“Same,” Em promised and we leaned our heads together. Standing there in silence, I drank in the calm and Em seemed to be doing the same. “Okay,” she said with an exhale. “Time to go to work.”
Going to work involved finishing the last touches on her cosmetics, then snagging her robe to head along the backstage to where she’d climb up to where she would be starting her show.
The hum from the crowd was electric. The crew, familiar from a long time of working together, greeted Em with easy smiles and salutes as I followed her along the back behind the curtains.
Rome was with us. Ahead, Vaughn waited at the foot of the ladder she would use to climb up to the catwalks. I tilted my head back to check the height. It never failed to amaze me how comfortable she was up there.
“I’m going to be stage left,” I promised. “I want to be able to see everything.”
Em squeezed my hands, then she was climbing the ladder with Rome right behind her and Vaughn lifted his chin to me. “Bodhi is with Freddie, they went to get drinks from the green room.” He pointed back the way we’d come.
“We’re good for me to just get into place though?”
“We should be,” Vaughn said. “I’ll let them know where you are.”
“Thank you.” I gave him a little wave and then made my way around to the side stage area. Crew with a headset on turned to me as I approached. “I’m just going to be over here, out of the way.”
“You’re fine, Miss Benedict. We can set up a chair if you’d like it.”
I waved him off. “No need to worry about me.”
The hum from the audience had grown louder. There was music playing from the speakers, but it was too low to make out. Across the visible stage, crew moved swiftly but stayed well-away from the curtains.
Head tilted back, I studied the darkened area above. I could barely make out the catwalks, but I could see where the silks were suspended and ready to be lowered.
A shiver went through me. The next crew guy sauntered past and I did a double-take. Jasper grinned, then handed me a fresh water bottle. “Enjoy the show, she’s doing something new tonight.”
Chuckling, I saluted him with the water. Not even three minutes after he walked away, did I catch sight of Kellan on the far side of the stage. He just gave me a measured look and a nod.
The Vandals were everywhere. I didn’t make the mistake of thinking they weren’t keeping an eye on me too. I appreciated them for it. Still, I slung my purse crosswise over my chest. I’d left my jacket in the dressing room.
My baton was in easy reach and I had a knife in my boot. The layers of security made me feel better, especially because Em was the one—
The lights flashed once.
Twice.
Three times.
The din of conversation from out front diminished. The lights backstage shifted, everything on the side stages dropped into shadow and I put my water bottle onto the chair next to me.
The music through the speakers increased with just the faintest crackling to betray the age of the equipment itself. As the volume turned up, the crowd grew even quieter.
A hush of movement next to me had me turning to find Bodhi sliding into place behind me. He wrapped his arms around my middle and I leaned back against his chest. We didn’t need words.
Anticipation threaded through me. I found myself holding my breath. Watching Em perform was always something of a revelation.
The house lights went down. The stage lights shut off. The whisper of the curtains opening drifted past me. I noticed it more for the breeze than the actual movement. My eyes hadn’t adjusted fully, not yet.
Pressing two fingers to my lips, I went utterly still as the music cut off abruptly.
Darkness.
Silence.
The sense of the audience shifting, leaning forward. I had my eyes glued upward, she was going to—
The music rose suddenly, a spotlight kicked on, and Em tumbled from the ceiling in what looked like a rolling free fall that she caught herself neatly, breaking all rules of gravity.
Applause welcomed her and I couldn’t stop smiling. It was the Carnival overture by Dvořák. Her twist and dance in the air to the Czech composer’s work made her truly seem like a fairy.
My smile grew as I watched her. The distance softened everything about her. You didn’t see the way her muscles shifted as she caught the silks, twined them around her to climb and dance on the air itself.
No, all you saw was the ethereal beauty with her absolute gift. It was amazing. As the Carnival played onward, I found myself swaying to it. Almost exactly as Em was, only she was making the silk begin to rotate — ballroom dancing in the air.
The audience applauded and I would have joined them except gunfire exploded through the dark, a spray of bullets striking the catwalks above and sparking like deadly fireflies where they hit. Screams erupted from the audience and the spotlight cut off.
Had Em been hit?
Bodhi’s arm around my middle tightened and he pulled me farther back into the backstage. Three steps back and suddenly even the back stage area’s blue lights cut off. Chaos descended with the blanket of darkness as the flash of gunfire sliced through the dark.
Someone slammed into us and only Bodhi’s arm around my middle kept me from being knocked down. One moment he was there, the next I was behind him and there was a pained grunt.
What the hell?
As abruptly as the lights had cut off earlier, they flashed to life again—brighter. Too bright, like someone turned up all the power. Tears flooded my eyes even as I tried to squint away from the intensity.
