Page 37 of Encore
Yeah, I knew. The cases Kaine was involved in with Ripley and Ravyn were pretty much the only two I actually knew anything about because he wouldn’t discuss work with me. He just didn’t have a choice about bringing me along a few times when he was working with them.
“You’re right. I’m going to ask Marsden. If he did it, I don’t know if I’ll punch him again or thank him. If he didn’t, I’m probably not the only girl he hurt. Someone else could have done it.”
“Now, get off the phone with us and enjoy your new coven,” Ravyn said.
“Send us the details because we will be there opening night,” Ripley said.
“If I stay, you probably won’t be able to make it to every performance anymore because of the distance.”
“We might not because of the kids, but Kaine will be there. He’ll give us details, and now that you don’t live near us, you’d better get super active on social media so we can keep up with your life once you get famous,” Ripley said.
“I will. Thanks for the chat. Between you two and Kaine, I feel much better about all of this.”
And I did.
Chapter34
Nicolai
Everyone was furious with Marsden, but I fantasized about what he would look like without his thumbs. On the one hand, if he hadn’t manipulated all of this and abused the fact that he had Unseelie secrets to get her here, we never would have met Beyla.
On the other hand, I was thinking about all the people he killed and everything he put Madame Lucinda through trying to break this curse. She knew. Every time he reinvented himself and inserted himself as artistic director here, Madame Lucinda knew who he was and that he would eventually try this ballet again. Sheknewher students were going to die.
Before Marsden fucked off after murdering half the cast and having his wife arrested, he made damned sure no one was going to talk about it by putting that geas on everyone who survived. Madame Lucinda wasn’t even a full company member then. She was just an apprentice and wouldn’t have been in any of the rehearsals with the leads. She would have been an understudy to the corps.
Marsden silenced her in the worst way. I could admit he was an excellent dancer and had a keen eye for talent. He would have had that way back then if he could create a ballet like this. It might have taken him longer than any of us would have liked to recognize the talents of Nyx and Bevan, but he finally did. Marsden would have recognized that young apprentice's talent and leadership skills when he put that geas on her.
Wehadto tell her we knew. Madame Lucinda was willing to risk a horrible death to rat Marsden out as Santiago if it would help Beyla stop him from murdering her dancers. I didn’t care if she still couldn’t talk about it. Madame Lucinda was probably stressed to shit and holding it all in.
“We owe it to Madame Lucinda to tell her Beyla figured it out after what she was willing to risk telling us,” I said.
“Oh, my Lilith,” Bevan said. “We totally do. Marsden didn’t kill her, but he’s been psychologically torturing her for decades.”
“I haven’t known her as long as the rest of you, but she’s a fighter, even now. If Bevan and I hadn’t stopped Bellatrix, I’m willing to bet my entire paycheck that Madame Lucinda would have wailed on her with her cane and bitten the shit out of her. She might not be able to out him, but I can guarantee she’s hit him at least once and tried to stop him every time. But I agree. We should tell her.”
“It’s the weekend,” Arden said. “We’ve barely had any time to take Beyla out and show her New York. This is good news. Nyx found a clue, and Beyla solved a piece of this puzzle. We should celebrate this. We should go out to eat. Sorry, Nyx, but somewhereotherthan the Rusty Anchor. We need to invite Madame Lucinda because after everything Marsden put her through, she needs to know about this.”
I whipped out my cell phone to call her. She didn’t give it out to the entire company, just those she mentored outside of class. Bevan would have it, too. We usually only called if we needed to reschedule a private lesson. Madame Lucinda knew we were working with Beyla, so it was probably about the curse if I was calling now. She was grumpy as fuck when she picked up.
“This better be good, Nicolai. I was about ten seconds away from convincing a hot, young vampire to come home with me and scratch an itch. He’s a dodgeball player, and I could bounce a quarter off his ass.”
I adored the shit out of this woman. She’d been alive a very long time. Longer than a lot of supernaturals since she was a vampire. Her hair was white, her face lined, and she walked with a cane, but she was still living her best life. She wasn’t like Marsden and entered relationships with company dancers, but she had no problem finding younger men to bring home, and she bragged about it later.
“You can fuck a dodgeball player any time, Madame Lucinda. You know your pussy game is still strong. Beyla figured out what you were trying to tell us with a little help from Nyx. We wanted to invite you to a celebratory dinner so you could hear all about how Beyla magically punched him in the face.”
“You should have just led with that. Actually, you should have invited me when he got punched in the face. Did someone get it on video?”
“Unfortunately, no. We were all too scared of Beyla to ask what she had figured out on the way, and then she just hit him.”
“I want to hear all about it. What are we doing?”
“We want to take Beyla to that little sushi place in the supernatural area of town run by that family of Kitsunes.”
“Good choice. The food is excellent, and so is the atmosphere. But, Nicolai? You and Merlin need to get your heads out of your ass. This one is special. Don’t fuck it up. It’s not just that she dances well with you. Beyla might very well be the one that ends this nightmare, and frankly, I really like that girl.”
“So, do I. It’s different this time. Do you want to come to eat with us? We can fill you in on our meeting with Marsden, and we can reminisce about all the times Beyla chose violence since she got here.”
“Shut up, Nicolai. I was trying to stop people from getting hurt!” Beyla yelled.
