AllFreeNovel
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“Careful planning. Months of it. You helped with more of it than you know.”
“Next year, I want to help you plan all of this. More,” I whisper, enraptured by every glittering sculpture, the performers, the art, and the stunning stonework. “If I'm still around, that is.”
We’ve never actually discussed the length of term of my agreement. The way he looks at me, it seems like he hopes I will be.
Evan leans in, pressing his lips to mine, the only part of our faces showing. “I’ll see you backstage in a bit. Feel free to mingle around for a bit, have some food. Just be careful. Everyone here is on the prowl.”
“Noted.”
He shifts to my ear, whispering, “I meant what I said. Enjoy yourself tonight. Do whatever you want.”
And with that he's gone, lost among the crowds.
Do whatever I want. Except Gavin's not here, and Tell isn’t either. And we're set to perform in just under an hour.
Maybe he meant after the performance.. We'll find one of those little dark corners for ourselves. The idea thrills me, sets my heart racing.
Despite the vibrance and sexual tension in the air, everyone is contained to a degree. This party is all about decadence, but it’s also about posturing, appearances. Even if most of the people wouldn’t know their own mother in passing.
I mingle through, sipping a glass of blood-red champagne, content to observe.
At a quarter to six, a bell rings out, calling for attention. Above the stage, from the balcony, a voice rings out, matched to a golden outfit, a golden mask. He sings out, calling for order.
“Hear, pause in the midst of your revelry but a moment, we ask, to listen well to the words of the Herald, the Matron of the Ball!”
The crowd applauds, many of the rowdier guests whistling and cheering as a resplendent figure steps to the rail, raising her gilded arms. The rest of her is blinding, bedecked in gold from her goddess mask, concealing every feature, her entire head, to her layered gown.
Her voice is just as magnificent. Melodic, commanding. Hypnotic.
“Welcome to one and all, on behalf of your city’s leadership. We are blessed by your presence tonight, as we are by your citizenship in Sanctum Harbor. This night, each year, is about absolution. A cleansing, a purging of sins, and desires running wild. Eat, drink, taste of the forbidden fruit!” she cries, and the music booms, a shower of smokeless fireworks and lights exploding over the gathering. The crowd goes wild, cheering, toasting.
I bask in the glow of the joy around me for a few more minutes, drinking in the mood and emotion, lingering on a few choice dancers in the arenas before I check the time. Franz still needs to paint me.
The floor lighting guides me around behind the stage to the side door, where a towering guard gives a once-over, then lets me inside. Everyone is there. My whole crew. Even Evan, looking positively otherworldly.
“Are you ready?” Nadia smiles, and a thrill rushes up my spine.
26
HELLENA
Istand alone in the dark, just before the lights come up.
The audience is dead silent. Like every single person in the auditorium is holding their breath.
Like I’m holding mine.
I let it out, and a single light strikes down on me, the first note of the song tolling my first breath, my eyes opening.
I raise one hand up to the light.
Our dancers draped in black join me, rising like coiling smoke around my feet, twisting around me, fog complimenting and masking them into a single entity of menacing darkness.
The first movement of the dance is dark, somber, contrasted with my innocent sensuality, my moves carefree and some of the most difficult to execute. I launch myself, once and again through the song, growing bolder with every leap.
Until the light cuts out, leaving me in shadow, blue illuminating smoke roiling up to snatch at me, pulling and dragging me down.
I bend back into their arms, drawn around the lip of the stage in a floating half moon, as if wandering, lost.
