The tent was in sight. Though lights still lit it up, the shadows were gone. The party had moved further in. There was something on the other side of Lyonell’s tent, something Reese hadn’t seen yet. That was where everyone would likely be.

  It was where they would wait for Luca’s execution.

  Now that he’d escaped once, Lyonell wouldn’t put it off.

  His audience was already there, he wouldn’t need time to gather them.

  Worry gnawed at Reese’s stomach. What if she was too late? What if it was already done?

  It couldn’t be, they wouldn’t still be there if it had.

  Whatever curse Luca had been talking about would have been broken. The carnival would be gone if he was.

  Reese pulled her scythe out as she walked into the empty tent.

  She might as well make an entrance.

  She could hear people on the other side of it, just beyond the flap of fabric that blocked her view.

  They were talking about different things, not even one of them mentioned anything about what was going to happen.

  Luca was tied up and bent over a guillotine, the heavy blade held above him by nothing more than a rope and a man on the other end of it. His eyes were closed, his hair slicked to his forehead with sweat. They hadn’t even bothered to bandage his wound.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, our long-awaited finale has arrived.” Reese could hear Lyonell’s voice loud and clear from where she was.

  “For centuries, we have been stuck in this miserable cycle of entertainment, never getting a break, a life. All because this boy killed my mother. But today, it ends. With the drop of this guillotine, our curse ends.” The crowd had gone silent.

  Reese didn’t know how they all felt about it.

  Those that had been trapped here on false murder charges were likely mortified.

  But then again, if they had been there for centuries...

  It was possible Lyonell had done this exact same thing every year.

  Every year, he trapped six people, and hunted his brother.

  Every year for centuries.

  Reese looked at the people around the room.

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  They looked uneasy.

  Like they wanted this to be over, but they weren’t quite sure this was the way to do it.

  And yet not even one of them moved to stop it.

  “Let it be done, Michael,” Lyonell said.

  Reese ran across the room, scythe extended.

  Micael let go of the rope holding the blade above Luca’s neck.

  Metal clanged as Reese caught it in the curve of her scythe and heaved.

  Her muscles strained as she put every ounce of strength she had into pushing the blade through the wood at the top of the guillotine.

  It shouldn’t have been possible, but somehow, she managed it.

  Michael tried to run as the weight of the metal sent the blade of the guillotine back earthward, but he wasn’t fast enough. The blade sliced through his shoulder and lodged in his torso.

  He was the first.

  Reese fought to keep a straight face as she used the tip of her scythe to cut through the ropes tied around Luca’s ankles and wrists before she turned to Lyonell.

  “It will be over,” she said. “But not the way you want it to be.”

  There were no screams from the people watching. Almost like they’d been expecting her.

  “You-” Lyonell’s voice shook with anger.

  “I know what you believe, but I’m here to tell you the truth. Luca is not to blame for your mother’s death. He is responsible for nothing more than keeping himself alive, a task you have made nearly impossible. You however; are responsible for the capture of hundreds of innocent people, for the murder of many more I’m sure. You will be ending this curse with your life, not his.” Reese raised her scythe, but paused when she felt a hand at the crook of her elbow.

  “Wait.” Luca had stood up and waited behind her now. “I want to hear him apologize.”

  Lyonell laughed, the sound promptly cut off when Reese pressed her blade to the side of his throat.

  “You heard him,” she said.

  “I’m sorry, little brother,” Lyonell said.

  A smile curved his lips. “For not ending this sooner.”

  Glass shattered at Reese’s feet and fire erupted around them, eating away at the wooden platform they stood on.

  Reese stumbled back and beat the flames out of her skirt.

  Lyonell ducked away, attempting to use the crowd for cover, but they parted around him, each one stepped into the flames, letting themselves burn up rather than protect him any longer.

  That was when the screams started, they were screams of agony, but not one of them attempted to put themselves or anyone else out.

  It was the first thing they’d chosen for themselves since they’d been trapped in the carnival.

  Reese would have been one of them if she’d resigned to the fate that had been written for her.

  She was about to go after Lyonell when she saw the others that had been trapped with her. Theresa, Myla, Derrick, Cillian, Wrenly, and Raya. They were all staring at her the same way she feared they would. Like she was the monster.

  “Run!” Reese yelled to them. “Get out of here!”

  With that, she jumped off of the burning platform and followed where Lyonell had gone.

  She could feel Luca behind her as she waded through the crowd of tired, burning people.

  Lyonell had done this to them.

  He had made them all give up.

  It was his turn.

  Reese cut down the flap that divided the parts of the tent, leaving everything in view. There would be no getting away from her now. She could see everything.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Luca said.

  “I do.” Reese gestured to the people behind them “Or else I end up like them, and you end up dead. It’s time for Lyonell to pay. His tab has been open long enough.”