Adding to the atmosphere were men and women wearing knee-high black boots and black pants, along with poofy silk shirts, colorful cloaks, and cavalier hats topped with feathers. Gold, silver, and bronze cuffs stamped with various crests glimmered on their wrists, while swords were belted to their waists. The guards moved from one food cart and clothing shop to the next, like sharks circling around and around, making sure that everything was running smoothly. They were constantly on the lookout for everything from obnoxious tourists who’d had a few too many drinks to employees taking more out of the till than they put in.
The tourists thought that the dressed-up guards were just part of the fun, and several folks stopped to snap photos of them. What the rubes didn’t realize was that the color of their cloaks and the symbols stamped into their cuffs designated which Family the guards belonged to—and that they all took their jobs very, very seriously.
Each Family owned a different piece of the Midway, and we were in the Sinclair section, which consisted of banks, several petting zoos, and a museum displaying artifacts made of the bloodiron that had been mined out of Cloudburst Mountain.
The guards here all wore black cloaks and silver cuffs stamped with the Sinclair crest—a hand holding a sword. Devon stopped and spoke to one of the guards, telling her that the tree troll had been dealt with, while Felix waved and called out to the folks he knew, which was practically everyone. Felix had never met a stranger.
The guards all nodded at me, their gazes lingering on the hand-and-sword cuff that adorned my right wrist. I shifted on my feet, my fingers tracing over the small, star-shaped sapphire embedded in the silver cuff. It matched the sapphire ring on my finger. I forced myself to nod back to the guards, wishing all the while that I could melt into the crowd and disappear. As far as I was concerned, the fewer people who knew me the better, even if I was an official member of the Sinclair Family now.
Devon finished with the guard, then cut through the park in the center of the Midway, choosing a cobblestone path that curved past several bubbling fountains. He turned his face toward the cool, refreshing mist, letting it soak into his black T-shirt. The water made the cotton cling to his broad shoulders in all the right places, not to mention his muscled chest. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and I didn’t really want to.
Felix jabbed his elbow into my side, breaking the spell. “Looks like I’m not the only one with romantic problems, eh, Juliet?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Devon and I are just friends.”
“Right,” Felix drawled. “Because the two of you haven’t spent the last few weeks making googly eyes at each other when you think the other person isn’t looking. I might be a flirt, but at least I’m honest about it. You two just need to make out already and be done with it.”
Luckily, the steady rush-rush-rush of the fountains and the chatter of the crowd drowned out his words so that Devon didn’t hear them. I glared at Felix, but he smirked and elbowed me in the side again.
Devon faced us, using the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe off his face and revealing his stomach muscles. Yeah, I totally stared at him again.
Devon dropped his shirt and looked at me. “Something wrong?”
I shook my head hard enough to make my ponytail flap against my shoulders. “Nope. Nothing’s wrong. Nothing at all. Not one little thing.”
“Okay,” he said, although I could tell he didn’t really believe me.
I moved past Devon, heading deeper into the park. Carts lined the winding path, with vendors selling everything from frozen lemonade and caramel popcorn to sunglasses and T-shirts. The scents of bacon-wrapped hot dogs and fried funnel cakes topped with snowy mounds of powdered sugar filled the air, making me sigh with longing.
Felix eyed me. “Don’t tell me you’re hungry again already—especially after all those BL Ts you inhaled for lunch.”
“Climbing trees and bargaining with monsters is hard work.” My stomach rumbled in time to my words. “I need to keep my strength up.”
Felix groaned, but Devon laughed.
“I think we have time to get Lila a snack before we go back to the mansion,” Devon said.
We veered into a section of the park that was all food. Several wrought iron benches were spaced in between the carts, and folks chowed down on everything from ice cream to nachos to deep-fried pickles. And just like the rest of the Midway, guards patrolled this area, all of them sporting swords and bronze cuffs stamped with a hacienda—the Salazar Family crest.
As the Sinclair bruiser, Devon was well-known by all the Families, and the Salazar guards gave him respectful nods, which he returned. Felix was much more sociable, going over to and chatting with a cute Salazar guard who was about our age. I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, I thought that Felix knew every single girl in Cloudburst Falls, especially the pretty ones.
The Salazar guards eyed me, their stares cautious and curious, since I was a new member of the Sinclairs and a relative unknown. Their sharp gazes took in everything from my black hair and dark blue eyes to the silver cuff on my wrist to my pulp-covered clothes and sneakers.
But the thing that really caught their attention was the sword belted to my waist.