there was no amount of pepper spray that would help me out of this one. Why had I gotten into the car? Why had I gone to the Rose Circus? That was the real problem. All of this had started then.
Two of the men stood behind my chair. A lump rose in my throat.
"You can either go with them, or I'll have them carry you," Terra said.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. There wasn't any choice. Scooting the chair away from the table, I stood and silently followed them from the room. Terra walked behind us. None of the other people around the table spoke as we left the room.
20
My heart fell into the pit of my stomach and my fingers trembled as they forced me into the lone chair in the center of a cement room. It was almost sterile, like something you'd see in a hospital. I wasn't in here for a friendly conversation. This room looked like a torture room out of a gangster movie and as a large hand made contact with my left cheek, I knew that was exactly what it was.
I turned away from the man who had hit me. My pulse was racing, breathing already strained. Risking a glance, I looked back toward my assailant. At the moment my head had been turned, the other men had left. The room now contained me, the man who had slapped me, and Terra.
"Ready to talk?" Her heels clicked across the polished cement floor. "Jack here can make your life very difficult if you're not prepared to answer my questions honestly."
Still clutching my cheek, I glared at her. "I told you, I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not a Sayge. I never even heard about any of this until yesterday."
Tera frowned, then nodded at Jack.
He kicked the chair over before I even knew what was happening. My head slammed against the hard floor and I toppled out of the chair and hit the ground. Staring up at Jack, I tried to blink the stars dancing in my vision. Desperate to avoid further injury, I crawled toward the back of the room. Jack moved forward, closing me into the corner.
I held my head with my hands, trying to protect it from further damage. "Please, let me go."
"I've been searching for you for a very long time," Terra said. "Even your own father doesn't know you're alive, yet."
That got my attention. As far as I knew, my father had been a one night stand who had knocked up my birth mother, who had died shortly after giving birth to me. Since he wasn't around, I was put into the system and adopted by my parents. "You have the wrong girl. I don't even know who my father is."
Tera knelt down in front of me, Jack towering behind her, reminding me that pain could be delivered at any moment. "Your father is the only reason I haven't killed you."
My forehead creased in confusion and I shook my head. "You have the wrong girl."
Terra clicked her tongue, then stood and took a few steps back. The next thing I knew, I had a boot to my face, then everything went black.
They mostly dragged me from the room. Blood, sweat, and snot ran down my face but I couldn't wipe it away with a goon holding on to each arm. The world spun and I before I could hold it back, I threw up, most of it ending up on me.
One of the men let go of my arm and wiped me up with a towel. I could hardly make out his face through my blurred vision.
"This isn't what I signed up for," the man still holding me said.
"I know." The other man gently wiped my face, then handed me a wet washcloth. "Your eyes look pretty beat up, might be better if you do it yourself."
I took the washcloth from him and used my unrestrained arm to dab at my face. Stinging pain shot through me at each touch of the cloth against my skin but I knew it needed to be cleaned. "Why is she doing this to me?"
The man who handed me the wet cloth looked sympathetic. "She traced your family line to the last Sayge. She needs your magic to undo the spell your ancestors cast."
"I'm adopted," I said. "I'm not related to my parents by blood. She has the wrong girl. My parents never had any blood children."
"She knows that," the man holding me said. "Come on, we gotta get her to the cell."
I pulled my arm away from the man who was still holding me. "I can walk myself."
He let go and opened a steel door that looked like something from an old asylum. A small window was cut into the top of the door with bars going across it. I wondered how often people were kept in the depths of this building. How many people suspected a pool hall or harboring such evil?
I stepped inside, not sure what to expect. I stopped and turned to face the two men who had brought me down here. "Is she going to kill me?"
"Probably," the one who opened the door said. "If you can't do magic, you aren't worth anything to her. I've seen it before. I hope, for your sake, that you can do something to keep her happy."
I tried to swallow, but my mouth was too dry. It had to be some mistake. How could she think I could do magic? Before I could find any words to react, the door closed, leaving me alone in a small cement room.
A bare lightbulb hung from the ceiling, too high for me to reach. Other than that, it was just me. I walked over to the wall and slid down it. Resting my head against the wall, I hugged my knees to my chest. Never in a hundred years would I have thought this was how my life would end. How was it that I had survived so much to go down like this?
I stretched my legs out and looked at the bruises that lined my shins. How long would they torture me before the realized I wasn't magical? Once that happened, how were they going to kill me?
The sound of the door opening woke me. I hadn't meant to fall asleep and had no idea how long I'd been out. I tried to stand, but my body didn't react as quickly as I hoped. The door was open before I made it to my feet and my first instinct was to cover my head from what I figured was another round of abuse. Perhaps they were going to kill me right away.
Heavy footsteps moved toward me and silent sobs racked my body. A pair of hands pulled me to standing and I risked dropping my arms to look at who had arrived to take me to the next terrible thing I was going to encounter. I found myself staring at Jasper. His brows were pressed together in an expression that resembled sympathy. I was surprised to see him. He didn't seem the torturing type.
"Come on," he said.
"What now?" I asked.
"I'm getting you out of here."
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For a moment, hope rose inside me. It sounded like I was going to get away from here. Away from Terra. But that couldn't be right. He worked for Terra, he told me that himself. "To where?"
"Shhh." He put an arm around me and led me forward.
Figuring I didn't have much of a choice, I walked with him. Jasper reminded me of Goldie in a way. He seemed like he wasn't as excited to be a part of the life he was living. Like maybe he went along with it because it was the only choice. Goldie was part of the circus because she was part of the curse. Was Jasper the same way? Or was he taking me to see his boss? I stopped walking. "I can't go back to her."
"You're going to have to trust me," he said.
The words struck a chord with me. Hadn't Brenon said something similar? I took a deep breath. For someone who didn't trust anyone, I sure was being asked to take a lot of leaps of faith lately. Nodding, I started walking again. If there was any chance of getting out of here and away from Terra, I was going to take it.
21
"This way." Jasper guided me through the building to places I hadn't seen before. These rooms were industrial. Cement floors, closed doors, buzzing fluorescent lighting. Every sound put me on edge. Were there guards following us? Was I going to end up back in that cell, or worse?
We stopped in front of a door and Jasper opened it to reveal an enormous underground parking lot. The black Escalade was running, waiting for us to get in. Somebody else on the inside had aided in our escape.
Jasper held the door open for me and I climbed in, expecting him to follow. Instead, he climbed into the driver seat and we were off.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"It's not far. Just heading to a rest stop outside of the city. It's neutral territory. All magic is weakened there," Jasper said.
"Why did you help me? I mean, you seemed so dedicated to her. I don't understand," I said.
"We all make choices. Then we have to learn to live with them," he said. The rest of the drive was silent.
As we pulled into the parking lot at the rest stop, I looked around for any signs of life. We'd gone about an hour outside of the city. I tried to keep track of direction as best I could in case I needed to run somewhere. We'd passed a gas station about ten minutes back. I was already working on how to run there if I had to. Then I remembered that with the beating I'd taken, it would take a miracle for me to get anywhere on my own.
Lightly, I brushed my fingers across my face. My eyes were swollen, but not so bad that I couldn't open and close them. My right cheek bone was tender, and I could taste the dried blood on my lip. Every breath caused a sharp pain in my side, but it wasn't so bad that adrenaline couldn't mask it. I wondered if I'd get to go more than a day without being beaten up ever again.
Jasper turned off the car and came to the back, opening the door for me. I stepped out into the chilly night air. The dress I had chosen didn't do much to protect against the elements and somewhere along the way, I'd lost the shoes. Thankful for the relatively smooth blacktop, I took slow and easy steps away from the car.
"You're late." A voice sounded from the darkness behind us.
"Got here as fast as I could," Jasper said. He pushed me toward the voice. "Terra had her well guarded. She's convinced your little pet is a Sayge."
The sound of feet crunching on gravel echoed through the silence as a dark figure walked closer to us. In the moonlight, the white face paint looked even more sinister than usual. "Why would she think that?"
"Well, for starters, you had her. So she thought the girl was something special. But I guess she was already tracking her before you got her. She was pissed you took the prize she'd been hunting," Jasper said.
"Can we please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" I was too tired and too upset to be afraid of the Ringmaster, especially after what Terra had put me through. "Somebody tell me what the hell is going on here. Why does she think I'm a Sayge?"
I pressed my hand to my bruised cheek. Talking was causing the wounds on my face to flair up in protest. I gritted my teeth, trying to hide the pain I was in, but that made it worse.
Brenon moved closer to me and looked at me. "She did this?"
I shook my head. "No, her goons. Some guy named Jack."
Brenon turned his head to Jasper. "Jack?"
"New wolf. She brought him in about a month ago. He's dumb as shit, but solid muscle. A real killer." Jasper adjusted his jacket. "We should go. I bet she knew we were gone within ten minutes of us leaving."
Brenon took a deep breath and nodded. "In the car, Ara."
"I'm not going anywhere with either of you," I said. "I just want to go home. Or at least somewhere I'll be around people who won't try to kill me."
"I understand that you're scared, but we don't have time for this right now," Brenon said.
"Make time. Until somebody explains what is going on, I'm not going anywhere."
"Have I hurt you at all? Please, you're going to have to trust me. I'll explain everything, but now is not the time," Brenon said, looking worried.
I didn't like being out of control or feeling left out of the loop. I'd felt that way since I first arrived at the Rose Circus. The whole thing had been a curse - if I could take it back and never walk into that warehouse, I would.
"Please," Brenon whispered.
I swallowed and looked from him to Jasper. Neither of them had tried to kill me. In fact, both of them had saved me from others who had harmed me. Slowly, I turned toward the car. "As soon as we are out of here, I want answers. Then, I want to go home."
"You'll have all the answers you want," Brenon said.
The silence of the night air was suddenly filled by the cawing of crows. I looked up to see hundreds of them circling us. They flew in on thunderous wing beats, blotting out the stars as they flapped overhead.
I stopped moving and stared at the birds. "What's happening?"
Brenon growled and looked up at the sky, his pointed teeth flashing in the moon light. I'd almost forgotten how frightening he could look and I found myself torn between which thing to fear, the crows or him.
The crows clumped together above us and poured in a funnel shape that flowed toward the ground. Then, they merged, melting away to leave a man standing where the murder of crows had been.
Brenon stepped in front of me, placing himself between the crow-man and me. "What are you doing here, Tristan?"
Tristan was tall and muscular. He had a long blonde ponytail secured at the base of his neck. He wore a black tee-shirt and torn up jeans and looked like he'd be at home on a Harley.
"Friend of yours?" I asked. “Please don’t tell me this is another sibling.”
Brenon glanced at me. "Not now, Ara.”
"I believe you have something that belongs to your sister." He stepped closer to us.
"I don't belong to anybody," I shouted at the stranger.
Jasper moved next to me and grabbed both of my arms. "Quiet, Ara, please. Let Brenon take this one."
Tristan smiled at me. "You've got spirit. I can see why Terra thought you were the Sayge who could break the spell."
"She's got you doing her dirty work now, Tristan?" Brenon moved closer to him. "I thought you didn't concern yourself with our war."
"When Terra told me she had the key to unlocking the Realm, I was curious. You know me, Brenon, we go back a long time. You know I'm on whoever's side can send you all back to where you belong."
"You don't belong here, Tristan." Brenon's hands were clenched into fists and he looked more tense than I'd ever seen him. It was a different version of him. Almost as if he was showing fear. If Brenon was afraid of Tristan, what did that mean?
"Just give me the girl. You know how miserable Terra is to be around when she doesn't get her way. I'll even put in a good word for you. Maybe Terra will let you stay cursed - you can live out the rest of eternity as the monstrous creature you've become."
"She's not going anywhere," Brenon said. "Terra's got the wrong girl."
"Oh, I agree. This girl - Ara, is it? She had magic. She is of the last Sayge line, but she died. That cut off her connection to the earth, leaving her unable to access her magic. However, she's not a normal Sayge, so she might be able to get her magic back. But I have a feeling you already knew that. I have a feeling that this is why she ended up on your train." Tristan was now standing in front of Brenon.
My heart raced. The words made no sense. I didn't have magic, did I? How did he know I my heart stopped and I had to be brought back? Was it possible that I had been different before the overdose? The hair on my arms stood on end. Was it possible I wasn't who I thought I was?
"You don't know what you're talking about," Brenon said. "If she's Sayge, it's diluted, just like the rest of them. She's closer to human than anything."
I stared at Brenon. Was he saying I was part Sayge? Was Terra right? My vision blurred for a second and I had to blink a few times to clear it. Nothing made sense anymore. How had things gone so far so quickly?
Tristan circled Brenon, like a predator. "Someone put an anti-magic charm on this girl. It snuffs out all of her magic, makes her seem human. What did you trade to make that spell happen?"
"What are you talking about?" Jasper tried to hold me back, but I pulled away from him and walked closer to Brenon. "What is he saying?"
Tristan tilted his head to the side. "You don't know do you, doll?"
