18 Entertain a Clown, become a part of the Circus.

Ashe pulled the phone from his ear and placed it face down beside him on the table he was perched on, trying not to cause attention to himself, yet the sorrowful look he carried wasn't one that could easily be hidden.

Ebony placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You're with us now. What did he say?"

Ashe wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. "I'll tell you after Anthony has told everyone."

Ebony nodded and looked around. The main stage was holding nearly all of the performers in one place. All of them chatting and lazing around, wondering what they had been dragged out of their rooms for.

Anthony bolted from the small crowd of familiar faces and jumped up on a small crate to grab everyone's attention. "Hey, guys? A minute of your time?"

His performers stopped chatting amongst themselves and focused on Anthony standing tall for once.

"Look, there's something I need to tell you, and I haven't exactly been quite honest with you all about it."

Blu smirked and stretched. "You're giving up on Carnaval?"

"Never." Anthony spoke, his voice not as confident as it always was. Something in the way he delivered his speech was shaken. "You all wonder how I do the things I do and perform the way I do and you all always ask how I do it."

"Finally." Sebastian smiled. "You're going to tell us."

Anthony nodded. "I'm not… I'm...I'm a Mage."

Silence was present for only but a few seconds before laughter erupted throughout the tent.

"No, I'm serious."

Alex, an aerial acrobat that had a rat face, chuckled. "You dragged us out here for a joke?"

Anthony stared at his performers, it was making sense to him that they weren't taking him seriously. That was, until he snapped his hands together and let them fall to his side, his shirt and jeans erupted into flames that engulfed his clothes and spread to his shoes, this lasted but a few moments until the flames wilted away and left him standing there. His skin had become a deep red, his body shape had changed, a long, thin tail grew from the back of him, ears loped into that of an animal and fell beside his cheeks, small horns protruding from his forehead and his hands had grown sharp with claws.

A real life Demon stood before them.

This drew gasps from all around him, even Jesse was sunned.

"I'm a Mage." Anthony's voice hadn't changed, however. That sweet, charming voice still rang through his throat. "Not just a Mage. A Demon."

He was used to crowds of wandering eyes staring at him, but not the way his performers stared.

Fear, shock and disbelief overwhelmed the faces of his friends watching him.

It took forever for someone to finally say something. "What are you?"

Anthony's throat was dry, he licked his lips. "It's a long story. But I'm a Demon. Magic and Mages exist. Look, I trust you all enough to tell you. It's not just me, Jesse, Tobias, Ashe, Cassandra. All of us are Mages and can do magic."

Jesse mumbled quietly to Tobias. "Did you know about this?"

"You didn't?"

One of the knife throwers took a step forward. "So, when people came outside and took swings at us, calling us freaks because there was voo-doo or whatever, that was all true?"

Anthony nodded slowly.

One of the trapeze artists turned and walked out of the stage, followed by a contortionist, followed by another trapeze artist.

One by one his performers got up and started walking out.

"Hey," Anthony jumped down from the crate and sprinted after them. "Where are you all going?"

Alex shook his head, he wasn't that much taller than Anthony. "You lied to us. You watched us get beaten up trying to defend this place. Defending you."

"That was never my intention."

"What do we even know about your intentions, Ant? You've been lying to us for so long, making us believe that we were great and for what?"

"We are great."

Alex snorted. "No, we're great. You're a fraud."

A strong man, Laurence, with flawless umber skin and dreadlocks as long and thick as his arms walked by, towering over the both of them. "We're leaving. This is a Circus, not a Freak Show."

Anthony's voice cracked as he watched his friends walking out. "You can't leave."

"Watch us."

His heart sank with every performer that walked out on him. One after another after another.

His body slowly shifted back into his usual self, his human form once again. He turned around. Jesse, Tobias, Ebony, Ashe, Cassandra, Dan, Blu, Mia and Sebastian still standing there, watching him.

He had gone from 29 highly skilled performers, to the 9 people standing before him.

Anthony couldn't raise his head as he slowly dragged himself back over to those that stayed.

"Quite a show." Jesse spoke dryly.

That was met with a nudge to his ribs from Ebony, she looked disheartened at Anthony. "I did try to warn you that this might happen, Ant."

"They're gone." Anthony whispered. "All of them, gone." He felt a lump in his throat, his eyes began welling up but he didn't allow himself to shed a tear.

"But we stayed." Blu said.

Anthony lifted his head to look at her, his vision scanned over to Mia and Sebastian, he curled his lips ever so slightly. "You… You three?"

Mia's smile radiated beauty. "Of course. You gave us a home, a chance to do what we love and the only thing you want from us in return is a performance or two a day and acceptance? I think we can handle that." She looked over her shoulder to her husband for confirmation. Sebastian nodded and stepped forward, placing his hand on Anthony's arms.

"My boy, I've always said you were a spawn of Satan. And a Hell raiser."

Anthony grinned. "You don't care?"

"Of course we care! That's why we chose to stay with you. Of all the times we've been chased through towns, stopped you from getting into fights and the chaos you bring into our lives, if we stuck through all that with you then why wouldn't we stick with you now?"

Blu nodded. "Who needs the rest of them? We got the A-Team right here. Anthony's team."

Anthony's smile was a handsome one, he chuckled and shook his head. "That's one way of putting it." He looked to Jesse and Ebony. "But you two were right, maybe Mortal's knowing about us isn't such a great idea."

Ebony shrugged. "Ant. 3 out of 29 isn't that bad of a sample size. It's not a great size, but the ones who truly care are right here."

"Though it's understandable why you were reluctant to disclose your discipline of magic now." Jesse raised a brow. "That is, if this classes as a discipline."

"It's complicated." Anthony murmured. "Now I have to figure out how to keep us going with 10 people."

"I think us putting on a show is the least of our worries right now." Ebony responded.

"Why?"

"Ashe made a phone call."

"I did as you asked and called my Dad." Ashe mumbled quietly. "By the sounds of it things are going a lot faster than we thought."

"Wait a minute." Blu interrupted. "What are you talking about?"

"High Sages are Mages that make rules and take money from Mages." Anthony said.

"Oh, like a magic government?"

Jesse sighed. "It's a little more complicated than that."

"How?"

Jesse watched her with a blank stare. "Fine, a magic government."

Anthony continued. "And they want to start some bad business with us, they think they killed me, Ashe is the son of one of them, Jesse and Tobias are on the run from them after being captured and Cassandra killed one."

Jesse blurted out "So that's how you survived the Nemesis strike. It kills any Mage, but you're not technically a Mage."

Anthony nodded with a smirk. "My not-so little secret."

Blu, Sebastian and Mia looked at one another like they made the worst decision of their lives but it was too late to back out of, so they nodded politely.

Anthony diverted his attention back to Ashe. "Please, continue."

"He said I needed to go back home by Friday. The High Sages are going to push forward. They plan to show magic to Mortals this weekend."

"That's not very long."

Cassandra had kept to herself until now. "How are they going to do that?"

Ashe shook his head. "He didn't say, but he sounded like he didn't want me to be away. He said bad things might happen."

"Judging from what just happened here, he might be right." Anthony sighed.

"We might not be magic," Sebastian dusted off imaginary dirt from his waistcoat. "But we can try to help in our own way."

"I don't want any of you getting hurt."

Ebony snorted. "But you're fine with the rest of us? Charming."

Dan scratched his beard. "What exactly are we going to do even if we manage to crash that little announcement anyway?"

"You and I both know I haven't thought that far ahead, Dan." Anthony grinned.

Jesse's phone vibrated in his pocket. "Maybe you should, because my work phone is ringing and I don't work anymore."