Three little words. Would she say them? They would determine both Cam and Lilith’s fate.
But before he had a chance to reach for her, Cam felt Jean come stand on his left, then Luis stand on his right. Cam felt the energy coming off of them and realized Chloe’s song was over and the crowd was cheering and Lilith was tilting her head toward the sky, maybe praying for good luck. Because Revenge was about to go on, and it was all about their music now.
The Colosseum went dark except for the pinhole spotlight on Luc’s eyes as he stood in the center of the stage. When he spoke, his voice was barely a whisper.
“Are you ready for Revenge?”
Two Hours
Center stage.
Deep darkness.
Lilith cupped the cold mic in her hands. Then a blinding spotlight shone on her, and the audience disappeared.
She glanced up at the twinkling disco ball suspended from the rafters. If it hadn’t been for Cam, Lilith would have been alone tonight, writing songs in her bedroom. She wouldn’t be at prom, facing a packed dance floor, nodding at her bandmates, about to rock.
She ignored her quaking knees, her pounding heart. She took a long breath and felt the weight of her guitar across her chest, the light fabric of her gown. “Two, three, four,” she counted off into the mic.
She heard the drums, sudden as a downpour. Her fingers caressed her guitar strings in a slow, sad riff, then exploded into the song.
Cam’s guitar found hers in the maelstrom, and they played as if it were their last night on earth, as if the fate of the universe depended on how they sounded together. This was the moment she’d been waiting for. She wasn’t afraid anymore. She was living her dream. She closed her eyes and sang.
“I dreamed life was a dream
Someone was having in my eyes…”
Her song sounded the way she’d always hoped it might someday. She opened her eyes and turned back to Jean Rah and Luis. Both of them were completely absorbed in the music. She nodded at Cam across the stage, strumming his guitar skillfully, keeping his eyes on her. He was smiling. She’d never realized how much she loved the way he smiled at her.
When she turned back to the audience to play the second verse, she caught a quick glimpse of her brother and her mother. They were standing apart from the crowd, but they were dancing with abandon.
Lilith could hardly hear herself above the audience’s cheers. She spun away from the microphone to jam, arching her back, letting her fingers fly across the strings. This was joy. There was nothing but Lilith, her band, and their music.
After the bridge she reached for the microphone again, and on the last verse Cam joined her, finding harmonies they’d never even practiced.
Lilith lifted her arm and stopped playing, pausing before the final couplet of the song. Jean, Luis, and Cam stopped, too.
The audience screamed louder.
When her arm came down on the final chord, the band fell in with her, right on time, and every voice in the audience screamed.
There was only one thing to do when the song was over. She rushed toward Cam and grabbed his hand. She wanted to be with him when they bowed. Because without him, she wouldn’t be here. None of this would have happened.
He reached for her. He smiled. They held hands and moved downstage.
Hold on, Lilith found herself saying to Cam’s hand. Hold on to me, just like this. Don’t let go.
“Lilith rules!” A voice rose over the applause. Lilith thought it sounded like Arriane.
“Long live the queen!” called another voice that might have belonged to Roland.
“Take a bow, rock star,” Cam murmured into her ear.
“Take it with me.”
Elation swept through Lilith as she and Cam bent forward. The motion felt natural, as if she and Cam had been touring forever, bowing to rapt audiences all their lives. Maybe this was reverse déjà vu, and she was experiencing what the future held.
She hoped so. She wanted to play again with Cam, and soon.
She turned to him. He turned to her.
Before she knew it their lips almost—
“Save it for the after-party,” Luc’s voice boomed as he hurried onto the stage to stand between them, pushing them apart.
The stage lights dimmed, and Lilith could see the audience again. They were all still cheering. Arriane, Roland, Bruce, and her mother had moved to the front row and were hooting like Lilith was an actual rock star. She felt like one.
Security guards held kids back as they tried to rush the stage. Even Principal Tarkenton was clapping. Lilith saw the empty seats next to him and realized that the Four Horsemen must be backstage right now, preparing to close out the night.
The battle had already been so epic, it seemed insane that Lilith was now about to see her favorite band.
“Quite a night, eh?” Luc asked the audience. “And there’s more to come!”
Two ponytailed guys in crew T-shirts guided the other competing bands back onto the stage. Chloe bounded over to Lilith and slung an arm around her waist.