Circus of Shadows by Kimberlee Turley

Author:Kimberlee Turley [Turley, Kimberlee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Published: 2022-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

The moment they stepped through the curtained vestibule, Gracie’s performance costume returned and Clarice now wore a shirt and pants. Gracie smoothed the front of her corset and gave the garter around her tights a snap. “Our clothes, they’re normal again.”

Clarice waved her gold and jewel-spangled wrist in the air. “Everything inside the ballroom is an illusion to some extent. Objects removed from the light of the chandelier will revert to their natural state.”

The woman, who smelled a lot like strawberry bonbons, led the way back into the hallways of the fortress at a quick pace.

Gracie kept her distance at first. But, as the furnishings deteriorated and the lights dimmed, she shortened the gap.

If there was one thing Gracie knew to be true from all that Clarice had told her, it was that this was not the place to make Clarice her enemy.

Clarice opened the door leading into the dark basement utility area Gracie had originally come through. Now Gracie wished she had an oil lamp and a piece of chalk to put numbers, like street names, at each intersection. “Is this the prison you spoke of? Seems more like a maze.”

Clarice huffed. “Knossos in its entirety is my prison. But technically the light from the ballroom chandelier keeps me healthy and young.”

“You said Jack has you trapped here. What happened?” Jack seemed to have quite a bit of drama. Harris, his parents, and now his aunt.

“Years ago, he was my assistant—and forgive me for not knowing exactly how long ago. Time flows differently here—it varies from one room to another—and it’s vastly different from what you know as the real world.” Clarice held the door open for Gracie. “Jack weaponized one of my inventions and used it for horrible purposes. When I threatened to destroy it and the closet, he turned it on me and trapped me here.”

“How are you trapped? Why can’t you leave through the closet?”

Clarice stopped in front of the furnace room, identifiable by its ten-foot-tall door of reinforced steel. “The device I created extracts light energy particles from inorganic elements and converts them into carbon-based compounds. I intended to solve world hunger by converting rocks into food. Jack reversed the polarization and discovered that if he used my device on people, he could extract highly valuable gemstones from their bodies. These light-source extractions are called ‘heartstones.’ Jack stole mine, so if I leave Knossos for more than a few hours, the remaining physical elements in my body will rapidly decay and I’ll die.”

Only two comprehensible words stood out from Clarice’s scientific jargon: “extract,” and “heartstones.” Bile climbed into Gracie’s throat as she stared at Clarice’s overflowing container of gemstones, which might as well have been roaches or spiders. “Is that what’s in your bucket? People’s souls?”

Clarice laughed, and Gracie thought the sound would perfectly suit a horse—if horses could laugh. “These are synthetic, as well as all the others in the furnace room. The real heartstones are in the chandelier and a few are in the laboratories.

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