Page 33 of Encore
“That’s definitely it,” Nicolai said. “Marsden has repeatedly said this company made its reputation on cutting-edge, original content, and if we were going to bring out something we’ve done before, it should be a special occasion and a special ballet. I don’t think he’s the only artistic director to feel that way. A review show only would have been done if they were low on time and cast members.”
“That’s not all I found,” Nyx said. “The artistic directors both times they did this were Unseelie, and they announced they were stepping down at curtain call. All of them were wildly successful as artistic directors and retired way earlier than they should have.”
That had to mean something. Was Santiago finding and grooming Unseelie to run the company and try to break his curse? I was missing a piece. Beyla was chewing on her bottom lip, but she looked like she was getting angry.
“Let me guess. Any photos of those two Unseelie artistic directors are mysteriously missing from the company website.”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
Beyla jumped to her feet.
“That son of a bitch. I’m going to murder him.”
Beyla threw on a pair of flip-flops and stormed out of the apartment. I had a feeling we were about to go yell at Marsden, but she wasn’t exactly explaining why. We all jumped up to follow because Beyla had just figured something out, and now, she was about to cut a bitch.
Chapter31
Arden
My mate was absolutely glorious when she was angry. I was glad it wasn’t directed at me. We were all tagging along behind her, but none of us would dare ask her what was happening because we didn’t want to face her wrath. After everything, I was dying to know what she had figured out. I think we all were. We were clearly headed toward Marsden’s apartment, and I’d much rather her unleash that rage on him than me.
Beyla didn’t even use the buzzer to get in the front door. Someone was already coming out, and she yelled at him to hold it. He didn’t want to fuck with her either. He didn’t make eye contact but kept the door open while we all filed inside.
He was a shifter and knew what we were. He could probably tell we didn’t really have good intentions when we got inside, but no one really wanted to end up collateral damage when a witch got pissed off.Weknew Beyla didn’t abuse her magic, but he didn’t.
Beyla stomped all the way to Marsden’s door and started pounding on his door like she had a warrant and was here to search his apartment.
Merlin whipped out a bag of popcorn and started shoving it in his face. Where the fuck was he keeping his popcorn? He always seemed to have it every time there was ballet drama. I knew he was making it ahead of time as a snack at rehearsal, but he’d been with us since he woke up. He never went to the kitchen, and there was no way in fuck he would have known Nyx found something and Beyla had a revelation.
And where the fuck was he keeping it? Did I even want to know that? He didn’t have his dance bag with him, and that was a big bag of popcorn.
Marsden threw open the door and glared at us. I could tell he wasn’t expecting anyone because he wore sweatpants and no shirt. Marsden never set foot out of his apartment or invited anyone over unless he was impeccably dressed.
He didn’t even have time to ask us what we were all doing there, pounding on his door. Beyla called blue magic to her fist and punched him right in the face. Oh, fuck. There were so many times Iwantedto punch Marsden, but I’d never actually do it. Beyla gave him a magical punch. I was cheering my mate on because he really had that coming.
Marsden flew clean across the apartment and slammed into this ornate mirror, which cracked because he hit it so hard. Beyla stepped into his apartment like she’d been invited in, so we followed.
“Beyla, what—”
“Cut the shit, Marsden. Or would you prefer I call you Santiago Suarez? I doubt either is your real name.”
Oh, holy fuck. It made so much sense now. He’d better have areallyfucking good explanation for all of this. We trusted him. There were plenty of things he did I didn’t like, but I never thought he took this job for the specific purpose of breaking his curse,knowinghe might murder one of us.
I was going to hear him out because Beyla needed those answers, but what the actual fuck?
Chapter32
Beyla
This was what Madame Lucinda nearly killed herself trying to tell us. Santiago wasn’t skulking in the shadows hiding from me. He kept reinventing himself and inserting himself as artistic director to repeat the same insanity. He was somehow covering up the murders and disappearing for a while after every failure. Iknewhis hair was a clue.
Marsden wiped the blood off his lip and walked over to his bar to pour himself a glass of whiskey.
“Honestly, I never intended to tell you because I know that old life won’t show its face again. I’m actually grateful you figured it out. You could have told me without punching me, but I get why you are angry.”
“We’re all angry,” Arden growled. “I might have disagreed with all your choices involving your girlfriends, but I never thought dancing for you might get me murdered.”
“Madame Lucinda nearly killed herself trying to tell us the truth about you,” Nicolai said. “She’s the best ballet mistress I’ve ever studied under. Beyla stopped her, but that would have been another death at your hands.”
