Page 21 of Malice in e minor

The show progressed without interruption and I managed to tune out the girl with the damaged flute. It was a good production. The orchestra was talented, and the dancers were beautiful. They were on a plain stage in regular tights and leotards with practice tutus, but I had enough imagination to see the costumes and sets with lighting.

The first act ended and the dancers and orchestra took their breaks.

“Succubus spy!” Klaus demanded.

I hadn’t realized he’d made his way over to my corner and was standing in front of me.

“My name is Harlowe.”

“Don’t care. You look like a succubus and I’ll learn your name if you ever convince me you aren’t here to suck my secrets out for Johann like a succubus. Fetch me some coffee. The second act is a lot more trying than violin players who continually tune their G string a half a step lower than it’s supposed to be.”

Another test, but thankfully, Orion of all people prepared me for. I had no idea how to convince this paranoid man I wasn’t trying to suck the secrets out of his head for the headmaster, who I didn’t like all that much, but I could manage coffee. I worked as a barista in high school and his order was simple.

Klaus looked like he was gleefully ready to rip me a new asshole for getting his coffee wrong, even though he didn’t actually tell me how he wanted it. He eyed me over the rim as he took a big sip and nearly started choking when he realized it was exactly what he wanted.

Yeah, this man would have yelled if I brought him the wrong coffee, but he looked furious I got it right. I realized I was never going to be able to please this man, and it was best to just keep my head down around him.

“You apparently aren’t the only spy in my orchestra, succubus, but my coffee is the only secret you’ll get out of me. Go sit and be quiet.”

I hadn’t made a peep the entire rehearsal, but I was both curious what Klaus was hiding and pretty sure I also didn’t want to know.

The second act started with Clara and her prince landing in the Land of Sweets. Klaus visibly tensed when the Mother Ginger music started. Azriel managed to flounce out on stilts with a hoop skirt hiding dancers. Cullen was right. He was eating this up and having the time of his life.

Mother Ginger’s children started popping out of her hoop skirt to do their dance. Since I wasn’t playing in the orchestra, my eyes were glued to Azriel. I saw when he went from having fun to when his gaze locked on one of the ballerinas and went predatory.

I was guessing that was the girl who hit on Misha. He was gorgeous, talented, and famous, so I could see the appeal, but he was also taken. JaToya and I had this whole thing about not chasing men, especially if they were taken, even if they were stupid hot and checked all the boxes. If they’ll cheat with you, they’ll cheat on you. Misha was dating two guys, and I wasn’t even sure if he liked girls.

When she danced past Azriel, he stuck his stilts out and whacked her shins. She went sprawling on her face. She had to have done more than just hit on Misha to piss Azriel off like that, right? No one was that possessive or psycho.

The dancers kept saying it was the orchestra who kept getting distracted by Azriel and throwing Klaus off, but Mother Ginger’s children stopped rehearsal this time. I guess they decided to revolt.

“I can’t work with him!” Belinda yelled. “He’s not even a dancer, and he’s going to permanently end my career!”

The music screeched to a stop and a few of the dance professors came out from backstage.

“Azriel, we said you could improvise, but you can’t injure the dancers.”

He plastered this innocent, aw shucks look on his face like he didn’t mean it. I’d been watching him the whole time because he was magnetic on stage. He locked onto that girl and waited for her to get close enough to hit with the stilts.

“Sorry, I just got excited. I’m getting used to being a performer instead of making sets and painting off to the side. I’ll be better.”

“I can’t work with him. He said that the last time he tripped me. He’s going to do it again. Why can’t Toby do it again? He knows the part.”

“Because they’ve already done promo that Misha, Orion, and I are sharing a stage again in different ways, Belinda. Deal with it.”

Belinda shrieked and stomped off stage. The rest of rehearsal was less eventful. I saw why Rue got the Sugar Plum Fairy as a second year and why they paired her with Cullen. They were beautiful together. Rue’s feet were a blur and her leg went impossibly high. Cullen didn’t jump nearly as high as Misha, but he was still amazing.

When rehearsal wrapped up, I realized Klaus expected me to clean the coffee machines, which wasn’t a big deal.

I guess I survived my first Nutcracker rehearsal.

Iwas waiting for her to finish cleaning the snack table. Why did I even want to help her? It wasn’t my job, and it wasn’t even that dirty. Fuck it. I walked over and started packing up cookies. She looked over at me like she was surprised.

“Interesting rehearsal,” she said. “All that because that girl hit on your boyfriend?”

Was that the story the plebeians were giving out? Because she didn’t just hit on my boyfriend. She deserved everything she had coming to her. I resisted the urge to bare my teeth at Harlowe. She was new, and she didn’t know better.

“Belinda didn’t just hit on Misha. She did, and he turned her down. That girl is obsessed with him. Azriel is feral. He can make his own paints and turn the contents of a garbage can into something beautiful. He hates AI. Belinda started out using it to generate photos of her and Misha in ballets Misha hates. He doesn’t like the tragic ballets. He prefers contemporary ballets, but wants to do the ones where everyone gets their happily ever after if he’s doing a classical one.