Althacazur seemed oblivious and put his hands on his hips. He walked in a circle around Lara, his fury palpable. “I show you what is, perhaps, my greatest masterpiece. I offer you the universe—this fucking perfect circus—and you don’t want it?” His voice mocked her and rose until the entire arena rumbled. “I’ve told you all your life: The boy wasn’t the point. It was the circus. Always the circus. I gave you the information on the boy to lure you here to gaze upon your destiny.”

Lara thought he was wrong. The mortal boy was the point. Todd mattered, just as Juno Wagner had mattered to him, once. Lara looked around to find them all staring at her. She’d forgotten that they all could read her mind. Aloud she said, “Shit.”

Althacazur’s face twisted in fury. Tisdale put his hand up to stop him from something, but he slapped the little monkey away and retreated to sink into the velvet chair. “What have I done to make this one so stupid? I tried with her, oh how I tried with this one. I made her the perfect weapon to bring my Esmé home and take over.” He sat on the throne, spittle sprouting from his lips as he pointed to Lara. She feared he was going into a fit. “Why are my offspring such failures? I went to that dump of a place where this one lives and spent time with her. Poor Margot was mad.” He pointed to Margot, who looked down. “Audrey’s a bore. I’d so hoped that this would be the one worthy of the circus and able to contain Esmé.” He sat sulking like a child, yet Lara could see the terror in Tisdale’s face. He pointed to Lara. “You know, Esmé should win; she has my ambition. In thirty years, Lara, when you have a daughter, the love of her life will be Esmé’s next victim. And you’ll have no one but yourself to blame.” He turned in his chair after giving Lara a final look of disgust. “Go back to your dreary home. Cecile, Tis… get her out of my sight, before I kill her.”

“Father.” Cecile crouched down beside him, her fingers resting on the arm of the chair. “You have to understand that this was terrible news to her. You mustn’t be so angry at a poor human. Please.”

Lara could see him soften, his face relaxing. Cecile reminded him so much of Juno. Lara could see it now, the loss that registered on his face each time he looked at his daughter. This was the real source of Cecile’s power with him.

“We haven’t really shown her the circus. You can’t blame her. She hasn’t performed in it, felt it in her blood. She doesn’t know what it can do.”