Page 46 of Encore
“She’s right. I didn’t come here to dance this role, but now that I have it, it’s extra special to be dancing it with the four of you. So, just relax and do what you were born to do.”
I had already gotten over my shit for dress rehearsal. Even if I hadn’t, I would have been perfection on stage. I started taking ballet lessons when I was three. They didn’t put us in ballets with the older kids. We had this end-of-year recital for our families to watch us where it was okay for us to mess up.
Our teacher was hiding in the wings doing the choreography in case we forgot it. Half of my class was staring off to the side, watching the teacher. One boy wet his tights and ran off stage. Not me. I was front and center, looking dead at the audience, being the best, little toy soldier I could be.
It was my first time on stage, and I absolutely adored it. I didn’t have stage fright. I fed off the audience’s energy, and I knew I wanted to do this for the rest of my life as soon as the music stopped.
Even if I had totally blown tech, I wouldn’t have done the same thing opening night. It wasn’t just that it was utterly unlike me. Beyla was counting on me. If we pulled this off, it would cement her as a prima ballerina, and she’d had no reason to go back home and leave me.
Because if she left, I’d abandon everything I worked for and follow her.
Chapter41
Beyla
This was it. Curtain was going up tonight, and I’d be losing my shit even if there wasn’t the slight possibility of a dead witch’s curse rearing its head when I was getting the break I dreamed about when I was a teenager. But, as much as all my bureau training had instilled in me never to relax until a case was officially closed, I had access to two people who knew the witch responsible for this curse.
They were both certain nothing would happen opening night, and they both had compelling arguments. Honestly, Madame Lucinda made a lot more sense than Marsden did because he was too close to this. But, on the other hand, Selena wanted revenge on Marsden, and the cast she thought betrayed her by not demanding Tabitha leave instead of her.
I agreed with Madame Lucinda. Selena didn’t want to destroyThe P,and I was reasonably sure she didn’t intend for this ballet to have the body count it did. She was probably expecting her husband to use his actual brain and not try trial and error to break a curse where he knew damned well people were going to die.
I could relax a little. My people were coming from home, and I needed them. I met some important people here in New York, and I wanted them to meet my important people back home.
Everyone had hotel rooms. I didn’t have the space to put up that many people. Kaine was by himself, but if you were going to ask a dragon to sleep on your couch, it would have to be one of those really expensive, massive couches that people with a lot of money put in their media rooms.
He was coming over, though, and when I heard a knock on the door, I jumped up to answer it. It was a tradition before every performance that Kaine would cook me this ancient recipe dragons used to eat before raiding for gold.
He'd take a whole chicken, rub it down with spices, stuff it with bread and herbs, and then roast it with dragon fire. Stoves and microwaves were marvelous inventions, but there was nothing compared to meat roasted with dragon fire. It also cooked much faster than an oven.
Kaine knew about my guys and wanted to meet them. He was going to cook for all of us. Kaine had a history of getting grumpy about the men I went on dates with, but I got it. I never intended to keep any of those guys. Kaine knew they were important to me.
I shrieked when I opened the door and saw his face. His arms were loaded with his cloth grocery bags, and he was carryinga lotof chicken.
“Hey, kid. I love cooking for you and your crew but hauling this many chickens up all those stairs because the elevator is broken is insane. One of the tenants saw me staring at the out-of-order sign and said it was never working. With the rent they charge in New York, it’s criminal not to have a working elevator.”
“Get in here. I’ve missed you,” I said, grabbing some of his bags.
Kaine was looking over my shoulder, and I knew he wasn’t checking out where I lived. He was looking for Nyx. I was stanning those two so hard, and they hadn’t even met in person yet. Those two could be the power couple of grump, and I was here for it. Plus, I was fond of both of them and wanted them to be happy.
Nyx peered around the corner, and Kaine just lit up. I’d seen Kaine get excited before. When his dragon bowling team won their tournament, that was usually Kaine’s happy place. I’d seen him smiling at me proudly after performances. But, the look on his face when he saw Nyx was new, and I actually saw him blush. So did she.
“Hey, Nyx. It’s great to meet you in person.”
They were totally about to have a moment when all my guys spilled in to meet Kaine because they knew how important he was to me. Of course, I wanted them all to meet, but I wanted Nyx and Kaine to have their moment.
I introduced everyone, and it went pretty smoothly. These people were two separate parts of my life that were all equally important. I wanted them all to get along, and they did. They were all trying to get to know each other while Kaine cooked. Kaine and Nyx were even getting some flirting in. I was so damned content.
“Oh, my shit. This chicken is amazing,” Nyx moaned.
Kaine puffed his chest up proudly. I told him that every time he cooked me this before a performance. But honestly, he was taken for granted a lot at the bureau and wasn’t told how amazing he was enough.
“It doesn’t just taste amazing,” I said. “Kaine has been cooking this for me before performances since I went to live with him. It gives you amazing energy and endurance on stage with no crash afterward.”
“I’m guessing this is a top-secret dragon recipe we aren’t supposed to be eating?” Bevan asked.
“Honestly, that’s kind of horse shit,” Kaine said. “A lot of dragons want to preserve our culture by not exposing anyone who isn’t a dragon to it, but I think that’s stupid. We should celebrateour culture and make sure it keeps growing.
“Instead of being so dead set on keeping old dragon recipes a secret from the supernatural community, weshouldhave dragon-run restaurants. Some of our recipes can be cooked in a skillet, but a good bit of them requires dragon fire. That can’t be copied or stolen with anything on this Earth. What theyneedto be doing is setting up dragon-run restaurants and creating new celebrated recipes instead of being stupid about keeping centuries-old recipes this enormous secret.”
