metal grated ceiling. It was identical to the floor far below, complete with a matching monstrous statue in the center. The rope that Simon dangled from came from the structure’s mouth, like a grotesque tongue, or like the Puppeteer was the pendulum of some terrible clock.
There was no way to reach him. She searched for a stick, a hook, another rope she might throw him when he was awake, anything.
Nothing.
Her next idea was the exit. Maybe she could go get Rudy—or anyone—to help her. She was afraid of what might happen when she set foot outside the tower, especially without Simon to protect her. But she had to do what she had to do.
Flying to the exit, she pushed. Nothing.
The doors were locked from the outside. She shoved on them again and only succeeded in rattling them. Screaming out her frustration, she pounded her fists on the surface until her wrists ached. But just like her escape from Harrow Faire the night she had been turned into the Contortionist, it was pointless. When this place wanted to lock the door, it locked the fucking door.
She sat on the stairs, her hope deflating just as quickly as it had come. She put her head in her hands. When she spoke, her voice sounded small. Afraid. Broken. It was exactly how she felt. “What do I do?”
Silence.
She sighed and looked up at the apparition of a man standing by the wall. He had been there the whole time, just out of her way, watching and saying nothing.
Lazarus blinked and pointed at himself. “You’re asking me? Oh. Sorry. I thought that was rhetorical.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. You’re upset.” He pushed away from the wall and looked up at the tower with a hum. “You’re right, however. You can’t get Simon down. And with the door locked from the outside, there’s no escaping to get help. That door won’t open for you.” He paused. “Not by normal means, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“This tower—this place—is the heart of me.” He held his arms out and gestured to the structure around him. “We’re inside of me. Ringmaster’s power works because he holds the Key. If you wished to drain someone’s seity here, you could, because you carry the burden. My power is the only one that works here.”
“Then you can let us out.”
He shook his head, and with a long, weary sigh, sat down next to her. “Let me explain it another way. I am too large to exist safely in this world in my true form. Too dangerous. You know how I give you all little trinkets to amuse yourself? How I can rewrite Harrow Faire to my whims?”
“Yeah?”
“I could do that to Earth as a whole if I weren’t careful. One stray daydream of mine and—poof—sand dunes and monstrous creations as far as the eye could see. I keep myself small and mostly harmless to keep that from happening. But in order to keep myself from blinking out entirely, I need an anchor. A keeper.”
“Right. I get that bit.” She sighed. He was telling her things she already knew. “Clown was the keeper. Some lady was before him. And now I am.”
“Then why make the Key? Why make a bauble that someone could use to control me? Why not just have the burden of being linked to me? Why two parts?”
Cora stared at him blankly. “I guess I figured the answer was ‘because magic and reasons’ like everything else around here.”
He chuckled, but his humor faded a moment later. “No. You see, I don’t want to hurt you. Or rewrite you. I’ve never wanted to hurt the Family. The ones I collect are precious to me. You are all my pride and joy. But if I were to make you my keeper directly, I run that risk. The more of me you take into you, the more risk I run of changing you. Punching holes in your head and filling it with me instead.”
“So…” Cora paused for a moment. “You made a tool to do it instead. Like a lightning rod, or a knife.”
“Exactly! Good girl.” He patted her knee. “Think of it like a knife. Or a sword.” He smirked at linking his example back to his previous story. “But power is power. And raw power is just that. Raw. Dangerous. Difficult to wield without harming the owner.”
“Are you saying I don’t need the Key?”
He sighed. “I’m saying you can bypass it. It would still exist. Ringmaster would still have control of