My heart lurched, and my eyes snapped open. The image dissolved, and I was left with nothing but the boring beige tiles around me and the intense spray of water pelting my back. I took several shaky breaths, trying to clear my head.
“Fucking bastard,” I whispered, the words echoing off the walls.
I reached for my new bar of soap, fighting tears, and hurried to wash myself. If I was lucky, maybe the memories would wash away with the dirt and sweat.
CHAPTER SIX
NIGHT
The trailer door clicked open and closed. I’d finished sewing and was reading. Still lounging on the couch.
Looking up, I watched Daze kick off my sandals.
“You’re never gonna believe this,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. There was a smile on his face, as was the norm, but there was something different about this one. He was downright giddy.
I cocked an eyebrow at him in response.
“Revel picked up some woman on the side of the road,” he explained, his excitement visibly growing. I wondered what that was about but didn’t dwell on it. “He gave her a ride. When was the last time he did something nice for someone?”
I lifted a single shoulder.
It was out of character for Revel, but maybe he thought he’d get some pussy out of it?—
“And he didn’t even fuck her!” Daze went on.
Well, there went that theory.
I didn’t pretend to know how Revel’s brain worked, nor did I care. I went back to reading my book—the memoir of Magyk Shade, this century's most renowned magician. I’d read it twice, but that didn’t make it any less appealing.
“I thought he might have brought us back a new troupe member,” Daze said as he paced the length of the trailer.
It didn’t matter if I was watching him or not, I was hyper-sensitive to his presence. I always knew when he was there. He filled the room, the sweet and salty smell of his skin drifting around me. His scent didn’t call to my alpha senses the way an omega’s would, but it was branded in my brain all the same.
He calmed me, centered me.
“...her name isArina…”
I rolled my eyes as he kept talking, barely listening to him as I tried to focus on the paragraph I was reading.
“The only magician to ever successfully perform the Caged Inferno, Magyk Shade nearly drowned during his first three attempts. After he succeeded the fourth time, he retired the trick and never performed it again.”
“It’s like she wasmeantto join the circus,” Daze’s voice pierced through the words on the page. “Can you believe that?”
My jaw hardened. I was used to him talking to himself around me, asking me questions I didn’t acknowledge. He always wanted me to feel included, even though I didn’t care one way or another. But I didn’t want to hear him yap about some strange woman he just met.
He’d never been so interested in anyone outside the troupe, and the more he went on, the more it grated on my nerves.
I was trying to read, and he was interrupting.
Jaw clenched, I tried to tune him out. It worked for a bit. He rambled, pacing the length of the trailer, but then his words started to work their way through my concentration again.
“I asked her if she’d ever considered it, but she said no…”
I froze. He'd talked to her?
It didn’t matter.
He wasn’t a pet that I kept tethered on a leash. He wasn’t mine to control, though, he would obey if I asked.
