Dark Perceptions (Mystic's Carnival Collective) (8 page)

Shows you the truths you refuse.
That’s what he’d said. The eerie engineer.

My skin chilled like an arctic wind had rolled over me. My heart stopped with a
ka-thump
. My eyes hardened, steeled with purpose. Now focused on the tall man in the grey suit with a fedora, standing in the mist by the Ferris wheel. I’d seen him in the crowd, alongside the tents and in reflections, all night long. Now I understood.

He waited for us. He was our Reaper.

I remembered now.
 

We died that night. Our last date. Time I accepted it.
 

Time to face the Reaper.

Mr. Grey-suit moved through the crowd
like brutal royalty. People looked away, yet moved aside. Matt and I followed him in a rather sheepish manner. No one stood in his path or tried to slow him down. Even the people in line waiting for the Ferris wheel let us pass. Straight to the front we walked. Right up to the car waiting for the next passenger. The carnie working the ride held the bar back, allowing us to step inside.
 

“This is where we part ways,” our Reaper said and bowed slightly, without removing his hat.
 

Matt stepped in, not bothering to question the man. He took a seat and shifted uncomfortably when the car rocked. I imagined he, like me, knew the situation. Knew it was pointless to argue Death. Plus, Grey-suit was somewhat intimidating.
 

I stepped forward to follow Matt into the Ferris wheel carriage, but Mr. Grey-suit’s arm sprang up across my chest, bringing me to a halt. “Not you, my dear.”

The bar dropped across Matt’s lap and the carriage leapt into action, taking him up toward the top of the Ferris wheel.
 

“Matt!” I screamed, and struggled against the Reaper’s hold. “I belong with him!” I yelled at Mr. Grey-suit.
 

“You are not marked the same,” he said.
 

My hand flew to the back of my neck, feeling for the glowing tattoo. “What do the marks mean?”

“They are your destination designation
―
post life.”

“So all those people inside the Big Top…?”
 

“Dead,” he responded matter-of-factly.

I looked to Matt, gliding away from me on the Ferris wheel. If we were both dead I wanted to go with him, not transverse the unknown alone.

“Sara!” Matt leaned out across the seat, yelling my name as the ride continued to carry him upward. It swung in a mad manner, him hanging out the side, attempting to keep me in view. I worried he would fall out. It was a silly thought to have. Ludicrous, actually.
 

But then magic happened. Brilliant, light-up-the-sky, supernatural power. Power to rival the finest stardust showers Merlin could ever muster. And it wasn’t trickery or illusion. It was Matt’s soul shifting into a zillion light particles and dancing up to the heavens. Swinging on stars and flirting with the bewitchment of the carnival below. It was everything, and it was nothing, because I was left below, not allowed to go.

Only moments ago I had decided Matt was the
one
. Now he was gone. A hole tore through the center of my being. Death had scooped out my emotions and replaced them with a vacuum of despair.
 

Mr. Grey-suit moved his arm. “Grieve not his loss. He may be no more real than you or I.”
 

I balked at the absurdity his words conveyed. None of us real? What did that mean? I knew when he caught the look on my face because the corner of his lip twitched, if only for a moment. Then he spoke.

“Who is to say anything we touch, taste, or experience is truly real? It could all be one large creation of the mind. Merely a fragment of our individual perception. What one person sees may not be real for the next individual.” His right brow hitched and he studied me, as if anticipating my reaction.
 

I shot up ramrod straight, eyes widening like a full moon.
It can’t be true, can it?
I wanted to ask but felt my tongue tacked in place by shock, confusion, and a wee bit of anger.
 

He laughed and his entire demeanor lightened, making him appear more approachable. “My dear, I got your wheels turning with that one, didn’t I? You’ll be thinking about it for the rest of the walk in, I gather. Maybe longer.” He chuckled, though I failed to see the joke. “Don’t you worry your pretty head. You are real enough. And your friend, well…” He swirled his finger up into the air, as if acting out Matt’s ascension in a game of charades. “All well and good, but you are meant for other things.” He straightened his shoulders, fixed his lapel, and began walking off the exit platform. He looked back when I did not follow. “Come along.”

Scurrying to catch up, I gathered my courage and stepped up next to him. “Why didn’t I get to go with Matt?”

He rolled his eyes. “And Higgins spoke so highly of you. Thought you would have figured it out by now.” He looked at me and let out a single, silent laugh. “You have a different future lying in wait. It’s as simple as that. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

We moved down the ramp onto the midway and into the crowd. Tall as he was, he was easy to follow, his hat always sticking up above everyone else. But as we moved my skin started to prick. The air around me felt electrified and smelled strange, like it had when we’d approached the Ferris wheel and lost it, time and time again. The crowd was suddenly gone, and we stood in a different area of the carnival. I spun around to find the Ferris wheel no longer at my back.
 

“What…? How…?” I stammered.

“It’s all part of the carnival’s charm. Intriguing, isn’t it?” He laid out his hand, as if expecting me to take it. I held mine in a fist at my chest.
 

“I still don’t understand why I don’t get to go with Matt.”

He let out a large gale of wind, as if annoyed by my question. He dropped his hand and with it, his shoulders relaxed. “Transcending is for humans. You get to come with me.”

“I’m not human?”

“Score one for the young lady.”

“But—I don’t understand.”

“You will, soon enough. Now come with me.”

I studied him, his tall, imposing stature, unreadable facial features, and the stiff nature in which he held himself. “Wherever I’m going, and whatever I am, will I be able to look for and find Matt?”

“Anything is possible,” he said with a snort.

“Okay, then.” I stepped up beside him, intending to do everything in my power to reunite with Matt
―
somehow.

“It’s a start.” Satisfaction grew across his face, warmth spreading in the form close to a smile. Once again he extended his hand, and this time I took it. Together we walked to the outskirts of the carnival, where a thick layer of fog stood flat and tall like a wall. It surrounded, possibly caged, the gala of shows, rides, and festival fun. “This, Sara, is where your new life begins. You haven’t yet scratched the surface of living.” Crow’s feet appeared at the edges of his eyes and his cheeks lifted and darkened. “Wondrous things are in store. Wondrous.”

The fog opened like a door when we stepped up to it, a vast hallway extending on to forever. All I could hear bouncing off every corner of my mind—
you haven’t yet scratched the surface of living
.
 

If I wasn’t human, then what was I? I wanted to know, looked forward to finding out. I was anxious to discover the real me.
 

And then get Matt back.

I stepped into the fog excited and without regret.
 

Keep reading for an excerpt from the books one and two in the Age of the Hybrid series set in the same world, both coming soon.
 

Book one in the Age of the Hybrid series

A Mystic’s Carnival Collective novella

Book two in the Age of the Hybrid series

A Mystic’s Carnival Collective novella

Glimpse

Death was always the same.
Not the people or the place or the circumstance. That changed from one stop to the next. Each one unique in its own special way. But Sebastian had come to understand his calling in the past few weeks and now recognized the signs for what they were. Always present. Always pulling. And always overwhelming with the constant stench of death. His own personal calling card.

A mere few assisted prior to helping his best friend, Kyra, escape purgatory, Sebastian had lost count of the number of souls he’d crossed over since embracing his Reaper half. He’d fought his destiny. Feared being an icon of death. A messenger of doom. For her, he’d do it again in a fluttered heartbeat. She was more than a friend. He’d come to crave everything she brought to their relationship. Even the rage of her dragon.

Things were different now, though.

He understood a Reaper’s value.

And Kyra…well, she didn’t remember him. Not at all. Of course, he was going to change that. Yes. Definitely change that. Very soon. First he had to get past Marcus’s damn barrier spell. Sebastian clenched his fist and imagined it slamming into Marcus’s jawline.

Damn Marcus for taking Kyra.