The Crossroads by Lantern Light

Dark Circus, Volume 7

By: Velma Loftin-Stoneburner, R.J. Josh Stoneburner

Narrated by: Ted Spangler

The Crossroads by Lantern Light
At a midnight crossroads, Phineas Appomatix bartered more than snake-oil and lies, he bartered his bloodline. His curse runs north with the rails, dogging every step of the Cirque des Ténèbres, where prophecy and spectacle blur until no oath can be broken without a price.
A boy who sleeps beside lions, named and crowned by their thunder.
A lantern-bearer who guides both cradle and grave, her light steady against the dark.
A star-reader cast into exile, hollowed by envy, trailed by a woman’s curse.
A ledger-keeper writing fate into ink as though balancing an account he knows will never close.
But always, the pale trickster lurks at the center, Phineas, with his serpent cane and fever-bright eye, raging against beasts, against sons, against the very bargain he struck. Each time the crowd laughs, each time a drum rolls, the curse grows nearer, Hecate’s shadow waits at the crossroads by lantern light.
The circus is covenant. The circus is curse, and its fire will not burn out.

©2025 R. J. "Josh" Stoneburner & Velma Loftin-Stoneburner (P)2025 R. J. "Josh" Stoneburner & Velma Loftin-Stoneburner