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Aydin planted himself on Asher’s right. He immediately braced himself against the metal railing nearby just so that he could cross his arms over his chest and sulk. Although the annoyance was still heavy in his aura, that didn’t stop him from doing his job. Those brown eyes were constantly on the move and when a concession worker came in our direction, his gaze shifted to them immediately.
“Greetings, sire.” The woman bent a leg so that she could offer a subtle curtsey without dropping the tray she carried. “Would you care for some popcorn? Freshly popped with extra butter.”
Asher shook his head with a slight grin teasing at his lips. “My mate would.”
I didn’t realize how much my mouth was watering until a bag descended in front of me. It had barely come within my eyesight before I had seized it from the woman and silenced my delighted squeal by plopping some in my mouth. A quiet scoff two seats down warned that our gloomy third wheel was dead set on being in a foul mood.
Like hell I was going to allow his moodiness to threaten my perfect evening.
Pressing my lips together, I grabbed a single popped kernel and balanced it on my thumb before I flicked it at him. My aim was never good to begin with, so I didn’t anticipate anything more than a near miss that would probably not grab his attention. When I ended up getting him in the temple, causing the demon to jerk up immediately, I succumbed to a laughing fit that almost had me sliding out of my seat.
As Aydin straightened with a soft snarl, Asher simply raised an eyebrow. He didn’t even have to shift those piercing eyes to the other demon for Aydin to freeze. “Don’t even,” he murmured.
“She flicked popcorn at me,” Aydin hissed.
“Would you prefer to sit in the car?”
It took everything I had to suppress the laughter and use the popcorn as a feeble attempt to regain control over myself. I offered a grin that was nothing shy of a mix between pure delight and a slight apology. It wasn’t my intention to make his mood worse, although I wasn’t going to tolerate it tonight.
Being a bodyguard didn’t mean he had the automatic right to be a grinch.
Aydin blew out a breath and jerked his attention away from me. “You better bite hard, boss…”
Nothing short of pressing my lips together was enough to help stifle the laugh still trying to claw its way up my throat. I quickly shifted my focus away from him to avoid the fresh memory tempting me into a moment of weakness. The waves of utter delight returned with full force as I took in the rest of the big top.
It was almost enough to completely overwhelm the strange sensation of being watched.
Without anything to offer into my childhood fantasy on what to expect, it didn’t matter how raw the scene ahead even was. While the big top itself was clearly showing signs of age, no doubt from the many years it had been in business, every single part of it was inspiring. A large ring had been set up just in front of the main pole that kept the central part of the tent upright with two small wooden platforms towering in the air.
I followed the one closer to me until my head strained back far enough to take in the platform where the wire walker would begin. My excitement started to crumble when I took in the wire connecting the two. It didn’t seem anywhere near big enough for someone to walk on — let alone balance.
If it wasn’t for the strobe light moving around with the occasional bright flash directly on the wire, I wouldn’t have even been able to see it.
That’s not an act. That’s a goddamn mocking temptation at fate.
Aydin released an amused snort. “She looks like a kid at Christmas,” he remarked.
I responded by simply raising a hand and offering a silent insult that could only boil down to a special finger. It was enough to leave him cackling with the prince chuckling softly beside me.
While he was entertained by the sudden banter between us, Asher seemed to be more interested in watching my expression as I took in the setting around me. For every inch that I uncovered with a silent gasp, those golden eyes swirled with an emotion that was only growing stronger.
The overhead strobe light finally went out with the smaller ones attached to the hard ring down below immediately flipping on. Every single one of them revealed a man standing in the middle of all the sand with a whip hanging from his hip. As soon as the shadows were chased away from his nimble form, he raised his head to reveal a face painted like a skull.
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” his voice boomed off the tent walls while those lips curled into a coy smirk. “Welcome to the Kaia Family Circus. As always, we are pleased to see many familiar faces returning to our stands. Although tonight…it seems we are graced with some very special guests.”
That sucked the wind out of my sails. I immediately stiffened my back and pressed my lips together. My heart was already pounding in my chest with every beat that threatened to rip me apart. It was one thing to attract attention simply because of who Asher was - and the fact that I was on his arm when he’d been the notorious playboy of the family. That didn’t mean that I enjoyed the fact that every single place we went to seemed hellbent on sending special treatment our way.
The fact that Asher had personal ties to this place only emphasized that spotlight on us even more.
Asher rested a hand on my knee, squeezing gently to help me regain control over my panicked nerves.
Fuck it… I released the air that I had trapped in my lungs before my vision could grow hazy. Might as well rip off the bandaid, right? Lifting my jaw, I prepared for one of the smaller lights to jerk in our direction.
It never did.
The ringmaster grinned as the crowd succumbed to a cluster of shocked whispering. The only ones that didn’t seem to be doing the same were the ones located in our immediate area. “If you haven’t noticed who they are, you’ll just have to use the entire duration of the show to figure it out because here, we don’t give secrets away!” He slammed the cane in his right hand down.
It didn’t matter if there was a shit load of sand beneath his feet. The moment he brought the hard metal down, a bright glow erupted from beneath it and that burst of light was content to grow. Within seconds, the entire ring was covered with runes that seemed to be carved into it. Not that they were willing to stop there.
