Page 11 of Carnival of Crows

If this had been real, I would have sprinted in the opposite direction. Instead, I smiled sweetly.

“Yes, please. Thank you, sir.”

One of his eyebrows twitched. The corner of his mouth curled before he caught himself. For half a second, he wasn’t a sinister carney. He was a man trying not to laugh. Then his face emptied again. He pushed away from the gate and stared directly into my eyes.

“Be careful what you wish for,” he warned as he unlatched the chain.

The carousel slowed as another worker pulled a lever near the center platform. The organ music dragged to a warped stop, and the horses settled into place. We poured through the gate.

Mary and Amber immediately began arguing over a white horse with a red saddle. Sam climbed onto one covered in blue roses in the row behind them. Catherine stayed close behind me, already holding up her phone.

I moved to the next row and froze in my tracks.

The one in front of me was painted black. Deep, glossy black, though age had worn the color thin along its muzzle and knees. Orange embellishments curled over its shoulders like flames, trailing down its sides in ornate loops. Tiny black gemstones had been pressed into the bridle, and the saddle was trimmed in tarnished gold.

It was perfect. Then I saw the name painted across its neck in delicate cursive.

Lucille

My heart fluttered.

“Oh my God,” I gasped. “Catherine! Look!”

I jabbed my finger toward the lettering. “It’s Lucille.”

Catherine stepped closer. “Shut up.”

“This is the horse my mom was riding when my dad kissed her for the first time,” I explained. “It’s how I got my name.”

I ran my fingertips over the painted letters. The wood was cold and slightly rough beneath the varnish.

“You need a picture,” Catherine said. “Even if you don’t post it, you have to send this to your parents!”

I grabbed the brass pole and pulled myself onto the saddle. The horse was higher than it looked, and I had to swing my leg over with considerably less grace than the moment deserved.

Catherine backed up, lifting her phone. I straightened and wrapped one hand around the pole and posed my body for the picture. Just as I was about to smile, my hair stood up.

“That’s a pretty horse you’ve chosen, Luci.”

The voice came from directly behind me and I launched upward. A startled noise tore out of my throat as my body twisted in the saddle. Two hands firmly caught my waist. They steadied me before I fell sideways off the horse.

As my heart slammed against my ribs, I looked down at the gloved hands braced around me. Then over my shoulder. The Ringmaster stood behind the carousel horse. Up close, his eyes were somehow even greener beneath the carousel lights.

His face remained perfectly composed, but there was something pleased hiding at the edges of his expression. He had scared me. Actually scared me.

A laugh broke from my chest, breathless and disbelieving. The rush raced through my entire body, bright and electric.

“That was…” I pressed one hand to my heart. “I’ll give it to you. That was good.”

His fingers tightened once at my waist before he released me.

I turned toward Catherine who was laughing so hard that her phone was shaking in her hand.

“What the fuck, dude?” I glared in her direction. “You didn’t say anything!”

“I wanted the picture.” She shrugged.

Still laughing, she climbed onto the horse next to Sam’s in the row in front of me leaving the space around Lucille, the horse, empty.