The Immortal Circus: Final Act (Cirque des Immortels) Read Online Free

until I saw Lilith crawling among the bleacher pylons during intermission. The fact that she's here, that she's decided to talk to me after weeks of silence, makes me feel like some diabolical cog has begun to turn.
    “What do you want?” I whisper. I finally look to her and meet her gaze. Something burns behind her eyes, a hatred and fire that practically glows in the early-morning sun.
    “The same as you, Oracle. I crave revenge. And freedom.”
    “But what do you want from me? I know what you are. Why the hell would I let you go free? After all that you've done, why would I help you?”
    She smiles, her grin slashing far too wide for her cherubic face. I expect her skin to crack like it did in the nightmares, for light and hellfire to spill forth between the fissures. The fact that it doesn't almost makes it worse.
    “And I know what you have done,” she says. “We are equals, you and I. Equally sinned, equally damned. We both have the blood of innocents on our hands. We both know that this is only the beginning. So why not aid each other? Together, we could make the world bow at our feet. If you play nice, I might even help you control your visions.” She leans in close, until her lips are almost brushing my ear, and whispers, “I know you, Oracle. I know every inch of your tainted soul. I can show you how to embrace it—all of it. I can show you how to be a god like me.”
    Frustration grows in my chest. Because I know she's telling the truth—a portion of it, at least. And I know that sooner or later, the demon within her will break free, and I'm going to have to try and kill it before it kills me.Again.
    She leans back and picks up her cinnamon roll, looking for all the world like a hungry child and not a monster on the brink of world domination.
    “The choice is yours,” she says, and then takes a bite.
    “You know I don't have a choice,” I counter. “I can't help you. I can't let you out. Even if I wanted to, I can't do anything without Mab's permission. And Mab. Isn't. Here.”
    Lilith shrugs, her cheeks smeared with cinnamon and frosting.
    “Auntie Mab is many things,” she sings between bites, “a Faerie Queen with pretty wings. But even faeries cease to fly. Even queens must learn to die.”
    She smiles again, pleased with her stupid rhyme, and devours the last of her roll.
    I say nothing as she stands and pushes her tray to the middle of the table.
    “The Broken King is marching,” she intones, echoing the very words she said a month ago. “And he will have his revenge.” Then she picks up her usual singsong voice and does a little dance. I can't tell if it's the demon toying with me or the little girl just being a little girl.
    “You think the end will come with me. But no, the end will come with three.” Before I can ask her what the hell she's talking about, she twirls around and skips off.
* * *
    Shortly after breakfast, I'm sitting on a lawn chair outside Mel's bunk, idly reading a paperback she left lying beside an empty wine bottle. I try to look as inconspicuous as possible, but I can't keep my foot from tapping a nervous rhythm as I wait for Mel to show. All I can think of is the calm in Lilith's words, the confidence of her promised destruction. The end will come with three. What the hell was she talking about? Was she giving me a timeline?
    And then I remember the vision, the burning tent and the demon in our midst. I feel it like a vise slowly clamping against my chest; the end is coming, the end is coming. And there's nothing I can do to stop it.
    “Morning, stalker,” Mel says. The chair creaks as I jolt to attention. She chuckles and plucks the paperback from my hands. “Didn't think lesbian romances were your thing,” she says. Her lip twitches in a wider smile. “Unless that's what you're here to talk about…”
    “You wish,” I say. I push myself to standing and glance to her door. That one look wipes the smile from her face. “We need to talk.”
    She peers