Lourdes shushed her. “I have to go.”
“Why?” Enne demanded. “What could be so important? You’re the only person who matters in my life. What else is out there that matters to you? That is so dangerous?” She grasped for Lourdes’s hands, but Lourdes leaned back in shock. “Why do you keep secrets from me?” Hot tears sprang from her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth about what you do—”
The black door opened to the hallway, suddenly, forcefully, and evicted Enne from her memory. She landed painfully on the black-and-white floor tiles, and the door slammed in her face. She cried out for Lourdes, but woke up before she heard a response.
Her sheets were damp with sweat. She rolled over and gazed out her bedroom window, where the sunrise illuminated the stunning view of the trash collectors in the alleys behind St. Morse. Enne waited for the details of her dream to fade, but even as she rose and readied herself for another day in the City of Sin, they never did.
*
The St. Morse acrobatics troupe huddled in a back hallway, bags slung over their shoulders, coffee in their hands, waiting for Enne. She was over ten minutes late. In her defense, the parcel Vianca’s staff left at Enne’s door had come only with a leotard, not directions, and every opulent hallway in St. Morse looked the same.
The troupe stared at her as she approached. Enne might’ve looked like an acrobat, with her small build and wide shoulders, but she wouldn’t fool them for long.
So she’d decided to be honest. She couldn’t have been the only one without any experience, and acrobatics talents weren’t common. Vianca had already hired her. Certainly they’d be willing to teach her.
“You must be Enne Salta.” A young man shook her hand, his grip firm to the point of hurting. “The dancer,” he sneered.
She withered. “’Lo,” she said, mimicking the way people spoke here.
He ignored her. “Everyone, this is Enne, the replacement.”
“Replacement?” she echoed.
“Last week, a girl broke her leg and quit.” He looked her over. “Clearly Vianca had to make due on short notice. Do you have any experience?”
“No,” she answered weakly.
“Neither did the last girl.” He shook his head. “We have a week until our next performance. Try not to break anything.”
An acrobat, Enne seethed. What was Levi thinking?
Now that the troupe was complete at twenty people, they walked out the back doors into an alley behind the casino. Enne crept quietly to the back of the line. The cool morning breeze teased pieces of her hair out of her neatly coiffed bun, and she shivered. New Reynes didn’t seem to understand the concept of summer.
Past several garbage bins—reeking and still awaiting the morning collectors—they reached the doors to a warehouse. It was no warmer inside, and it smelled of feet.
The troupe dumped their belongings in the corner of a massive square mat. There was equipment sprawled all around the warehouse: sets of bars, trampolines and even a full flying trapeze. She craned her neck back and stared at it, her palms growing sweaty. She hated heights.
They spent over a half hour stretching, and no one said a word to her. She didn’t mind—she was accustomed to that treatment from school. The warm-up and the leotard felt familiar, normal, and she missed her dancing classes back home. She’d never been the best dancer in the room, but at least she’d been confident in her abilities. Today she’d consider it a victory if she left with all her bones intact.
After a while, the troupe split into groups. Enne lingered on the mat, awkward and alone, until a girl approached her. She was several years older than Enne, with blond hair and freckles covering her face and arms.
“I’m Alice. I write the routines.” Enne shook her hand. “I get to spend the week rushing you through the choreography.”
If she didn’t want to make a total fool of herself and the troupe, Alice explained, Enne would need to manage a single back handspring and brave the flying trapeze. Alice had cut Enne’s part down to the most basic material, and unless Enne also fractured a limb, she would be performing the number next Saturday with the rest of them.
Enne nodded along, feigning determination instead of fear. All she needed was to survive today’s rehearsal so she could go to the Sauterelle tonight, to find information on Lourdes. One day at a time.
While Alice explained the different roles of each of the troupe members, Enne found herself imagining what it would be like to encounter her mother tonight. To spot her sitting at a table in the corner, smoking one of her foul cigarettes, a newspaper and a glass of bourbon in front of her. What would Lourdes say about finding Enne at the same cabaret?
I’m sorry. I was running late, that’s all, Lourdes would apologize, her voice as soothing as the sound of rain on rooftops. There wasn’t any need to worry.
And what would Lourdes say when she realized how quickly the city had corrupted her daughter? Enne had poisoned Sedric Torren. She was a prisoner to the unbreakable chains of a cruel mafia donna. Her only ally was a street lord.
Enne couldn’t come up with any answers. She had no idea what Lourdes would say. As it turned out, she didn’t know much about Lourdes at all.
“We’ll start with the worst of it,” Alice declared, her speech finished. “Once that group is done.”
Enne realized with horror that she meant they’d begin with the flying trapeze. Enne studied the group of four rehearsing there. They soared effortlessly, fearlessly, even though they were at least fifty feet off the ground. Of course, there was a net between them and a broken back, but it looked thick and stiff. Falling into it couldn’t be much more comfortable than hitting the floor.
Enne swallowed as she followed Alice up the ladder, her legs wobbling worse with each rung.
“We don’t always have the flying trapeze in the show,” Alice said, while Enne crawled unsteadily on to the platform. “But guests like it. It looks impressive.” As she spoke, she reached for the rope, then reeled in the closest trapeze. She handed Enne the bar, and Enne’s stomach leaped as she reached out for it. “You won’t have to worry about catches today, thankfully. There’s nothing like that in your routine. But you need to be comfortable with the bar.” She raised her eyebrows as she examined Enne’s face. “I can already tell it’s going to take you a while to be comfortable.”
Enne reddened. “Dancing is generally done on the floor.”
Alice didn’t look amused. “Six days, missy. It would be awfully embarrassing for the troupe if you broke your legs in front of an audience.”
Enne managed not to say anything unladylike...but she was certainly thinking about it.
Alice continued her lesson plan, but Enne was barely listening. She felt ill, even as she fixed her gaze securely above the floor, locked only on the space in front of her. She rehearsed the very angry words she intended to give Levi when all of this was over.
“Go,” Alice commanded.
Enne took a deep breath, held the bar and leaped. She lurched forward, and the world seemed to give out beneath her as she soared.
As she went backward, she reached her toes out behind her for the platform, coming a few inches short. Her breath tightened in panic.
“That’s not how gravity works, missy,” Alice said. Enne couldn’t tell if it was amusement or annoyance in her voice. “You’ll need to give it some push if you intend to come back.”
That would’ve been nice to know ahead of time, instead of when she dangled limply fifty feet above the ground. She desperately tried to avoid looking down.
On her second return backward, Alice instructed again, more emphatically, “Push.”