Girl in the Shadows (32 page)

I waved and gave an exaggerated shrug. “Oops! I made my assistant disappear,” I said. “But it seems I’m still here, and so is this Ferris wheel. Let’s try this again and see what we can do about that.”

The audience laughed and clapped as the curtain closed again, concealing me from view. I switched the mic off again and started climbing back down.

“Abracadabra!” the recording cried. It would play while I returned pell-mell to the main stage. When the curtain opened again, the audience would see no Ferris wheel at all.

The stage’s arch was on sliders, and the crew would be moving them now, putting the large mirrors into their positions. This trick, which we’d borrowed from Raleigh’s cabinet of wonders, would fool the audience into seeing nothing.

At the end, the plan was for Raleigh to signal Caliban to deposit the fake coin on my mother’s lap. I would then show up in front of them and explain I’d used up nearly all my magic on the Ferris wheel trick. There was a chance I might not need to use the magic coin at all.

I finished climbing down off the wheel, prepared to beat a hasty retreat back to the stage. But I lingered, wanting to confirm nothing funny was going on with Brandon and the other missing guys. To make sure the Rex and Regina were still in place. I only needed a glance.

The decision would mean I’d have to run even faster back to the stage, but the peace of mind would be worth it.

Oh no
. As the curtain began to pull back, I could see through the arch that the Rex and Regina weren’t in their seats. I searched and found them. They were walking straight toward the Ferris wheel, getting closer with each passing second.

I didn’t understand how they could have gotten past the security guards.

Not until I saw Brandon just behind them, a red glove where I’d grown accustomed to seeing his white cast. The boxing glove that supposedly increased strength.

He was carrying the magic lantern too, until he set it on the ground. His free arm went around in a cranking motion, and a spray of lights burst out of it, pointing back the way they’d come.

I could guess what it was. An illusion, a mirage, so that no one would come this way. No one from security would see what happened next. They probably wouldn’t even hear it. For all I knew, the magic lantern my mother had chosen could fool the entire audience, should they get out of their seats and walk over.

They couldn’t see it, though. In fact, I bet I was the only one they’d be able to see when the curtain finished reopening. They were expecting that the Ferris wheel would be gone. But the Rex and Regina were the ones who I needed to
see
and
believe
it.

Good thing I still had a trick up my sleeve to make sure they did.

“Stop, girl!” the Rex shouted. “Desmond is ours. Where is he?”

My mother strutted alongside him, but she stayed silent.

“Alakazam!”
recording me said.

Starting to panic, I took the coin from my pocket and held it in one hand, placing the other back onto the Ferris wheel.

Dez should be off the grounds by now. This was up to me.

I almost swooned as I called my magic and the coin screamed to life, power reverberating inside me. It filled me up to the brim and kept on coming, pouring out over the top. Was I a cup? No, I was an ocean, a vast, angry sea.

I clutched the metal harder, feeling it grow hot against my burning hand, my heart pounding, my breath coming fast.

And I visualized the Ferris wheel vanishing.

As surely as Dez was leaving right now.

I pictured the metal spokes fading into invisibility, the empty air where it should be.

That seemingly endless magic roared through me.

“Moira, no!” my mother’s voice yelled.

I poured and poured everything into the vision in my head of the Ferris wheel vanishing.

My whole body heated, flooded in panic and in anger and in fear that all of this was for nothing. I’d come so far to fail now.
Don’t see it, don’t see it,
I thought.
It’s air.

It’s just air.

And I was oxygen and gasoline and fire mixed together, a searing pain. I was a flame, burning up from the inside out.

It’s just air.

My hands might have held fireballs in them as the coin fed more and more heat back to me.

Disappear. It has to disappear.

My mother couldn’t be allowed to get this coin.

More?
the coin sang, asking me.

Use it all,
I answered.
Let the cup break if it has to.

I closed my eyes. Magic consumed me utterly.

And then I lost my grip on the Ferris wheel. I stumbled back and looked up at . . .

Nothing.

Where the Ferris wheel had been was empty air.

The same emptiness echoed within me. I’d made it disappear for real. My magic might be gone too.

The coin burned my palm. “Hocus-pocus!” I cried.

And then I fell into that emptiness, into that echo.

forty-five

The curtains must have been open, revealing the nothing that was left—the absence that was supposed to be created by smoke and mirrors and angles of light—because the crowd erupted into stunned applause. In theory, the Ferris wheel was going to be restored with another curtain close; the crew was expecting it.

I didn’t think that was going to happen. I didn’t even know if I could get up.

A boot slammed into my ribs, jolting me with pain. “He was ours! Where is he? Where’s the coin?” the Rex demanded.

The coin’s voice was smaller now. It whispered,
We’re not done.

It heated again in my hand. How much power could it have left? How much did I have?

Whatever you need to finish this,
it seemed to say. It was a Praestigae coin, and this man had perverted what it meant to be Praestigae. Nan was right. He would never want redemption.

My mother appeared above me and pushed the Rex away. I saw Brandon approaching behind him, swinging his arm with the red boxing glove on it. The leather was battered and old.

I could get up. I had to. That enormous power started to build within me again, heat surging through my limbs. I took the opportunity to climb to my feet as I closed my fist tight around the coin. My ribs protested the movement, but then quieted.

“Moira, what did you do?” my mother asked, sounding faintly curious.

I staggered to the spot where the Ferris wheel had been. No one in the crowd could see me; the illusion was too well constructed. But they could hear me.

I pressed my clip mic on and shouted, “Look at that! Where once the largest transportable Ferris wheel stood, now there is nothing but air!”

“Hide us, Regina,” the Rex barked, realizing what I was doing. Her hands on her hips, frowning at him, she didn’t seem to take his meaning right away.

The crowd applauded more, but theirs wasn’t the attention I wanted. “Friends, send me your help to get the wheel back,” I shouted. “Come close! Come now!”

I prayed that Raleigh and Dita would understand my message. I saw Dita step into view at the back of the stage, Caliban on her arm.

She climbed off the back. Even if she couldn’t see me, or wasn’t sure what I’d called for, she was on her way down here. Whatever I was going to do, I had to hurry.

The curtain closed again.

“Just grab the girl,” the Rex said. “We’ll sort it all out later.”

I turned to face him and my mother just in time to see Dez barrel past Brandon and knock the Rex down.

The Rex was on his feet again in a heartbeat.

But Dez knew what the glove Brandon wore was theoretically capable of. The fact the Rex and Regina were past security meant it almost certainly worked. And . . . wait. Why was he here anyway?

“You were supposed to go,” I said. “To be long gone by now.”

“Thought you might need me,” Dez quipped, charming grin in full effect.

Then he took a hard right hook from Brandon to his shoulder, sending him to the ground. The Rex kicked Dez, keeping him down. Brandon bent over his friend, punching him again.

Dez made a terrible noise after Brandon hit him with the glove, but he stupidly continued to fight, kicking his feet at them both to try to prevent them from landing another blow. His teeth were coated in blood.

Brandon pleaded with him, “Stay down, please.”

“Brother,” Dez said, “let me up.”

“Finish him off,” the Rex said, like it was no big deal.

Brandon hesitated, then pulled his arm back. Dez lay on the ground, waiting to see what his friend would do. His “brother.”

No way this was about to happen. We’d gone through all this for nothing? For Dez to lose his life?

I started to gather more heat, calling for magic—mine, the coin’s, whatever was available—to flood me with power again.

“Moira,” my mother said, “stop. Not that way. It’ll be your end. You know I haven’t been entirely honest with you. I’ve known how this would go since the day I laid eyes on you. Fate makes its plans, and it doesn’t consult us.”

I looked at her. She shone with a kind of ambition and confidence I’d never seen in her before.

“We can stop this,” she said, eyes flicking toward the Rex.

I understood. She didn’t need to answer to this petty tyrant any longer. She wanted real power. To be a true queen.

I held out my hand to her, the one that held the coin. She placed her hand over mine.

The moment our hands joined felt like a lightning strike. And then, after, it was as if all the centuries of women who’d held this coin had showed up for us at once. Like they were all here, ready to lend us whatever strength we lacked.

“Rex, my Rex,” my mother said coolly, “come here, please.”

Brandon was still hesitating over Dez while the Rex watched, grinning. All of them turned at the sound of her voice.

The crowd noise reached me again, sounding confused, strained. I hoped the curtain hid this inexplicable tableau.

“Come and take our coin from her, my darling,” my mother said. “She’s too weak to fight. It’s in her hand there. It’s so powerful I can feel it. All the luck we could ever need. I just need a little help to recover it.”

She nodded toward my other, empty hand, which I balled into a tight fist.

The Rex knelt, face ugly and twisted as he pried at my fingers. I resisted only a moment.

“Nothing but air,” I said, letting him succeed and grabbing his arm. “I looked, and there was nothing but air.”

My mother’s eyes met mine again, and she nodded. “Nothing but air.”

The heat of a thousand fires boiled us within it, but my mother held on to my hand.
Nothing but air. Nothing but air.

“You can’t,” he said. “You wouldn’t! You can’t!”

His voice shook with the rage always within him. The rage that defined him.

And then, where the Rex stood, there was nothing. One second I clutched his arm; the next, he was nowhere to be seen.

The coin vibrated in my palm, and the sense of it being there faded away. Its song vanished to nothing, just like the air in front of us.

Brandon had a stunned look on his face. Even more so when Dez tackled him and, even bloody, obviously hurting, wrenched the boxing glove from his broken hand. Dez tossed it to the side, breathing hard.

“I didn’t want to,” Brandon said. “There’s this cup. They said I could fix my hand. But only after—”

Dez ignored him and stumbled toward my mother and me.

As did Dita and Raleigh, running into view from the back path I’d taken earlier. My dad wasn’t with them—he’d kept his promise not to come anywhere near. He’d finally trusted me to handle my life, no matter how big and hard and weird it got.

My mother released my hand, and I curled my fingers, waving toward Dita and Raleigh. “We’re okay,” I said.

Dita and Raleigh stopped where they were, but Caliban kept coming. He flew over my mother’s head and dropped the dummy coin behind her.

Before she could pick it up, I lunged for it. I didn’t think she’d felt what had happened to the real one. I’d had the tighter grip on it.

“That’s not the real one,” she said with a laugh.

Dez dragged me up against him, and I could have kissed him, for so many reasons. But mostly for providing just the distraction I needed. The real coin was broken in my palm. It had shattered into pieces when the Rex disappeared. Its cup had broken, its magic spent, to rid the world of him and to save us. To destroy him, the coin had let us use all its magic.

But there was no reason my mother had to know that.

I slipped the fragments into my pocket as I hugged Dez and switched the fake into the hand my mother thought the real one was in.

“I’d like it,” my mother said.

“Of course, but it’s done,” I said, passing her the dummy coin. “There’s no power left here. You must’ve felt it go.”

A cool smile took over my mother’s red lips. “There’s power in symbols, and now I have all of it I need. You did well, daughter.”

So, she had gotten exactly what she wanted.

That was okay. So had I.

“What about you?” she asked, hesitating. “You could come with me.”

I shook my head.

“Your deal is done,” she said, encompassing me and Dez in her nod. “Come on, Brandon, get the lantern and let’s go.”

He scooped up the boxing glove, and they headed toward the magic lantern to retrieve it. Apparently, my mother wasn’t one for sentimental good-byes.

But she just helped send her husband to nowhere, so yeah—you knew that.

I turned and shoved Dez’s shoulder, even though he looked not-so-great after those punches. Brandon had left him weakened, but he grinned at me anyway.

“I decided this wasn’t the right day to give up,” he said. “But couldn’t you have asked her to let us use that cup first, just in case? My ribs.”

The second he said the word
ribs
, mine protested too, where the Rex had kicked them on the right side. “Tell me about it.”

I looked around at the sun-soaked early evening midway. The big top in the distance. No Rex in sight. He was just gone. All that evil no longer in the world. There was no blood on my hands, but I had helped get rid of him. I didn’t feel a shred of guilt.

My mother and I had that much in common.

The missing Ferris wheel, however, that would take some explanation.

“Um, guys?” Dita said. “Thurston . . . the crowd.”

“Can you make it?” Dez asked.

“Can you?” I took a bow randomly, as if this was all part of the show.

And swooned a little.

Okay, so maybe the effects of the coin were wearing off a little bit. And my ribs really did hurt.

Raleigh said, “Someone’s going to tell me what happened to the Ferris wheel and that guy with the beard, right?”

“Later,” I said.

“Let’s consider this a grand reappearance,” Dez said, scooping me up in his arms. He carried me across the grass, even though I could tell it hurt him. The lunatic. It didn’t feel that great on my bruised-feeling ribs either, but I appreciated not having to walk and I knew he wouldn’t put me down.

I touched Dez’s lip. There was a cut on it I hadn’t noticed before.

There was no sign of my mother, Brandon, their guys, or their gear in our path. I doubted I’d ever see her again.

When Dez carried me into view of the stage and the crowd, I heard Thurston’s booming voice saying, “Have you ever seen the likes of this?”

My dad ran out to meet us. “I should never have promised I’d stay over here,” he said. “It was hard enough keeping everyone else over here.”

He gave Dita and Raleigh dirty looks.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “Mostly. I signaled them to come. What does the crowd think happened?”

Dad blinked. “They think you made the Ferris wheel disappear. And then did some kind of weird after-act.”

“Okay, then. Open the curtain. It’s still gone.”

Jules and Remy now appeared beside the stage, applauding but looking worried. Nan stood beside them. Jules finally saw us and pointed. I waved.

“Moira, get up here and take a bow!” Thurston was calling for me to join him, and seemed oblivious to why I wasn’t walking. Of course he was oblivious to why I wasn’t walking.

We joined Thurston onstage. “How did you do it?” he asked me, quietly and not for the mic, before having Dez set me down to take an assisted bow for the ongoing standing ovation. The curtain opened again to show the . . . nothing.

“Magic,” I said, done with lying. He deserved to know the truth. “Magic is real.”

He gave a stunned laugh. “I knew it!” He paused. “Can you bring it back?”

“Um, I don’t think so. It was a onetime deal. I’m sorry?”

“Are you kidding? I just saw the biggest feat of real magic that the world has probably ever seen. That’s priceless. Who cares?”

His laughter was infectious. No one in the audience would really
believe
I’d made the Ferris wheel disappear. Already they’d be coming up with theories: that it was a 3-D projection, that the original had been taken apart overnight. But they’d also be saying that it was a wonder to see anyway.

No one would say it was accomplished with actual magic borrowed from a centuries-old coin.

“Moira Mitchell, everyone!” Thurston boomed, having turned the sound back on his mic.

The season was over. I stood on my own feet, and I took another wobbly bow, to the bright lights of Vegas and whatever the future held. Dez and I would get a chance. I might well get my dream.

Tonight, I was one of the world’s greatest magicians, and we were both free.

Oh, and PS, Mom, I had all the magic I could ever want left inside me.