Page 24 of Malice in e minor

“Don’t you need to get to class?” I asked.

I knew why I wasn’t there. This wasn’t my circus, and I was only going to focus on my education, but I was dying to know what Immortal Nightmare was doing here if it wasn’t teaching. And why did they end up here after canceling a sold out world tour?

Honestly, I should just mind my business. I wasn’t going to press if he didn’t want to answer. Misha just gave me this ethereal smile.

“The dance program here isn’t like the music program. You can play your violin until you die or get arthritis. Our bodies don’t last that long. Forty is pushing it if you don’t land a jump wrong and an injury ruins your career.

“Most people audition for companies out of high school so they can perform longer. Companies also vary by state, but pay isn’t super great and for the most part, we don’t get paid on the off season.

“You need a side hustle and a backup plan if you get injured, so a lot of people double major in undergrad and then audition for companies. Going to grad school for dance cuts down on years you have to perform professionally. This one does things a little different, but the people who go here will either perform for a few years and then go on to be choreographers or artistic directors of dance companies.

“Labanotation and the Benesh Movement Method are how choreographers write things down. I already know both. I built a company from the ground up with Orion and Azriel. I could teach the professors here about dance history.

“I just do several hours of technique classes a day and rehearsals for whatever show they cast me in. And I’m sorry, sometimes, I get excited about dance and talk too much, even when someone isn’t a dancer.”

I grinned because people over-explaining their passions was my favorite thing, even if it was a topic that went straight over my head like math and science. It was beautiful. It didn’t matter how random it was, everyone should have something that made their heart sing as long as it was legal.

I still had a million questions about what the fuck Immortal Nightmare was doing here, but Misha didn’t want to talk about it and I wasn’t going to press.

“No, I love it. Ballet fascinates me, but I should stick to music.”

Misha started giggling.

“There are only a few dancers here I don’t find completely insufferable. Someone mentioned Lurch? I kind of want to see that.”

Oh, man. I was going to be dancing for most of the dance department before I knew it. I didn’t mind. I knew I was terrible at it. I pointed the screwdriver at him.

“Cullen has a big mouth. If I showed you that, I’d have to kill you.”

He had a nice laugh. I hadn’t spoken to Azriel yet, but the ballet portion of Immortal Nightmare was pretty sweet. Misha took care of these cats before I got here and that said a lot about him.

“Oh, we’re done. I hope we can hang out again. Maybe we can grab a bite to eat sometime.”

I’d actually like that and I was short on friends. Misha seemed fine one on one and I didn’t know why he rushed out of the dining hall like that. He hadn’t brought it up and it would be rude to ask.

“Do you like grilled cheese? I still don’t know how, but my patron found out it’s my comfort food and stocked my dorm with the fancy stuff.”

“I love grilled cheese. But you’ll have to come over and let me cook for you too.”

“Done. It was nice meeting you and your cats, Misha.”

“You too, Harlowe Lopez.”

I didn’t think that should piss off Azriel Ivy. I hadn’t hit on him and he hadn’t hit on me. We just had a normal conversation and could be friends. I didn’t invite him to my room to date him. He just seemed overwhelmed in the dining hall and they said he was usually never in there. Cullen said Orion and Azriel were feral if you just looked at him, but Orion was the one in the relationship and Azriel was getting revenge for a good reason.

I didn’t know these men, but Misha was his own person and he was allowed to have friends.

I really hoped I wasn’t about to become Azriel Ivy’s next target because I built a cat condo and offered to make a grilled cheese for his boyfriend.

Oh, Harlowe Lopez was dangerous. I was officially obsessed as I watched her build a cat house with Misha. He loved those cats. I didn’t throw the term muse around lightly. They had to inspire me, but they needed to be decent people too because I wasn’t.

I’d already made an audio file from her subway video so I could listen to it with headphones while I painted. I was supposed to be in figure painting, but I’d been skipping most of the class to watch Misha feed his cats. Most of the students here didn’t have time for outside jobs, but there were on-campus jobs.

Which meant fucking Belinda signed up to model for my figure painting classes. I was stuck in figure painting, but I did not have to immortalize that arsehole’s tits. She’d been posing for weeks and hadn’t seen my painting yet. No one had because I only showed up for the last five minutes of class and worked on it in my studio.

Let’s just say if she didn’t like me tripping her with my stilts, she was going to hate my painting. She didn’t need the money. She was a trust fund kid. There was a mix of legitimately talented people here and people whose daddy bought them a spot. Belinda wanted to dance, but she didn’t have the spark and Misha said she was lazy.

I was pretty sure she signed up to model for my class to get a free Azriel Ivy portrait out of me. I didn’t enjoy portraits. Been there, done that, but I was very good at them. I still did them if it benefitted Immortal Nightmare, the same way Orion did collaborations with people he loathed, and Misha would take guest roles in ballets he didn’t like. Everyone thought being an artist was about following your muse and doing what you wanted, but sometimes, you had to do shit you very much didn’t want to do and make it seem like you loved every minute for either the connections or to not starve to death.