Every ten years, Madame Lune's circus returns to Lyric City. Lena, Adrian, and Wojtek slip inside for one night of wonder and danger, only to be singled out by the woman who seems to know their secrets.
A thick fog had settled over the outskirts of Lyric City when a crimson stagecoach rolled through the empty avenue, drawn by two black horses that moved as silently as shadows. On its side, a gold inscription caught the lamplight: Madame Lune's Circus - Where Reality Ends. People had been whispering about it all week. The circus appeared once every ten years, and anyone who entered its dome was said to leave with the memory of something impossible.
Lena, Adrian, and Wojtek watched from the park fence as the crew raised a vast silver tent in the mist. Lanterns flared to life one by one, turning the canvas into a wavering wall of light. Acrobats tested their ropes between the trees. A scent of popcorn drifted through the cold air, sweet and strangely out of place. Families were gathering at the entrance, but none of them seemed to be speaking above a murmur, as if the circus had already asked for their silence.
By dusk, when the last spotlight swept across the grounds, the three friends had slipped out from under their parents' attention and bought tickets for the night performance. Inside, the arena glittered with a feverish brightness. Tightrope walkers crossed high above the ring, then seemed to turn upside down without ever losing their balance. An illusionist vanished from one end of the stage and appeared at the other in the same breath. Even the clown looked wrong somehow, more like a fugitive from a dream than a man in greasepaint.
Then Madame Lune stepped into the light.
Her gown shimmered with tiny crystals, and her gaze seemed to settle on every person in the tent at once. She smiled as if she had been expecting applause, or perhaps only them. "Dear spectators," she said, her voice soft and deep at once, "tonight I will open a door to a world that has always been here, though not everyone has seen it."
Lena felt the words crawl under her skin. Madame Lune's eyes found the three of them in the crowd and held there, unblinking. "For the final act," she went on, "I need three volunteers. Three brave souls."
Her heart slammed against her ribs. Beside her, Adrian had gone very still, and Wojtek's hand closed around the edge of the bench. Madame Lune raised one gloved hand and pointed straight at them.
The lights went out.
A hush swept through the arena, followed by a low whisper that did not sound like any human voice Lena had ever heard. In the dark, something moved beyond the ring, slow and deliberate, as if the circus itself had just taken its first breath.