Page 47 of Malice in e minor

I mouthed sorry to Orion while Topher pulled me away. Rue didn’t call it a pointe shoe party, she just said they were blowing off steam.

Something told me whatever was going on in Rue’s room was going to be the least shitty surprise I’d had since I got here.

Topher really was a great guy. All three Immortal Nightmare boys blamed him for the relationship going sour. I didn’t have the full story, so I wasn’t casting blame on anyone, but I could tell Meadow trusted him and considered him a good friend.

And it was obvious Topher was fond of her too. She instantly relaxed when she realized Topher was with me. He slung his arm around her in a bear hug, but it was more like a big brother thing.

“Rue isn’t scary at all, she’s into girls, and she also hates Isobel. There’s no reason to be nervous.”

“There’s one,” she said, her hand brushing her eye patch.

“Nah, I happen to know at least two other people told you it’s sexy and they are like, twenty-five percent as pretty as me.”

“Sorry, Harlowe is way hotter than you, Topher.”

“Don’t peer review me and hurt my feelings, Meadow. It’s mean. Let’s go.”

Topher knocked when we got to Rue’s dorm. This was my first time seeing other dorms. Mine and the Immortal Nightmare boy’s rooms were apparently guest suites. The regular dorms were about what I expected. They were bigger than mine when I was in undergrad, but it was the typical white walls, single bed, dresser, and desk. Rue had decorated, and she had a bit of a dark streak.

There were four ballerinas sitting in front of piles of pointe shoes while Cullen and Leif lounged on the bed. They had box cutters, pliers, and needle and thread next to their pointe shoes.

Rue perked up when she saw me.

“Hey, I invited a friend. Meadow plays the cello and Topher invited himself.”

“Topher crashes pointe shoe night all the time. Welcome, Meadow.”

Meadow peeped over my shoulder and took in the chaos. Rue’s eyes widened, but it wasn’t the eye patch. Meadow was beautiful. Cullen knew Rue better than I did and he currently looked like a cat who ate a canary. He introduced everyone.

“Someone said I should ask you how many pointe shoes you go through in a week,” I said.

“This is about two weeks,” she said, gesturing to her pile.

Holy shit. There were about ten pairs of shoes in that pile. Alexa saw my eyes bugging out my head and started laughing.

“Rue has gorgeous feet. We all want her feet when we see her dancing, but not at pointe shoe night. Her feet go through more shoes than we do.”

“While I have you all here, has anyone had any problems with Isobel since I spoke to you last?” Topher asked.

“Just what you saw in the practice rooms. You know I had my schedule changed so I don’t have any classes with her anymore,” Meadow said.

“Hold up. What? What is her deal with you? We know about Leif and Harlowe.”

Meadow nodded.

“Topher told me about Leif. Since Leif is here, I want to tell you all, but this can’t leave this room.”

Meadow must have decided safety in numbers. She wasn’t wrong. Topher and the Immortal Nightmare boys were kind of untouchable, but the other students could at least provide a witness or put her off if she wanted to try something.

The dancers agreed not to gossip, and I watched Leif get paler and paler as Meadow shared her story. And I got it. Meadow lost an eye but the boy she had a crush on just disappeared. If he just left the school and moved states, there was still social media. The only artists who weren’t on social media were the ones who either had a team doing it for them or were famous enough that they didn’t need it. That wasn’t a teenage musician.

“That’s insane. Why is she here with us?” Cullen asked.

“Her father took care of everything. I was a minor, so I didn’t have a choice. He offered my parents money not to make a stink about it and they accepted. I’m guessing a lot of people were paid to make this go away.”

“And she hasn’t technically done anything similar since,” Topher pointed out. “She’s an entitled twat and she could hurt some of you. Or, her daddy got lucky covering things up the first time and has threatened her that he won’t do it a second time. It would ruin his political career if his child was maiming people, and he covered it up once.

“Which is why we are going to be proactive instead of reactive. We’re doing the buddy system. She doesn’t have classes with any of you and she can’t get into your dorms. Have someone with you at all times. That means late night practices. Leif, if you want to work in the ballet studio on choreography, you’re going to have someone else there. Harlowe and Meadow, no booking practice rooms when it’s deserted unless someone is with you. Both of you can practice in your dorm room if needed.”