Page 4 of Malice in e minor

“Anything on my benefactor? Because he managed to find out all my secrets, and you know I keep my family stuff inner circle only.”

“Guy’s a total ghost, but his handle isn’t. The Morning Star is a charity that’s heavily involved in the arts. They are the biggest donor to Blackvale, but I also found where they’ve funded the restoration of theatres that needed it. They’ve founded free schools in areas that might not be able to afford them that teach art, music, dance, and theatre. I can’t find anything weird and nasty, which is more than I can say for your stalker. You should do it. I only like classical music when you’re the one playing it.”

That much was completely true. JaToya came to every single one of my performances and cheered the loudest. I had to stop inviting her if I wasn’t playing because she snored and got violent when elbowed.

“Is this seriously happening to me?”

“You deserve this, but you have to video call me every day while you’re away and send me anything new that you compose.”

That was the thing about JaToya. She only liked classical music if I was the one playing it, but she was brilliant at critiquing my compositions. If I wrote something and wasn’t completely convinced it was perfect, JaToya could generally point out it wasn’t in a non-offensive way from someone who knew absolutely nothing about music.

Also, if my Virgo bestie was telling me it wasn’t completely rash and insane to pack my back and take a train upstate to study music after some weird encounters in the subway, then it probably wasn’t.

I guess I was going to Blackvale Academy.

Iwas clearly onto something. I’d forgotten their names since I just didn’t care. I called them the Good Angel and the Bad Angel, and they were just annoying. What was the point of the Bad one? That was my job or my demon's job. They meddled in all my deals, but it was just ridiculous. The Good Angel was a preachy bastard who tried to convince people not to take the deal or ask my father to break the deal.

The Bad Angel was doing a shitty cosplay of me. He tried to convince them to take the deal, but he was just a shitty imitation. I still didn’t understand the whole point of him because if you were going to assign two angels to stop me, why have one helping me?

Apparently, the Good Angel was Gadreel. I didn’t particularly care, but I was watching Harlowe because I needed her at Blackvale. Gadreel was the only one meddling this time. He was on the subway platform kicking garbage cans over, and the Bad Angel hadn’t shown his face.

Which meant my father only wanted Gadreel convincing her not to work with me. I barely remembered Gadreel, and that was why I forgot his name, but if I was remembering correctly, he was one of many angels who went around having sex with mortal women and sired a bunch of Nephilim. They didn’t get locked in a cage in the pits of Hell for that like I did and I hadn’t done anything like that.

But Gadreel actually came up with something a lot more brilliant than just talking someone's ear off like an insufferable twat. So, I had to watch her to see if I needed to intervene.

Once upon a time, she was going to try to continue her music career making videos, but she got distracted with the shit hole she lived in. Gadreel would have known that too because he was an angel. His social media read like you gave a preacher loads of cocaine and asked them to write a sermon. It was super awkward since I knew he managed to convince at least one human to fuck him.

He created a new account and made sure she went viral. Sexy goth girl with that much talent playing the creepiest classical music with the subway as a backdrop? She could make that her thing. She wouldn’t need to worry about her apartment, and people clearly loved her vibe and talent.

On the surface, she’d have no reason to go to Blackvale. She could eventually monetize her account, and if the right people noticed, she could start doing performances outside of the subway.

But he’d been a pest with my artists for thousands of years and didn’t actually listen to them. He talked their ears off, but he didn’t understand them. Some of them thought they were perfect and didn’t get that art was subjective. If someone didn’t care for their art, they raged and pitched a fit. They thought they were masters of their craft and had nothing left to learn.

Then you had artists like Harlowe and the ones I was drawn to. They were always chasing perfection, but knew it was impossible. They didn’t want easy because they knew they’d get bored. They would achieve that fame. People would call them masters of their craft and they were still taking lessons and practicing because they knew it was impossible to master any art.

I was pretty sure that was Harlowe. She didn’t want to be internet famous. She wanted to experience everything. Auditioning for something she really wanted and not getting it, working her way through last chair in small concert halls to first chair in the big ones. At least, I thought that was her.

I was actually worried for a minute.

I knew of her best friend because they were always together. Her friend liked to joke she didn’t have a creative bone in her body, but I tended to agree with Harlowe. She had creativity in spades, just not for the arts. That girl was going to do amazing things in robotics.

Visiting Harlowe to convince her to take my offer may have worked. I could have introduced myself and settled her fears. I wouldn’t lie to her about my name. The Lucifer thing probably wouldn’t freak her out, but me showing up would probably spook her.

But JaToya convinced her to go to Blackvale, and I did a little digging. She was trying to get a grant for a project she was working on, and I was going to make sure it got funded as thanks. Anonymously, of course. I was going to have to put some serious precautions in place so she didn’t find out her mysterious donor was Harlowe’s patron because neither of them would like that.

Though I did find it amusing Harlowe tended to listen to her friend because of her zodiac sign. She’d probably ask her tarot cards later just to be totally sure.

I had a few more hours of freedom before I was zapped back to my cage. I had Harlowe and now I had things to put into place.

The train ticket Dr. Faustus gave me was actually for Sunday. He intended for me to be in class on Monday. It wasn’t much time to decide at all, but I ended up not needing it. All signs pointed towards going, being the best thing for me.

I would have preferred spending Halloween night partying, but I had to be responsible. JaToya was off since it was the weekend. She went with me to visit Mom in the hospital so I could tell her what was going on and prepare her for being moved.

Most weekends, I either slept at JaToya’s house or she slept at mine, so our parents knew us pretty well. Mom knew how much I wanted to play music and had always gone the extra mile to make it happen. She also knew I was waiting tables because I didn’t want to leave her. Mom also knew damned well I had a hard head and wouldn’t unless she was taken care of.

She also knew JaToya was going to dig into everything for the people she cared about. Even Mom was on board when JaToya said she couldn’t find anything that would come back to bite me in the butt. So, I was going and getting excited about it.

I wasn’t going to blow that massive tip. I paid the hospital, bought JaToya a train ticket to help me get settled in, and then she helped me invest it where I’d get good dividends. We spent the rest of the weekend packing things up. I was taking my clothes and violin and arranging for a company to pick up my furniture and move it to storage. It was all cheap or second hand, but I didn’t want to have to buy it again if I had to.