Page 43 of Encore
The guys were helping me build up my social media profile. Now that the toxic people were gone and Marsden was being mostly normal, I’d made up my mind about staying if we pulled this off. New York was great, and now that we weren’t trying to figure out what Marsden was up to, the guys and Nyx were taking me out to all their favorite places on the weekend.
Madame Lucinda was filming us at our private lessons, and I publicly posted it to social media. The guys were sharing it on theirs, too. I had a whole fan club back home who would share and comment. Reyson probably had a bigger social media following than all four of my guys combined because of the whole god thing and always shared and commented.
Loki and Balthazar always commented with a string of emojis. Sometimes, they would reply to each other in them. I was younger than they were, but I had no idea what they were saying half of the time.
Ripley suggested several books to me that her library didn’t carry. I liked this series where all the characters kept sending one of the guys a squid emoji, and he was driving himself crazy trying to figure out what it meant. I wondered about half the emojis Loki posted on my videos, but I wasn’t about to look them up after he tricked me into looking up blue waffle when I was eighteen. Some things cannot be unseen, and if he ever did or said something I didn’t understand, I was never Googling it again.
They fit us for our costumes and we posed for promotional photos. I’d danced in some beautiful costumes before, but nothing like this. Marsden was a fantastic costume designer. He showed us the artwork for the sets. Maybe Marsden was allowed to be a little weird. The guys told me some of the things he did to cast shows, and it was bizarre.
But I was here now experiencing a ballet where he’d created literally everything for it. The story, choreography, music, costumes, and sets were created one hundred and fifty years ago, but nothing about this ballet was outdated in modern times.
That said a lot about Marsden’s talent. I’d danced in plenty of classics that were older than this ballet. The choreography and music stood the test of time, which was why ballet companies still did them. The sets and costumes were always created new for the company. Sometimes, classics were reimagined to be totally modern, and some roles were gender-bent. I loved the all-male cast ofSwan Lakein the human ballet world.
Nothing Marsden had created that long ago needed to be updated. If another company were interested in doing this ballet, they’d be foolish not to use the original designs. They were that good.
I was getting excited. I couldn’t help it. My people back home always wanted this for me, and they’d be here opening night. Kaine was always front and center where I could see him when the lights weren’t too blinding. He wouldn’t be able to do that with this ballet, but I’d stillknowhe was there.
I had been dancing long enough to not need my family in the audience to perform well, but this ballet was probably the most important role I’d ever danced, and I needed Kaine there.
It was a week before opening night, and nothing terrible had happened. Nyx and I were alone in our apartment. The guys had gone home to shower. Nyx had no problem with them sleeping here, but she drew the line at sharing the shower.
“Beyla, I have to tell you something, and I don’t want you to get mad because I like you.”
“I don’t think I could get mad at you, Nyx. You’re officially my favorite banshee. I’m so glad we ended up roommates.”
“Don’t get gross on me.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to throw feelings at you. Spill.”
“So, shortly after the whole Bellatrix thing, someone kept calling my phone and not leaving a message. I didn’t know the number. I thought it was those car warranty people, even though I don’t have a car. The third time they called, I picked up, shrieked into the phone, and hung up. Finally, they texted me like a civilized person, and it was your Kaine.”
Nyx looked nervous. I didn’t know why Kaine was calling and texting, but he never did anything without reason. So, I gave her a nod to go on.
“He was trying to check up on me because we are friends. Kaine told me even the hardened banshees at the bureau have problems with death omens when it’s someone they know. He said he knew it was weird to call when I didn’t know him, but he wanted to make sure I was okay.”
That was totally Kaine. He was this massive gruff dragon, but he had a big heart. He loved to unleash, shift, and takedown criminals, but he was also very supportive when he needed to be. He started with Balthazar, even though he threatened to burn his ass all the time, then he adopted me.
“That’s just—”
“We’ve been talking every night, and I think I like him,” Nyx blurted out.
ThatI didn’t know what to make of. I didn’t really care about their age difference or that he was now my dad, but I didn’t really want Nyx getting hurt.
“Kaine is pretty great, but I’ve known him since I was born, and he’s never had a girlfriend.”
“Did you know he’s ACE, Beyla?”
Holy shit. I didn’t, but he didn’t talk about his previous relationships much, just that he tried dating, and it didn’t work, so he stopped doing it. He never really told me why. He seemed happy on his own, so I never pressed the issue.
“That actually makes a lot of fucking sense,” I said.
“Kaine didn’t know either because he didn’t know what ACE was. So, we kind of hit it off. Like, more than I have with anyone ever. When he told me why he didn’t date, I had to explain to him it was a thing, and many of us identified that way. It was kind of a revelation to him. We’ve been talking about it a lot. We have plans to go to dinner while he’s here.”
Nyx thought I was mad at her because she was going on a date with Kaine? Honestly, I could kiss her. I wasn’t possessive over Kaine. I wasn’t going to pitch a fit and try to drive someone away because there would be someone in his life besides me. When I thought about it, if there were two people capable of handling the other’s level of grumpy spice, it was those two.
“I’m so not mad at you, Nyx. I’m grateful you saw something I didn’t and answered why his previous relationships didn’t work. I’m glad you told him there’s a name for it and plenty of other people out there like him. If the two of you end up hitting it off when you meet in person, I’d be so happy for you both.”
“I’m a year younger than you are. If you call me mom, I’m going to shatter your eardrums.”
