Page 6 of Her Cruel Dahlias
Flowers… Cricket didn’t want to think of a single flower at the moment, and she was relieved Juniper didn’t have any in her caravan. She studied Juniper, her soft and delicate features—she couldn’t be more than nineteen. The age Cricket had been when she’d died. She missed an entire birthday, not that it should matter. But it mattered to her.
Cricket wanted to think about something else, anything else. “I doubt you noticed me with such big audiences, but I used to come to the carnival every year and watch you perform. How long have you been here?”
Juniper’s brow furrowed, seeming to mull over her answer. “Ten years now. Zephyr and I came to the carnival together. He was twelve, and I was nine.”
She’d come with Zephyr? That meant they’d died around the same time… Had possibly been friends before… Cricket then thought about Autumn, her fingers slipping into the waistband of Zephyr’s trousers. Maybe right now, he’d even taken her somewhere more private… “I think you deserve someone who will love you the same. From what I’ve seen of Zephyr, he’s…”
Juniper wrinkled her nose, studying her in confusion. “What?”
“You and Zephyr. He’s always flirting with other women and—”
“One moment.” Juniper held up a hand, a snort escaping her. “You think I’m in love with Zephyr?”
“Aren’t you?” By the way Juniper was now staring at her with wide eyes and only blinking, perhaps she’d been wrong.
Juniper slapped the mattress, and hysterical laughter poured out from her mouth. “Zephyr and I are not, nor will we ever be, lovers. I think I may lose my stomach now for even thinking about something so atrocious.”
“I…” Cricket’s cheeks flamed as they always tended to do when she grew uncomfortable. “Forgive me. My mistake.”
“I know we don’t look much alike—or at all—but he’s my brother.”
Cricket winced. Brother… She’d misread things by a lot, and Juniper was right—they didn’t look alike in the slightest. But now she could see how their affection for one another would seem more akin to siblings. How Zephyr would playfully tug Juniper’s hair in the way a brother would with a younger sister, and the way Juniper would gently shove him at his teasing. “Ignore my foolishness. I’m sorry.” If Anika was here, Cricket wouldn’t have felt as embarrassed, but she wasn’t—she was in Nobel with Bram.
“No, no.” Juniper laughed again. “It’s all right. Although, it’s something we will never speak of again. I mean, I’ve never even had a lover. She wouldn’t—” Her lips snapped shut, stopping herself from continuing.
“You fancy someone else here?” Cricket grinned, her curiosity piqued. “Who is she?”
Juniper stared up at the ceiling as if she wasn’t going to answer her, but then she released a long sigh. “Don’t tell anyone. But Stormy. Not even Zephyr knows.”
Stormy, the acrobat who could make iridescent scales appear across her body. Who did happen to have a lover. She’d seen her and Louise’s earlier dalliance when Cricket had been with Zephyr.
“It’s—”
A knock came at the door, interrupting Cricket. Juniper set down her pastry and hopped from the bed to answer it.
“Look what I found,” a familiar male voice said.
Cricket wished there was another door to sneak out of as Zephyr stepped inside and handed Juniper a silver brooch. He halted when his gaze met Cricket’s, staring at her as if he didn’t believe she was truly there. “I wondered where you snuck off to. You listened to my advice after all.” A smirk formed on his face, and Cricket wanted to slap the cockiness away, even though her heart beat a tad bit faster as she studied his taut muscles.
“We’re having a lovely chat here, so how about we talk later?” Juniper grabbed her brother by the shoulder, leading him out of the caravan as he chuckled. After shutting the door, she turned back to Cricket, then placed her hands on her hips. “Sorry about him. He can be a nuisance.”
“He most certainly can be.” Cricket found herself softly laughing, then sobered as she wondered about something else. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Did you ever have trouble with your curiosity when Mistress Eliza brought you back from the dead?”
“This?” Juniper held up a hand and flexed it. Beads of deep crimson seeped from her pores like glistening ruby pearls. The blood trailed down her flesh briefly before she tightened her fist, reining the crimson droplets back in. So easily. So effortlessly. “I don’t think anyone here would want my ability, though.” Juniper sighed.
“I rather like it,” Cricket said in awe. She hated to admit it, but she was envious that she couldn’t manipulate her curiosity the same way. The dahlias that had sprouted unwillingly only reminded her of death. Blood could feel like death, but it was also life, what one needed to thrive.
Juniper smiled. “It took me longer than everyone here to master mine. Perhaps a week.”
“It’s been a whole month for me, and today was the closest I’ve been. Even then, it was tragic.” But there was something hopeful that Zephyr had told her, how he’d seen a red rose peek out for a moment before vanishing.
“Someone always screams during my performances and believes I’m truly bleeding to death.” Juniper cackled. “I shouldn’t laugh, but I do now. At first, I didn’t—I’d wished that any other curiosity here was mine, but it’s grown on me. Especially when I’m given the pastries. Yours will eventually come the way it was meant to. When you were asleep, everyone thought you to be an enchanted princess and wanted to kiss you awake.”
“Please tell me no one did.” Cricket recoiled. The thought of crowds staring at her, wanting her to wake with a stranger’s kiss, made her stomach churn. She was grateful that no visitors knew she was the Sleeping Darling once she woke. Everyone believed the mysterious woman had awoken and left the carnival. After a few weeks, they finally stopped asking about her.