by Trudi Jaye
She was still resisting, pushing at the old man’s hands, her face strangely expressionless.
Sam backed up a couple of steps and then ran at them. He yelled at the top of his voice, and tried to look crazy. The witch doctor saw him coming, and his eyes widened. Sam didn’t slow down, he just kept coming, trying not to be obvious about what he was planning to do. The witch doctor attempted to pull Celestine out of the way, but she refused to budge. She watched Sam with her blank stare. It almost made him stumble, seeing her like that. She was normally so wild and sweet and emotional.
He gritted his teeth and kept going.
Sam reached them at top speed, and instead of tackling the witch doctor, who had stepped out of Sam’s range, he grabbed Celestine around the waist. She tried to resist, but Sam had momentum on his side and he leaped with her, clutching her hands together at her waist, carrying her over the fire and away from the witch doctor.
As they soared over the flames, time seemed to slow. The moment stretched out, elongating until they came to a complete standstill, hovering in the air above the flames. Rainbow mists streaked and sparkled around them.
Celestine’s dress flowed out behind her, the skirt touching the flames. Where their hands touched, light shone like a glowing beacon in the night, shimmering up their arms until it covered their bodies. Sam gazed down at their linked hands and then at Celestine. She stared back at him, her wide eyes shining a beautiful shade of violet. He wanted to ask what was happening, but he couldn’t speak or move.
And then it was over; time sped up and they collapsed together onto the ground on the other side of the fire. The base of Celestine’s long red dress was smoking. Sam sat up and smacked it out with his hand, before turning back to Celestine and helping her to stand.
“Are you okay?” he asked, still holding her hands. He tried to undo the ribbon tying her hands together, but it was too slippery.
“I’m fine,” she said, her voice soft. She gazed up at him, her violet eyes filling with tears.
Behind him he heard the bigger brother roar. “He’s taken her.”
Chapter 34
Alden charged toward them, his arms reaching out like a massive bear. Celestine had never seen him so angry; shivers ran down her body, but she refused to give ground. It was only when Sam grabbed her hand and dragged her behind him that she moved, without really understanding why at first.
As they watched, Jack rammed Alden from the side, and they fell to the ground, struggling fiercely.
Celestine glanced between her brothers and Sam. She couldn’t figure out what had happened. One minute she was completely under her brothers’ control, and the next she was free. She felt clear-headed for the first time since she’d gone into the Carnival dreamscape—the multiple visions that had been plaguing her had disappeared as well.
Time dipped strangely, and Celestine felt herself disappear into the future for a second, joined by the Carnival and a bright new entity she didn’t recognize at first.
And then she did.
Before she could say anything, Sam grabbed her again, lifting her up into his arms and carrying her to the edge of the clearing, out of the circle of crystals and away from the fighting.
Irritation rose in Celestine’s chest. “Let me down,” she said firmly to Sam, one hand on his chest.
“But—”
She eyed him fiercely. “I said, let me down.”
He eased her onto her own two feet and stood beside her, watching her cautiously.
“Stop it,” she yelled, turning to the others. “I said, stop it!”
Alden and Leptune glanced up at Celestine in surprise, pausing in their attack. Jack and Garth stared at her more warily.
“What are you doing, Celestine?” asked Leptune. His face was crinkled with confusion.
“I need all of you to stop it right now. No more fighting. It’s over.” And it was. The link that had kept her at her brothers’ side all those years was gone. In its place was something different, a bright spark that connected her to Sam. Celestine tried to control the rising panic that was threatening to overwhelm her.
Something had happened as they’d jumped the fire. She turned to the witch doctor. “What did you do?” she asked fiercely.
“I think I might be able to help,” said Garth. He gestured at the crystal ring and the four candles. “I think the witch doctor was trying to trick your brothers. He was going to marry you himself and steal the connection.”
Alden growled and took a step toward the witch doctor. The old man whimpered and held his hands over his head, cowering away from Alden.
“Is that true?” Alden asked.
The old man didn’t answer, simply trembled where he stood.
“It worked,” said Celestine, the explanation making sense of what she’d experienced. “Except not in the way he planned. When Sam and I jumped the fire, something happened. I think we just got married.” She made a face. “At least according to my magic.”
Beside her, Sam stiffened, and let go of her hand. She glanced at him; his expression was bleak.
She took a couple of shaky breaths. Was it so bad to be married to her? She was the one who had the most to lose—Sam could now order her about like a maid, and she would do everything he asked without question.
“Married?” said Alden incredulously.
“Doesn’t that mean...?” Leptune trailed off. They all knew what it meant.
Jack stepped forward. “So there’s no need for you to keep chasing Celestine. She’s under the protection of the Jolly Knight Carnival now, and you can’t do anything to force her back with you.”
“Scuttle back off to the rock you came out from under,” added Sam.
Alden looked over at Celestine in panic. “Tiny. We need you. How’re we gonna to make a living without you?”
Celestine gazed back at him calmly. “Try, Alden. You’re smart. You don’t need me to earn your living.”
Alden moved forward as if to grab her, but Jack and Garth stepped into his path. “Don’t even think about it,” said Garth.
“Good-bye, Alden, Leptune,” said Celestine softly.
Sam put his arm around her shoulders, and they walked back out through the forest.
It was hard to know what to think.
“Sam...,” said Celestine carefully.
“Don’t worry about anything, Celestine. We’ll figure this out,” said Sam.
Their connection hummed, and Celestine found herself being layered with a well-meaning sense of comfort.
“Stop that,” she said sharply. “I’m not a child.”
“What?”
“We’re connected now; you have a measure of control over me. But I couldn’t bear it if you tried to force me to feel one way or another. You have to leave me to feel my own thoughts.”
“But I didn’t....”
“You did. Just stop it.”
They’d reached the car by then, and Celestine climbed gratefully into the back seat next to Sam. The red dress was light and flimsy and didn’t keep out the cool night air. Jack and Garth climbed into the front.
They drove in silence, each of them thinking their own thoughts. Celestine nudged at the link to Sam. Did he feel it in the same way she did? Did he feel anything when she touched it?
Celestine let out a long breath. She no longer needed to fear her brothers. The connection was gone; the little kernel of her soul that had been chained to theirs had disappeared. The thought was both energizing and terrifying.
There was a part of her that was happy, glad this had happened. But another part of her cried out. Sam hadn’t wanted to marry her; they’d unwittingly finished off the ceremony without realising what they were doing. He’d been forced into it.
And so had she. Would Sam be any better than her brothers? What guarantee did she have that he wouldn’t one day decide to make her do something against her will, for her own good?
There was no guarantee.
And so here she was, sitting in the
back seat of Jack’s car, wondering what was going to happen now. Wondering if she’d gone from one bad situation to another.
They’d left her brothers in the clearing. She wasn’t sad about that. Alden and Leptune had never looked after her, never been the kind of brothers she’d needed. But Celestine had a hard time being angry with them. She wasn’t radiating the same kind of anger that shimmered off Sam. They had been raised in the same environment she had. They’d been taught by their father to look upon the women in their family as the meal ticket.
She didn’t want to be around them, or see them, but she couldn’t bring herself to blame them.
Sam’s hand slid over her leg and grasped her hand, and she looked down at their entwined fingers.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Celestine gave him a look.
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m better now you’ve rescued me,” she said.
“For a while there, I thought we’d lost you. That your brothers had disappeared with you.”
“I’m sorry, Sam.”
“For what? It’s not your fault they kidnapped you.”
“No, I’m sorry I got you into this. You’re married to me now.”
He let out a breath. “It’s not ideal. But we’ll work through it.”
Celestine’s heart contracted. He really didn’t want to be married to her. “We can get a divorce,” she whispered.
Sam’s hand clenched around hers. “I’m not leaving you prey to people like your brothers and that witch doctor.”
“And I don’t want to be married to someone who doesn’t want to be married to me.”
“Of course I want to be married to you. It’s just a shock, that’s all.”
Celestine nodded and let him put his arms around her. But she’d seen the hesitation. This was all against his will, and that was as bad as being under someone else’s control.
She heard a soft shattering noise somewhere deep inside her body and knew exactly what it was: her heart breaking into millions of tiny little pieces.
Chapter 35
“Do you want to come back to the clinic with me?” asked Sam. “Or shall we go to your trailer?”
Celestine shook her head. “You don’t have to worry about me,” she said.
He frowned at her. “I’m going with you. I need to make sure you’re okay.”
She shrugged. “My place then.”
Sam felt a ping along their connection and suddenly felt guilty. Had he forced her to do what he wanted? It was one thing to convince her, it was another to force her through their link.
He gritted his teeth. At the moment, it didn’t matter. He would have forced her to accept him through whatever means possible. So the end result was the same.
But he didn’t know how long he could last in this situation. He didn’t want to be connected to Celestine like this. It was the opposite of everything he’d hoped for. She didn’t deserve to have someone who could take away her free choice. He knew what that was like and had no intention of forcing that on her.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said.
The walked in silence back to her trailer, and he opened the door, letting her go in first.
Artemis meowed and then leaped from the bed into Celestine’s arms. She staggered slightly but otherwise caught the enormous cat and snuggled into her soft fur.
Sam just watched, emotion swirling around him.
“Stop it,” said Celestine.
“What?”
“I can feel it through the link. All that emotion, the fear and anger.”
“It’s not directed at you.”
“Isn’t it?”
Sam took a step toward her. “No. Of course not. It’s to do with this situation. I don’t want to be able to force you to do things. I don’t want that power over another person. It’s my worst nightmare.”
Celestine sighed and put Artemis back on the bed. “It’s not exactly what I want either,” she said.
Unable to help himself, Sam stepped closer and put his hands on her arms, rubbing them softly up and down. He waited for her to tell him to stop. She didn’t.
“How come I can touch you now?” he asked. “Without the visions?”
Celestine blinked owlishly, hesitating over an answer. “I think it’s because we’re married. Your other powers don’t affect me anymore, not the way they used to. And I can’t tell your future. I never saw my brothers’ futures either. Instead you can tell me what to do.”
He felt rather than saw the tremors running over her skin.
He gazed into her violet-blue eyes, wishing things were different. “I’ve had enough of people controlling other people. I don’t want to be able to tell you what to do all the time. I’d always win the fights and that would be no fun.” He tried to smile at his own joke, but he couldn’t force his mouth to move.
Celestine nodded, tears in her eyes. “This is almost worse than being in my brothers’ power. You would always make me do what you thought was best for me, even if I didn’t want it. I can’t live like that. I can’t be smothered like that.”
Sam nodded, leaning his forehead softly on hers. “Then we’re agreed?” he said, taking a ragged breath. “I’m going to leave the Carnival. I can’t stay here and see you everyday and not want to be around you.”
She pulled back sharply. “I didn’t mean….” But her words trailed off, and Sam saw the realization on her face. If he didn’t leave, she’d never be free.
Tears formed in her violet eyes and dripped down her face. He reached up one hand to wipe away the moisture. “How does your power feel?” he said softly. “Are you still having multiple visions?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know. I haven’t felt it since we... jumped the fire. I think it might be gone.”
“Gone?” Sam didn’t know whether to be happy or sad for her.
She nodded. “The multiple images disappeared as soon as we jumped, and I haven’t felt anything since.” She paused, thinking. “I can’t read yours anymore because you’re my husband now. But I was reading everyone around me before, and that shouldn’t have changed. Unless it was your amplifying ability that was giving me the multiple images. Now that your powers don’t affect me….” She shrugged. “But I don’t understand why I don’t feel anything at all.”
Sam reached up and ran one finger down her cheek. “Aren’t you upset?”
“That it’s gone?” Celestine hesitated. “It’s been part of me my whole life, made me who I was. But these last few years….”
“You’re good at helping people, the ones who visit your tent,” he said softly. “You have a way with people.”
She sniffed again and nodded. “I’ll miss telling fortunes in the tent.”
“Or course you’ll miss it.”
“But I’ll miss you more,” she whispered.
Sam leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. There was one benefit to being connected to her.
She wrapped her arms around him and leaned in closer, their bodies touching along their whole length.
He deepened the kiss, trying to tell her without words everything he felt for her. He curved his arms around her body and drew her closer, as close as it was possible to be. Running his fingers softly along the skin of her neck, he followed with his lips; her skin trembled beneath his mouth.
Their link burst into life inside him, sparkling and bright. It was a reminder that he didn’t want or need. He pulled back. “I think I should go,” he said, leaning his forehead on hers again, his hands cupping her face.
She gazed up at him, anguish plain on her face. “Okay,” she whispered.
He gave her one last hard and fast kiss, then strode out the door.
He didn’t want to leave, but he couldn’t stay.
Chapter 36
Celestine couldn’t control the hiccuping sobs that escaped her body. Her face was wet with tears, and she was huddled against Artemis’s warm body on her bed. He was gone, and she knew he wouldn’t be back
.
He’d been scarred by his experience with Veronica; she knew that. He wanted to be in control of her will as little as she wanted him to be. And he was willing to give up everything they had because of that.
She understood it, admired him for it, loved him for it. And wished he could find a way to change his own mind.
Even worse, she seemed to have lost her powers. She couldn’t feel it bubbling inside her the way she always had. All she could feel was the connection to Sam, bright and strong, covering over everything else. She hiccupped.
Here she was, a real fake psychic. Would they still want her at the Carnival? Everyone else was so talented. She’d always felt so secure in her powers; pretending to be fake hadn’t made her feel helpless. But she wasn’t pretending any more.
Now she didn’t know what to do.
Everything at the Jolly Knight Carnival reminded her of Sam. She was going to have to leave the Carnival and find somewhere new as well. But all she knew was fortune-telling, reading people’s faces, drawing out their stories. She was good at it. How would she do it if she couldn’t use her ability to read the emotions of the people in her tent to help her along? What if she couldn’t do it without that?
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. “Coming,” she said. Standing, she splashed cold water from the sink over her face. She’d stopped crying, but the blotchy red spots on her face would give her away.
She opened the door to find Indigo standing below, her face shadowed in the dark moonlit night.
“Uh. Come in,” she said. She felt awkward. She didn’t know the other woman very well and couldn’t imagine why Indigo was visiting. She hadn’t even realized she was here in the Carnival.
“Jack asked me to come see you. He told me what happened tonight.” Indigo was so poised and elegant, even this late at night and in such strange circumstances. Her black pencil skirt and silky white shirt were paired with high-heeled black shoes—a touch higher than was practical in the Carnival, but very stylish. How had someone like Indigo emerged from a childhood in the Carnival?