The Faire (Harrow Faire #5) - Kathryn Ann Kingsley Page 0,31

me…but he wouldn’t be the only one. You two would be matched. Equal. He would still have to be dealt with.”

“At least then it won’t be the worst lopsided wrestling match ever.” She snickered. “He’d chokeslam me and that’d be it.”

“Never picked you for a wrestling fan.”

“I used to love it. You kidding me? But then it got too real. I liked the silly characters.” She leaned back, resting her elbows on the stair behind her. “So, I can match Turk but…it’d cost me. I’d be doubling down on this link with you.”

“Correct.”

“And you would…rewrite parts of me?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know what it’ll do. I’ve never tried it before.”

Cora shut her eyes and leaned her head against the wood wall. The tower smelled like fresh wood construction, even though it was clearly hundreds of years old. She shrugged. “Okay.”

“You—” He stopped, shocked. “Wait. You said yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Just like that?”

“Yup.”

“You don’t want to think about it?”

She threw up her hands. “What’s there to think about? I have no choice. I either stay here by myself, talking to Simon as he hangs upside down being tortured, randomly dying, for…what…a few years before we all die? Or I do this.” She stood, went to brush herself off, and realized she was still covered in gore. She made a face and wiped her hands on the only clean part on her pants that she could find. It didn’t help. Her hands were still stained with blood. “Simon sacrificed part of himself for me. I’ll do the same for him. For everyone. For you.”

He stood and watched her for a long moment. “For me?”

She nodded weakly.

He hugged her so hard and so suddenly that she squeaked. He squeezed her to the point that it almost hurt. “You won’t regret this. You won’t. I promise. I promise I’ll be good to you—to everyone. Oh, Cora…thank you. Thank you. I don’t think anyone has ever—”

“Air—”

He laughed and let her go. “Sorry. Yes. Breathing.” He caught her head in his hands and kissed her forehead. “You and I will be brilliant, Cora.”

She hugged him back. There was a time when she would have been terrified by the notion of this thing—this creature—taking over more of her mind. She should be weeping in fear. But Ringmaster had hurt the man she loved. He had hurt her. And he threatened to hurt her friends. Her Family.

And part of her family was Harrow Faire.

A creature who had only, in truth, ever seemed to want to help her. To be kind to her. Maybe it was manipulating her. Maybe it was just playing a clever game.

But she didn’t care anymore.

All she had was the game.

All she had was the lie.

Everything else was gone.

The image of Simon’s grinning shadow twisted a knife in her gut.

She’d happily put her eggs in that basket and hope the bottom didn’t fall out because there were no other options on the table in front of her.

Laz started down the stairs into the inverted tower. “Let’s get started, then.”

She wanted to ask what would happen next. She wanted to ask if it would hurt. But again, none of it mattered. She followed him because there was nothing else for her to do. She had flipped the lights on before heading back down—fuck you, Turk—and the upside-down lightbulbs only added to the eerie strangeness of the inverted building. At least she could see.

When they reached the metal grated floor, she tried to ignore the blood that stained the statue. It was all hers.

Laz reached down and opened a hatch in the floor. “This half isn’t locked. No one wants to come down here.” He sniffed and looked a little insulted as he answered her unasked question. This was the mirror of the observation deck up above.

But beneath her, she couldn’t see anything at all.

Only darkness.

Only the void.

She hesitated. “I’m going to do this anyway, but can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Are you lying to me?”

He tilted his head. “About what?”

She gestured her hand at him. “This. You. Are you playing me? Manipulating me? Pretending to be my friend?”

He smiled. It was a thin and not altogether affable expression. “I am more things that you can imagine. I am older than the sun that fuels this world. I am from a time before this universe blinked into existence. I am all things. I am kindness and cruelty. I am love and hatred. I am grief. I am pain. I am joy. I am the stars in the skies. I am the