The Fortune Teller's Daughter (29 page)

They swore
at each other, vicious clawing, biting, tearing into each other. Lily’s dress
hindered her, too pretty to wrestle on the ground and Katya subdued her with a
well-aimed punch.

She
scrambled to her feet and shoved the snow globe across the stage towards me.

The rope
snapped. I threw myself across the stage to grab the globe before anyone
realized what I was about to do.

“Eli!”

The Magician
looked at me. Our eyes met and for a moment the stage fell away and I felt
vertigo between my lungs. Déjà vu.

He shoved
his brother out of his arms. Castel stumbled in the water, and without
realizing what was about to happen, he turned and threw Eli off the stage with
a wild swipe of his hand.

My magician
fell into the blue tufted seats where Katya dove for him.

I knelt with
the snow globe between my hands and turned the key backwards.

It played
its music box lullaby, the notes as loud as gunshots in the theater.

Castel
twisted towards me, awareness dawning as the stage shimmered beneath us.
Betrayal, I saw. Powerlessness.

Snow fell
from the tent top, tiny crystalline flakes brushing my skin. Kissing my
eyelids.

The curtains
closed.

There was
only snow.

__________________

Eli

She
disappeared.

Like a magic
trick.

But without
the trick.

She was just
gone.

__________________

“Aren’t you
a clever girl.” Castel stalked across the snow landscape, kicking at the drifts
and screaming every few steps into the nothingness in every direction. We had
only a few feet of visibility in any direction and then there was just white.
The edge of the universe. The edge of magic.

I lay in the
drift letting the cold sink into my wet clothes and skin. I was so exhausted
and the cold strangely comforting. The snow passed between my fingers line
sand, perfect crystalline grains.

“But you’re
not clever. You’re stupid. You’re so stupid that you got yourself trapped here
with me. Do you know where here is? Neither do I. It’s nowhere. A little pocket
of time frozen in place and we’re there.” He flicked his hands in the air,
tried to pull from it, tried to make things happen, but nothing happened, and
the more he flailed, the more he looked like he was on the verge of a seizure,
the more panicked he became.
Carnival magic,
I realized. Micah had said
the snow globes were carnival magic, not the same as what the magician’s had.
His magic didn’t work here.

“No no, it’s
good that you’re stuck here.  My idiot brother won’t let you stay here. He’ll
turn the key and then we’ll start all over again. I just have to wait. That’s
all. I just have to wait for him to get
in his feelings
about you and
this nightmare will be over.”

“You killed
my mother.” I sat up slowly and wrapped an arm around my bent knees. “Do you
really think I’d allow that to happen?”

He started
to protest, but then stared at me, his eyes narrowing.

“What do you
have up your sleeve, girl?”

I held out
my fist, palm up. “One last trick.”

I opened my
fingers one at a time to reveal a shiny gold coin, worn smooth with age. A boon.
A wish.

Understanding
stole the hope from his eyes.

Take me
home.

Carnival
magic.

I smiled.
“Abracadabra.”

______________________

Sunlight the
color of butterscotch glowed through the wooden blinds, reminding us that we’d
missed the night again, that sleep wouldn’t come if we didn’t close our eyes.

The Magician
kissed his way from my shoulder blade to the back of my neck, peppering my skin
with fluttering, soft touches. He was determined to count every freckle and I’d
indulged him throughout the night, even though he’d lost count twice before
making love to me beneath the crescent moon, forgetting his own name let alone
what comes between one number and the next.

He nudged my
hair aside, his fingers catching in the curls. He kissed my hairline and rested
his face in the crook of my neck.

The weight
of his body pressed me into the mattress, soft as feathers, his masculine scent
lulling me in and out of that twilight place between real and not real.

Outside, far
from the privacy of our wagon, the sounds of hammering and metal catching
metal, calling between trees and rope snapping canvas rumbled through the
trees. Progress. Rebirth. Alistair Rook’s voice reminding the crew what
Imaginaire
is, what it once was, what it would be again.

Across the
room, beyond the bed, sat a small wooden box, taller than it was wide, carved
with the crescent moon and raven symbol of the carnival on all four sides. Upon
its face was an elaborate, decorative, impossible iron lock.

Inside hid
the past and a snow globe where a tiny man stood between two giant trees.
Frozen in time.

Tomorrow it
would go into Alistair’s private safe where it would stay for as long as time
required. Perhaps forever. At least until the stories of the twin magicians
passed into legend.

“Do you
think they’ll come looking for us?” he murmured.

“They wouldn’t
dare.” I smiled into my pillow and smoothed my fingers across his strong arm.

“Micah would
dare.”

I
hmm
ed.
“I doubt she’d bother hobbling this far. Bed rest has made her lazy.”

“Should we
get up?”

“Absolutely
not.”

He rolled
lazily and pulled me so that we faced each other. The last of his bruising was
fading and he looked so handsome in the muted light. Like a dream I’d had once
upon a time. A figment of someone else’s imagination.

“So
demanding.” He pulled me into his body where I fit like a puzzle piece and
lowered a kiss to my waiting mouth. The press of his mouth, the little licks
and quiet, pleasant growls sent thrills through me. Pleasure. Happiness.
Love
.

I sighed
against his mouth and snuggled into the crook of his arm. “What wonders will
you create for me today?”

His fingers
floated down my spine to settle in the small of my back. “I’ll give you
whatever you dream up, my little lion.” He lowered his mouth to the hollow of
my throat and kissed, working his way slowly up to my chin, forcing my neck to
lengthen and straighten to accommodate his little nips and licks. 

I pushed him
over and climbed onto his hips, straddling him so that I had to look down into
his handsome face and his grey eyes, almost blue in the morning light.

“Will you
stop the sun from rising? Just for a little while?”

The Magician
cupped his hand across my face, his fingers twining in my curls. His serious
eyes never left mine. “I’ll stop the sun, the moon, and the stars if you asked
me to.”

“How about
we start with a kiss and see where that takes us?”

*  *  *

My mother
could have been a Romani princess, beautiful enough to enchant Gods. Fairy tale
beautiful. That’s what I remembered so well. She could have been Scheherazade
of legend. When I was young, I believed she was.

When I grew
up, I learned the truth.

She had created
her own legend.

So that I
could create mine.

___________________________

Thank you for reading The Fortune Teller’s
Daughter. If you enjoyed Serafine’s tale, you will love The Curvy Sister. I
wanted to create a world of beautiful girls with real curves and the hot men
who love them.
Curves & Corsets
are steamy reads with heart and heartache, chance
and adventure. The heroines are all plus-size beauties, curvaceous, voluptuous,
and voracious. They don't want to take up as little space as possible. They're
loud, clever, and mouthy as hell. These girls don't just have curves, they've
got attitudes and are hell bent to be kissed every day and often.

*  *  *

My name is Jordan Bell and I am a
bestselling author of adult romance short stories and novellas. I love writing
about strong, curvy women, dashing heroes, and terrible villains!
I'm a midwest girl, grew up in the country before moving to the city. I'm still
in love with small town living but I could never give up my white chocolate
mocha lattes and easy access to wi-fi hotspots. A girl's gotta have priorities!

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