We stopped behind a camping-sized yellow tent and crouched into freshly layered sawdust. Darius pulled off his backpack and unzipped it.
I crawled to the edge of our cover and peered around. An elephant with shaggy, clumped fur rolled by on four independent beach balls. Its tasseled hat didn’t need a string to remain on its head. Beyond it, strutting around with a big stomach and a weird cackle, was a clown. A clown.
My eyes went wide and I yanked myself back. “Look, I can handle demons. Fire, brimstone, damned souls—all that I can handle. But clowns? I don’t think I can handle clowns. Especially evil-looking clowns like that one.”
Darius unrolled the parchment.
“I mean…” I palmed my forehead. “I expected a dark kingdom, not a circus on crack.”
“You okay?” Darius asked.
I gave him an incredulous look and shoved my finger in the direction of Cirque du LSD. “Are you serious with that question?”
A smile graced his lips. He clearly didn’t have a newly realized phobia of circuses like I did.
“From what I understand, on the outskirts and less-traveled parts of the Dark Kingdom, Lucifer allows the sects free rein. If the sect likes circuses, and they have the magical ability, power, and space to create one, they can. As you see. Also remember that the more powerful demons can change form.”
I knew that, but an elephant with weird fur rolling around on beach balls?
I rubbed my eyes. I needed to stop fighting all this. One thing seemed certain: it wasn’t going to get any better. If anything, it would get a whole lot worse. “Okay, fine. So what’s next?”
Darius turned the parchment so I could see it. Clearly marked was the sect of the demon who’d made the map. That demon had also indicated a preferred point of entry, which was titled South Shore and had a note in Latin pertaining to paradise.
I gave Darius the side-eye. “We could have gone to paradise, and you chose the insane circus?”
He ignored me. “If we had landed there, the demon’s sect would have been on the way to our destination.” He traced a dotted line to a circle in the middle of the map.
“Our destination is very close to the castle, which I assume has my fa—Lucifer in it.”
“We need to use a code name.”
“Grand Poobah?”
He frowned at me. He was doing that a lot lately. If he wasn’t careful, his face was going to get stuck and I’d have to dump him for losing his perfect looks.
I chuckled. He frowned harder…probably because he didn’t hear the joke. “Sorry, I’m still adjusting to the mind-fuckery from the river, and now—” I hooked a thumb over my shoulder. The bim-bom, bim-bom, bim-bom combined with the swirling colors and crackling fireworks in dizzying ways.
“Actually, you look human, so calling him your father is probably better. Anyone overhearing will assume you are trying to track down an incubus or similar. That won’t raise suspicion.”
“Fine. Look, there are no real notes on here regarding which places are okay, and which we should avoid. So without a guide, we should take the shortest path. That’ll get messed up somehow, because it always does, and then we’ll improvise. But sitting here, planning for the unknown, is ridiculous.”
“Do you have the map in your mind?”
I looked away and tried to recall it. The image came to the surface, crystal clear. I looked back to be sure, and smiled in elation. “I wonder if I’ll remember people’s names now, too.” It was something I was notoriously bad at.
“One can only hope.” He rolled up the parchment and stashed it in his backpack. “As you said, we will take the shortest path, yes?”
I suddenly realized what that would require. “We have to go through the insane circus.”
“Yes. Try not to kill anything with your power. Do it with your sword, or not at all. Rumors of you will be circulating already. That’ll bring challenges.”
“Do you think the boat captain will talk?”
“And say what? The Egg Man wasn’t seaworthy, but the Walrus seemed to do just fine?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “It wasn’t the sea that was the problem. Mostly. And I meant where he dropped us.”
“He wouldn’t talk to you, but…under threat, who is to say?” Darius slung the backpack over his shoulders and rose from his crouch. “Any demons following us are the least of our troubles. Ready?”
No, but I’d never be.
I rose, took out my sword, and followed him around the small tent, the cousin of the mammoth big top looming in the distance, moving away from the river and deeper into the circus. More tents, all bright colors, dotted the way. Sawdust littered the ground, some fresh but most older and squishy, like what I’d felt on the beach. Regardless, it was going to get in my socks, and that was the worst.
A tall woman strolled out in front of us with a hairy chest highlighting her large breasts, six fingers on one hand, and a mustache that curled at the edges. It looked like the demon had mixed a few of the “freaks” from the classic freak shows.
She glanced our way before throwing her arms wide and creating claws with her hands. “Hah!” she yelled.
I gripped my sword’s hilt a little tighter, ready to jab her, but she swirled away, flaring her colorful skirt as she did so.
“I have never been so keyed up in my life.” I let out a shaky breath. “This is really fucking with me, man.”
“You will at least blend in.”
“Please don’t say I blend into this crowd. That is not good news for my self-esteem.”
We picked up the pace. A clown ran past, different than the one I’d seen before, wearing giant red shoes with claws sticking out the ends. Its face was mostly white, but some of the paint had rubbed off and black-spotted green skin shone through. Teeth that ended in points punctuated the clown’s silent scream.
A roar shook the ground, beastly and deep. A giant lion, nearly as tall as I was, padded after the scary clown. It shook its mighty mane. The edges glowed with the colors flaring all around it.
Bim-bom, bim-bom, bim-bom.
I pulled Darius to the side, because we didn’t need to tangle with something that had a scary clown running from it. As we moved, though, the lion’s nose twitched. Its giant head swung our way.
“Run!” I yelled.
Another roar shook the ground.
I didn’t wait for Darius to give his assent. I took off in the direction of the clown. If I got lucky, I could catch it and trip it. As long as Darius and I weren’t the last in line, we were golden.
Another roar rattled my bones. Darius was beside me a moment later.
It’s coming after us, he thought.
“No shit, Sherlock. What’d you think it was going to do, give us a cuddle?” I weaved in and out of the tents, hoping to lose it that way. In my peripheral vision, I saw things flying forward. A glance back and my blood ran cold.