Page 189 of Knox Academy Omnibus
“I don’t think our costumes fit,” I tell Kalen.
He steps into my space, invading my senses as he runs his hands all over my outfit.
“I’d say it fits pretty perfect, sis.”
“I mean, we don’t fit with your theme. Who ever heard of rabbits at a circus?”
“The rabbits are for the dogs, sis. Didn’t you know you’re the hunted?” I scoff at his words but a frisson of fear shoots through my chest at his dark undertones.
“The circus is cool,” I say, changing the subject.
“Do you like it?” Kalen’s face lights up.
“Yeah, very ‘Greatest Showman’ vibes.”
“Oh, so you finally caught up with the rest of the world and watched it, did you?” Slate drawls from the cushions he’s sprawled back out on. It’s like he never moved, like he never sprang to his feet and held a knife to my throat in a sexy as hell ninja move.
“Yeah, well, if someone had shown me it last year when they promised, I wouldn’t have had to suffer through it with Elsie when I was on bed rest.”
“Order stuff came up. I apologised at the time.”
“Wait,” Kalen interrupts my standoff with Slate. “‘Suffer through it’ – you didn’t like it?!” He says it like I’ve just kickeda puppy. Which I would never, ever do. I smile thinking of the really cute way Marshmallow likes to lick my nose with his tiny tongue.
“I liked it the first time. But by the seventh, I was losing my damn mind,” I grumble. They chuckle.
“I bet you know all the words.”
“No,” I threaten as Kalen begins to hum the opening bars to the most annoying song. “Don’t you dare! Okay, so I have a question for you.”
Onyx eyes me warily.
“If it’s about The Order?—”
“It’s not. So, I love the circus theme, like I said. But why aren’t there any clowns?”
This time Slate and Onyx give deep belly laughs and Kalen scowls at them.
“It’s not funny!”
“Oh, but it is,” Slate replies.
“Kalen here, has a teeny tiny phobia of clowns,” Onyx tells me with delight.
“You’re scared of clowns?” I frown. “I mean, I guess IT is pretty scary…”
“Oh no,” Onyx begins.
“Not those kind of clowns,” Slate continues.
“He’s scared of the regular, happy, funny, kid’s party kind of clowns,” Onyx finishes and they fall about laughing even harder. I crack a smile and a giggle slips free.
“You have to explain why,” I insist.
“Sure—”
“I’ll tell it! It’s my trauma, I mean story, after all!” Kalen interrupts.
With a lot of piss taking and interruptions, Kalen eventually manages to tell me the story of why he’s petrified of clowns. I’mwiping tears from my eyes and clutching my stomach by the time he finishes. My tummy hurts from laughing.
