“When did you find out you could do all this, that you could sorcer?”
“At the end of puberty, same as most people who get the magic touch.” He studies his hands. “Wonderful, isn’t it, trying to figure out who you are right as you realize you can create lightning with your fingers?”
I nod but think back to my conversation with Gunn, how he said that Alex had a “cloudy past.” From Rose and Tommy’s teasing, it’s clear that Alex’s father ran some big, scandalous spells scheme. I wonder if Alex’s pop was like my mother and tried to keep him away from magic, at least at first—or if he was the reason Alex dove headfirst into this underworld. “So did your father teach you everything he knew? About magic, and the spells racket he was running?”
He looks at me quizzically. “Thought you didn’t read the papers.”
I shrug, drop my gaze. “I don’t, just couldn’t ignore what the others were saying, is all.” I give him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, don’t mean to pry—I’m just trying to learn more about the mystery man, Alex Danfrey.”
“You want to learn all my secrets?” he jokes softly, takes a couple steps closer. “Why don’t you show me yours first?”
I look up, and Alex is holding a small mirror in his palm. I expect to see my reflection back in it, but in the center of the glass just floats an image of that same black orchid he gave me, all those nights ago in the hall. And then my dove trick kind of feels beside the point. An idea, hot and fast, turns me on like a switch.
“That’s what we’ll do for our performance,” I say breathlessly. “Magic’s better when it means something—when you let it breathe.”
Alex gives a little laugh. “What are you talking about?”
“For our performance circle trick,” I say, “we should do something new, something we can’t accomplish alone. Forget my birds,” I add, my idea fully possessing me now, lighting me up with possibility. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”
I grab an empty mirror stand from the prop room, and once I explain to Alex how to perform a double-sided trick, how to separate the glass down the middle and spellbind each side, we run through my idea all morning, during lunch, and into the afternoon, when Gunn shows up with a strange smile on his face.
I never used to be able to read Gunn, but after all the time I’ve spent across the desk from him, now I know his tells. There’s a little bit more fluidness to his movements when something good happens. I wonder if it’s about our secret shine venture. I’d have to think it is.
“Welcome, to our newest troupe member,” he says evenly to Alex. “Hope my team is treating you well.”
Alex nods, as we settle around Gunn in the shining area in the middle of the show space. “They are. Thank you, sir.”
Gunn looks at our troupe. “As Joan no doubt told you, we reopen tomorrow night, and it’ll be one of the most important shows of your lives. I want a full-scale, seven-sorcerer performance piece that will transform the entire atrium into a sky, from the earliest teases of morning right on through to sunrise,” he says. I can feel Alex’s eyes on me. “Fading stars, a blazing horizon, a hanging sun—a complete and flawless immersion. Give our regulars something worth coming back for.”
The group nods and mumbles in assertion.
Gunn adds, “All right, take a spin, run it through—we’ve got less than two days to master this.”
And then we divvy up our tasks, fill out the length of the show space, and immediately start improvising. But this rehearsal’s even more exciting, ’cause Alex is right by my side. Our troupe finally breaks for the night invigorated, and I swear, I’ve never felt so alive after a full day of magic.
After Alex goes home and the rest of the sorcerers head upstairs, Gunn pulls me into his office. He closes the door but doesn’t sit down.
“I’ll be holding an important meeting in the VIP lounge tomorrow night. Some of the underbosses will be here for the show, but once the shine gets passed around, I want the hallway fully concealed, you understand?” He opens his top drawer and pulls out one of my blood-caged bottles. “Think it’s time to show folks what we’ve been working on.”
I look at him, confused. “I don’t understand. You won’t be able to open the bottle—”