Page 20 of Malice in e minor

“Yes, well, he’s not a ballet dancer. He’s never set foot in ballet class in his life, but he’s dating Misha and fiercely protective of him. Azriel crashed Nutcracker auditions. There’s no rule saying he can’t and some of the party guests get played by people in the theatre program sometimes. He was an absolute menace, but the board watching auditions thought he’d make a perfect Mother Ginger,” Rue said.

“He is,” Cullen laughed. “He’s having the time of his life out there, which is exactly what you want in your Mother Ginger. He’s flamboyant and utterly distracting. The first time we practiced with the orchestra, the tambourine player was watching him and missed their cue. Klaus threw his baton and hit an oboe player who’d done nothing wrong.

“Azriel does the choreography he was given, but he was given free rein to improvise and does so frequently. Mother Ginger’s children are usually played by actual children, but not in our performance. Even those dancers don’t know what he’s going to do because he never does the same thing twice. Whatever Azriel Ivy gets up to on stage, if it affects the music in a way Klaus can’t adjust to, he’s going to pitch a fit and disrupt rehearsal. I’m sure that goes for assistants too.”

That was wild, and I was dying to know what Azriel Ivy got up to on stage. It was our job as musicians to follow the conductor, but it was the conductor’s job to follow the performer. If they were rushing, we adjusted. If they wanted to draw something out, we made it happen. It was kind of a nightmare when I had to accompany a singer who spent the whole song making one note into six note vocal runs, but we always managed.

“I see that look,” Cullen said. “I had a torrid affair with a bassoon player last year. That boy could do amazing things with his tongue. Klaus can guide the orchestra through anything. He still has a job here because he’s good. It’s when the orchestra pays more attention to the dancers instead of the conductor.”

“Is he that ridiculous? We’ve been playing long enough to know better.”

“One time, Mother Ginger decided to knock all her children over with her stilts. Like, they went flying. Belinda has a massive crush on Misha and there’s a rumor she cornered him and tried to ask him out right before Mother Ginger went bowling with her children. Misha is gorgeous, nice, and he’s a beautiful dancer, but Azriel and Orion are possessive of him, so don’t even think about it,” Mia said.

“Klaus will probably ignore you unless he needs coffee. He might be a dick about getting an assistant. He probably will be.”

Awesome. It was time to leave, and I always tried to be early for everything.

Icould see what the problem was as soon as I entered the theatre. The orchestra wasn’t practicing in the pit for some reason. Several rows of seating had been removed, and they were sitting in the audience. Depending on where they sat in the orchestra, they could see the stage if they needed. A flamboyant painter getting permission to go ass wild in drag in their first ballet performance was going to be distracting.

I would have picked Klaus out even if Cullen hadn’t pointed out he looked like one of Rembrandt’s goofiest self portraits. He was furiously making notes on the score with a giant tumbler of coffee. I decided to get it over with and introduce myself.

“I don’t have time for you,” he snapped when he saw me approach.

“Well, I’ve been assigned your assistant for the show. I can do whatever you need me to do so that you have more time.”

“You can march on back to Johann and tell him I know what a spy looks like. You won’t get my secrets, Succubus.”

Gross.

“Okay, well, I’m just going to sit off to the side and if you need me to fetch anything or take notes, just holler.”

If he wanted to ignore me while I enjoyed a ballet I already liked, that was his business. I wasn’t trying to convince a paranoid egomaniac that I wasn’t here to ferret out his secrets for his boss. I wanted to play in the orchestra next year and the last thing I needed to do was piss off someone who’d be handling my audition.

The rest of the orchestra started spilling in and tuning up. Orion was running through scales on the piano. It was a shame he was kind of a dick because he was beautiful when he played. He was intensely focused even when he was doing Hanon finger exercises.

I started gravitating towards him when the Hanon exercises from The Virtuoso Pianist started becoming whatever music was on the top of his head when he started to improvise. Orion really was good. He also looked like a really bad decision. Nope, Harlowe. We aren’t doing that.

I stepped back into the shadows and took a seat. Eventually, they started and launched into the Miniature Overture. I frowned about six bars in. Klaus screeched and stomped his foot. The entire orchestra stopped playing and looked around.

“Succubus spy! Make yourself useful and tell these talentless morons what the problem is.”

Fuck me. I was about to make several enemies. Mom had perfect pitch, an amazing singing voice, and a crippling fear of performing. I inherited her perfect pitch and knew exactly what the problem was.

I cleared my throat. Here went nothing.

“One of the violins has a flat G string and one of the flutes is sharp.”

Klaus was giving me a test. I could say I didn’t know to maybe get some friends in the music department, but I did and saying I didn’t might crush my chances at a spot in the orchestra. Besides, all of these people were inches away from playing professionally. They didn’t need their teachers tuning their instruments anymore.

“It’s mine,” a flute player said. “Someone crashed into me on the way here and must have misaligned my cork. I adjusted as best I could, but I’ll have it fixed by next rehearsal.”

“Do that, Sarah. And protect your instruments, though I suppose ruffians in the hallway can’t be helped. Isobel, would you like to explain to everyone why you wasted our time improperly tuning your instrument yet again?”

Isobel shot me a withering glare. Of course, it was her. Whether I pointed it out or not, her G string was still flat and Klaus was going to single her out. It was probably embarrassing as fuck to hold up rehearsal while everyone watched you properly tune your instrument, but I also didn’t do that to her. Klaus was barking out orders like she was still a child and needed help tuning her instrument.

I knew when she had it and rehearsal finally got on. Aside from the tuning blip, the musicians here were talented and so were the dancers. I didn’t know the first thing about ballet aside from my reactions to it. Paige was stunning as the Harlequin Doll in the party scene.

It was finally time for the Nutcracker to come to life and fight the Rat King. Misha wasn’t a big guy. He was shorter than I was. It wasn’t dress rehearsal, so he was just wearing his costume head. His leaps were insane. The guy playing the Nutcracker Prince was bigger than him and Misha easily out jumped him. He was handsome enough to play the Prince or the Cavalier, but he moved like a predator. Misha Petrovich danced like a big cat.