Though they travelled together, Derrick, Myla, and Theresa kept their distance. Reese couldn’t blame them for their lack of trust. After all, she had her own reservations about them as well. She stuck close to Luca’s side as they picked their way through the abandoned carnival.

  Reese didn’t know what made her trust him the way she did, but she knew he wouldn’t hurt her.

  It was an odd thing to know without any evidence, but it was there.

  He could have run to the guards the moment he found her crouching beside Myriam’s body, but he hadn’t.

  There were no guards now, Reese realized with a frown.

  There were ten suspected murderers waltzing around with Lyonell likely somewhere in the area, but there wasn’t a single guard in sight. They’d been left completely unsupervised. It only furthered Reese’s idea that this was all a game for Lyonell. He wasn’t worried about his own safety, but perhaps the rest of them should be worried about their own.

  “They may be an odd little group, but they’re innocent.” Luca whispered; his words meant only for Reese.

  “You’re right.” She had been watching them, and it seemed he had as well.

  They were innocent of murder, but there was something else off about them. The way Derrick almost seemed to ignore the girls while Myla and Theresa managed to entertain themselves with their own company.

  Derrick and Theresa didn’t act much like an engaged couple.

  Though with their backgrounds, it was possible it had been arranged, which would explain the distance. Arranged marriages usually took some getting used to.

  Reese was glad her own father had sworn them off before his girls had even been born.

  He always said he wanted them to marry someone they could love the way they loved the sea.

  Reese found herself missing her father more and more.

  She’d been so eager to leave him for a taste of the magic of the carnival when she should have listened to his warnings.

  The land was nothing like the sea, their rules were twisted, and there were a lot of them. Then there were the people who didn’t have to follow them.

  Reese wasn’t among those people.

  Lyonell was though.

  This carnival was his version of the sea. He made rules that only he knew, and he didn’t have to follow them.

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  That was how he excused having Reese and the others trapped there for sport.

  As the group took a moment to rest from all the walking, a pair of girls walked up to them.

  Sisters by the look of it.

  The younger one clung to her sister’s arm. She couldn’t have been older than ten.

  Reese couldn’t tell where her dress ended and her sister’s began, they meshed into each other, and they were nearly identical, save for a little butterfly embroidered in the younger sister’s bodice.

  “They trapped you here too?” The older girl sounded exhausted.

  “They did.” Reese nodded.

  “I’m Raya, and this is my little sister, Wrenly. We’ve been here all day, but they won’t let us leave,” she said.

  “It doesn’t look like they’ll be letting us out anytime soon,” Luca said.

  “Would you mind if we joined you? I would feel safer in a group like this,” Raya said.

  “Of course, we were actually looking for the rest of the people here,” Reese said.

  “Even though one of them killed someone?” Wrenly asked.

  Raya shushed her sister. “I’m sorry about her, she hasn’t quite yet learned to hold her tongue.” The smile she wore was strained. The day had truly taken a lot out of her.

  Reese glanced at Luca, she desperately wanted to rule these two out.

  But that would only leave three others.

  Or Lyonell.

  Luca shook his head.

  He didn’t think it was them either.

  Derrick’s group didn’t seem to pick up on the newcomers’ innocence.

  Reese could feel how uncomfortable they were with further expanding their collection of travelling companions.

  Derrick no longer kept his distance from the girls. He kept close to them, at least to protect his sister.

  The more people around them, the bigger the threat was.

  They had outnumbered Reese and Luca earlier, but now they were outnumbered.

  Reese wouldn’t be surprised if they left.

  None of them knew who Lyonell was as a person, but they seemed to trust him a lot more than Reese did.

  Reese had to remind herself that she didn’t know Lyonell either. She couldn’t be certain of his intentions, but it was far easier to imagine the worst.

  After all, what good intentions could lead to trapping ten people in a carnival after letting them believe they’d die?

  Reese hadn’t asked, but surely Lyonell knew the rumors about his own carnival. He’d just let her believe her fate had been decided.

  There was that word again.

  Fate.

  Reese had felt it when she walked through the gates, but she couldn’t figure out why. There had been no hints as to what fate awaited her.

  Something important was supposed to happen to her, and she couldn’t help but feel that being accused of murder wasn’t it. It may play a part of it, but it wasn’t the main point.

  There was another reason she’d been led to come to the carnival where there was hardly any more magic than the sea.

  She hadn’t come for the magic, and she hadn’t come to be accused of murder. So, why had she come?

  Maybe it had something to do with the people that surrounded her now, full of mistrust and fear.

  Or maybe even the people she had yet to meet, who would undoubtedly be the same.

  Whatever it was, Reese knew she would figure it out before she left the carnival.

  Because dying wasn’t an option.

  Not for Reese, and if she could help it, not for the rest of the people there.

  She would make it out of the carnival and back home eventually.

  She just hoped her sisters still remembered her by the time that happened.