Page 50 of Encore
The curtain finally went down for good, and before we could sneak off to our dressing rooms, Marsden asked us to meet him in the green room. He made many mistakes along the way and killed many innocent people, but this was a massive moment for him. So, I was a little curious about what was next for him.
A man in a suit and two strangers in the green room were waiting for us. What was he doing?
“I should shatter your eardrums,” Nyx said.
“Hear me out. I’m not sure what’s next for me. I haven’t aged since Selena cursed me. I’m not sure what happens now. It could happen overnight, and I could die tonight. If so, I need to get my affairs in order. On the other hand, I could age slowly and die naturally. Either way, it’s time for me to step away fromThe Pfor good.”
“I’m only twenty-four. I’m not ready to retire and be artistic director,” Nyx said.
“No one said you had to. Plenty of smaller companies in New York are run by people who are still dancing with their companies. So, there’s no law saying you can’t run this company and dance for it. In fact, I think you should. You’re one of the few dancers I trust to do that fairly.”
“You stuck me in the corps for years. You give me one duet, and now you trust me with this entire company?”
“That was just me being selfish. I’m a big fan of your social media videos. But, trust me, you can handle the dancing part and all the bullshit politics that come with running a ballet company. I didn’t just ask you all back here to talk Nyx into running this company. I have business to settle. This is my attorney. He knows the truth about the curse, and their firm has been representing me for a long time. He’s also a notary, and he brought two witnesses.”
What was he up to now? His people were sitting at a table with briefcases out, and it looked like they had a ton of paperwork. I knew he already required NDAs in blood about talking about this ballet before he was ready for them to. Was he about to require our silence about everything we knew about him and what went on in this company under his watch? Marsden sat at the center of the table.
“I couldn’t have pulled this off without any of you. You were all exactly what I imagined when I choreographed this ballet. You helped me, and now it’s my turn to help you. When I managed to get Beyla here, I wasn’t expecting my five leads to fall in love and form a coven, but I’m so happy that you did.
“I realize your living situation is not ideal since you’re all apart, and finding a place to live that’s big enough for all of you is going to be impossible on the salary this company pays you. However, I can do something about that and make all of you a little more comfortable.
“I’ve been alive a long time and have reinvented myself multiple times. I couldn’t come back to ballet too frequently without bringing suspicion, and I needed time to figure out a new theory on this curse. I made a name for myself in several art forms that pay a lot better than ballet. Some of them still bring me royalties to this day.
“I own several buildings in New York. I own the building you live in now, and that’s why it stays rent controlled. They all have people running the day-to-day operations. You don’t really have to do a thing. The same families have been running the buildings since I’ve owned them. They’ll contact you if something needs to be fixed, and it’s not in the budget. It’s an excellent source of income.
“I also own a block of brownstones. Two of them are recently empty. One of them is big enough for your coven, and the other would be perfect for the new artistic director of this company. I’m also begging all of you to take them and live there rent-free because Madame Lucinda is living in one, and I’ve never been able to control that vampire. I would love to have someone close by to talk sense into her when she wants to go to bars and bring home a twenty-year-old bear shifter that could break her in half.”
That was actually a solution to the whole trying to figure out which apartment I was going to sleep in dilemma, and we wouldn’t have to worry about pissing off Mrs. Garcia if we used my apartment. New York was expensive. Having a lovely brownstone that would fit all my guys with my favorite people nearby that I didn’t have to pay rent on sounded fabulous.
“I’d love the brownstone, but Iam notcock-blocking Madame Lucinda. If you get to be her age and the young guys still want to hit that, I’m not standing in the way of that,” I said.
“Are all the elevators in the buildings you own totally fucked like the one in ours?” Arden asked.
Marsden just shrugged like it wasn’t this whole thing that anyone who came to our building commented on.
“In one of my lifetimes, I was a reclusive painter. I had a pretty big cult following. Those paintings are worth millions now. I kept painting them even after I pretended he had died. I signed them with my toe print because it was part of the image I was putting out.
“There are two apartments in buildings I own that aren’t rented out. They are full of those paintings that can easily be verified as genuine. Nyx, if you take the job andThe Pgets shit funding that year because politicians don’t think the arts are beneficial, and you aren’t sure you’ll be able to make up the gap with donations, get one of those paintings and sell it. It’ll keep the company healthy for at least the season.
“I’d like to sign my properties over to all of you. I don’t charge Madame Lucinda rent. It’s the least I could do for her. Please keep it that way. I don’t know how much time I have left now, but I do know I’d like to enjoy it. My bank accounts are quite healthy because of my lives away from ballet. I will divide equally it between all of you, Madame Lucinda, and this company when I die. It’s the least I could do after everything.”
It was so weird. Most people were afraid of dying. It didn’t matter if you were human or supernatural. People did stupid shit to avoid dying. When I met Ripley for the first time, she was dealing with Dorian Gray, who would be more than happy to have this curse. He wouldn’t have even tried to break it, knowing he would age and die.
Marsden seemed quite happy about it.
“I just need all of you to sign the appropriate paperwork, then get out of here so you can meet the audience.”
We didn’t talk much as we signed. We were all so focused on breaking this curse I didn’t really think much about what would happen to Marsden when it was over. He hadn’t aged a day since Selena cursed him. What if that caught up with him overnight? That had to be terrifying, and he was totally okay with it.
As soon as the last paper was signed, he kicked us out of the green room to do a meet and greet with the audience. There were a few people out there I wanted to talk to.
Chapter45
Beyla
It was expected that we would go out in our costumes, but no one got mad if we changed our shoes. I tore my pointe shoes off, signed them, and tossed them in the basket with my pointe shoes from the first act for the company to sell to ballet patrons. I practically ran out to the lobby.
I’d seen Kaine, but I hadn’t seen any of my other people in months. I wanted them to meet my New York gang. I was cursing being so short as I tried to find them. Ripley and Ravyn’s husbands were pretty huge, so they shouldn’t be that hard to find.
