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“Why are you telling us this?” Rose interrupts.
Her eyes clip to Rose. “Wouldn’t you love to know.” She continues. “I run a show, and I only have the best of the best, but the art in which we gather our performers is different to how others do. I like my performers broken and unamendable, but of the purest construction.” Her eyes shift to Kingston. “Or, just emotionless. I gather machines, not humans, and I orchestrate them in becoming moneymaking puppets.” I want to say that I’m not a puppet. I want to say so much. Sweat trickles down the side of my head as words threaten to spill from my mouth, but before I can formulate enough fire to spit them out, my teeth clamp closed like a bear trap. “You don’t get an option. Neither of you. You will come with us. You will dance.” She looks between the two of us. “I will pay you. In return, you’re not to tell anyone about what goes on from this point forward. You sign on the dotted line, and Midnight Mayhem owns you. You never walk away. You’ll never have that option.” Her eyes, once again, fly between us. “Do you understand? You cannot have a life outside of Midnight Mayhem.”
Rose sucks in a deep breath. Midnight Mayhem? What is Midnight Mayhem. “I know who you are.”
The woman looks directly at Rose now and brings her perfectly manicured coffin-shaped acrylic nail to Rose’s cheek. “Sweet girl. You don’t know me. I am Delila Patrova, and I can either be your worst nightmare or your best friend. The decision is yours. The decision is always yours.”
Kingston’s hand wraps around Delila as he pulls her into him and leans in to whisper into her ear. Delila’s eyes zone in on me as interest sparks in the deep depths of her empty pupils. “Really.” She stands, running her hands over her perfectly steamed slacks. “Dove Noctem. You can sit out for a while. Observe. Your training will begin at a later date. Now!” She snaps, clicking her fingers. “Do either of you object?”
“What happens if we do?” Rose raises a challenging eyebrow at Delila.
The air shifts around us, the wind stirring black magic into the cool winter air. Delila smiles sweetly. “Well, I’m afraid you are of no use to us…” She pretends to ponder over her words. “Or to anyone, really…”
Rose squeezes my hand.
I squeeze her back. Shut up and stop talking before you get us both killed.
“Now I’m going to ask…” Kingston steps in front of Delila, and I watch in fascination as she backs up, allowing him to dominate the conversation. “Do you agree to surrender your life to Midnight Mayhem? I don’t feel like getting blood on my hands today, but will if I need to.”
I chew on my lower lip, contemplating my options.
I have none.
I nod, squeezing Rose so she agrees.
Rose groans. “How do we know that you won’t kill us?”
Kingston glares at her. “Never said we wouldn’t, but you don’t have many options, do you?”
“Right—enough of this. We hit the road in four days. You girls will need to…” Her eyes drag up and down both Rose and me. “…go shopping. I’ll give you an advance. Midnight will eat you alive otherwise.” She tsks. “Kill, show them to their room.”
Soft pink cotton stretches over the large king-sized bed as Killian opens the door and gestures for us both to enter. There are two beds, and the room itself is bigger than what most people would call a living room.
“We usually put new initiates in separate rooms to stop them from trying to escape,” Killian speaks for the first time, drawing my attention to where he’s standing against the doorframe. His eyes darken on me. “But something tells me, Little Dovey here lost her wings.”
My jaw clenches at his tone and arrogance. Bastard. He kicks up from the doorframe and gestures down the hallway. “Some of us come back here when we’re not on the road. There are twenty-seven bedrooms, an indoor and outdoor pool, a private spa, basketball court, gymnasium, theater, garage, and I’m sure I’ve missed some shit. The property is on a few hundred acres of land, where all of the crew live in their own homes. In other words…” Killian smirks. “Don’t wander too far. You never know where you might end up.” He disappears back out the door, leaving both Rose and I gobsmacked.
“Shit,” Rose gasps, taking a seat on the bed that’s opposite mine. She blows out a breath of air, her eyes traveling to mine. “We’re so fucked.”
I lick my lips, making my way to the bed that Killian said was mine. Sinking into the soft covers, I replay everything that happened up to this point.
“What do you think of this?” Rose asks, kicking off her shoes and running her fingers through her dirty hair. Caged humans in diamond chandelier rooms and scary men who wear bandanas. “I’m not really sure yet.” Lie. I know how I feel about this. I feel like we could have ended up murdered or being sold to human traffickers. I remember my father always saying to me, “You won’t always get what you want in life, Dovey. Sometimes things are going to happen that will make you wish you could change the course of your destination, but you can’t. You just have to keep driving and switch gears.” I need to switch gears.
