Girl in the Shadows Read Free

expectations I couldn’t live up to.
    I handed her the black invitation.
    She squinted at it, then at her list, before frowning up at me. “This wasn’t yours,” she said. “We’ve already given this spot to its rightful owner.”
    Crap. This was something I hadn’t prepared for.
    “But it, um, found its way to me. So you might as well give me a chance?” I hated that it sounded like a question. That it was a question.
    The woman cleared her throat.
    And Raleigh stepped into view, dressed in his full stage suit and a top hat embroidered with a spooky skeletal head. “There was a lot of confusion when I showed up without my invite, Pixie. But now everything is clear to me,” he said, drawl more pronounced than usual. Raleigh never showed annoyance in an out-of-control way. “You picked my pocket.”
    I couldn’t believe this. “I thought you dropped it on purpose.”
    “I didn’t drop it.”
    “I’m not lying. I—”
    “Regardless,” the suited woman said, “you can only audition with an invite. There were a limited number distributed, and this one’s taken. He’s already been seen and hired. Sorry.”
    I felt like I’d been sucker punched. “Raleigh?” I had to stoop to pleading with him to help me.
    “Does he even know you’re here?” he asked.
    He meant Dad, of course.
    Dez appeared beside us. “Problem?” he asked, giving the woman at the table a smile I would’ve had to admit, if pressed by some instrument of medieval torture, was charming. And practically irresistible based on her eye-batting reaction to it. “I can vouch that she’s an incredible magician,” he said.
    Raleigh was giving Dez a who’s this guy? look.
    “He’s right,” I said. “And I’m guessing if Raleigh’s hired, then your main magic act is covered, though he might let me open?”
    Raleigh shook his head, and I rushed on. “But even if I can’t do that, I’d still like to audition to work the midway crowd. You’ll need people to keep them lingering instead of going to the main tent before it’s time. Close-up is what I’m most experienced at.” While I had my bigger illusion ready to go, I’d never performed it for a crowd. Getting a spot was my main goal, and I was sure I could convince Raleigh, given time.
    The woman glanced between Raleigh and me, and then at Dez, still smiling and charming her pants off for some reason.
    Please, please give me a chance. I considered holding my breath. Maybe if I went for four minutes, she’d be impressed enough to cave.
    “I’ll have to make a note,” the woman finally said. “But I’ll allow you inside, Miss Miracle. Without an invitation, you’d better be a miracle.”

two
    I resisted the urge to leap into the air. A magician needs to cultivate a certain mystery.
    “I will be entirely miraculous,” I said, smiling. “And thank you.” I wanted to thank Dez, but he grinned at me and disappeared back inside the tent. Leaving me to face Raleigh, who took my elbow after I accepted my audition number.
    “You’ll be last,” the woman said.
    I awkwardly pinned it on my lapel one-handed as Raleigh steered me through the people gathered outside the tent: a tattoo-covered contortionist bent backward in wheel pose, one leg pawing the air; a man with bulging muscles twirling a thin woman over his head; a guy playing music on a theremin for what could only be some kind of modern freak show. Most of them would have been right at home at an audition for Cirque du Soleil .
    “Moira,” Raleigh said, releasing me, “what are you doing here?”
    “Auditioning. Dad’s going to force me into college this fall. I can’t convince him—you saw that—so I have to prove he’s wrong. I have to go after this another way.”
    “Moira,” he said again, “you shouldn’t be here. I have to call him.”
    “Please. Don’t do this to me.”
    “I never had family who wanted to protect me, Pixie,” Raleigh said, giving the impression of lightening up, even though I was