Calore Dance Academy// Red Queen AU

Chapter 71

Hello all! 

Nat finally has an update for y'all--so sorry about the delays, but I am just unbelievably busy right now. I got a summer job, am attending US history camp, and am getting ready to apply to college. I will refrain from posting a schedule, though I truly hope that I can post once per week throughout the summer. I hope everybody is doing well!

A shoutout to my editors, who are bearing with me despite these delays!

As always, enjoy! And do leave stars/comments. :)

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I left Volo's room card, the glove, and Tibe's fingerprint with Maven.

Just as he said he would be, Maven was loitering in a dead-end hallway on the ninth floor. We don't have anything to do for half an hour, and we've since gone our separate ways—as much as we'd like to, it wouldn't look good if we clung to one another all night long. We'd look like teenagers.

By myself, I return to the corridor where Maven and I collided with Volo. I round the corner again, finding the same golden elevators. Somehow, the bodies have gotten closer together, and there's an ebb and flow to them through the sweeping doors at my right. Like the sea, they materialize and vanish through the marvelous wooden doors with their wines and conversations. A waltz exhales from the ballroom into the corridor, a song of piano keys and strings.

"Mare."

I let myself walk an extra step before I bother to turn around. If I had a dime for every time somebody said that, I wouldn't need Elara to purchase my jewelry. I've been smiling all night, shaking hands, introducing myself over and over again as I've told half of the party-goers a hazy narrative about how Maven and I got together.

We became great friends as partners. Best friends, actually. Then one day, our ballet instructor told us that we had to learn how to kiss. And we liked that. All of the old men and old ladies that I tell the story to chuckle and tell me how cute we are, how we look just as smitten with each other as they were once upon a time.

"What do you want?"

My tone is quiet enough so that nobody hears my casual, rude words.

It would be entirely unbecoming of a high society girl if I was facing anyone other than Cal.

In his black tux that fits him so well, Cal stands a few feet from me. My heels only bring me up to his chin, and I find all the more reason to glare at him when he flashes his charming smile at me.

"Nothing that you want to give me. Where's my brother?"

He's stopped me just past the elevators at the hall's edge. I've been sticking close to it, finding the corridor's margins the easiest to navigate. Cal has the audacity to lean against the marble.

"Not sure. He's somewhere around here. Where's your girlfriend?"

Cal's expression darkens, and I regret my words the moment that they leave my mouth.

"Sorry," I mutter, dropping my gaze to the floor. "That was mean. I know that she makes you miserable."

"I'll forgive you." As I bring up my eyes, Cal shakes the words off. "If you dance with me. Evangeline's been trying to stab my feet with her heels all night, and I'd like one dance with a lady that isn't actively seeking to impale my feet. I hope that I'm not giving you ideas, Mare."

A smile pulls at my lips.

And a very nice distraction smirks down at me. I suppose that even Cal shouldn't have to dance all night with the wickedest witch in Manhattan.