Page 22 of Encore
She was nailing it in rehearsal, but this ballet was intricate. Injuries could happen to anyone at any time. Marsden was going full out to announce this ballet after losing both of his stars, and he hadn’t even put basic precautions in place for Beyla, who, technically, wasn’t even a part of this company.
What the actual fuck was he up to?
Chapter19
Beyla
Icouldn’t figure out if the classes we just took were more or less fucked-up than those with Bellatrix and Ivory. There was zero drama, and everyone seemed much more relaxed now that they didn’t have to worry about tantrums or retaliation. On the other hand, I was stressed and freaking out a little.
As soon as class was over, I kidnapped Madame Lucinda straight to the Rusty Anchor to see if she could tell me what in actual fuck was going on. She couldn’t talk about Santiago Suarez and everything that happened one hundred and fifty years ago, but she could sure as shit spill the dirt on Marsden.
Damita was a fantastic role, but maybe he forgot I was here to break this curse and prevent his dancers from dying. Ivory and Bellatrix were his headliners. Unfortunately, I didn’t think Ivory would be much better than Bellatrix in rehearsals. In fact, I felt with Bellatrix gone, she’d go full-fledged nasty.
Still, IexpectedIvory to get promoted to Damita and me to stay on as understudy. Was Marsden utterly insane? He’d never even seen me perform on stage before. No one knew who I was. I hadn’t really made it a point for them to know me either. How was he going to explain my lack of history at his gala? I wasn’t anywhere near the age of retirement as a ballet dancer, but at my age, I should have danced with at least one company by now.
Madame Lucinda settled into her booth with us and looked around with a smirk.
“I love this pub. I’d like an hour alone with that hot, little busboy clearing that table.”
“I think he bats for the other team,” Bevan said.
Madame Lucinda just shrugged.
“He could be open and into both like you are.”
“Do you have any idea why Ivory is no longer with the company? I thought she was going to take Bellatrix’s part, and I’d stay the understudy like I’m supposed to be.”
“I’m not sorry she’s gone,” Merlin said. “She’s slightly easier to partner with than Bellatrix, but not by much. She would have been fine with us, but she would have felt threatened by you since you were meant to dance Damita. Ivory is probably more dangerous than Bellatrix was because she doesn’t work on emotion. She’s a plotter.”
“Oh, you have no idea how dangerous that one is,” Madame Lucinda said. “He’d never admit this to the entire company, but Ivory was fired, and she’ll be blackballed in the ballet world if she doesn’t end up in jail.”
What could she have done to get fired and blackballed after everything the Terrible Trio did? Julian went down because Marsden had a hard line against drugs. He didn’t have a problem with either of them maiming dancers and permanently ending their careers. I got the feeling Ivory wasn’t dumb enough to get caught selling drugs.
“After everything they’ve done to company members throughout the years, what could be Marsden’s breaking point?” Arden asked.
“Ivory was the one who gave Bellatrix that gun. I wouldn’t be shocked if she were the one who convinced Bellatrix it wouldn’t end badly for her if she brought it to rehearsal and shot her understudy.”
“What the actual fuck?” Nicolai said. “How does he know that? I doubt she’d admit to it.”
“Ivory has this thing with pink lips. When she’s signing programs, she doesn’t sign her name. Instead, she draws a pair of lips in pink pen. It’s been her thing since she was nobody. Her dance bag is covered in pink lips, and she has a tattoo on her lower back of it. Someone tried to remove it, but they didn’t do a very good job of it. They filed the serial number off of the gun, but when the agents at the bureau let Marsden look at it, there were stains on the handle where someone had previously painted a pair of lips,” Madame Lucinda said.
“I’ll kill her,” Arden growled.
“Seriously, how dumb are these bitches?” Nyx said. “I’m not heir to a criminal empire like Nicolai, but even I know you don’t paint your trademark in puff paint on your illegal gun.”
“My criminal family doesn’t use guns,” Nicolai pointed out. “Why would Ivory have a gun in the first place?”
Why was any of this happening? This whole time, I thought Marsden and Santiago manipulated Bellatrix into trying to shoot me. I was almost certain one of them had given her that gun and told her she would get away with it.
“What would Ivory gain with me dead?”
“That would be a question for Marsden. He knew those two better than I ever wanted to. He’s not going to admit what happened to the entire company because it makes him look bad. You saw them in class today. The company is just glad their reign of terror is over and want to move on. But all of you know the truth, and he can’t do this ballet without you.”
Which was all well and good, but he was a slippery motherfucker, and I hadn’t been able to outmaneuver him yet. This changed a good bit about what I thought of everything. If Ivory had given Bellatrix that gun, she could have given her the pendant, too. Getting a witch to sell a real one to someone who wasn’t a witch was difficult, but not impossible.
“Any idea why Marsden would spend three hours at a salon getting his hair dyed and come back out with grey hair?” Nicolai asked.
I hadmanymore questions about Ivory, but Madame Lucinda might not have those answers. Marsden would if I could make him talk. I got why Nicolai asked, and I certainly hadn’t figured it out, but did Madame Lucinda even know the ins and outs of Marsden’s hair? She threw back her head and cackled.
