Page 26 of These Unhallowed Halls (Equinox Seasons Duet #2)
Seventeen- When Lost Lambs Stumble Into The Dark, Reality Warps & The Black Bites Back
Temps
A t the front gate of the school, I saw Caleb waiting, noticing immediately that he wasn’t sporting the typical tweed jacket and slacks. If it weren’t for what we were about to do, I would have likely been a drooling mess taking in all that leather.
Yes, your hot professor is wearing actual leather. Gods help me.
Lizzie chuckled next to me, nudging me in the ribs with her elbow as she nodded.
I tracked how her eyes went to Caleb’s ass in his jeans before sliding up to the black motorcycle jacket he was wearing.
She wagged her brows at me, and I rolled my eyes, feeling like an idiot since we were about to sneak into a carnival that some evil cult could very well run.
He was yummy before, Lizzie said in my head, and now it’s even better.
Would you pipe down in here? I’m trying to concentrate.
Laughing, Lizzie pulled me along as we hurried up to Caleb, who spun around, his stare going straight to our clothes.
“That’s what you wore to infiltrate the carnival?
” I looked down, considering my boots, skinny jeans, and black fuzzy sweater.
Lizzie was hardly better, in sleek black leggings, a black tant, and what barely passed as an excuse for a jacket since it was cropped to circle up over her boobs, only covering her arms.
I mean, at least it was black.
“Says the guy in a black leather jacket, who I’ve never seen on a bike once to merit it.” Lizzie really was quite adept at being a bit of a brat, and I stifled a giggle as she faced off with Caleb, his jaw muscles working as he stared down at her.
“Just because you haven’t seen me ride, doesn’t mean I don’t.”
We both stopped short at that one, glancing between each other in a bit of pleasant shock.
“Hot damn, Caleb.” Lizzie nodded, sidling up to him and yanking the zipper up on his jacket. “That’s pretty sexy.”
A low growl of sorts rumbled out of him, and I blushed, trading my weight between my feet as I gestured at the gate with my elbow since I was unwilling to take my cold hands out of my pockets. It was another chilly fall day here, orange and yellow leaves trampled flat on the ground beneath my feet.
“On a less appealing note,” Caleb shook himself, pulling out his cell and showing Lizzie and me the screen, “I spoke with Dean Owens, and she says that these missing people in town—a few over the past few weeks—also had strange symbols carved into them. The local cops aren’t spreading that news around, of course.
But it looks like the Illusion de Lumière Carnival has been busy. ”
I scanned over the headlines as Caleb scrolled down on his phone. There were five. Five people from Rockport had gone missing. Nothing had been found yet, but it looked like the families were still calling on anyone to volunteer information.
Fucking hell. They’re family is probably dead, and they can’t even properly grieve.
Conversation faltered at that, but then Lizzie brought a hand down on my shoulder, making me jump slightly.
“Welp, we should go. Time’s a’wasting right?”
Caleb cleared his throat, nodding back at me as he waved a hand over the gate’s lock. “Yes, it is. I can’t fit three of us on the bike, so we can just walk. I don’t think a car would be smart.”
“I agree.” Lizzie hopped through the fence, starting off at a quick pace. “And I am buzzing on five cups of coffee. So let’s do this.”
“S o what does this do again?” Lizzie asked, the three of us hunkering down just around a corner from the dormant carnival.
The place looked so odd without all the lights and people, the tarps of the tent flapping in the breeze. It wasn’t as overcast here in town, and I was glad for the fact that meant rain was unlikely. The only thing worse than trying to sneak into a potential deadly circus was doing it in the rain.
“You throw them, and a chemical reaction will powder the herbal concoction, putting whoever breathes it in to sleep. It’ll only last about thirty minutes, however.”
“A damiana-based recipe?” I looked over at Caleb, studying the faintly yellow liquid, bits of metallic chunks floating around with a miniscule layer of bubbles around each piece.
“Yes.” He nodded back at me. Caleb was perched on the balls of his feet, wearing combat boots instead of his usual leather loafers. “With a bit of chamomile and salt peter to essentially create an—”
“Aerosol. That’s brilliant. I suppose it reacts well with the usual suspension in the clear layer of—”
“Temps,” Lizzie eyed me, then our professor, “Caleb, I feel weird being the one to do this, but focus, please. We’re about to break into a fucking carnival.”
The nerd-joy of talking alchemy with a leading purveyor of the craft died in my chest, making me cringe back as I refocused on the task at hand. Caleb nodded, covertly squeezing my fingers that I had planted on the ground to help me keep my balance.
“So there’s one for each of us. Hopefully, we won’t have to use them.
” Caleb reached into his inner pocket, pulling out another vile, this one long and slender, filled with a gleaming silver liquid.
“I only had time for one of these, so it’s a last resort, for sure.
This is a pretty intense poison. It’ll cause coughing, skin irritation, nausea, eye pain, the works.
Same drill. You throw it. Definitely stay far away from the landing spot, too.
It’ll linger for a few moments. Since we have one, I was going to hold onto it, but I can give it to one of you if you think that’s better. ”
I smiled at Caleb, adjusting slightly in my crouch because my knees were beginning to ache. “I’m going to be honest with you. I can’t throw for shit, so don’t give it to me.”
Lizzie snorted under her breath as Caleb grinned. “She’s not wrong. I always beat her at darts. But hang onto it. I dig through your pockets if need be.”
“I’d expect nothing less, Lizzie. Alright,” Caleb faced the carnival, dark and quiet as the wind howled, “I don’t think it’s smart to walk up to the front gate. I think we need to circle around back.”
I nodded, Lizzie mirroring me as we both said, “Agreed.”
Moving as silently as we could, the three of us took the long way around the lot where the carnival sat, looming like a haunted house or something.
A thin trail of ropes stretched between tiny wooden posts, which someone had hammered into the grass just beyond the cement structure.
It cordoned off the carnival grounds, ringing the tent at the very back.
I’d never been this quiet in my life, and I feared even sighing loudly.
“Let’s go into the tent directly,” Caleb whispered, and my attention snagged on the way his curls tumbled in the breeze. “I have a feeling whatever information we can find will be in the back, where the performers were taking that supposed winner.”
“Supposed?” I kept my voice low, watching Lizzie fiddle with the rope tie on the little stake next to us.
“With everything we suspect, I highly doubt being sacrificed for power is some sort of winning, don’t you?”
“Right.” I nodded, and Caleb and I waited for Lizzie to finish untying the rope so that we could slip underneath and then beneath the back flap of the tent.
My mind went back to the articles Caleb had found and the confirmation from the school that they were also victims of whatever evil was infecting the carnival.
The night we’d watched the show, the circus had selected a winner from the crowd, and I was sure that Caleb believed it had been a sacrifice chosen at random.
I couldn’t argue with that. Still, it turned my stomach to think that these people had been going out for a fun evening, thinking that they won some prize, and then winding up dead, with ancient sigils carved into their flesh.
“If we’re lucky,” Caleb held up the top line of rope for Lizzie to crawl under and then me, “the Ring Leader will just be some twisted witch and we can bind his powers on the spot.”
I dragged my shoe across the grass as I slipped underneath the rope, puffing up the dried pieces and sending them scattering into the wind.
“And if we’re not. If this is a case of soul weaving gone wrong or some corrupt asshole working for a fantasy-style big bad?”
Caleb slunk under the rope next, moving to the tent and lifting open the panel only slightly so we could all slip inside.
“Then we run. We get back to safe ground at the campus and regroup. Because the three of us aren’t enough to deal with more than that.”
Inside the tent, the ring and stands lay in front of us, the seating curving away from us on either side.
We’d slipped in behind the seats, and through the rows and cross-sections of wood, I could see the empty ring, that short red trim surrounding it as the dusty earth in the center sat vacant.
The room where Caleb had seen the Ring Lead taking the winner was directly across from us, and we rounded the tent toward it.
It went without saying between us that there was no talking now, and I did what I could to keep my breathing even and quiet.
As we pushed through another set of hanging tarps, which created a door of sorts between the back area and the main floor, the air temperature dropped precipitously.
It was pitch black as we all slunk inside, and my lungs protested sucking in the frigid air.
“Fucking hell, it’s cold. The fuck is that about?” Lizzie kept her voice low, and I patted around in the dark for her, wanting to hold her hand.
“Has to be something to do with—Oof,” Caleb grunted, stopping short just in front of me, from what I could tell. It was impossible to see in the lightless expanse, and all I could do was wave my hands through the air, desperately seeking Lizzie or Caleb.
“What the hell is this? Temps are you that cold?”
Lizzie’s voice came from the side of me, and I turned in that direction, stupidly holding up my hands like I might feel her, but I was nowhere near her.