Music greeted me as I looked up, panting. We now stood beneath a large, open tent, shadowy and dark except for the middle. Bleachers lined the perimeter of the room, facing an enormous open circle in the center, and the smell of sawdust, manure and cotton candy hung thick on the air, making me gag a little. The bleachers were empty, as was the open circle, though it had been set up for some kind of show. Colorful hoops, stools and barrels sat in the sawdust, awaiting performers, though there was no one here but us.

A snorting shuffle echoed through the tear from outside, and we quickly headed deeper into the room. Sliding behind a set of bleachers, I watched to see if the Bearded Lady monster would follow us into the tent, but a purple spangled dress passed briefly by the opening in the tent wall and continued down the corridor.

“Okay, I officially don’t like this place,” Kenzie whispered, and Razor nodded vigorously in agreement. “If that was the Bearded Lady, I don’t even want to think about the clowns. Let’s find this anchor thing, kill it and get the hell out of here.”

That sounded good to me, and I was about to say so when the lights beneath the tent clicked out, plunging everything into darkness.

I swore and pressed closer to Kenzie, raising my sword. “Dammit, now what?”

A spotlight flickered on in the center of the ring, which was no longer empty. A lone figure perched on a stool, gazing out over the “crowds.” It wore a bright red coat and tails, black trousers, and shiny knee-high boots. Which were abnormally long, because the figure’s legs were twice the length of a normal person’s and as thin as a broomstick, making him tower over everything else. His face was not just pale, but white, with painted black lips and dark triangles beneath his eyes. Reaching up, he plucked the top hat off his head and flashed a toothy smile that stretched, quite literally, from ear to ear.

“I know you’re out there,” he called in a shockingly high-pitched voice. “Come forward, visitors, don’t be shy. Welcome to the greatest show on earth!”

The Thin Man shook his head.

“Poor lost creature,” he murmured, his mouth set into a grim line. “You’ve built your world, and you don’t even know you’re a prisoner here. Now you are trapped in this role forever.”

“Yeah, well, I’d kind of like to make sure we don’t get trapped here forever,” I whispered. The walls of the tent were only a few yards away, and I took a step toward them. “Come on, we can sneak out through here.”

“Come, come now!” the ringmaster called as I reached the wall. “No need for that, honored guest. This is my circus, and I know exactly where you and your little friends are. If you do not step forward to see the show, I will have to convince you another way.”

Crap. I raised the sword and sliced down the fabric, tearing through the wall like before.

A massive white hand shot through the opening and grabbed my arm. I yelped and tried jerking back, but the fingers on my wrist didn’t budge as an enormous clown stepped through the tear. It was thick and broad-shouldered, with a bloated belly and curved yellow nails that dug into my skin. Its painted mouth stretched into a wide, toothy smile as it lumbered forward, reaching for my shirt.

Shit! Well, there are the clowns. I lashed out with my second blade, swinging at its thick neck, but a second one appeared, identical to the first, and grabbed my arm, squeezing tightly. Snarling, I kicked one of them in the gut, but it felt like my foot hit a wall of Jell-O, and the clown actually chuckled.

Grunting at each other, the two clowns turned, put their hands under my arms and lifted me off my feet to dangle in the air. Helpless, I looked up to see Kenzie in the grip of another clown, while Razor buzzed furiously and gnawed on its gloved hand. It frowned at the curls of smoke rising from its fingers, seemingly too thick to realize it was being hurt, and flicked the gremlin away like a bug. Razor bounced to his feet again, hissing, and tensed to attack once more.

“Razor, don’t!” Kenzie ordered. He froze, looking up at her, and she jerked her head. “Just run! Get out of here! Go!”

With a despondent wail, the gremlin bounded away, scuttled up a pole and disappeared. Desperate, I looked around for the Thin Man, but he, too, had vanished. I did notice a fourth clown walking around the bleachers scratching his head, as if he was sure he’d seen something a second ago, and it was no longer there.

Dammit, I’m tired of faeries disappearing on us when there’s trouble, I thought, as the fourth clown lurched up and stripped my swords from my grasp. Grimalkin, the Thin Man; hell, the only one that ever sticks around is the freaking gremlin. I had no idea what the Thin Man could’ve done against four giant mutant clowns, especially when Kenzie and I were captured. But he could’ve done something. At least he didn’t get caught. But I swear, those two had better be doing something to get us out of this.

“Excellent, excellent!” The ringmaster’s voice echoed from the center of the tent. “Come forward, lovely visitors! Please, don’t be shy! Come forward and see what we have for you.”

Still carrying me by the arms, the two clowns lumbered toward the front, while the third trailed behind holding Kenzie by the wrist. I tried craning my head back to look at her, hoping she wasn’t freaking out, but my gorilla-like captors gave me a shake that made the world go blurry for a second. By the time my vision cleared, we were at the edge of the circle, and the ringmaster was beaming down at me.

“Hello, little ones!” he said, raising his arms as if to welcome us all. “So happy to have you at the show! And it’s your lucky day. We have front-row seats just for you.”

He pointed with a skull topped cane, and the clowns turned to a row of seats at the edge of the ring. Unlike like the wooden bleachers surrounding the tent, they looked like theater seats. Though the leather was cracked and rotting, and I saw a few suspicious dark smears that I hoped weren’t what had become of the last visitors to this crazy hellhole.

The clowns plopped me onto a seat and, before I could react, tied my wrists to the armrests with strips of red-and-yellow cloth. They did the same to Kenzie a couple seats down. When they left, I flexed my arms, trying to loosen the bonds holding me to the chair. But the knots had been tightened by gorilla clowns with melon-sized hands. I wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.

The ringmaster did a strange little dance, grinning like a demonic Cheshire cat. “Ladies and gentlemen!” he called, as if speaking to a room of hundreds instead of two very reluctant teens. “Welcome to the show! Welcome, one and all, to the circus! Let me tell you of the wonders you will see tonight!”

“Kenzie,” I muttered, as the ringmaster rambled on, “do you know where they put my swords?”

“I saw the clown drop them on that barrel over there,” Kenzie replied, nodding to a bright blue barrel with a yellow star painted on it. My swords gleamed atop it, and I narrowed my eyes. “Do you have a plan?” Kenzie asked, sounding hopeful. “They took my backpack, too. I really don’t want to stick around for the show. I’d feel a lot better if you told me you had a plan.”

“Working on it,” I muttered. “If I can get to my swords, I think I have a chance. Still struggling with phase one, though.”

“What’s phase one?”

“Not being tied to a chair.”