The Firedancer (Black Cat Circus #2)

by Rye Cox

Our aerialist studied his pictures for a few more seconds before looking up and catching my gaze. He floated to my side, putting himself between Seven and me. I scooted closer to the edge of the table to put some space between us, which only earned me a knowing smile from Brighton. The man didn’t understand what personal space was, but he was always respectful when I put some distance between us. “Look, this one is my favorite!” The mentioned picture was a front view of Brighton posing as he flew through the air. Brighton always

looked like he was dancing during his acts, which I guessed he basically was, and I had to admit that this shot perfectly captured his elegance as he smoothly slid between his hoops.

In the next second, our aerialist zoomed in so that his pink covered crotch took up the entire screen. “I knew those shorts were a good purchase. I look like perfection from both the front an...

They let down the aerial hoop that hung from the ceiling for the next

performance. The pretty man in a bright crop top and glittering hair wrapped around the hoop like he was made of water. He twisted his body in ways that I didn’t think were possible. All while making it look so effortless in the air.

For the final act, they brought the Globe of Death to the center of the stage. A handsome man in a leather jack and gages in his ear put on his helmet before mounting his motorcycle. The daredevil rode inside the metal globe, going at speeds that I couldn’t even imagine. My breath caught when he was completely upside down in the globe, I worried that he’d fall from his bike...

A soft meow came from my right, and I twisted my head to find a cat sauntering toward me. He was as black as his surroundings, and I would have missed him if not for the distinct white heart shaped spot on his chest. The cat kept his crescent eyes on me as he crept closer. When he was close enough, he quickly brushed his head against my chin. His soft fur tickled my skin. I turned my body to my side to face him and stretched a hand to give him a rub that was just as quick as his head butt. Peanut traveled with the circus. The first night I stayed with the circus, Peanut showed himself to me

in the dead of the night. Having never left the sacred lands before, being around so many different magical beings had overwhelmed me. Everyone was nice and had welcomed me with open arms, but it was still a lot. We’d set up camp by the forest that night as well, and I’d gone to get some space to myself. Most small animals feared me, probably because they could sense the dangerous fire that could easily turn them into coal, but Peanut had been different. My heat didn’t seem to bother him. He walked up to me without reservations and lightly brushed his body against me as he had done tonight. When I found out the next day that Peanut had been with the circus pretty much since its existence, I had a sense that the cat had

been scenting me, welcoming me into the circus family. I heard rumors that the circus had been named after Peanut, but I wasn’t certain about that. No one knew who Peanut belonged to or who he hitched a ride with when we traveled to each location. He was another of the circus’s countless mysteries. He appeared and disappeared like the wind. “Peanut, have you met our new chef yet? What do you think about him?” The crescents in his eyes turned even thinner as he stared at me for a second before he looked away to lick his paw. It was probably stupid of me to talk to the cat, but sometimes I got the sense ...

day. I’d always need to remind myself that he was just a cat and nothing more. Peanut sat by my head and continued to groom himself as I watched him. His quiet movements allowed me to focus on something other than my thoughts. His purrs soothed the storm that had raged inside of me, and in the moment, I finally found stillness in myself. As I lay there with Peanut for who knew how long, I let myself just be. The night got cooler as the moon rose higher in the sky. Peanut had finished cleaning himself and walked on the path toward the circus. He took a few steps before turning his head back to look at me, a...

we parked our RVs and trailers. He turned the corner, and when I followed, he was nowhere in sight. I wasn’t too worried, though,...

Conall pulled me to a corner where a man sat with his head lowered to study the camera in his lap. “Eli! Have you met our new chef?” The man holding the camera looked up when we got to his side. “I saw him in the mess tent this morning but didn’t have a chance to introduce myself,” he told Conall before turning to me with a hand out. “Nice to meet you. I’m Eli. I’m in charge of taking photos.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, accepting his handshake. “Rhett’s human like us!” Conall popped in beside us. I frowned at that phrasing again. It wasn’t my first or second time hearing it, but I still thought it was weird. When we got back to the RV, I really needed to ask Conall what he meant by that. Eli shot me a mysterious smile, but didn’t comment on Conall’s words. “Did you watch today’s performance? They really put on a show today,” Eli said in an obvious attempt to change the topic. “I did, and it was amazing. Everyone here is really talented. Some of the acts seemed so magical that I question how they were performed.” A knowing smile appeared on Eli’s face, but he lowered his head to look

look back on his camera. “I captured some great photos of the show. Do you wanna see?” he asked as he...

Conall and I both readily said yes and stood over either side of Eli’s shoulder as he flicked through the photos on his camera. The fir...

majestic on the stage during his closing speech. The next set were of the daredevil on his motorcycle. In fact, there were dozens of pictures of just that single act. Conall giggled and nudged Eli on the shoulder after the twentieth picture of the daredevil appeared. Red tinted Eli’s pale skin as he continued to press the next button. “Sorry, I always get carried away when Drake’s on stage.” “Drake is Eli’s boyfriend,” Conall whispered behind his hand, but it was obvious that he wasn’t trying to keep E...

I stared at the two of them in fascination. Neither of them seemed to care about the fact that Eli was dating a man, but it felt like a huge bomb had been dropped on me. A pleasant and eye-opening bomb. I wondered if Conall was part of the rainbow as well. There were about ten more pictures of his boyfriend before images of different acts appeared. E...

I’d kept silent as I appreciated his work, but when he flicked to Coal’s performance, a surprised gasp escaped me. “Wow, these are me...

to see the tiny screen. The photo looked almost alive, like Coal would jump out of the screen at any moment to give me a private show of his dance. “Yeah, Coal really outdid himself today. He’s come a long way to overcome his fear of fire,” Conall casually said. I turned to him with a brow raised. “Wait, he’s the circus’s firedancer, but he used to be afraid of fire?” I asked. That made no sense. I was terrified of heights, and there was no way in hell anyone could convince me to ride the Ferris wheel, much less perform with the very thing I was afraid of. He was very brave to be able to do that, and my apprec...

was terrified of fire when he first came here. It’s a lot better now,” Conall explained, and I listened intently at his words. I wanted to lea...

I took in another deep breath of the clean air and was about to take a quick walk around the circus grounds when a black cat walked up to me. The cat was completely black except for the white, heart shaped pattern on their chest. They waltzed up to me and weaved

through my legs, pressing against me with every turn of their body. “Hi, baby,” I cooed as I knelt down to give the cat chin scratches. They happily let me as they let out loud purrs from my actions. “Do you belong to someone at the circus?” If I didn’t know better, I’d think that the black cat was glaring at me in response to my words. The cat tilted their chin away from me and walked toward the back of the living area. They took a couple of steps before turning their head back to me, as if telling me to follow them. I took a couple steps toward the cat, and they turned back to the front to continue on their original path.

Whenever the cat saw me stop, they would also pause and wait for me to catch up. Considering that I’d already witnessed countless unexplainable things at the circus in the past day, I didn’t think too much into it and followed the cat as they wanted me to. The black cat led me through the forest. If it had been dark, there would be no way in hell that I’d voluntarily go through the creepy woods by myself. Good thing the sun was currently out, even if it was still the weak morning rays. Another minute of walking passed, and the forest broke into a large, grassy open space. A large man sat in the middle of the clearing with his eyes closed, but opened them when I stepped on and broke...

cat’s meow broke off the staring contest we’d been in. “Uh, hi?” I said and walked to his side. “I was brought here by the cat.” Coal narrowed his eyes at the black cat, who sat there licking their paw without a care in the world. “Peanut did, huh? He does like doing weird things sometimes.” “So his name’s Peanut? Is he your cat?” I asked as I dropped to sit next to him. My moves were slow, asking permission to join Coal. I took his lack of refusal as a welcome. He cou...

I nodded and let him take my hand into his. I might have been the size of a tween boy, but I’d always had big hands for my height. And when he slotted his hand with mine, they fit together perfectly. His palms were smooth and soft to the touch. I tended to run warmer than other people, but Coal’s body temperature almost matched mine. His thumb brushed over the back of my hand, and a shiver passed through me. His touch felt so good in mine that I clutched his hand tighter. A tingle started from where he touched me and flowed through my entire body. I wasn’t sure why he had suddenly grabbed my hand, but I wasn’t going to complain. I wanted to keep holding on to him and stay in this calm moment where there was

only the two of us...and Peanut. But Peanut was napping in a patch of sun a couple feet away and wasn’t paying attention to us, so it was basically the same as us being alone.

I caught sight of Peanut running next to me out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t stop. Was Peanut one of those magical creatures that could turn into a human? What were they called, shifters?

The thought freaked me out more than seeing Coal create fire out of nothing. At least Coal was human shaped in front of me. When I reached the area where all the RVs parked, I slowed down. Peanut still followed behind me, but I ignored him.

I stood as well, but I wasn’t really sure what to do considering I’d never seen the man before. Coal gave him a brief pat on the shoulder. Although he was more confident in himself now, he still wasn’t comfortable touching anyone else besides me, and maybe he would never be fully okay with it, and that was fine. He was learning to be comfortable with himself, and that was all that really mattered.

He turned to me before introducing us, “Rok, meet our new chef, Rhett.” “Don’t forget to mention that he’s your lover as well,” Conall piped in beside us. I shot him a glare, to which he only giggled. Coal gave me a shy smile before taking my hand and pulling me next to him. “He’s right. Rhett and I are together,” Coal said with confidence. He had his back straight and chest puffed out like being with me was a point of pride for him. I smiled as I held my hand out to the gigantic man. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Rok studied me for a second. His nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. His expression morphed into a huge smile as he took...

“It’s great to meet you! I’ve heard that your cooking is even better than our old chef’s. Don’t tell her I said that, of course,” he quickly added behind his hand in a mock whisper and a smirk. I chuckled at his statement. “Well I don’t know about that, but I’m glad everyone is enjoying my food,...

Rok turned to Coal with a raised brow and big smile. ”You found yourself a half-dwarf lover? What a perfect match! Dwarves are known to have great affinity with fire since their kind has worked with it since the age of time.” I froze. The tent seemed to have fallen silent as my friends’ heads turned to stare...

you talking about? I’m human. Always have been and always will be.” The man who’d silenced the entire tent looked at me like I was the one who’d lost my mind. “No? You’re definitely half-dwarf. It’s faint, but I can still smell dwarven blood in you.” My mouth hung open in shock. Coal squeezed my hand, breaking me out of the daze of thoughts that Rok’s words have evoked. Coal...

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken?” I turned back to Rok and asked. His nostrils flared again, taking another sniff of me, I presume...

“Nope, there’s no doubt about it. You’re half-dwarf. There was so much bad blood between our species that we orcs inherited the ability to sniff one out from miles away.” He paused, thought for a second, then held both hands out in front of him and shook them. “Of course, I don’t have any problems with dwarves. That’s a centuries-old feud that has nothing to do with me.” He sounded so sure of himself that I didn’t think he was lying. If what he said was true, then everything I grew up learning was a lie. Finding out...

“Did you know about this?” I turned to the ringm...

Seven played with the rim of the top hat that was tucked under his arm before meeting my gaze with a smile. “I had an inkling that you were one of us. I was called to you because I sensed you were lost like so many of us were before. That’s why I placed an ad in the newspaper.” It took a few seconds for me to process his words, but when I did, my eyes were so wid...

He shot me a knowing smile and said, “Why else? It certainly wasn’t for the humans. Most humans don’t have the capacity to accept things that are different from them, and we can’t risk that. Only t...

“If you had your suspicions, why didn’t you say anything to me?” I asked. I knew he didn’t owe me anything, but it would have been nice to know something so fundamental about myself. Seven got a mysterious look in his eyes as he stared in the air...

It sounded like he was referring to more than the question I’d asked him, but I didn’t push any further. I chalked it up as yet another mystery of our ringmaster. Coal had told me that even after knowing him for years and considering him as o...

Coal was silent next to me. His palm was out as he let me play with his fingers, but his silence had me worried. Did he mind? “Do you still like me even after finding out I’m not human?” I worked up the courage to ask, because even if I was okay with this, it would be devastating if he wasn’t. “You didn’t care what I was, so why would I?” Coal said with a shrug. He turned completely to face me and used his other hand to cup my cheek. I automatically leaned into his palm. “I didn’t fall in love with you because you were human. I fell in love with you because you’re you.”

My mouth hung open again as my heart worked double time inside of my chest. It shouldn’t have been shocking, really, with the way Coal acted toward me, but this was the first time he’d said those words out loud, and after already being blindsided by Rok, Coal’s declaration was a huge shock to my heart. “You love me?” I gasped out. The fire dancing in his blue eyes told me all I needed to know. He rubbed his thumb over the area under my eye and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Was there any doubt about that? Every part of me belongs to you, remember? And that includes my heart,” he said when he’d pulled back. He looked at me like I was the only thing he saw. “I love you too,” I said and crushed our lips together so forcefully that I knocked our foreheads together.

I ignored the pain and pressed harder to taste the warmth that I craved. Coal was not at all who I expected to fall in love with. He exceeded every fantasy that I could have dreamed of. Loud squeaking came from my side as Conall clapped and bounced in his seat. “Aww, you two are so cute! Your love is so beautiful!” he said with shining eyes. In the short time that I’d known him, I’d learned that he was a hopeless romantic, and the biggest cheerleader of all things love. I pulled back just enough from Coal so that our foreheads were still connected. We laughed as our fr...

Rok had been right. I wasn’t the orphaned boy from some backwards name town anymore. I’d found where I belonged, right beside this man who made my heart dance along with his beautiful fire in our amazing circu...

“I have something for you,” Bri said as he scooted closer to me, but never touching me. The sweet boy liked giving out gifts randomly. Perhaps it was an instinctive thing for him, because it reminded me of those birds who left behind gifts when you fed them.

“This is in celebration of you falling in love. I’m so happy for you!” He reached into the back pocket of the baby blue pants he wore today and pulled out something. It was a small, cartoonish looking stuffed figure of a chef holding a flapping chicken upside down by its leg. “Look, it’s you and Rhett!” he said pointing to the chef and chicken in question. I blinked at him before busting out in laughter. Brighton knew what a Vermilion Bird was, so this had to be his twisted sense of humor.

“If I’m the chicken, does that mean Rhett’s going to pluck all my feathers and eat me?” I asked once the laughter calmed. “For sure. He’s going to get you naked and gobble you straight down,” Brighton said with a wag of hi...

like Bri, their feathers were basically their clothes. Theoretically, his logic was sound. “Thanks, I love it.” I smiled and gave him a quick bump with my shoulder. Rhett was going to be so amused when he saw the dol...

Today was a rest day before we moved on to our next location, so everyone was resting or out doing whatever they wanted. And when there was free time, there was nothing I wanted more than to spend it alone with Rhett. He took hold of the doll and studied it as I told him what Brighton had said about gobbling me up. Rhett looked up at me with a devious glint in his eyes. He ...