Spectacle--A Novel Read online

  In this riveting sequel to New York Times bestselling author Rachel Vincent’s acclaimed novel Menagerie, Delilah Marlow will discover that there is no crueler cage than the confines of the human mind...

  When their coup of Metzger’s Menagerie is discovered, Delilah and her fellow cryptids find their newly won freedom brutally stripped away as they are sold into The Savage Spectacle, a private collection of “exotic wildlife.” Specializing in ruthless cryptid cage matches, safari-style creature hunts and living party favors, the Spectacle’s owner, Willem Vandekamp, caters to the forbidden fetishes of the wealthy and powerful. At the Spectacle, any wish can be granted—for the right price.

  But Vandekamp’s closely guarded client list isn’t the only secret being kept at the Spectacle. Beneath the beauty and brutality of life in the collection lie much darker truths, and no one is more determined than Delilah to strip the masks from the human monsters and drag all dark things into the light.

  Praise for Menagerie

  “Well-paced, readable and imaginative.”

  —New York Times on Menagerie

  “A dark tale of exploited and abused others, expertly told by Vincent.”

  —Library Journal, starred review

  “Vincent summons bold and vivid imagery with her writing.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “As depicted by Vincent, Delilah is magnificent in her defiance of injustice, and the well-wrought background for her world sets the stage for her future adventures in this captivating new fantasy series.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Vincent creates a fantastic world that is destined to pique your curiosity... As Delilah Marlow slowly uncovers a side of herself that she never knew existed, you’ll sympathize with her...desperate to see her succeed.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “The promising opener in a new series...a fast-paced story of vengeance and justice.”

  —The Roanoke Times

  “Amazing world-building and a captivating cast of characters. My new favorite Rachel Vincent book.”

  —#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong

  Also by

  New York Times bestselling author

  Rachel Vincent and MIRA Books

  The Menagerie Series

  MENAGERIE

  The Shifters

  STRAY

  ROGUE

  PRIDE

  PREY

  SHIFT

  ALPHA

  Unbound

  BLOOD BOUND

  SHADOW BOUND

  OATH BOUND

  For more titles by Rachel Vincent, visit her website at rachelvincent.com.

  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  RACHEL VINCENT

  Spectacle

  This is for everyone who followed me down the dark and twisted tunnel that is Menagerie.

  Welcome back.

  Contents

  Part One: Démasqué

  Prologue

  First Quote

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Second Quote

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Third Quote

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Fourth Quote

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Part Two: Menagerie

  Chapter 20

  Fifth Quote

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Sixth Quote

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Seventh Quote

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Eighth Quote

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Ninth Quote

  Chapter 33

  Tenth Quote

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Acknowledgments

  Excerpt from Menagerie by Rachel Vincent

  Part One

  Démasqué

  Twenty-seven years ago

  A scream broke through the surface of Tabitha’s dreams like an oar slicing through calm water, and she sat straight up in bed, still half-submerged in that other world. Heart pounding, she slid one small hand beneath her mattress, grasping for the handle of the knife her mother had hidden there.

  Just in case.

  Because if there were another reaping, parents could not be trusted. Children would have to protect themselves.

  Tabitha’s fingers found the blade of the knife instead, and the cut was a sharp, immediate pain. The clarity of the sting—not muddled like blunt blows that left bruises—drew her thoughts into focus and vanquished the fog of sleep. She sucked on the cut without truly noticing the familiar, coppery taste of blood. Then she slid off the bed and lifted her thin mattress, bedding and all, and seized the knife the proper way.

  Just like her mother had shown her.

  Another scream sliced through the night, startling crickets and cicadas into silence, and Tabitha whirled toward the source of the sound. The open window over her nightstand.

  She pushed the sheer curtain aside and bent to stare through the gap beneath the old, cloudy glass and the flaking windowsill.

  Candlelight flickered in the barn.

  Tabitha straightened her pale green nightgown, covering an old bruise on her leg, then headed for the hall clutching the knife. No one knew what a second reaping would look like, but Tabitha knew where to stab. Her mother had shown her which soft bits of flesh would be most vulnerable to her blade, should he come into her room at night, and Tabitha remembered every lesson.

  What she did not remember was that the first lesson had come three years ago, almost a year before the reaping.

  In the hall, Tabitha passed the bathroom and peeked into Isabelle’s room on her way toward the stairs. Isabelle’s bed was empty. Her sheet was thrown back and her slippers were missing.

  Tabitha took the stairs one at a time, flinching with every creak of the wooden treads. Downstairs, her parents’ bedroom door stood open. Their bed was empty too.

  Barefoot, her stomach pitching with fear and dread, Tabitha pushed open the back door and descended three porch steps. The grass felt prickly against her bare feet, but the backyard was peppered with smooth patches of soft dirt. When she was halfway across the yard, another scream froze her in place. Her fist clenched around the knife handle.

  But then she exhaled slowly and pushed forward. That wasn’t her mother’s scream. It was just Isabelle’s.

  Over the past two years, she had heard Isabelle cry a lot from her room down the hall. She’d heard Isabelle pray and beg in the middle of the night. But the screaming was new. Was that why Tabitha’s mother slept with earplugs? Had she known there would eventually be screaming?

  Tabitha pushed open the barn door. The horses looked nervous, shuffling in their stalls and tossing their manes. Her fat
her stood in the center aisle, clutching a thick-bottomed glass. In the light flickering from a candle stuck to the top of the nearest stall with melted wax, she could see that the glass was empty, but for a single melting ice cube.

  The front stall was supposed to be empty too.

  “Tabitha?” Her father’s gaze struggled to focus as he stared at her, and she knew that was not his first glass of the night.

  At the mention of her daughter’s name, Tabitha’s mother popped up from the nearest stall like Jack from his box. Her clear gaze was focused and hard. “Go back to bed. We’ll talk in the morning.”

  “Let her stay,” Tabitha’s father said. “Nine is old enough to know how the world works.”

  Neither of them mentioned the knife their daughter held.

  Tabitha’s mother frowned, then sank onto her knees in the stall again. Her father waved her forward, and when she hesitated two feet away, he slapped one rough hand onto her shoulder and pulled her closer, positioning her in front of the open stall.

  Tabitha flinched, but she forgot all about the unwanted hand when her gaze landed on the floor of the stall. There, propped up on both elbows in the strewn hay, lay Isabelle. Her face was crimson and streaked with tears. Her hair was sweaty and matted, odd strands of it clinging to her damp cheeks.

  “Tabitha,” Isabelle panted. “Help me.”

  But there was nothing Tabitha could do but watch.

  Most of Isabelle’s hair was dark, from the dye Tabitha’s mother made her use, but the roots were a soft green. The very shade of the moss that grew along the edges of the stream running through the back acre of her father’s farm. The acre that used to belong to Isabelle’s family.

  Isabelle had been fourteen when the soldiers had come for her parents after the reaping, when all the cryptids were being rounded up. Everyone knew it was coming. Isabelle’s parents had begged Tabitha’s mother to hide their daughter. To save her. But it was Tabitha’s father who’d agreed. He was the one who’d thought of the dye—the same shade his wife used to cover her gray. The same shade of Tabitha’s hair.

  Tabitha and Isabelle could be like sisters, he’d said. And because he’d always been fond of his neighbors’ daughter, he’d agreed not only to hide Isabelle, but to buy his neighbors’ land after the state foreclosed on it and save it for her. For when she grew up.

  Isabelle grew up real pretty. Tabitha’s father always said that. But she’d had to quit school when she got fat. Tabitha’s mother said people wouldn’t understand. They’d figure out she wasn’t human and they’d come for her too. So Tabitha kept the secret about pretty Isabelle, who cleaned the house and cried at night.

  Nine years old was old enough to keep a secret, her father’d said.

  But now, on the floor in the barn, Isabelle didn’t look so pretty. And suddenly Tabitha understood.

  “Is she having a baby?” That’s what their mare had done when she’d lain down in the barn.

  “It might be a baby.” Tabitha’s mother peered down at Isabelle, blocking Tabitha’s view. “But it might be a monster. We’ll know in a few minutes. It’s time to push.”

  Tabitha’s father’s grip tightened on her shoulder. His other hand clutched his empty glass.

  Tabitha watched, fascinated, as Isabelle gave birth, too tired now to scream. When it was over, the baby gave a hearty cry, and Tabitha’s father sucked in a breath. Tabitha’s mother pulled a rag from the pocket of her apron and wiped the infant’s face. She stood and turned, holding the child closer to the candlelight to examine it.

  “Please...” Isabelle begged from the ground. “Let me see him.”

  “Her,” Tabitha’s mother corrected. She folded the rag, then scrubbed it gently over the infant’s head. Then she looked up at her husband, disappointment clenching her square jaw.

  The baby’s hair was a soft, pale green.

  Tabitha’s father threw his glass at the side of the barn. It shattered, raining shards all over the hay. She flinched. Her father stomped out of the barn, headed for the house.

  Tabitha’s mother spread the rag on the ground at Isabelle’s feet, then laid the baby on top of it. She turned to her daughter as Isabelle cried.

  “Give me your knife.”

  “While families all over the country are in mourning, a couple of local grandparents are counting their blessings. Two weeks ago, twelve-year-old Willem Henry Vandekamp survived what’s become known as The Reaping because he was at a birthday party sleepover. He is Otto and Judith Vandekamp’s only surviving grandchild.”

  —from a September 4, 1986, broadcast of the Channel 10 Nightly News, Poplar Bluff, Missouri

  Rommily

  The oracle wandered down the midway, her gaze flitting from one brightly striped tent to the next, her fingers reaching for each soft scrap of silk and scratchy patch of sequins she passed.

  She had not forgotten the cages and chains and blood. No matter how fractured her mind might be, she could never erase the pain and terror of that night in the rain or overcome a lifetime spent in a four-by-six animal pen.

  But those were distant horrors now, relegated to the realm of nightmares.

  The daylight was for dreaming.

  As she meandered in the afternoon sun, her eyes were bright and focused. Her thoughts—typically tangled like a knotted cord—were blissfully calm, because there were no customers yet, and her fellow carnies knew better than to touch or speak to her. Those she considered friends smiled or waved when she passed, and those she cared little for paid her little attention.

  Rommily listened to the shifters count out beats under the big top as they rehearsed an addition to their hoop-jumping, ball-balancing act. She heard the soft shuffle of hooves from behind a heavy canvas flap as the centaurs played their afternoon game of poker with Abraxas, the young human roustabout who’d taught them when to hit and when to stand.

  As she passed the next tent, Rommily heard a familiar snort, and the sound triggered a warmth that spread beneath the surface of her skin. She veered from the midway with no conscious intent. Her feet followed instructions from her heart without consulting her brain, and a minute later, she stood behind the equine tent, where a single broad tree spread limbs in all directions, and with them, cool patches of shadow.

  The minotaur sat in the shade on a wide, sturdy bench most men couldn’t have lifted. He stood when he saw Rommily, and the images that flashed behind her eyes were triggered not by premonition but by memory.

  Strong hands tearing guilty flesh.

  Blood spilled in the name of justice.

  She said nothing as she crossed the patch of sparse grass separating them. Rommily only spoke in the grip of a vision, since that night in the rain, and without a human mouth, the bull couldn’t speak at all. Their connection had developed without the luxury of unnecessary words.

  The minotaur’s arms spread as Rommily came closer. She reached out for him, her hand tiny and fragile against massive planes of muscle, her touch a delicate contrast to his raw power. The oracle trailed her fingers over the ridge of his human collarbone, just where dense, soft bovine fur began to grow. The top of her head didn’t reach his shoulder, and three of her standing side by side couldn’t have matched his width, yet she seemed to fit perfectly when she laid her head against his chest and wrapped her arms as far as they would go around his immense rib cage.

  For several long minutes they stayed just like that, free from the burden of words. Safe from prying gazes.

  When the pace of the day began to pick up—when footsteps fell hurriedly and voices began to sound tense—she reluctantly stepped back and squeezed the bull’s hand, then made her way to the fortune-telling tent all on her own.

  Her older sister, Mirela, was already dressed in the white flouncy blouse and long, colorful skirt of a fortune-telle
r—an oracle cursed by fate with the genes of a “cryptid” and cursed by law with the chains of captivity.

  Once, the outfit and chains had been authentic. Their internment in the traveling menagerie had been reality. Now the clothes were a costume—the wool pulled over the eyes of an audience that wanted to believe what it was seeing.

  Metzger’s Menagerie—the institution that had once held her in bondage, half-starved and sometimes beaten where the bruises wouldn’t show—had become her salvation. It was now the veil shielding her from the prying eyes and cruel hands the rest of the world seemed so eager to wield.

  Lala, Rommily’s younger sister, wore blue jeans and a red uniform shirt, which declared her name to be Louise. That was a lie Rommily found funny on some days and sad on others, but today she gave it little thought as she stepped behind the folding screen and exchanged her long white cotton dress for a blouse and skirt matching Mirela’s. She wasn’t fit to perform—not even the miracle of freedom could fix her shattered mind—but she had to wear the costume because the inability to control her visions meant she couldn’t pass for a human employee.

  Dressed, she let Lala secure her with chains and shackles that didn’t really lock. Then when Mirela slid her paperback novel beneath the table and gave them a nod, Lala led Rommily out the tent onto the midway, where she would serve as a living advertisement for the wonder customers would find inside.

  Overhead, static blared from a speaker mounted on a tall pole, then organ music poured forth, its playful notes dancing up and down the oracle’s spine, spinning around and around in her head like the stylized mermaid and unicorn seats on the carousel. The music was calming, some nights, because it signified a routine she knew well. But tonight the notes made her dizzy.

  The oracle’s gaze lost focus. Her eyes closed as she chased the melody in her head, winding down mischievous paths and around dark corners. She didn’t notice when the carnival gates opened or the crowd appeared. She didn’t notice when Lala launched into her spiel.

  The music felt odd tonight.

  Laughter broke into the oracle’s thoughts and her eyes flew open as a father passed by the fortune-teller’s tent, tickling a toddler whose hair was fixed in blond pigtails.