Page 67 of Magic for Nothing

“She changed in front of you.”

“She was trying to kill me, because she didn’t think anybody would care. I was new. They’d just assume I’d gotten bored when the carnival life wasn’t all glitter and glamour, and she’d have a full belly without risking anything.”

Margaret kept looking at me. I kept my face as composed as possible. I didn’t think she could see me, but lighting was unpredictable in the Tunnel of Love; maybe I was better lit than she was. Finally, she asked, “How much longer do you think you’ll need? We came here for a purge, not to twiddle our thumbs in motels.”

“I thought you came here to observe and determine what needed to be done,” I said. “What do you mean, you came here for a purge?”

Margaret was silent.

“They didn’t know, Margaret. They didn’t do anything wrong. They thought she was human like them.”

“Like them?” Margaret chuckled darkly. “Oh, this was a mistake. Annie, there are at least three monsters hidden in this freak show. Maybe you can’t see them, but we can. The fact that they’re pulling the wool over your eyes about what they are means they’re probably fooling you about other things. Like whether they knew.”

“Three monsters?” I squeaked, heart racing. “I didn’t . . . I mean, I haven’t seen . . . I don’t think they’re lying to me, Margaret. I just need a little more time to be sure.”

“I’m not happy that you haven’t spotted them,” she said.

There was something in her tone that made me think I might have a chance. “So let me try,” I said. “I can keep investigating, and I can look harder. Please, I just don’t want anyone innocent to get hurt.”

“You mean you don’t want your trapeze boy to get hurt.”

I went very still.

“Don’t worry, Annie. He’s as human as they come, and if you’re sure he’s innocent, I’m willing to defend him to Robbie.” Margaret patted me on the shoulder. It was strangely comforting. She was family, after all, even if she didn’t know it. “All right. I’ll tell him you’re still working with us, and that you’ll have the answers we need soon. But, Annie, when this carnival moves on, you’re not going with it. Wherever it’s going.”

It was hard not to hear that as the threat it was. I forced my voice to stay light as I said, “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

“No. You won’t.”

The mouth of the Tunnel was ahead of us, dazzlingly bright after the dimness inside. We drifted out into the afternoon, bumping our way down the narrow canal to the exit, where we stopped. The ride jock appeared, opening the rope, and Margaret hopped out, walking away without looking back.

The ride jock—I suddenly wished I knew her name, so I could think of her as something other than a title—looked at me quizzically. “You okay? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“Ghosts aren’t nearly as scary,” I said, and stood, stepping out of the swan, back onto stable ground.

The ride jock rolled her eyes. “Tough girl. Right.” She snapped the rope back into place. “I hope you got what you wanted.”

“That was never an option,” I said, and walked away, vanishing into the carnival.

Eighteen

“Don’t wait. Waiting is for people with time to spare, and baby, that’s never going to be us.”

—Frances Brown

The Spenser and Smith Family Carnival, heading for the bone yard, between a rock and a hard place

THE SKY NO LONGER LOOKED like a promise of rain as I made my way back to the bone yard: it looked like a promise of apocalypse. The world was going to burn. The only question was how much of it I could save.

There was no way I could let the Covenant take the carnival. These people had done nothing but welcome me since I’d walked into their bone yard. What Umeko had done was unforgivable, but Umeko was no longer here to be forgiven. She had paid for what she’d done, and two of her victims had gone safely back to their families. It was cold comfort for the ones we’d buried with her, whose parents would never have the closure they needed, but at least she wouldn’t hurt anyone else. All the others, Emery, Ananta, the bogeymen at the Haunted House, Sam . . . they were innocent. Species didn’t matter.

There was no way I could stop the Covenant from taking the carnival. They knew it existed; I was here because it was on their radar. I could kill both Robert and Margaret in cold blood, walk away from them with family blood drying on my hands, and it would just convince the rest of the Covenant that these people were a threat, because they’d assume the carnival had done it. No way a trainee could take down two of their operatives without help, right? I’d turn myself into a murderer for nothing more than a stay of execution. That wasn’t right either. None of this was right. And I didn’t have a solution.

I stopped about ten feet from my trailer. The door was closed; it didn’t look like anyone had been there since I’d left. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched.

Experience has taught me that when I feel like I’m being watched, I almost certainly am. “I know you’re there,” I said. “You can either come out or go away. I’m not in the mood.”

There was a soft thump behind me, and Sam said, “Annie? You okay?” He sounded oddly anxious, like he’d been waiting and worrying since I’d walked away from him before.