Chapter 52
“ H ow will you get out?” I ask Peter as he leads us toward the front of the carnival tent.
He gives me a quizzical look.
“I’d heard carnivals like this,” I explain, “if it’s anything like the one Tink was a part of, I figured it would be difficult to leave.”
Peter gives me a knowing smirk. “I’m not a slave here, Wendy Darling. Though it’s cute that you would think that.”
“Peter,” says Nolan, a warning in his voice.
Peter smirks. “When I came to work here, I made an arrangement with the ringmaster. It wasn’t difficult to see how I would quickly become profitable for him.
It’s been profitable for me too. There are the royalty shares for the shows, not to mention the wing.
It’s really quite impressive what they can do nowadays. ”
“So everyone here gets paid?” I say.
Peter winces, which is enough of an answer.
Just then, there’s a commotion coming from near one of the tents in the back.
“That would be the ringmaster’s tent,” says Peter.
Indeed, after a few moments, the ringmaster comes running out, shouting, his voice incoherent from the distance. Although, by the way the ears of the three fae around me perk, it seems they can understand him, even if I can’t.
“One of the others has escaped,” says Peter.
“I thought you said they weren’t slaves,” I say.
“I said I wasn’t a slave,” corrects Peter.
Frustration mounts in me. And after a few short moments, an alarm horn sounds over the carnival.
“Oh,” says Peter.
There’s a clank in the distance, and when I whirl around, I see that the gates into the fortress area have been closed, guards stationed next to them.
“The three of you don’t need to be back here,” says Peter. “He’ll assume you had something to do with the escape.”
“Well, that’s great to hear,” says Maddox. “Any suggestions for where we are supposed to go?”
The ringmaster comes huffing in our direction.
“He’s got poor eyesight,” says Peter. “He probably doesn’t see you yet. Disappear into the crowd, and I’ll find you after I speak with him.”
We do as we’re told, ducking back into the main area.
The crowd is panicking now. There are shouts and screams all around us.
Someone apparently has reported seeing a dead body, though I’m figuring it’s simply the by-product of a panicked onlooker’s frantic imagination.
No one else seems to be apprised of the information that one of the carnival slaves has escaped.
Nolan whips his hand around the crook of my elbow, pulling me in tight to him.
“Stay close,” he says. “I don’t trust a crowd that’s panicked.”
I nod, and just then, something slams into my back.
I lurch forward and Nolan catches me in his arms. I whip my head around, searching for my assailant, but we’re being pressed in by the crowd, my shoulders crammed between Nolan’s and Maddox’s massive forms, and it’s impossible to see who ran into me.
“If the idiots would just calm down,” says Nolan. “It’s okay.”
“I’ve been run into before,” I say. “I’ll survive.”
He looks down, the smallest of smirks at his lips, and nods.
There are people yelling at the guards, men and women complaining that they came here and paid good money to see a show, not to be trapped for the evening.
“I don’t see another way out,” says Maddox, he and Nolan both scanning the perimeter.
“Neither do I,” says Nolan.
Maddox glances mischievously at the guard stationed in front of the gate levels. “We could always make one,”
“Let’s not make a scene,” says Nolan. “Besides, for once it’s not us they’re after.”
Maddox shrugs. “Old habits die hard, I suppose.”
“How often have the two of you been the ones they’re after?” I ask.
This time, Nolan’s face mirrors Maddox’s rather naughty expression. Just then, I feel a chest pressed into my back, and my entire body goes still at his touch.
“It’s just me,” says Peter, as if that’s not exactly what’s sending my body into a paralytic state.
“Back off,” says Nolan, fists tensing.
“Relax,” says Peter. “I just needed to get close enough so that no one would hear. The ringmaster wants everyone personally interviewed on the way out. They’re going to start in just a few minutes.”
“We didn’t help one of his slaves escape,” says Nolan.
“Yeah, I can’t see what the problem would be. We should be able to get by just fine,” says Maddox.
“You should be able to get by just fine,” Peter says to Maddox. “But it’s not you I’m worried about. The ringmaster deals in oddities, remember?”
Nolan and I glance at each other’s Mating Marks.
“Do you have anything to help us cover them up?” says Nolan. “Mine should be easy enough. All I need is a scarf.”
“Wendy here, on the other hand…” says Peter.
“You don’t have a mask somewhere around here? It is a carnival, after all.”
“Of course we have masks,” says Peter. “But do you honestly think he’s going to let you through the gates without checking to see who you are underneath the mask?”
“I take it the escaped slave is female,” says Maddox.
“Unfortunately, yes,” says Peter.
“We could fight our way out,” says Maddox.
Nolan shakes his head. “Not ideal. There are guards posted on the outside as well. I marked them when we came in.”
“The city makes a lot of money off of this carnival. They’re invested in keeping it protected,” says Peter. “The ringmaster pays a hefty fee for the rental space. It’s not like you see that many carnivals out there that have a fortress surrounding them.”
“Are you going to be helpful or are you going to continue to tell us how much trouble we’re in?” asks Nolan.
Peter turns his face away in a poor attempt to hide a smirk, but when he turns back, all the levity has drained from his expression.
“There’s a section on the southwest corner of the fortress that’s hardly ever used.
No one ever goes back there. I can fly the three of you out.
With all the commotion going on at the front combined with how dark it is outside, I doubt anyone will notice. ”
“Why do I not find that to be a comforting plan?” says Maddox.
“You’re not exactly in the position to be choosy,” says Peter with a smile.
Nolan and Maddox both glare at him, but neither argues.
“Just meet me in the southwest corner within the next five minutes,” says Peter. “I have something I need to do first.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” says Nolan.
“Relax,” Peter says for the second time. “Trust me.”
And then he’s gone.
We make it over to the southwest corner, though it’s a struggle weaving through the crowd trying to press in the opposite direction.
Eventually we break free of them and find it just as Peter had said—an unused section of land, relatively at least. It seems like it’s being used as a storage area, and only for things that are awaiting repair.
We wait there in the darkness. And only a few minutes later, Peter appears. Nolan and Maddox glance for anyone behind him, but Peter raises his hands.
“Don’t worry—I didn’t turn you in,” he says. “Now it’s time to go.”
Maddox nods and steps forward. Peter grins, then wraps his hands around Maddox’s waist. It would be comical—Maddox’s huge, muscular frame and Peter practically bear-hugging him—if the sight of Peter at all didn’t disgust me.
He launches them upward, and they disappear over the edge of the fortress. My stomach tenses and I wait to hear someone from the crowd scream out, but no one seems to notice.
A moment later and Peter lands lightly in front of us.
“You next, old friend,” he says to Nolan.
Nolan offers him a smirk that I can only assume is meant to mimic Peter’s. “I don’t think so. You take Wendy next, then me.”
“What?” says Peter. “Are you afraid I’ll keep her to myself?”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” says Nolan.
Peter folds his arms in front of himself.
“The three of you are trusting me to help you locate the Sister. Not only that, but I’m assuming you’re wanting my help infiltrating her lair.
You’re asking me to risk my life and my freedom for you.
That’s a lot of trust to put in me. Seems like a small request in the grand scheme of things to let Wendy go last.”
“I never said I trusted you,” says Nolan.
“No, just that you need me,” says Peter. “Just like you need me to get over that wall.”
They stand off for a minute, staring at each other. But in the distance, around the building, we hear muffled voices.
“Maybe there’s a way out this direction,” says someone. Probably an attendee who just wants to bypass the lines. Still, we can’t risk them seeing us.
“It’s okay, Nolan,” I say. “I’ll be fine.”
It’s not that I trust Peter. It’s just that I know him. And this is more about flexing his power over the situation, making Nolan feel powerless, than it is anything else.
Nolan goes to protest, but then the voices grow closer.
“Your time is running out,” says Peter, tapping his wrist, though there’s nothing there by way of keeping time.
“Fine,” says Nolan. “But if she’s not over the wall immediately, I’m coming back. And it won’t just be me and you.”
“Noted,” says Peter through gritted teeth.
Then he takes Nolan and whisks them both away.
I’m left alone only for a moment before Peter returns. He doesn’t sweep down in front of me like he did for Nolan or Maddox, but behind me, landing softly in the grass so that instead of hearing him, I feel him.
He doesn’t touch me. But he doesn’t have to. His presence is familiar. Even his near-touch is something my body responds to, recognizes immediately.
“Are you ready?” asks Peter.
“Yes,” I say, my voice clipped.
He wraps his arms around my waist. And I know we’re thinking of the same night. The night he launched us into the sky, and I asked him to drop me.
He hesitates for a moment, arms around me, lingering in a moment he knows won’t come again. It makes my skin crawl—his touch, the fact that I know he’s taking pleasure in it.
But I don’t react. Don’t argue.
I’m doing this for my son. And I have endured much worse at these hands.
“Are you happy?” he asks, his voice low, deep. There’s a desperation there, a longing for me to say no .
I think back to when Nolan asked me the same question, when my voice was shackled underneath Peter’s bargain, and I could not tell him the truth no matter how much I longed to.
But I am no longer in shackles. At least not of Peter’s doing.
“What kind of question is that? My son has been taken from me. No, I am not happy.”
“Of course,” says Peter, shifting uncomfortably, like he too senses that he’s already failed somehow. Like he only has so many chances left to charm me, to win me back, and he squandered one of them with his insensitivity.
“I’ll get him back for you, Wendy Darling,” he says. “I can promise you that.”
Something wriggles in my chest, a mingled relief and discomfort that I truly believe him.
I know the game that Peter is playing. Deep down, this is why I knew he would help me. Because above all else, he wants me back. And he thinks that he can somehow earn it.
He sees me as someone who easily forgives. That’s how he interprets my love for Nolan. He fails to see the difference between the two of them.
And that is exactly what makes him so dangerous.
We launch into the air and over the side of the fortress. For a moment, we’re weightless, and panic races through my blood. I am in Peter’s arms, completely helpless here, a captive once again. If he wanted to fly away with me, he could.
But Peter knows better than that, knows that his only chance of earning my forgiveness lies asleep in a crib deep within the Sister’s lair.
So when we land back on the ground, Peter hands me over to my husband.