Et elle a commencé à chanter ...

Schuyler held her breath as she appeared and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the great cloud of black straight out all around her. The audience sat, stunned, and one by one they shivered in the dark little breeze. Siberio stepped back into the shadows as all the attention suddenly shifted to the girl in the skimpy lace costume. Schuyler hated the way they stared. That kind of look should only come from one person, not hundreds of men and women. She hated the way that the ones with sharper senses inhaled slowly and looked her up and down, but then again, she was basically standing there in her underwear - the solution to all Siberio’s money troubles.

The ring became clear again as Schuyler stood, panting, waiting for her cue. Jaqueline waited anxiously behind the curtain, still sleepy from when Schuyler sang. The crowd held it’s collective breath and the music began.

For Jaq, Schuyler thought, and then she began to sing.

“Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, go to sleep, my little baby.”

It didn’t even matter that she was singing a lullaby, as long as it was haunting, the poor audience was hooked. Not one looked away; even some of the younger Sombres stared.

“When you wake, you shall have, all the pretty little ponies.”

Schuyler looked seductively into the crowd, like she was supposed to, but faltered the slightest bit when in a floor seat she saw a girl with a rat on her shoulder. Now, Schuyler had seen and felt many strange things, but nothing like this. It was like belonging. She walked slowly toward her, thinking, has Siberio started collecting Sombres from outside again? Maybe they must see the show first. It was the only logical explanation she had at the moment, and it would have to do.

Jaqueline peered over Schuyler’s shoulder, trying to see what was so fascinating. She stood and walked as close to the curtain as she dared.

“Blacks and bays, dapples and greys, running in the night.”

Schuyler was still looking at the strange girl with her strange rat, singing more to them than anyone else, and people were starting to wake from their trances. The ones seated in the nosebleed seats behind Schuyler were blinking. Siberio noticed.

“Turn. Around. Now,” whispered the ringmaster, but only so Schuyler would hear.

She couldn’t take her eyes away. There was something so familiar about this girl - even the rat who was huddled against her neck - but she couldn’t figure out what.

More people woke up and started looking around. Siberio cursed under his breath and went quickly to the center of the ring.

“Dormir!”

Every head fell to the side and some started snoring, but before the girl fell asleep, she said one word - soeur.

Schuyler felt the heat of the ringmaster’s fury on her back, a sharp pain in her spine, and then there was nothing but the music.

“when you wake, you shall have, all the pretty little ponies.”

***

“Schuyler…Schuyler! You freakin’ dumbass!”

She heard Aaron talking but could only see a massive blur of tan skin bending over her.

“Is she okay? Aaron?”

That had to be Jaq; if Schuyler didn’t recognize her voice, she could tell by what she said. She always fussed over her and worried too much.

“Aaron…Jaq, where?” Schuyler slurred, still half unconscious.

A blur that looked like Jaqueline from the waist up appeared as Aaron moved. Schuyler realized that there were at least four people around her. She tried sitting up but got extremely dizzy, and before she fell off whatever she was lying on Jaq caught her.

“Damn…do you even remember what happened?” Jaqueline asked her, tears in her eyes. Schuyler remembered only bits and pieces of pain and fear and rage, but could tell that Siberio probably went berserk and beat her senseless; it was most likely why Jaq was almost crying. She felt a bruise on her hip from the ringmasters boot and a sharp pain in her back, but Jaq didn’t need to know that.

“No. No, I don’t, so don’t cry. I’m fine…pretty much…help me up please,” Schuyler said, and eventually they got her sitting Indian style on the table - that’s what it was. Schuyler took Jaq’s hand, but Jaq winced, and she saw it was bloody. Looking at her, Schuyler frowned.

“I ran into the ring when Maitre hit you in the back because I saw you fall…that was just a consequence. It doesn’t really hurt.”

Schuyler kissed her knuckles and looked up when the strange girl with the rat walked hesitantly into the small tent.

Every Sombre turned to look up at this stranger who wasn’t Jaq and had the power to make Schuyler Grey weak.

“Enchanteresse. I saw you fall,” she said, the rat twitching its nose at everyone.

“So? You caused her fall. You have no business here,” Jaqueline said harshly.

Schuyler laid a bruised hand on her arm.

“Wait - how did you see me fall? Siberio put everyone to sleep…right?” she looked around the room for confirmation. Aaron the strong man nodded, Daniel mumbled something that sounded like I think so, Gretch the bird keeper shrugged, Sasha tilted her head in thought, and Jaq said, “Yeah, so what? She’s one of the, like, three in the world that can resist dark magic. Whatever.”

The girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other and looked at Schuyler.

“Umm, you…you’ve got some…” she gestured toward her own mouth and Schuyler realized her lips were red from Jaq’s knuckles; she didn’t even realize it with the girls sudden appearance. Jaqueline took Schuyler’s face in her hands, and for a second Schuyler knew she was thinking of kissing it off just to make the girl uncomfortable, but instead she licked her finger and mumbled under her breath. Aaron looked at the rat suspiciously as Jaq gently rubbed at Schuyler’s lips with her thumb.

“You can answer her question, you know. Take your time; we’ve obviously got all the time in the world,” sneered Daniel.

The girl opened her mouth, closed it again, then sighed.

“Okay. First off I’m Emily, and this is Caesar,” she pointed at the rat, which squeaked at the mention of its name.

“And you guys are talking about dark magic, so I guess it’s okay to say it…well. I’m an angel. A dark one, you know, kind of more or less fallen.”

Everyone looked at her like she was crazy, but then she noticed and was apparently determined to prove it.

Emily closed her eyes and spread her wings wide. Huge, black as night, and exactly like the ones tattooed on Schuyler’s back, they moved slightly and stirred the air in the tent. Aaron frowned deeply, Gretch and Sasha squeaked, and Daniel dashed to the opening in the tent and threw the flaps closed. Jaqueline’s eyes went wide and Schuyler smirked. I knew she was different, I just knew it, she thought, a smile on her lips.

“Omigod,” said Daniel breathlessly. “holy shit!”

“I don’t know what you are, any of you, but you feel the same as my kind do to me. Especially her,” Emily pointed at Schuyler. “Enchanteresse.”

Schuyler shook her head.

“Call me Schuyler, Sky, whatever. Just not that.”

Emily nodded.

“You’re an…angel? A dark one?” Sasha looked incredulously at her.

She flashed a quick smile as Caesar squeaked again.

“Yes, if it’s not a little obvious. I am a descendant of Gabriel, second choir, Fifth Order of Angels - Cherubim, to be exact.” Emily pulled down her shirt to show the tattoo of the sigil of Gabriel on her collarbone, and Schuyler’s hand went automatically to the same ink in the same place, except on her own body.

“You are different. I could feel it from the ring, the very beginning.” Schuyler was fascinated. She had never met anyone with one tattoo like any of hers - probably because none but the sigil and wings ever stayed the same - and she was excited. Jaqueline was just getting more and more confused.

“Wait, how do you have the same tattoo? She has hundreds, thousands! More than that! How?” Jaq was incredulous, very, very tired and - contrary to what she told her mate - in pain. Her hand was throbbing and even though Schuyler just barely held her fingertips they were going numb.

Emily almost frowned then, but thought better of it, so her brow and the corners of her mouth twitched slightly. Daniel recoiled, remembering the latest close call with Siberio and how his lip had twitched.

“That’s where it gets a little complicated. I think that she could be -”

“ - my sister.” Schuyler finished Emily’s thought. Jaqueline went limp, and Schuyler pulled her against her chest. With everything that was happening, she had no doubt that Jaq would fall over. Schuyler really just wanted to beg Gribouilleur or little Magasinier for an extra blanket or two and go to sleep with Jaq next to her. It was a really simple wish any way you thought about it, but one that seldom came true.

“She has exactly the same sigil, and as far as I can see, it’s her only tattoo that only moves and doesn’t change. It makes sense.”

Nobody wanted to buy it. Schuyler Grey, one of the toughest lower class Sombres, an angel? maybe a dark one. That sounded a lot more like Schuyler and her twisted half-grins, mystic voice and cryptic power. She smiled at Emily as Caesar started squeaking frantically; the rat kept trying to crawl down the back of her shirt.

“Caesar, for god’s sake! What!?”

Gretch cocked her head to the side, listening, and soon everyone heard what their ears were trained to hear:

Thump. Clink. Thump. Clink.

The ringmaster walked slowly to the tent; his left boot jingling slightly from the chain on it, but made next to no noise. Whoever was in there smelled like the girl Grey, and he didn’t like it. The only person who had any reason to smell like the girl was her stupid girlfriend, who seemed to cling to her whenever she was near. He didn’t even know what went on between the two; only that they could not breed and their pathetic little affair would surely burn hot and bright before it burned out. He didn’t give them any to time to get hot and bright anyway, so he wasn’t too interested.

Schuyler felt Jaq’s breath catch, and knew that everyone thought the same thing - what do we do?