Page 11 of A Vicious Love

“Good. Busy. Very busy. We started rehearsals for the winter piece.”

“The sold-out one?” Marcel asked.

I looked at him in surprise. “You heard about that?”

“Emmie told me.”

Emmie smiled. “I saw the clips from your last dance. And the one everyone shared.”

“Oh.” My cheeks heated. “That was embarrassing.”

“It was beautiful,” she corrected.

“It was dramatic,” Harrison added, lifting his glass. “Harlan loves dramatic. You’re basically a public service.”

I laughed.

Jamison pulled his hand slightly, but I held on without thinking.

Celia leaned forward. “Do you get nervous performing when people you know are there?”

“All the time,” I said. “I get nervous when anyone is there.”

“But you’re good,” Harrison said.

“That doesn’t make nerves go away. It just means you’re nervous with better posture.”

Emmie laughed softly.

Conversation moved from ballet into the kinds of things Harlan people did when they had too much money and a lifetime of being trained not to call them hobbies.

Celia talked about her horses and how one of them had refused to run unless a specific groom led him onto the track.

Marcel mentioned Emmie’s restoration project on an old river estate, where she had insisted on preserving the original stained glass even though the architects wanted to replace it.

“It was hand-fired glass,” Emmie said, almost offended by the memory. “You don’t rip out history because it’s inconvenient.”

Harrison and Jamison bickered about archery. Even Jamison’s brotherly irritation had warmth under it. That was what made it ache sometimes. The Crows were capable of it. Teasing. Listening. Making space for another person’s words.

Jamison just didn’t do it with me.

I turned my attention to him anyway because hope was a stubborn, stupid thing.

“How was the nightclub opening?”

He didn’t look at me.

“Fine.”

One word.

Same tone as always.

I nodded. “I saw it on opening live. On Veil.”

His jaw shifted.

“The hologram broadcast was impressive,” I said. “When the raven shape formed over the roof? Everyone at rehearsal stopped to watch. Madame pretended she was annoyed, but then she kept asking how they mapped the light against rain.”