Backstage at the Freak Show (Harem of Freaks #7) - Crystal Ash Page 0,40

hips of my corset and my grin turning satisfied.

“Oh, I missed you too, my friends,” I said to the audience, channeling the longing for my son into my words. “And if more is what you want, that is exactly what…you’ll…get!”

On my final word flames shot up next to me on the stage, making the front row pull away from the heat before they went absolutely nuts. The fire was fake of course, an illusion thrown by my abilities. But it looked and felt real, and that it came from absolutely nowhere.

Raz jumped down from the stage supports right on cue, two swords in his hands. Together we spun and twirled in another dance that looked both seductive and dangerous to the audience. We moved together, our bodies in perfect tandem as he threw swords in the air and caught them behind his back. His arms came around me, blades pressed to my throat or against my back. My leg wrapped around his hip as he teased the blade against the hosiery on my thigh for everyone to see.

Of course I was completely safe with him, and this illusion of danger was just as much foreplay for us as it was for the audience.

We separated, making our way to the opposite ends of the stage. He pulled in a big, exaggerated breath and blew out a massive ball of fire, earning more gasps of awe from the crowd.

Normally his fire was real, but for this bit, it was an illusion too.

I stretched my arms out like I was going to catch this fireball, but instead, morphed the illusion into a ring shape at the center of the stage. Raz began a lazy, easy sword juggling routine, a practiced bored expression on his face as he walked in and out of the fire ring hovering just above the stage floor.

As I lifted my arms, the ring gradually rose up with my movement. Raz had to do bigger, more elaborate jumps back and forth. Eventually, he graduated to flips and somersaults—all while still juggling his swords. The crowd went nuts as he topped himself again and again, jumping higher than any mere human could.

What they didn’t see was him getting a bit of lift from his dragon wings, which I made invisible with my powers.

On his final jump through, he caught his swords and took a deep bow, but the applause was short-lived. Screams and shrieks rang out as Arjun stepped out, the massive Bengal tiger stalking just behind the ring. Raz feigned ignorance, waving and blowing kisses as Arjun stalked closer.

I made a big show of trying to wrestle with the fire ring, contorting my hands as if trying to manipulate my power, then put on a shocked face as a dozen more fire rings popped up on stage. All smaller, and they all started moving.

Raz turned to me with a puzzled expression, and that was when he saw Arjun.

The tiger pounced through the first fire ring, the biggest one, and the chase began. Raz dodged, jumped and dived through the fire rings floating and dancing on stage, the tiger right on his heels.

When I heard Raz’s feet running over the wooden stage floor, I realized it was because the audience went silent. As one entity, they held their collective breath as man, tiger, and fire moved across the stage. The silent, deadly animal grew closer with every precise leap through the fire rings, the stakes growing higher.

At precisely the right time, I clapped my hands together, bringing all the fiery rings to converge into a single giant ball again in the center of the stage. With Arjun and Raz right in the middle of it.

Then the stage went dark, the audience too stunned to even breathe.

When the warm glow of the overhead lights returned, the three of us stood side-by-side. Raz and I each placed a hand on Arjun’s back and bowed low from the waist, arms sweeping out to the sides.

A thunderous noise swept over the auditorium as thousands of people jumped to their feet, and then their deafening applause followed. Arjun roared and bowed his head low, earning even more enthusiastic applause from our audience.

We stayed up there for what had to be several minutes, but they would just not stop shouting and clapping!

Finally I broke away, heading toward the side exit with a final wave, already feeling like I’d been away from the rest of my family for too long.

The moment Arjun shifted back to human form and