Promising Light by Emily Ann Ward Read Free Book Online

Sierra asked. “You
don’t look too well.”
    “I’m sure. Unless you really want
Alec to step in for me?”
    Sierra looked at Alec, who sneered
at her. “No.”
    “Why not?” Alec took a step
closer. He was taller than all four of them, and his shoulders were
wide. Was he trying to intimidate her? “You scared of me
controlling you?”
    “I don’t trust you.”
    “Oh, that’s rich, coming from
someone from Shyra,” Alec said with disgust.
    Childress jogged over, his face
red. “What’s going on? Get out there! The show starts soon, and
you’re going to lose them!”
    Alec picked up the rope and tugged
on it, making Sierra balk forward. She snatched it away from him
and handed it to Nassan, then crawled into the cage with Ella and
her daughter Gia. “Let’s go,” Sierra said, ignoring Alec’s
glare.
    The three of them approached the
tent flap keeping them from the crowds outside. Vance opened the
tent flap, and the two of them pulled the cage out behind
them.
    The crowd backed away from the
tigers with awe and fear, but when they saw Sierra with them,
fascination filled their faces.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, the wild
child!” Vance yelled, spreading his arms out. “She was born and
raised with the tigers. We haven’t been able to civilize her since
we found her.”
    Sierra stared at the people with
crazed coolness, clinging to the bars of the cage. When she saw a
young boy gazing at her, she reached out to him with unintelligible
shrieks. His mother pulled him away, scolding him.
    She paced around the cage,
scratching and biting herself, and occasionally petting and playing
with the tigers. When someone got too close to the cage, she lunged
herself at the bars and reached for them. The crowd loved it. They
didn’t care about the illogic of it, how if she were raised by
cats, she’d probably be cleaner. They simply loved the barbarity of
it.
    Sierra examined the crowd: nobles,
peasants, children. All kinds of people came to see the circus. She
recognized the prince not because his face, but because of the
royal guards around him. A young woman with blonde hair escorted
him, and Sierra felt as though she may have known her from
somewhere.
    “She’s so savage,” the prince said
as Sierra bit at herself. She raised her eyes and looked directly
at him, then crept closer to the bars.
    “I don’t know,” the blonde said
slowly. “It seems like an act.”
    Sierra reached out for them,
shrieking again, and the prince pulled the lady out of Sierra’s
reach. Alec stepped between them and Sierra. He bent down and
grabbed a handful of her hair. She hissed at him as he jerked on
her hair and knocked her forehead against the bars. Ella stood up,
growling at Alec. His face paled, and he stepped away.
    Sierra rubbed her forehead, baring
her teeth at Alec. She looked past him at the prince and the
blonde, but they were fading into the crowd. The blonde looked over
her shoulder and met Sierra’s eyes. Sierra knew her from somewhere;
she knew her face.
    A few minutes later, Sierra looked
up from petting the tigers to see another familiar face, one she
hadn’t seen for two years. She quickly sat up and turned to the
other side, her back to Dar. What was he doing here? Some small
girls dared each other to get closer and squealed when one of them
would step toward Sierra. Sierra went for them, shaking the bars of
the cage. They shrieked and ran into the crowd.
    It was only a matter of time,
really. The circus had traveled to Shyra many times since Sierra
had joined it, and she’d pretended to be sick each of the times
they’d been there. Anything to avoid familiar faces. She’d left
that life two years ago and she didn’t want to return. Now, of all
places, she saw him in Nyad, where they’d last seen each
other.
    She glanced over her shoulder,
hoping he’d left. He hadn’t. He gazed at her with a peculiar look
on his face, as though he couldn’t tell if it was her or not. She
bared her teeth and growled at