Page 7 of Malice in e minor

I just stared at her for a minute while she took it all in. This girl looked like she’d spank me, call me a bad boy, then demand I hand wash her panties and make me pay her for it. I fought a smile because she just looked so innocent looking at everything.

But I’d never let her see it. She was off limits.

“The great room is off to the right of the foyer. We gather here to talk art and history. The dancers and actors usually come when they get out of rehearsal and the musicians when they just can’t practice anymore. The visual artists and writers only pop out of their spaces for coffee, snacks, and smoke breaks. I’m pretty sure they aren’t human.”

None of us were human when the muse hit. We pushed our bodies too hard, skipped meals, and lost sleep. Azriel was actually the worst about it. Misha’s body needed rest as a dancer. I didn’t want to get tendonitis, so I didn’t play as long as I wanted. I did stay up late composing when my muse was speaking to me and generally felt like total arse when I finished.

“As long as they don’t call themselves an angel and rant about demons when I’m on a train and can’t leave, they could be vampires for all I care. We all get stupid for our art.”

Ah. So, she already met Gadreel. He was early. They never showed up until graduation. Something weird was going on with this girl. She was brought here this late in the semester and Gadreel was already being a pest. I didn’t like it.

“You’re staring,” her friend pointed out.

Right. I’d been relegated to tour guide. Probably because I was also a musician, though there were plenty of more agreeable arse kissing violin players who would have been thrilled to do this for brownie points. Johann Faustus had the connections to get them in front of virtually anyone and put in a good word.

Great, now her friend was suspicious too and something told me I didn’t want to be on that woman’s bad side.

“Right, sorry. Follow me. The dining hall is through that door. The food is excellent and you have multiple options. They don’t assume everyone wants to eat the same thing. If you’re a picky eater, the dorms have a mini fridge in the rooms and a microwave in the common rooms. You’re allowed a hot plate.”

I didn’t think she’d be as eccentric as Misha with food, but I wasn’t a dick, even if I shouldn’t be giving freshmen tours. Misha had to eat healthier than the rest of us because he was a dancer, but he took it to weird places. Sometimes, he’d insist he could only eat white foods like Satie did and sometimes he’d channel one of his dance idols, Isadora Duncan and live off oysters and champagne. He always ate enough to keep up with his rigorous training schedule, so we just let him.

“The music building is behind this one. It’s where the classes and practice studios are. You’ll have to go to the school’s website to download the app. It’ll have your class schedule and dorm assignment. You can practice in your dorm since you play the violin and can carry it, but it’s considered rude to do that all the time because some people are trying to do homework in there. You can book practice rooms in the app.

“The buildings for classes are laid out in a circle. We have one for visual arts and creative writing, dance, and theatre too. In the center is the building where performances are held. There’s a large indoor theatre and an outdoor amphitheater. You’ll end up performing in both if you make it to graduation.”

Because not everyone did. You didn’t get into Blackvale unless you had talent and were used to dealing with the pressures that came with the arts, but that was cranked up here to the max. The critiques were brutal because they sometimes were in the real world. If someone handled a bad review wrong, it would ruin their career. Some people couldn’t handle it and dropped out.

She just lifted her chin.

“I’m going to make it to graduation.”

“I’ve known her since we were children and can peer review.”

Yeah, I kinda liked this one. I was going to avoid her like she stunk because everything about her being here and Gadreel already contacting her meant something and it probably wasn’t good.

I was just going to have to figure out how to keep Azriel and in some ways, Misha, away from that.

Orion Hart shouldn’t be at Blackvale Academy. Well, he could be, but only as a teacher. He was around my age, but loads more famous. I managed to catch Immortal Nightmare before they made it big and I just knew. It was one of the best performances I’d ever seen.

The fact that they were all gorgeous helped a lot. Orion was tall, very dark-skinned, and had locs down to his waist. He was a virtuoso on the piano and his compositions were haunting.

From what I understood, Misha Petrovitch was Polish. He was short, but reminded me of a cat. I wasn’t a ballet dancer and had never set foot in ballet class, but I could tell how strong he was. Misha’s leaps were insane and there was just so much emotion in his performance.

That left Azriel Ivy, the artist of the bunch. He was tall, slim, and had that vampire vibe I loved. He was covered in tattoos he did himself or drew himself. His black hair was always in his eyes and he loved to gender bend his outfits. He was noted for being able to switch art styles at the drop of a hat. He could paint like Caravaggio one day, then produce an Impressionist or completely abstract work the next.

I didn’t know if Misha and Azriel were here. I didn’t even know why Orion was. They’d been at the top of their game and selling out shows. There was some kind of incident that was being kept hush-hush and then their tour was suddenly canceled. They disappeared and their social media went dark.

It didn’t make sense Orion was here. Even if he’d had a falling out with Misha and Azriel, they were all famous enough to have solo careers. People came to Blackvale to get better at their craft, but also for the connections. They didn’t seem to need either.

“You’ve got that look,” JaToya said.

“Mm. It’s just weird our tour guide is here. That’s the composer for Immortal Nightmare.”

“You mentioned that. Those guys you’re obsessed with and got all cranky about when they broke up? You should try to hit that while you’re here and tell me all about it.”

“Shut up! I did not! And absolutely not. I’m here to learn, not get involved in whatever drama made them break up.”

“Did too. Download the app so we can see your dorm and class assignments. It’s weird you don’t get to pick, right?”