6. Rahzlyn #2
“Where is the famous dancer everyone speaks of?”
He pointed to a low circular stage currently occupied by a group of practically naked men blowing fire from their mouths. Several snakes coiled around their gleaming chests. “No one knows when she’ll make an appearance. That is part of her mystery.”
Kole beckoned at a barely clothed server for another round.
I listened to the sensual rhythm and found the music to be unfamiliar compared to the jovial tunes that filled Gemini.
It took me a while to settle into the carnal beat of drums and tambourines.
But when I did, Kole was right there with me.
His front pressed into my back as I lifted my arms overhead and let my fingers flutter to the beat through the dense air. Our hips dipped and swayed in unison.
“Show me,” Kole hissed hot against my neck. “Show me how your body can move.”
I gave into the music. Every song, wordless or not, told a story, and my body ached to hear it.
Before long, sweat poured down my heaving chest. Slow, pounding beats pulsed in my veins.
Everything here was primal and animalistic.
The masks created a sense of reprieve from humanity’s judgmental constraints.
I wound my fingers through Kole’s soft strands as we moved against one another, feeling him hard and eager against me.
His hands roamed up my sides before gripping my hips tightly and spinning me around.
I let go of my worries that plagued me before coming here.
My body followed his lead and twirled, losing myself even further.
The room and my mind whirled in harmony.
“Look around you,” Kole said, stilling me. I panted as he peeled strands of hair from my gleaming chest. “Look at them watching you.”
Beneath my mask, I took in the throng of spectators. I was used to attention from an early age, but not from this many people at once. Dozens of eyes stared at us through black, gaping slits. Breathless and confused, I stared back.
“They’re envious of you,” Kole whispered. “And filled with want.”
I didn’t understand. I was only dancing like the rest of them here.
“Come with me.” Kole pulled at my hand then.
I hesitated. While a quick tryst in the shadowed corners sounded tempting, I didn’t want to miss the dancer herself if she appeared.
“Trust me.” Kole nipped at my ear. His pierced tongue slid over the tender skin beneath my earlobe, and I shuddered at his honed attention.
He pulled me after him. Every so often, he’d glance back with mischievous eyes.
Once we dipped behind a curtain, I tugged his collar and pressed our lips together.
He tasted like he’d been smoking again. I flicked my tongue against his and circled his piercing.
He squeezed my breast. I was hungry for intimacy and wanted to take advantage of this moment—when his wandering eyes only wanted me.
A throat cleared from somewhere behind us.
I pulled away to find a beautiful, snake-masked blonde lounged along a velvet chaise.
Her white gown clung to her slim, bony frame with a slit at her crossed thighs.
A glass of dark crimson liquid was cupped between a similar shade of sharp nails.
She couldn’t have been much older than me, yet a heaviness to her painted features aged her.
“Oh,” I mused. “Would you like to join—”
“Do us both a favor and don’t finish that sentence,” Kole said wryly. He turned to adjust himself.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I murmured.
“So. This her?” the woman prompted Kole.
I frowned in return. “Her who?”
“Roselyn,” Kole said carefully, his hands resting atop my shoulders. “This is the matron. The showrunner of Serpentine.”
He knew this woman. He knew this place. He’d been here before. All the times we’d talked about coming here as if it would never be anything more than a pointless dream now stung like a slap to the face, breaking past my alcohol-induced haze.
“I go by Rahzlyn, actually,” I clarified. “And you are…?”
The attractive woman rose to her feet and proceeded to circle me like a vulture, a chamberstick in hand. The pounding music from the other rooms faded as I struggled to keep my head from spinning.
“I saw you dancing out there,” she crooned. Her fingers tousled my curls in one hand, her other bringing the candlelight closer. “Is this your natural hair color?”
“That’s… an odd question.”
“It is,” Kole answered for me. “A deep brown, nearly black in certain lighting. Until the sun or even the moon touches it. Then—”
“It takes a reddish hue, like a rose,” the woman murmured, continuing to study my hair. “You’ve caused quite the stir out there with your dancing. Where have you trained?”
“Trained?”
“To dance.”
“I haven’t,” I said. “Though apparently I could dance before I could walk.”
“No untrained dancer in Gemini can move the way you do. That is not the way someone born to an air sign dances.”
“Well, I guess that makes me special then.”
The woman’s gaze roamed over me before shifting to Kole. “She must be a quick study. And I suppose the similarities are sufficient.”
“She is standing right here.”
Kole asked me, “How would you like a job here?”
“A what?” I wasn’t qualified for anything of importance here. Though there was one occupation I surmised on our way in that merely required a pretty face and naked body. It wasn’t the first time I’d been approached for such employment.
“To dance,” Kole clarified after an apparently long silence. “Just dance.”
My heart unclenched in disbelief as the words sunk in.
I was being offered a job not as a whore—but as a dancer.
Hot excitement coursed through me. I couldn’t refuse an opportunity to financially support myself while doing something I loved, proving I didn’t need a husband to find my way in this world.
The baroness would never tolerate a dancer for a daughter-in-law.
At the very least, I would have a means to save for a travel stone and support my escape to another territory if it came to that.
Basil said I jumped into things too quickly without truly understanding the consequences. Right now, there were far too many benefits outweighing whatever drawbacks existed with this agreement.
My hand twitched. It hovered at my side as I pondered how reckless this was. I would be stupid not to seize this opportunity. I thrust my hand out. “I accept.”
She chuckled mirthlessly. “Accepting agreements without understanding the terms is foolish.”
“I’m eager and willing, and as you’ve pointed out, talented.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Those weren’t my exact words.”
“You believed me to have been previously trained.”
She approached the small table beside the chaise, setting the chamberstick down, and began rifling through a stack of papers.
I used her fleeting absence to hiss at Kole, “How long have you been coming here?”
“Longer than I’ve known you and Basil. Besides, your brother would kill us both if he knew I brought you here.”
“So why now?”
He only grinned, as if it were enough to make up for his deceit. “You’re making a big deal out of nothing. You know how I feel about you.”
I cared for Kole, certainly. If he were to get trampled by a Hippogriff, of course I would be upset. The longer I knew him, the more secrets he seemed to keep. And that, I realized, might never change.
Kole jerked his sharp chin. “I mean, look at what I’ve made possible for you.”
The matron returned with a pile of parchment. “We’ll need your agreement in writing, girl. And be sure to sign what your given name on your natal chart says. You’ll need to procure that document to verify your identity.”
“Not a problem,” I said quickly, even though it would be.
Nahn had our charts locked up somewhere I couldn’t place.
As a precaution for all the customers we had coming in and out of the shop, she’d explained.
Though we weren’t important enough for someone to want to steal our charts or identities. “And I’m not a girl.”
“I don’t care. What I care about is you fulfilling the role successfully and making me money.” She handed me a heavy quill attached to a silvery feather along with the papers. I hesitated again. This seemed too good to be true.
Kole said, “Think about your map.”
I longed for freedom. This opportunity could get me there. I took the quill tentatively and signed the last page pressed against my thigh.
When the woman glanced over the finished agreement, her eyes flicked up to me in surprise. “I never would have pegged you for a Capricorn rising.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
She continued with expectations in a blur so fast I struggled to retain everything.
“We’ll provide your costume. You’ll receive a fifteen percent cut to start, and that will increase, of course, as your worth is proved. Rehearsal begins at half past nine every morning. Tomorrow you will start shadowing Yarah—”
“Tomorrow?” I blanched. “Nine thirty?”
“Is that going to be a problem?”
Well, shit. With Basil expected to travel again soon, Nahn needed my help with the shop especially as we reopened tomorrow after Tempus. “I…”
I couldn’t turn down a dream opportunity. This could be my only chance to prove I was good for something.
The woman sighed and returned to her lounging position as if she could no longer be bothered with our presence. “There are plenty of other women who wouldn’t dare insult me with hesitation. My dancer has an immortal reputation for a reason. I don’t need you sullying it.”
The room tilted slightly. “What, exactly, is this position for? I assumed the contract was for one of the showgirls I spotted earlier—”
“A mere showgirl?” She leveled her catlike gaze with mine beneath our masks.
“Should anything happen to my Yarah, you will replace her as Serpentine’s one and only main dancer.
The reason men and women travel far and wide to come here.
Serpentine’s primary attraction.” She paused. “You will be the main event.”