CHAPTER 36
Axel
A
xel tried to tell himself that it was only the bright stage lights that made Katy look washed out, even with the cosmetics that they had applied in their dressing room.
But the pinched look as she disappeared off the stage refused to leave him alone.
What would he do if their bid to save their child cost him his wife, and the child with her?
Forcing himself to focus, he turned toward his singing partner, reminding himself that Otto was backstage. Otto would take care of Katy, even if she didn’t want to take care of herself.
With his head angled between the actress and the front of the stage to keep his face visible to the audience, he lifted his hands to shoulder height. The orchestra swelled around him as he sang the slow, metronomic notes.
“As I’ve told you,
There’ll never be ‘you and me;’
I’ve made my choice,
And I cannot change it.”
The actress rose slowly from her seat. Her green eyes fastened onto him as she stalked toward him, the movement smooth like a cat.
Green? Weren’t her eyes blue?
She opened her mouth and began to sing, but now that he wasn’t lost in his worries, he noticed that her voice sounded different than before. Familiar, but wrong.
“Don’t tell falsehoods;
They don’t become a prince.
You can walk
Whenever you choose to.”
Axel fought to maintain his crafted expression of woe at her words. Those lyrics didn’t exist.
The low brass pounded out the notes, increasing in volume as the violins ascended the scale, strengthened by the doubled octave in the cellos below. The pulsing pattern shifted into a more melodic section, and his acting partner’s voice soared along with it.
“The stage is where you’re meant to be.
Your father knows this,
But he will never let your voice be free.
So turn your back on what you know,
And all the kingdoms we will roam.
Then all the land will know your genius.”
The notes were correct, but the words were still unfamiliar. Axel backed away, unsure how to answer now that they were off book. She followed him, her steps as sure as a predator approaching unsuspecting prey.
His entrance approached, but he floundered, flopping his mouth soundlessly as he tried to make sense of the situation.
While he hesitated, she sang for him.
“I told you what I want from you;
If you’ll not heed me,
Then I’ll be forced to bring you to your knees.
So will you come away with me,
Or stay right here and lose your dream?
Only I can give it to you.”
Axel’s jaw dropped. What was going on?
“Kat? What is—Kat!”
Otto’s shout rang out from backstage, jerking Axel’s attention toward stage left. From the corner of his eye, he saw the conductor falter for a moment before gallantly continuing. A wave of whispers began to sweep through the audience, but he pushed it from his mind.
Rush to Katy’s side? Or try to salvage the performance so Lotti would give him the name?
Otto’s voice became more frantic, and something clattered to the floor. Axel’s feet carried him forward. Surely Lotti would forgive the interruption.
But as he passed the auburn-haired actress, her appearance flickered, her green eyes briefly bulging and her nose flattening before the perfect image reappeared. Spinning, he gaped at her. If the face he was seeing wasn’t her real face…
Suddenly, the strangeness of her voice clicked. “Lotti?” he gasped.
Her mouth twisted. “I told you not to bring guards.”
Lifting her hands, she made a sign and began to sing again. He reached for her, but a line of fire sprang up between them. It curled behind him, running across the front of the stage. The flames licked at the curtain, reaching hungrily for the fuel source.
Axel jerked his hand back, but he was otherwise frozen, staring at the flickering orange wall in front of him. Lotti...could use magic?
“You’re the ghost,” he whispered. The musicians had stopped playing, and there were shrieks coming from the audience, but the noises barely registered as the pieces fell into place. “This whole time, it’s been you. The notes, the accidents...”
Looking up, he realized that she was almost to the curtains.
He jolted himself out of his shock and ran around the line of flames, cutting back to stage left as soon as he cleared them.
A terrified stagehand flew toward him. Axel dodged out of the way but kept going.
Perhaps the smart decision would be to follow, but Katy was back there. Katy and—
The whirring sound of spinning pulleys was the only warning before the set hit the floor with a crunch. It wobbled for a moment, leaning toward the front of the stage and then the back. Axel darted forward. The set creaked and tipped to the front again.
With a loud groan, it toppled toward him. Axel veered toward the crackling fire, breathing through the fierce heat. The set was falling faster, its top reaching for him.
But just as he closed his eyes against the coming pain, a burst of displaced air threw his hair into his face, and the set hit the stage with a loud whump next to his feet. He jumped onto it and kept running.
As he slipped past the curtains, something thin whipped past him. The edge caught his cheek, and he hissed in pain and ducked back. It flipped through the air again, and Otto released a grunt somewhere to Axel’s right.
“Katy? Otto?” Axel called, peeking around the heavy red fabric. The end of a cable flicked toward him, and he jerked away. What—
“I hoped it wouldn’t come to this. But it’s clear that you need the extra incentive.” Lotti’s voice was quiet, but it seethed with anger and—hurt?
He stepped back into the curtain, letting it wrap around him for protection.
He needed to see backstage, but he also needed to avoid the writhing cable that should have been holding up the set.
“Lotti, what are you doing? Why don’t you put out the fire and stop the—um, whatever else you’re doing, and we can talk about it? ”
“Not here,” she replied, the emotion making her voice rough.
“There are too many people who might interfere. But don’t wait too long – I suspect your theater girl is nearing her time.
Which means your time is running out as well.
” She lifted a hand. “I’ll meet you at the intersection of hope and broken dreams.”
“The intersection of—what? Lotti, wait!” Dropping to the floor, he dragged himself forward with his elbows.
Lotti stood next to the metal bed that Katy had appropriated, and as she sang, it slid toward her.
The metal feet made a terrible noise as they skidded across the polished wood floor.
Katy lay on the bed, her head fallen to the side and her eyes closed.
Despite the screams in the theater and the screeching of her bedstead.
And if that didn’t worry him enough, the metal of the frame had stretched over her, binding her at the ankles and chest.
“Katy!”
A loud groan over his head sent his eyes to the ceiling. The catwalk swayed, then dropped a foot. It shuddered, and Axel rolled to the side, scrambling to his feet as it sagged farther. Dare he make a run for it?
The cable end flipped again, and he jumped backward, narrowly avoiding another slice.
Another grunt caught his attention. Turning his head, he found Otto struggling against the cable’s middle. Somehow, it had looped itself around a couple of tie-downs and pinned Katy’s cousin between itself and the wall.
For a few moments, Axel simply blinked at the sight. It shouldn’t have been a surprise after dodging the end so many times, but watching Otto’s battle was something else entirely. In what world did metal move like it was alive?
His, apparently. Unless the strain of the last few months had broken his mind.
Otto tried to duck under the cable, but it snapped taut against his neck before he could clear it. Giving himself a mental slap, Axel ran over. He grabbed the cable with a hand on either side of his friend. Bracing one foot against the wall, he heaved backward.
Otto shoved from the other side, but the cable barely budged. They moved it half an inch, then another, enough for Otto to breathe but not to escape. Axel didn’t know about his friend, but his arms and leg were starting to feel the strain; he couldn’t keep this up much longer.
Just as his muscles began to give out, the cable went limp. Axel tumbled backward at the loss of resistance; Otto slid down the wall, crumpling to the floor. The backstage area suddenly dimmed as the fire vanished.
“That’s it,” the guard croaked, rubbing his throat as he sprawled against the wall. “Once we free Kat, I quit.”
Katy.
Axel spun around, but Katy, the bed, and Lotti were gone.