His eyes find mine, and that intense, almost crippling feeling—angsty, raw—washes over me on seeing him again.
When I don’t move or say anything right away, Ral crosses my stage and shakes Alex’s hand. “Ral Morgan,” he says. “My associates, Billy Caine, Grace Dune, Tommy and his sister Rose Briggs. And apparently, you know Joan Kendrick.”
“Yes, I’ve met Miss Kendrick,” Alex says warmly. He looks around at the crowd. “I’m Alex Danfrey. It’s nice to meet you all. I’m thrilled about joining such a talented troupe, and I’m looking forward to learning from, and working with, all of you.”
Billy crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Heard you worked with Boss McEvoy himself. He liked you enough to let you walk away, but not enough to keep you?”
“I protected him on the road for a little while,” Alex answers slowly. “Needless to say, we weren’t a good match.”
“Wait, Alex Danfrey?” Rose cuts in. “Are you related to that big pharmaceutical spell racketeer, Richard Danfrey?”
Alex’s face becomes taut. “I am. I’m his son.”
“Tommy, you remember those sad headlines?” Rose tsks, her gaze never leaving Alex’s, her dark catlike eyes glimmering. “Newspapers calling Richard Danfrey a traitor, saying his wife was poor and crazy now? Funny, never remember reading anything about a son.”
I see a fire light behind Alex’s eyes. “My family did well to keep me out of the papers.”
“So your pop works for D Street, things fall apart, and you get burned . . . and then you work for his enemy, McEvoy . . . you’re not good enough, and you get demoted.” Tommy laughs to himself. “You ever think you Danfreys aren’t cut out for magic?”
Even Grace clearly has doubts about Alex. She takes a step forward, like she’s about to go delving inside Alex’s mind for answers. “You really think you can keep up, Mr. Danfrey?”
“Enough, guys, this isn’t an interview,” I finally say, but Alex glances at me and says, “It’s all right, Joan.”
He runs his fingers through that silky blond hair of his, takes a big breath. “I do think I can keep up,” he addresses my troupe. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. I’m good with visual manipulations, and I’ve been told that I have an eye for detail. Doesn’t take me too long to learn a new trick, either.”
“And he’s being modest,” I cut in.
“Joan mentioned you’ve never performed in front of an audience,” Ral presses.
“No, but I’ll learn what I need to learn. I won’t let you down.”
“And I’ll help him,” I blurt out. “He can work with me on my performance trick until he gets settled and we decide where it makes sense for him to go.”
“You want to take the weight of training him?” Ral says, his voice a strange mix between relief and doubt.
I nod.
“All right, fine,” Ral says. “Then let’s get to it. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, if we’re opening on Monday.”
Alex stays in my performance circle with me, as the rest of the sorcerers move to their own spaces.
“Nice and tense around here,” Alex says.
I shoot him a glance as I start dumping out some feathers from the bin around my stage. “The guy you replaced, he—he passed away a few nights back. I think everyone’s just trying to find someone or something to blame for the mistake.”
Alex flashes me a thin smile. “Easy thing to understand.”
“Don’t worry. The troupe’s got bark but little bite. Especially Billy and Ral, they’re good fellas deep down, trust me. And Grace just takes it upon herself to keep mental tabs on all of us.” I give him a smile. “Just start imagining sky-high brick walls when she’s nearby, and she’ll take the hint and back off.”
“I appreciate you vouching for me, Joan,” Alex says. “I still can’t believe I’ve never caught a show before.” He looks around the space, to the rest of my troupe now practicing their own tricks in their performance circles. “Must be something, being here as a patron.” He swallows. “Got to say, I’m feeling a little out of my league.”
“You’ll get the hang of it—you just need to immerse yourself in the troupe. You’ll feel it, once the magic of our seven has you. Your set of tricks will expand, your talents will start to mature.” I think back to those first nights we were practicing as seven here at the Den, when we started to understand just how strong our magic had to become to achieve Gunn’s vision. “Pretend your magic is one part of our puzzle, and have faith that it’ll come together to make the big picture.”
Alex smiles. “That’s an interesting way of putting it.”
“It’s what works for me,” I say. “You’re going to be great, okay? I’ll help you, one step at a time.”