The Ringmaster (Harrow Faire #4) - Kathryn Ann Kingsley Page 0,99

life, she had control over something. She stepped over Duncan, straddling his chest and, kneeling, let her weight settle on his stomach. She smiled down at him. She was still in her performance outfit. She must have made quite the sight. “You never did let me be on top, did you? You hated it when I wanted to take charge…”

She was shocked Simon didn’t have a quip. But, for once, he recognized this moment wasn’t about him. It was about her. Reaching down, she gently stroked the back of her hand over Duncan’s cheek. “I know you don’t know me. You don’t remember the things you did. It’s okay. Because I do.”

Duncan let out a scared, terrified whimper. She smiled as she recognized the sound. She had made it herself, five—eleven, whatever—years ago. “The worst part about you, Duncan, is that you think you’re right. You honestly don’t understand that what you do is wrong. I know it’s because your dad used to beat you when you were a kid. You didn’t want to talk about it. You claimed it wasn’t a problem. That he was right to hit you. It made it okay to hurt other people. It’s just how you coped.” She pulled the handkerchief out of Duncan’s mouth.

“Please, lady, I—I don’t know you—”

“I know.” She put her fingers to his lips. “Now, shush…”

“Wh…what’re you going to do to me?” Duncan struggled uselessly against the strings holding him to the ground. “Please, please let me go. I don’t know what that little bitch told you. I haven’t done—”

Cora smacked him across the face. Hard.

Simon hissed in sympathetic pain.

She smiled down at Duncan and crammed the handkerchief back into his mouth. “I said shush. Your time for talking is over.”

A hand settled on her shoulder. It wasn’t Simon. She didn’t need to look to know who it was. Shutting her eyes for a moment, she leaned her head against the man’s arm. “I know you’re to blame for this. I know you planned this whole thing.”

“I did.”

She didn’t know if Simon could see Lazarus standing at her side, but she didn’t really care. He talked to his shadow all the damn time. She’d explain later if she needed to. “You knew I’d kill him to protect Emily.”

“Sometimes not even I can change fate. This was always meant to be. In every outcome I could see, you always took his life. But this time, you won’t kill yourself as well. I’ll save you, just as you’ll save me.”

“What do I do?”

“Touch him and command me. I am now, and forever will be, your servant, Cora Glass.”

When she opened her eyes, the feeling of the hand on her shoulder disappeared. Duncan was staring up at her, brown eyes ringed in white as he gazed at her in sheer terror. She must look insane. Maybe she was. Maybe it didn’t matter anymore.

After a moment of thought, she pulled the handkerchief back out of his mouth. She wanted to hear him as he died. She was going to make it last. All the pain he’d inflicted on her—on Emily—had been torturously slow. It was his turn to suffer.

She wondered if it would hurt.

She kind of hoped it did.

I guess I am a monster after all. The feeling of acceptance was liberating.

Placing her hand on Duncan’s chest over his heart, she smiled down at him, a bittersweet kind of thing. “I really did love you once.”

Then…she willed it to happen. Reaching inside herself, she commanded Harrow Faire to do as she asked. The darkness surged forward inside her, tendrils of power slithering through her. She pulled in a shivering gasp and was shocked that she couldn’t see black lines worming through her flesh, it felt so viscerally real.

And through it all, Duncan begged her to stop. “Please—lady—I—I don’t—I don’t know you—what’re you doing? Let me go! Help!”

She was a grounding rod. A conduit. The wire through which the electricity ran. And through her, Harrow Faire reached into Duncan. His cries choked off.

And Harrow Faire began to feed.

It began to sip from Duncan like he was a delicate glass of wine. She felt it pass through her. Christ, it was almost erotic. Pulling in another deep breath, she tried to keep her head from spinning. There was so much of Duncan to consume. He wasn’t a fading candle like Ludwig.

And with Clown, she hadn’t known what was happening. It had just smashed through her like a train. But now, it seemed Harrow Faire wanted to