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Oh.
I stagger backward, yanking Casper to safety as Livvie twirls across the stage. She doesn’t wear a chain, but she has her own form of binding. Four deadly snakes circle her arms, waist, and neck, contorting with her body as she sways and shifts to the music.
Holy shit.
So that’s why we need the snakes. They’re the stars of Livvie’s act.
But how’s she controlling them? Isn’t she putting her life and the lives of everyone in the room in danger by handling those reptiles? Of course, Nero doesn’t care about that. In his world, life is cheap, but entertainment… now that can make you rich. His own daughter’s life and the enslavement of innocent animals is a small price to pay for an inflated ticket price.
I turn away as Livvie weaves between her chained dancers. I can’t bear to watch. I hold Casper up to my face and peer into his big blue eyes. I might not be able to free Claudia, but I won’t let this become your life.
Casper squirms in my arms and I set him down. He’s lost interest in the stage and sniffs around the table legs. I pick up my golden egg. My eyes are drawn back to the stage. Livvie gyrates against one of the dancers, her hand raised, palm flat, while Essie curls around her arm. The dancer closes her eyes as the snake slithers around her arm, up toward her breast and—
“Eli?”
Fuck. Fuck.
My golden egg falls from my fingers and splatters sticky alcohol over my shirt.
The dancer freezes. Startled by her cry, Essie rears back, its tongue flicking between its fangs. Livvie snatches it away. The snake hisses and a girl screams and I’m terrified something’s happened, but I can’t look away from the dancer.
Peering down at me through glitter-rimmed eyes, with an expression of abject horror on her face, is Ms. Drysdale.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I stammer.
But then I see her face. I really see it. I see that she doesn’t give a fuck why I’m here because she’s so utterly mortified a student has seen her in this position. And she doesn’t know I know about Nero threatening her, or what he asked her to do, but I do know, and I also know she’s not just at this audition to dance burlesque with a snake.
She’s here because she’s desperate. Because she’s caving in.
My fingers curl around the edge of the stage. I want to step into Nero’s office and pummel his face against the wall. My violent urges are getting as bad as Noah’s.
Instead, I hoist myself up on the stage and gather Ms. Drysdale into my arms. She’s lighter than I expect. I think that she’ll fight me for touching her like this, but she sees something in my eyes because she collapses against me. I lift her high enough that the chain grows slack, and I reach up and tug it over her head. She touches the bruises on her neck.
“Eli, what the fuck?” Livvie calls after me but I don’t stop. I stride out of the club with Ms. Drysdale in my arms. I put her in my car, walk around to the driver’s side and climb in.
“Where do you live?” I bark, trying not to look at her.
She whimpers, leaning her cheek against the glass. Her fingers rest on the door handle. I wonder if she’s going to make a run for it. With a strangled sob, she drops the door handle and slides down in the chair.
“I’m taking you home. It’s not a question.”
She buries her face in her hands. “Take me to school, Eli. I have paperwork to finish.”
I remember what Claudia told me about Ms. Drysdale’s office. “You’re living at school, aren’t you?”
Her eyes widen. She turns away from me. “You can’t tell anyone, or I’ll lose my job.”
“You got up close and personal with Essie the python tonight. I think you have your priorities messed up.”
Her shoulders tremble. “Tell Nero I came but I… I couldn’t stay. Tell him there was an emergency, or—”
I swallow. “I’ll think of something.”
I want to say words of reassurance. But what can you say when your favorite teacher shows up in a gold lamé g-string at the lair of the mob boss you’re working for? Sweet fuck all, that’s what.
So I do what I can. I drive her to Malloy Manor. Claudia rushes down the spiral stairs to greet me as I park up the car. “You’re back early. Is everything okay?”
“Fuck no.” I open the passenger door.
