Dance of Shadows (37 page)

She felt her feet move faster. Her blood seemed to boil, and her face grew so hot that she felt like she might dissolve right there on the floor. Her breath slowed. Her lips parted and she let out a soundless whisper.

Yes
.

The air in front of her swirled until it formed a hot, thin, raging funnel. It gasped and hissed as it moved toward her.

Hilda raised her hands as if beckoning it toward Vanessa. The strand began to uncoil.

Unable to help herself, Vanessa closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath, inhaling it until she could feel it scorching her throat, pressing against her lungs. She twisted her head from side to side as it took hold of her.

Suddenly she went still.

Vanessa lowered her head until her chin was resting against her chest. From somewhere in the room, she heard Justin call
out to her, though his voice sounded distant. Was he trying to help her?

“Get rid of these three,” Hilda said, gesturing at Justin and the twins.

A rush of heat forced itself up Vanessa’s neck, cocking her head upright. She blinked. Her vision was blurred, as if a dark film had fallen over her eyes.

Through it, she could barely see Justin’s body, flanked on either side by the Fratelli twins. With an unnatural twist of her legs, she thrust herself forward, and something seemed to fling outward from her, warping the air and rushing forth.

It rippled through the air, picked up the three newcomers, and dashed them against the wall.

Vanessa heard the thump of Justin’s body as he slid to the floor, the loud thuds of the twins falling beside him. She wanted to call out, to run to his side, but her legs felt so brittle that if she bent them, they might shatter. She couldn’t stop herself.

Justin struggled to his knees. “Vanessa!”

She felt her lips move without her.
I am not Vanessa
.

“Vanessa! Remember!”

The demon cocked her head to the right until she could no longer see Justin. It painfully forced her shoulders back until the blades touched, and an invisible hand pushed her into a fouetté. The room began to spin. She heard her name again.

“Vanessa,” Justin pleaded. “I know you can hear me. You need
help
. All of the dancers who’ve gone before.”

“Werzelya!” Hilda let out a low laugh. “Hit them again!”

No!
Vanessa wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. She leaped
into a contorted arabesque, thrusting all of the demon’s fury at Justin.

A swirl of heat swept him up and smashed him against the ceiling, then dropped him.

He crashed to the floor, unconscious.

Vanessa
.

The luminous figures of the shadow dancers circled tightly around her, their features resolving into clear lines carved from light. A girl with a long face, her pointe shoes an older version of Vanessa’s, as if they were made two decades ago. A petite girl with thin, painted lips and a tulle net wrapped around her chignon, followed by another with full cheeks and freckles, and then another. Finally, a fragile brunette, her face a darker, more delicate version of Vanessa’s.

Something inside Vanessa stirred.
Margaret?
she wondered.

Vanessa
, she heard again from a dozen long-dead mouths, their voices airy and distant, their mouths not moving.
Look at us. Stay with us
.

The demon within her tipped her head back, forcing her
eyes to the ceiling. Vanessa’s lips parted, and she let out a throaty snarl. Her arms snapped up and her chin cracked left, where she could just glimpse the outline of her shadow on the wooden floor.

To her horror, the edges of her silhouette heaved and swelled, transforming until her shoulders had broadened and her body had grown huge.

She glanced down at her arms, expecting to see them transformed, but they looked the same as always—slim and smooth, her hands cupped.

The luminous figures around her grew brighter. Color seeped into their hair, tinting them light brown, flaxen, auburn, ebony. It painted their lips and rouged their cheeks and outlined their eyes in black shadows that fluttered every time they blinked. She could feel the warmth of their glow as they danced even closer, mimicking her moves.

Vanessa
, they said in unison, their whispers filling her head.
Release it
.

Her face contorted itself into a twisted frown.
Never!
the demon said through her chapped lips.
She is my bride. I will have my freedom. She will give it to me
.

Shh
, the figures said to the demon within her.
The girl is not a worthy vessel
.

Something deep inside her began to pulse. Vanessa felt the straps of her leotard tighten, cutting off her circulation. She tried to wiggle free, but she couldn’t move.

The luminous figures inched closer.
The girl is not the host for you. She is just the key, not the lock. But Hilda
…

The heat of the demon within her was unbearable now. Her skin itched as the fire crept outward, licking her chest, her throat, her cheeks. Beads of sweat dotted her skin. She wanted to stop dancing, to sit down and rest, but she couldn’t. She gasped for air, but it felt like there was none left in the room.

Steffie
, she thought,
TJ, Blaine
. She tried to spot them in the shadows but saw nothing.

Look at Hilda’s power
, one of the luminous girls whispered.

Look at her eyes. She thinks to control you
, another one said, her long black hair dissipating into the air like ash as she, too, turned to Hilda.
She wants to keep you, not free you
.

If you stay with Vanessa, you will be the other’s slave
, said another.

If you take Hilda, you will be free
.

Let Vanessa go
.
Let her go and be free
.

The girls stopped speaking, yet their words echoed in the room.

Vanessa held her position, poised on both toes as if suspended between worlds. She felt the demon within her pulling at her sides, ruminating. She felt her lips move.
Hilda
. Trying on the sound of the name.

Vanessa extended her hand, her fingers tingling, to the newest of the shadows. Her fingers entwined with the outline of the figure’s glowing white hand. She felt a shock of energy as the girl’s palm closed around hers.

The luminous dancers swept her across the room toward Hilda, their heat pulsing through Vanessa like electricity. The demon inside her shuddered. Her blood cooled.

It was ready.

They whipped through the outer circle of ballerinas, still frozen in the motions of
La Danse du Feu
.

“Yes!” Hilda cried. “Come to me!”

Vanessa’s legs moved of their own accord, her lips parting as a white-hot braiding of air left her mouth and reached toward Hilda. The demon scratched against her throat, clawing as it escaped.

“I was the one who called you forth,” Hilda said. “Take me!”

Something coiled in the air around her, tightening around her limbs, her chest, her throat.

“Yes!” she cried, lifting her face to the spotlight.

A ripple traveled beneath Hilda’s skin, her shadow quivering and expanding as if something were trying to elbow its way out. A jerk of the neck and she leveled her head, her eyes black and metallic.

Slowly, the smile faded from her face. The shimmery white figures of the dancers knotted themselves around her.

Her limbs went stiff. An invisible force dragged her legs, her back into position.

“No,” she sputtered. “Wait—you’re wrong! I can’t—”

Sweat soaked her clothes, matting her hair to her temples. “I—I can’t,” she wheezed.

Hilda’s eyes turned back in her head, and the whites began to glow. Spurs of light shot from her mouth, forcing her lips open.

You fed me lies
, she spat in a voice not her own.
You sought to enslave me. But I will not be imprisoned. I will be free
.

As her face seemed to crack and fissure with searing light, the luminous figures closed in. Vanessa could no longer see Hilda, could only see the swaying, writhing, bright burning knot of the dancers.

“No!” Hilda cried.

The dancers exploded into a terrible burst of light, and disappeared like one hundred thousand fireflies. Josef’s staff fell to the floor with a clatter.

There was nothing left of Hilda but embers, hissing as they cooled to ash on the polished wooden floor.

Vanessa stumbled back, feeling life return to her fingertips.

The room came back into focus. By the door, Steffie, Blaine, and TJ struggled against their bonds, safe now and still alive. Behind them, the white figures of the long-lost dancers had resumed their places in the wall, their limbs again nothing more than white paint surrounded by ash.

Vanessa looked for Zep, but he was nowhere to be found. Justin and the Fratellis lay a dozen feet away, all unconscious.

Around her, the thirteen ballerinas shook themselves out of their poses looking dazed and disoriented. “What happened?” one of them asked.

Vanessa looked down, not knowing what to say. Bits of ash streaked the pink satin of her pointe shoes. Just feet away, where Hilda had stood, there was nothing, not even a charred spot.

After the ash had settled, the studio fluttered to life.

Vanessa pushed through the ballerinas, barely listening to their agitated whispers. Tears streaked Anna’s white makeup. Vanessa knelt at the side of her own friends and began pulling at the knots until they were all free.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. Their faces were dotted with ash. Blaine looked as though he had been crying, and TJ’s cheeks were red with marks from the gag. Steffie’s shoulders slumped with exhaustion. She didn’t say anything, just pulled Vanessa and the others close.

Vanessa took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet scent of Steffie’s hair, losing her hand in TJ’s curls, and feeling Blaine’s thin arm wrapped around her shoulder, but broke off.

Justin.

He was lying on the far side of the studio, his back against the wall. Vanessa ran over to him. His eyes were still closed, and his cheek was bruised and swollen, warm where Vanessa touched her palm to it.

“Justin? Can you hear me?” When he didn’t move, she gently shook him. “Justin.”

But he remained still, his eyes shut.

Two loud raps on the floor silenced the room. All heads turned toward the door where the Fratelli twins now stood. Nicola’s chestnut hair was slightly disheveled, her dark eyeliner smudged onto her cheeks. The mole under her left eye mirrored her brother Nicholas’s, highlighting the bruised circles of fatigue that hung beneath his eyes. He held up his hand, and his sister followed.

“By the dictum of the … Lyric Elite,” Nicholas said, “we, um, hereby arrest everyone in this room—”

Angry gasps rose up.

Nicholas looked nervous. “Right. I mean, not like
arrest
arrest. More like detain …”

“What my brother is trying to say is that we’re here to help,” Nicola said

“But if any of you were an accessory to Josef, Hilda, or Zeppelin Gray,” Nicholas added, “you are going to have to pay for the crimes you’ve committed.”

Vanessa stepped forward. “Guys, are you saying you represent this Lyric Elite group?”

“Well, yes and no,” Nicola said.

“I mean, they haven’t really been so responsive,” Nicholas
said, “but we kept bugging them about Josef. We knew something was up, but we were never able to prove it until now.”

“And that’s why they’re on their way,” Nicola said, nodding.

“I don’t know what anyone is talking about,” Anna Franko said. “What is the Lyric … ?”

Nicholas said, “They’re like this secret underground dancing group. The Lyric Elite is a union of enchanted dancers who have sworn to protect people from those who seek to use the art of dance for dark purposes.” He swept his arm to indicate the room. “Like a demon raising, for example.”

“They call people like Josef
necrodancers
,” Nicola said. “I don’t know why the bad guys always have the better names.”

“I’m glad you find this so, so funny,” Anna said. “I’m going to call the police.”

“What, and show them the blank spot on the floor where Hilda used to be?” Nicholas said. “And Josef’s dead body? They’re going to think we killed them.”

Nicola shook her head. “Look, the Lyric Elite has sent a top guy who should be here any minute. His name is Enzo.” She held up her phone. “See? He texted us from the airport.”

Nicholas blocked the door. “That demon is on the loose, and so is Zeppelin Gray, and until we know who else was in on this, no one’s leaving here.”

Each of the ballerinas turned her head, eyeing the girls around her with suspicion. And then Anna wove through them to the front of the room. “None of the other ballerinas knew what was going on,” she said quietly to the twins.

Vanessa felt Justin’s hand close around hers.

He shifted, then his eyes fluttered open. “Vanessa?” he groaned.

“Hi,” she said, suddenly embarrassed.

Justin gazed up at Vanessa. “What happened?”

“The demon destroyed Hilda,” Vanessa said. “The dancers from the walls convinced it to leave me.” Her eyes traveled across the dance floor as if she were watching it happen all over again. “It inhabited her body and the two of them disappeared.” She bit her lip, at last realizing fully what they had done. “We did it. We beat it.”

“
You
did it,” Justin corrected. “You’re amazing.”

Vanessa felt herself blush. “Not really; I had help. The dancers did it.”

“No,” Justin insisted. “You called to them with your dancing.”

Vanessa looked up with a hint of a smile. “I guess so.”

“Besides, you always had help, you just didn’t know it.” He rubbed his jaw, which was peppered with a layer of stubble. It looked good on him, she realized. It made him look older, handsome even. “You know there’s more to you than just a talent for dancing, don’t you?” he said.