by Kat Cotton
But... zionks. Duke loved tomatoes. He really loved tomatoes. He had a secret passion for pineapples. And he hated fish but his mother had forced him to eat it. I’d gotten in but food preferences weren’t what I wanted.
“Go deeper,” Buzz said.
I tried, pushing with all my mental power. Images spluttered.
Then I saw a vision. Something weird. I saw myself on the hoop, watching from the ground. But was that me?
That person on the hoop seemed amazing. The way she flew around, so graceful and strong. That person wasn’t at all how I saw myself. I’d always known I was dowdy and plain. Duke had even said that the first time he’d met me. But in this vision, I wasn’t dowdy. I shined. I sparkled. I looked lovely.
Was that how Duke saw me?
I couldn’t believe that. Not me. Not like that.
But that vision didn’t help us now. I kept pushing, more images floating up in my mind but I pushed them aside. None of them helped me. I needed something recent.
Then I got something. I reeled, almost breaking contact with Duke as the sense of confinement enveloped me.
Somewhere out there I could sense Buzz rubbing my back, trying to keep me settled while I worked through this. I could barely breathe. Something stopped my oxygen supply. A gag. And I squirmed. My arms. I couldn’t move them.
This was is it.
I tried to see the world from Duke’s perspective. He wasn’t blindfolded but he couldn’t see much. A narrow space. Sitting on bench. A sense of movement. Darkness with sparks of light. A whirring sound.
A train? That’s what it looked like. They’d taken Duke on a train? But which train? This wasn’t a circus that traveled by train. All the transport was truck and trailer. There’s no way they’d take a prisoner by train when they could throw him in the back of truck, well out of sight of other people.
Then the smell hit me. Corn and candy and sweat. He wasn’t on a train. He was on the circus grounds. A train on the grounds?
Then what I saw slowly changed. Those lights got further away as I rose higher above them. The movement.
“The Ferris Wheel!”
Chapter 33
I RUSHED TO THE FERRIS Wheel, the others following me. It made sense. Lock someone in one of the carriages and even if they escaped, they’d risk their lives getting to the ground. Even when the Wheel operated, the carnie operating it could bypass one of the carriages.
I still hadn’t found who’d taken Duke but that could wait until after I rescued Akira. When I reached the ticket booth for the Ferris Wheel, I looked for the carnie operating it but there was no one around.
The Wheel had stopped running. Akira had to be up there in one of the carriages but which one? I rushed to the control panel. I had to get this thing working again so I could get him to ground level. The panel had been locked but that wouldn’t stop me. I got the hair pin from my hair.
Duke and Lilly had caught up with me. Buzz followed them, with Nuno and Earnest trailing behind.
“He’s up there?” Lilly asked.
“I’m pretty sure.”
I tried to use the pin to force the lock. No luck. The pin wouldn’t even go in. This thing hadn’t just been locked. It’d been magically locked. I slammed my hand down on the controls. So damn close and the controls didn’t work.
“Damn thing,” I said. “This is useless.”
I looked up at the Wheel. I could climb the thing. It wouldn’t be impossible but it would be challenging. The problem was that Akira could be in any one of those carriages. I’d never be able to tell from down here. That meant a lot of climbing and while I clamored around the Wheel, I’d be vulnerable the whole time.
First thing, I needed to get the others out of here. I couldn’t be concerned about them on the ground while I rescued Akira. The second thing would be to find Akira. Thirdly, I’d have to get him out. While I’d have no problem with that on my own, I wasn’t sure how I’d get back down with Akira. Still, I’d worry about that once I’d found him.
I stared back up at the Wheel, hoping for some sign of Akira in one of the carriages. It proved hopeless. Every carriage looked exactly the same. Different colors but nothing to say one of them held a captive. He could be bound on the floor so that I had no hope of spotting him until I got close. Logically, I dismissed the carriages on the bottom half of the Wheel. It made no sense to put someone somewhere like this but leave them near to the ground. The one right at the very top would be my first pick.
“That carriage, the red one at two o’clock,” Duke said.
Without me saying a word, he seemed to know exactly what I had planned. He stood so close to me that he brushed against my body. I stepped away from him and looked up to the red carriage.
“Huh? How can you possibly know that?” I asked him
“It’s a wheel. It’s my thing,” Duke said. “If I didn’t have the right instincts, I’d never be able to throw the knives around you.”
I nodded. Maybe Duke was full of shit but I’d have to start somewhere. I mean a Ferris Wheel was nothing like that Wheel of Death. Or was it?
A low growling noise made me spin around. Earnest’s dogs?
The dogs stayed close to Earnest. The growling didn’t come from them. Something stalked us. Something nasty. It growled again. Akira could wait. I needed to fight this thing.
“You guys need to get back to the van,” I hissed. “I can’t fight while I’m worried about you. And I can’t get up there and rescue Akira.”
Duke put his hand on my shoulder. “You don’t need to fight. Full stop. Not every fight is yours, Jayne.”
What did he mean? Then I noticed Earnest’s dogs shifting. I looked away. That process made my stomach weak and I didn’t need that at the moment.
“What if he can’t defeat them?”
“That’s his problem. We can look after ourselves. You have to do what you need to do without getting distracted. We’re been doing this for a long time. Anyway, if you kill those demons yourself, you’ll have to deal with Earnest. He wants this kill. He needs it and he’s capable of it. Have some trust, Jayne.”
He could say that but my gaze turned to Buzz. The others might be immortal but Buzz was human and very vulnerable.
“I’ll make sure he’s safe,” Duke said.
Lilly joined us. “He’s kind of hot in a silver fox kind of way.”
She couldn’t say that about Buzz. No way. She could stay well away from him.
“Make sure you protect him,” I said to Duke. “And not just from the demons. From Lilly.
With that, I started climbing.
Chapter 34
I STARTED CLIMBING, grabbing hold of metal rung and swinging myself up, then moving to the next one. It’d take a while to get to the top but the rungs were close enough together to make the job easy.
Of course, anyone wanting to use Akira as bait to get me here would’ve known me well enough to figure out that climbing the Ferris Wheel would be a piece of cake for me. They hadn’t done it as a deterrent but a way to slow me down and to have advance notice of my approach. It also ensured I’d be alone.
Chances were I’d have someone lying in wait for me when I got to the carriage. No problem. I’d fight them. I’d free Akira and hopefully get vengeance for Duke at the same time.
Then we’d all live happily ever after. Well, Duke, Lilly and Nuno would live happily ever after for a lot longer than I would but I’d no longer be damned and that would be a fine thing. I just had to keep moving.
As I climbed, I looked down to see Earnest and the freaky dog men fighting the demons. I had no idea what the next world would be like for them but I really hoped Earnest hit his quota and got to move on. It meant so much to him and he obviously wanted the best for his dogs. That wasn’t a truly selfless thought. The troupe would be much easier to work with without him around. After all, he’d taken away my powers and had tricked me into this deal. I couldn’t feel too kindly toward him, but those dogs were okay.
&nbs
p; The higher I climbed, the stronger the wind became. It battered against me, at times slamming me into the steel bars. My hair blew around my face so that I wanted to adjust those hair pins but I couldn’t let go of the rungs.
I’d reached the rightmost point of the Wheel. The three o’clock position. I didn’t have much further to go to get to Akira. My hands stung and the palms burned. At least they didn’t sweat. This would be the worst time to deal with sweaty hands. Slippery hands could be the death of me up here.
Akira’s carriage swung above me. You didn’t notice how much those carriages swung looking at them from the ground but it rocked fiercely in the wind. Poor Akira. Restrained and scared and having to deal with that motion. I hoped he didn’t get sea sick.
Once I reached his carriage, the hardest part of this was getting from the rung to the carriage. I could climb on the roof but I’d still have to get inside. Rather than that, it’d be fastest to jump from the rung to the side of the carriage.
Even for someone fearless about heights like me, that was a daunting task. My heart hammered at the thought. But I wouldn’t fall. I never fell. I couldn’t even allow myself to think of that as a possibility.
If I grabbed the hand rail beside the door, I could get footing on the sideboard of the carriage. I just had to hope the door wasn’t locked. I’d only have one hand free, and that would make unlocking it impossible.
I sucked in my breath and lowered myself down so I was even with the carriage door. The jump wasn’t far but getting hold of that handle meant everything.
I could almost reach out and grab the rail but not quite. I hung from one of the rungs, swung my body then jumped through the air. Reaching out. Stretching my body.
I did it. My hand closed around the rail. I had nothing to grip with my left hand but found my footing on that side board. I exhaled then tried the door.
Locked.
Fastened tight.
The carriage rocked even harder, my weight on the side not helping. I tried it again, tugging with all my might. Then I banged my fist on the glass, hoping to shatter it or find some way in.
No luck.
There was no way I could tackle that lock open with one hand. And, with the swing of the carriage, I couldn’t hang off the side for too long.
I grabbed the rail on the roof of the carriage and swung myself up. The carriage rocked so hard, I almost didn’t make it.
For a moment, I looked down. And, for a moment, the pits of my stomach clenched tight. The ground looked a million miles away. I couldn’t even make out Duke or Lilly or any of them. I could just see what could be people moving around.
This wasn’t like being on the hoop. Not this high up.
I couldn’t think about that. Not even when I saw a strange flash of light below me. Did that mean Earnest had succeeded?
The wind bashed harder around me. But I had a plan. I hooked my legs around the top bar and lowered myself down. My body hung down the side of the carriage. I’d never picked a lock upside down before but this way left both my hands free.
The metal bar at the top cut into my calf but I’d have to ignore the pain for now. This needed intense concentration.
Luckily, whoever had Akira in that carriage hadn’t decided to attack yet.
I played with the lock, praying I wouldn’t drop the pin. The blood rushed to my head, making me feel spinny. Even though I hung like this during my act, I didn’t have to do anything else but hang. Adding in a task like lock picking made it a helluva lot more intense.
The carriage kept swaying and wind pummeled me so that the first three times the pin slipped out before I got it near the lock. This shouldn’t be so hard. The locks on these carriages were simple. But trying to insert a pin up here was like trying to thread a needle.
I ignored the pain in my leg and concentrated on stabilizing myself. I sure as hell wasn’t going to get all the way up here then fail because of the stupid lock.
Holding my breath, I lined the pin up with the lock. I shut one eye and guided the pin.
Yes. It went in.
The lock itself was simple. I didn’t have the magic on it that the control panel had.
Soon the lock unfastened. I swung back up so that my body didn’t block it then pushed the door open. It only took a simple flip to get inside.
Akira laid on the floor. He groaned as I landed on top of him.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll soon have you out of here.”
I got out my pocketknife to cut through his bounds but I didn’t need it. The rope wasn’t too tight. He obviously hadn’t paid enough attention to that lesson at the police academy.
Akira shook his arms, loosening them up while I removed his gag.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Mmm,” he mumbled. I assumed that meant yes.
I pulled him up onto the seat.
“Sorry I got you into this,” I said.
“That’s okay.”
For someone who’d been gagged for the better part of a day, he regained his voice easily. Maybe he hadn’t been in this carriage for the whole time. They could’ve had him ungagged during the performance and no one would’ve heard him.
At least he was alone. There was no one for me to fight. The two of us could get out of here and Akira would be safe.
“We still have to get down,” I said. “I’ll guide you. Once you get onto the frame of the wheel, it won’t be so difficult.”
Akira smiled.
“What?” I asked.
“It won’t be difficult at all,” he said.
Huh? Before I could ask, he’d grabbed me and held a knife to my throat.
Chapter 35
I STRUGGLED IN AKIRA’S arms but I couldn’t get free. I just slipped around on the vinyl seat without Akira’s grip loosening. I might’ve had the strength to fight him off but his knife pressed tighter against my throat. The handle of that knife glowed. It was no ordinary knife, that’s for sure.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.
He laughed.
This wasn’t Akira. Someone had taken control of him, obviously.
“Akira, are you in there, somewhere?” I asked, trying to turn to face him.
“You have no idea,” Akira said.
This had been a trap. I realized it now. I’d been lured to the carriage with no easy way to flee. No escape. All my friends had been left behind on the ground below me.
Instead of fighting me themselves, my enemy force Akira to do it.
“But you’re not this person,” I said.
“I only need a little of your blood...” he said. He fumbled. “Then your power is mine.”
I wasn’t sure it was that simple.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I know what you are, Jayne. You have more gifts than you’re even aware of. It’s not fair. It’s never been fair. You don’t want them. I do. So, let’s make an exchange.”
Was this the same gentle guy I’d worked with for years? I moved around so that I could make eye contact with him, hoping that would help. I don’t know what I expected to see, some sign that this wasn’t really Akira. That he’d been thralled or spelled.
The person who faced me was one hundred percent Akira, though.
“How long have you known?” I asked.
While I tried to free myself, I wanted to distract him with talking.
“A long time.”
He sneered in a way I’d never seen before. Was this really Akira? Even though I didn’t want to believe it, maybe he’d been this person all along. His nice guy persona was really a ruse all these years.
“While we worked together?”
“Even before that. I guess you were the one I was looking for but I had to be sure though. You masked what you were so thoroughly then I saw you at that performance. You revealed yourself then. I knew I’d found you.”
He relaxed a little as he talked, obviously proud of his own cleverness. If he kept talking, I’d make m
y move soon.
“What about in the warehouse?”
“What happened there?” he asked. “I thought I’d be able to get you then but your power had weakened. I worried that someone had got to you before I could. Of course, the blood is no use to me if you’re not working.”
Why the hell did everyone want my blood? Maybe I had something to thank Earnest for. His trickery might’ve saved my life back then.
“But... but...” I searched for something, anything that would prove this person wasn’t the real Akira. “At the bar?”
“That woman, Lilly, thought she could charm me but I’ve only been interested in you, Jayne. I tried to hard to get close to you but you always rebuffed me.”
The carriage rocked, throwing me closer to Akira. His knife didn’t press so heavily against my throat.
“Why here?” I asked him.
It had to be more than just mere coincidence that he bought me to this place. He couldn’t know too much about my past.
I kept squirming. While he talked, I’d moved in a much more advantageous position.
“Someone approached me. They told me you had a history here.”
“Who?”
I needed to know that. I needed to know more than anything else. Before Akira could answer, the carriage lurched. The Wheel moved. We were headed to the ground.
Before Akira regained his composure, I elbowed him in the stomach then grabbed his arm. The knife dropped to the floor. I lunged for it but Akira lunged too, landing on my back.
The two of us grappled on the floor of the carriage, fighting for the knife.
I reached out but only managed to knock it into the corner of the carriage. Just out of reach. I stretched out. My fingertips grazed it.
I almost had it but Akira shot forward. I grabbed his wrist, trying to twist his arm and keep the knife from him.
He slammed his body against me. He wasn’t big but he was strong and the impact winded me.
I gasped for breath, trying to ignore the pain in my chest but as I stretched out, I groaned with the pain.