Red Circus

by Michelle Al Bitar

  She assumed there would always be clashes like that one between the phoenixes, but Keith was crossing the line.

  “No one is judging you here,” Gabriel assured her. “Keith once got drunk and slept with a woman who stole all his money the next day, and he got beaten up by her husband a week later.”

  Lord Walter and Gabriel started laughing, but Keith only rolled his eyes.

  Gabriel chuckled. “The point is… Riley, we need you. The king is falling for you, it’s obvious. We need you to try and meddle in his work. Keith does not have enough power to get to some classified information. Try to see which nations are starting revolutions and the ones siding with the West.”

  “Alright.” She nodded. “May I be excused now?”

  “Of course.” Gabriel stood up. As she bowed to him politely and was about to leave with Lord Walter, Gabriel stopped her. “Actually, you know what?”

  Gabriel came closer to her and took her to the side, out of earshot.

  “I…I just wanted to thank you for everything you’re doing for the phoenixes. You are to become one soon.”

  “I am not one yet?” she said jokingly.

  “You are, but we have to make it official soon.”

  “How official?” She was hoping there wasn’t some kind of ritual she had to go through.

  “A small gesture. A ring.”

  Riley faked a gasp. “I’m getting married already?”

  Gabriel laughed. “It’s a ring that holds a small feather of a phoenix inside. Every member has one.”

  “But… Phoenixes don’t actually exist.”

  “You would be surprised.” A glint of mischief shined in his eyes. “Riley, be careful.”

  “I handled myself for many years. That won’t change now.”

  “You are with the king now. That’s not something to take lightly.”

  “Who says I do?”

  “I know Jonathan very well. He is not a patient person. If he knows you’re going behind his back, he will turn your life into a living hell.”

  “What do you mean?” She frowned. Jonathan was a rough and mean human being, but he would not go to extremes such as ending her life… would he?

  “He is not a mentally balanced person. He has a temper, and with power up his sleeve, he is not afraid to use it.”

  “I will… be careful.”

  “I trust you,” Gabriel said the final words that never left Riley’s mind and were kept as a reminder for her that she was not alone.

  Behind the glass door, Riley disappeared out of their vision.

  Keith approached his prince and tapped on his back.

  “You fancy her, don’t you?”

  “I only admire her. She’s a strong woman.” He contemplated the shadow that followed her through the halls and knew that it was going to be the shadow behind the throne.

  Chapter 28

  Dark blue patches broke the squared pattern of the horned butterfly as it flew up in the darkened sky. It was cold enough to wear double fur coats and blockboots, but not enough for a home lock up. The frosty air licked up the skins of the farmers as they tried to catch the rose-eating butterflies. During the harsh winters ten years earlier, the butterflies started feeding on the black roses and acquiring their colours. They were a nuisance for gardeners, especially in the Royal Garden where the flora was taken care of as if it were part of the royal family.

  “Wow, be careful.” Mathew pulled Princess Océane to the other side. She had just missed the miniature bullet of one of the farmers, directed at a fleeting butterfly.

  “Oh, my soldier. You saved my life once again.” She faked a gasp.

  Mathew chuckled and raised an eyebrow. “When was the first time?”

  “Well, boredom was quite a monster during the crowning.”

  “Good point. And you’re welcome.” He smiled and they shifted to the right into the red poppy field.

  “This is such an incredible garden. It is not as such in the West.” The princess stared around her. “Everything there is embraced by technology that they barely left any room for nature, except for natural museums of the old world…”

  Mathew was a little surprised at what she said. He did not think of her as someone to brood over bigger matters, for all they had been talking about before were the latest songs by her favourite band Liege. His personal favourite was Lost Generation. Their songs were poetic as Mathew had said and spoke of worldwide problems without offending the kingdom.

  “You’d think after the war, Civilus would be the city of ashes, but here we are,” he said. “The previous kings did a very good job at replanting the lands and practically shooting anyone who cut down a tree.”

  “I don’t believe it was out of the goodness of their hearts. The kingdom cares too much about the people. Because they don’t have enough technology as the West to provide for them, they had to refer to nature. Once it’s of no use to them, they will start destroying it.”

  “So, they are taking care of the forests for their own benefit?”

  “For the benefit of the people of course.” She smiled proudly. “The Freedians have always been perceived as somehow ruthless, but they care for the people more than you would think.”

  “Of course, they do.” Mathew looked down.

  Princess Océane was raised in a nest of vicious tigers, feeding her lies about her family. She did not live with the people to see the tragedies the Freedians had brought upon the poor. Even the royals were not treated as well as the royal family.

  “I’d hate to leave your company, but I have practice.” He looked at his wrist. It screened the digital numbers that indicated he still had five minutes to change and get to the practice room. “I will see you later, princess.”

  Océane nodded and did not hold back from blushing fiercely as he bowed and kissed her hand.

  Something took hold of her arm and thrust her back after Mathew had disappeared behind the large floral walls.

  “What—”

  “Shush,” Keith shut her mouth with his cold hand.

  Océane rolled her eyes and wiggled out of his grip, but he was still holding her by the arms.

  “At least wait for the man to get inside the castle.”

  “I could kiss you in front of him if I wanted to. I don’t give a damn.” Keith gritted his teeth and gently let her go.

  “What the hell do you want now?”

  “You.” He folded his arms together and stood facing her. Being as tall as the princess did not change the fact that only his gaze frightened her a bit. It might have been intimidating but not in a hateful way.

  “Would you care to leave me alone?” she huffed and was turning to walk away, but he pulled her back once more.

  “You think it’s that easy to just watch you get closer to this mere… ex-soldier? Someone who quit serving his country to perform in the other as a magician?”

  “You keep offending the lad, and you are nowhere as hardworking as he is,” she spat. “You are a spoiled little brat who sits around doing nothing but visiting the king for work that you probably let other people do.”

  If only she knew he was one of the decision makers in the biggest rebellion the kingdom would ever witness. If only she knew the history of his family and how he would use that to bring her cousin to the underground alive… waiting for him to choke on his own dirt and the smell of his shit.

  “You keep offending me, Océane, but you know nothing about me. You never gave me a chance to show you who I truly am.” Though that was a lie, Keith never intended on telling her that he had left her that night to seal his pact with the phoenixes.

  “I knew the old you, but the new you is someone I choose to ignore. Should you try—no, think of coming between me and Mathew again, you will be sorry.”

  Keith did not know what he was doing for a minute. His instincts took over him again. He seized her in a tight grip and crashed his lips against hers in a forceful needy kiss.

  Princess Océane gathered all the force
she had gathered in her time at the gymnasium and pushed him back. It was fruitless at first, but after several tries, Keith pulled away on his own.

  “Don’t do this again or I’ll have your head sent to your friends and family.” She was flaming.

  With a final glare, she stomped away leaving Keith surrounded only by the flora.

  “A true Freedian,” he scoffed and turned to walk away, only to be stopped by another.

  “That was a harsh rejection,” Fay guffawed.

  “Fay… What are you doing here?”

  “I needed some fresh air and was hoping to run into someone… say, you?” The circus girl approached him.

  She scrutinized him intently that he ran his hand through his hair nervously. It was not because she was sizing him up; he just felt a little uncomfortable.

  “Well, hello,” he said trying to sound polite. He could not believe she had just caught him forcing himself on the princess.

  Fay laughed. It was a cute laugh.

  “Don’t worry about what happened. I don’t know what is going on so I will not judge your actions, my lord.”

  “I am not a lord,” he chuckled, easing up.

  “Are you a high lord?”

  “I’m not a lord to begin with. I’m just a royal. I don’t know if they call me lord. I just don’t fancy this nickname.”

  “Very valiant of you.” She smiled and held his hand. Keith looked at their hands intertwined surprised, but did not say a word nor retracted it.

  “Not valiant, just realistic,” he said.

  They started walking through the gardens and watching the farmers catch the butterflies.

  “So, what do you exactly do at the castle?” Fay asked him.

  “I am a brain surgeon student and trainee at the Ministry of Medical Services,” he told her.

  The image of his first kill flashed by. He had been training newly at the phoenix camp and was called out by the queen herself. He had never met the queen by then. She was living in hiding for quite a while since movements of royal guards were detected near Civilus Falls.

  He had gone with his training team to the limits of Civilus where a rebellious group was starting a riot. It was led by Sir Marlon Dean, known to be a phoenix but never revealing his identity. Keith was scared to the bones but would not back away. It did not take the royal guards twenty minutes to invade the camp and wipe out the rebels, including the leader.

  Keith was wearing his disguise and was in no way recognizable. He came face to face with one of the royal guards who was attacking them. He was none other than Finn, the royal guard he chatted with every time he entered the castle. Finn held the spider sword to Keith’s stomach. With one swift move and a sob, Keith shifted, disarmed his mate, held the sword that was going to kill him and shoved it inside the guard’s head. The long pointy spikes sprinted out of the sword, and Finn’s head exploded into a molten pile of red flesh.

  “How many years will it take you to finish your education?” Fay asked him with large eyes.

  “Not too much. In the royal school, we have a treatment that helps you memorize books upon books just by having the information scanned inside your mind.

  “This is amazing. I never went for my higher education. It has always been the circus after I dropped out of school.”

  “Sometimes people spend too much time studying and end up stuck in lazy repetitive jobs for the rest of their miserable lives. You have the chance to do what you are passionate about. I would trade that for anything.”

  “Are you not doing what you like?”

  “What I like is saving people’s lives, not signing papers to have other people do it for me and getting fifty thousand dollars for every paperwork I finish.”

  Fay sighed.

  “We get paid what you people give as tips at restaurants. How is this fair?”

  “You will get paid triple if you keep working at the castle,” he informed her, but he knew it would not last as long because the kingdom was going to fall way before.

  “That is what I intend to do.” She nodded. “Would you care for a drink?”

  “What kind of drink?”

  “Alcohol obviously.”

  “We did not have lunch yet.”

  “We’ll have lunch with one hand and a frozen glass of beer with the other.”

  “Sounds perfect to me,” he smiled and they walked outside of the castle grounds. Fay felt relieved for being accompanied by a royal and not having to tolerate her preposterous guardian.

  It was night already and Fay was exhausted. The kitchen was dim and empty. She scanned her fingerprint on the cupboard and grabbed a mug to prepare her tea when she heard footsteps behind her.

  “You shouldn’t trust that man.” Mathew leaned against the doorframe.

  “Are you serious?”

  Mathew sighed and sat on one of the tall chairs. “Fay, I’m only saying this because I care about you.”

  The girl started laughing heartily.

  “There’s nothing in the world that can make me buy that.”

  “The man is an asshole. He’s been after Océane ever since she came into the castle. I just don’t want your heart broken.”

  “You’ve already done a good job.”

  “A good job?! At breaking your heart?!” Mathew stood up and banged his fist against the table.

  Fay jumped in place surprised by his anger. They had never had a conversation that lasted longer than five minutes, and there he was expressing his fear over her broken heart.

  “From the first day I joined the circus nobody cared enough to befriend me except for you! You think if I didn’t have feelings for you, I would make a move?! You never even cared enough to ask about my past, about my family, or what I went through!”

  “Fay—”

  “No,” she huffed. “Did you know that my father’s name is Quill? Did you know he’s a famous lawyer in Riverland? Did you know my mother’s name is Aena, and she’s a psychologist at a school?”

  “No.”

  “My parents were very strict with me.” She was starting to calm down. “I’ve had enough of their treatment and ran away from home with my boa. When I saw the ad, Rufus spread on the streets, I called and begged him to take me, and after some persuasion, he did. My father tried to put him in prison for ‘kidnapping’ me as an underage child, but Rufus had strong connections that kept the trials dragging until I turned eighteen.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Of course, you didn’t. They threatened to write their will in favour of my cousins so I wouldn’t be the heir. That’s the only time I replied to them in a letter. I told them to shove their legacy up their—”

  “I’m sorry.” Mathew stared at her with remorse.

  “I know that Keith is into Océane. I don’t want anything more than friendship. We had a great time today complaining about our lives, and he turned out to be a great listener. So save your brotherly concerns.”

  Mathew silently nodded and turned around to leave.

  Ting!

  The door dinged open to the bed chamber. Riley gasped and immediately grasped her nightgown to pull it up her bare legs, but it was too late.

  Jonathan strolled inside the room in a dark violet tuxedo. A velvet handkerchief suspended from his left pocket, darkening the reflection of his blue eyes.

  “Are you not dressed, my lady?”

  “You are asking, yet here you are staring at me… my king.” She bowed slightly and stepped out of the boundaries of her gown.

  “I’d rather have had you without your bra or your thong.” He wet his lips but did not approach one bit.

  “I cannot bare my skin for anyone but my king.”

  “Then do it,” he dared her and took a step forward.

  Riley was not expecting him. Her heart was beating faster than usual, even faster than the night they had slept together. It was not because of the desire she so fervently felt whenever she was near him. It was because he was a trickster, and she knew she w
ould be powerless if she repeated the actions of the night before.

  “It is still bruised, my king.” She took a hair out of her eyes and wet her lips as well.

  “Call me Jonathan when we are alone, Riley. And let me see what is underneath that red lace.” He was standing in front of her, his breaths heavy against her face. He smelled of expensive wine. His hand slipped underneath the fabric and took a good grip of her breast.

  Riley gently pulled it away stifling a laugh. She picked up her gown from the ground without wearing it.

  “I heard you get bored easily. I don’t want to be another one of your mistresses, Jonathan.”

  “You know you are not.”

  “For all I know, I am sitting inside this castle and only going out on errands to get some stuff for the show. I have not the slightest clue of your deeds.” She slid into the revealing gown.

  “I have no time for persuasions or calling on whores. When I do have free time, I come to you.” He frowned.

  “So, I am your only whore.” She shrugged and lifted her hair up in a ponytail. The mirror made her look young and tired without make-up on.

  “You are my princess.” He stood behind her. His hands hugged her waist, and they looked at each other in the mirror.

  Riley stared deeply. What was happening to her? Every time their skins touched, her heart leapt and skipped several beats. She would almost faint. Damn the king… Damn the phoenixes… Damn fear… She needed to pull her strength together if she were to carry on. She was in too deep and there was no time to surrender.

  Jonathan’s fingers raked the thin fabric at her waist and pulled it up only to reveal a little more skin. Riley closed her eyes, shuddering at his gentle touch.

  “Riley,” he whispered against her ear.

  She let out a little hum, her chest going up and down with her heavy breathing.

  “You make me weak.” He placed a soft kiss under her earlobe.

  “My k—” She started but soon shut herself up when he grazed his nails on her bare hip. “Jonathan.” He was caressing her again.