Page 24 of Magic and Mayhem

My summer halter dress sways around me as I practically skip down paths begging to be explored. The carnival comes to life before me, encompassing me in the magic of this realm. There are children playing freely, going on the rides and laughing with smiles on their faces. A variety of foods are offered up at every corner and booths of what look to be hand carved beasts and trinkets fill the aisles. It’s liberating.

“This is amazing,” I breathe as two men on stilts breathe fire up ahead. When I first ended up here, I didn’t really see much. There were the lights, a familiar smell,and sounds I thought I had imagined. But seeing it now is like walking into a wonderland.

Eryx grins, back in his human form for now. He takes a big stick of cotton candy from a rather large, jolly looking man and hands it to me. I’ve read about this stuff, but don’t think I’ve ever tasted it before.

Pulling off a small piece, I push the cloud like candy into my mouth and savor the way the sugar melts on my tongue. Eryx watches me with an intensity I never knew could exist in a man. It’s nothing like how Master and his followers would watch me. He looks at me like he wants to, in equal parts, eat and protect me.

I think I would be okay with both. That thought has heat rising to my cheeks.

“What are you thinking of to make that emotion surface again so soon?”

I want to feel embarrassed by what happened at the end of the show, but strangely, I don’t. There is a sense of freedom in the air around Eryx.

It makes me believe I can be exactly who I want to be without having to hide anything. And I think it’s time I seize that.

“I know I was sheltered, Eryx. But I know for a fact that men can get off more than one time a day. Why can’t a woman?”

There’s something so freeing about an orgasm, so…ascending. And right now, I feel like I’m on cloud fucking nine.

“If you were so sheltered, how do you know such things?”

I grin as he pulls off a piece of the cotton candy and places it between his lips. For the first time, I notice the dimples in his cheeks.

“I read a lot. Master must not have cared what I was reading about because the library had a large romance section. There were also fantasy books, paranormal, shifters, monsters, one with a girl who falls in love with a door–”

“Wait,” he holds up a hand, clearly in shock. “Adoor? How is that possible?”

I shrug, remembering how pleasantly surprised I was by that one.

“Maybe you should read it.”

Eryx’s brows pinch before he nods his head.

“If you’re suggesting it, then I must. What else have you read about?”

I mentally flip through all the books I’ve read and how determined I was to read them all twice so that I could relive every character’s story again.

“I love the mafia books, where the powerful billionaires have no problem killing for their partners. My favorites are the ones where a character who was perceived as weak turns out to be the strongest of them all.”

“Why is that?” he questions before taking another piece of the fluffy treat and sticking out his oddly shaped tongue to lick it.

His fangs pop out slightly, and I have to force myself to look away because he’s too distracting sometimes. Even in his human form, there’s something about him that draws you in, and I’ve found myself drooling on more than one occasion already.

“Because those were the people I could look up to, people I wanted to be like. If they could slay their demons…” Eryx raises a brow at me, “So to speak…then so could I.”

“You are quite brave. That has surprised me about you.”

We stop in front of the carousel where horses and other animals blur past us, going way too fast for anyone to be able to ride.

“I feel braver here, like something is telling me to follow my heart for once.”

The voice in my head doesn’t say anything, but I can feel the presence of it urging me forward. Taking one step, then another, I find myself on the platform of the ride.

It stops for me right when I want it to.Interesting.Maybe it’s enchanted as well.

There are the normal animals you would find on one of these rides, but there are also peculiar ones too.

A unicorn, a massive wolf with large fangs and glowing eyes, a griffin, and Cerberus are among those that you wouldn’t usually see. Although, the one that catches my attention most is a dragon. Well, a wyvern to be exact. He takes up the entire row, his wings spread wide as if he’s ready to take flight.

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