Devil Mine (Walk Through Shadows Book Two)

Chapter Four

Monday arrived before she was prepared for it, but somehow, she got through her classes with no one aware of her inner turmoil. Despite her best efforts to distract herself, Crimson kept invading her thoughts. She'd even reread the first two books of her cousin's husband had published. But the pages filled with the fruits of John's imagination hadn't been able to hold her focus. Crimson's smirk slipped into her daydreams. At night, he infringed on her dreams.

But the hope of Balthazar still burned in her chest, even though she knew she should just give up. It had been weeks since he'd disappeared and there hadn't been any sign of him. Just silence.

Her little dancers went through their routines with the usual amount of chaos. As much as she loved their excited little voices and the energy they brought into the room with them, she was glad to wish the last of the stragglers good night and start cleaning up.

The boutique below the studio closed half an hour before her last class ended, so she was free to turn up the stereo. She grabbed her phone to change the playlist to one of her personal ones. The tension in her shoulders eased a bit as the music poured out of the speakers. She kicked her shoes off and went to the closet near the door to pull out a push broom.

If she would have looked out the large windows lining the exterior wall, she might have noticed the shadow that settled itself onto the rooftop directly across the street. Instead, with her focus on the floor, she missed how its eyes glowed with unnatural light for a moment.

She pushed the broom ahead of herself as she strutted her way back and forth across the hardwood gathering up the layer of dust. It took two full songs for her to finish. She would have finished sooner, but she stopped to lip sync part of one song. Across the street, the shadow smiled as she used the end of the broomstick as her pretend microphone and pointed her finger at the mirror while mouthing the words. It continued to watch as she put the broom away and grabbed a bottle of window cleaner. Her head bobbed and her hips swayed as she worked to buff away the tiny fingerprints that marked up the wall of mirrors.

After she checked her handiwork, gave it a quick nod, she tucked the bottle back in the closet and went back to check her phone. There were no texts from Balthazar, nor any texts from Bastion saying that Balthazar had been at the coffee shop. She frowned at the screen. An unread message from her cousin popped up as her gaze lingered on the phone. Her shoulders slumped.

"Not now, Belle," she muttered as she put the phone down on the chair she always used as a stand. She pushed herself onto her toes, shifted her weight onto her right foot, and tilted her head as she tested her ankle. After a moment, she took a breath, turned and walked to the middle of the room. She looked down for a moment, then she started to move.

Across the street, the shadow moved closer to the edge of the rooftop, listening to the strains of a lone piano that floated across the space to its very interested ears. Its head tilted as it watched her arms stretch away from her body. Her hands caressed the air as she moved around the room, spun quickly only to come to a dead stop, then ran across the floor as if she was chasing someone. Her body curved inward; her arms wrapped around her abdomen. The pained look on her face appeared so genuine as she turned back and stumbled gracefully to the middle of the room. She looked back to where she'd been, her expression filled with longing, her arms reaching out as if she was trying to will whomever she was chasing to come back to her. The shadow was entranced as her lithe body sank to the floor, still beseeching the unseen person. She stayed there, taking in big breaths, till the music changed.

The shadow inched closer, almost exposing itself in the half circle of light the nearby streetlamp threw onto the rooftop. Em flipped onto her back suddenly, arched her back for a second, then got to her feet slowly. The shadow didn't recognize the song, but the lyrics carried to it on the breeze were filled with melancholy and loss. Em's movements reflected those emotions so well the shadow felt the heartbreak she was communicating. She moved her hands in front of her, palms out, as if she was trying to ward something off. Her steps moved backward as her head tipped down. She stopped, clenched her hands into fists, and lifted her head to face the window. The shadow pulled back, but Em's expression wasn't one of surprise or fear. A second later, she spun away from the exterior walls, and kept spinning till she was a few feet from the mirrors, then stopped. She stayed there, breathing hard from her exertion for a moment, then turned away to close the windows. The shadow melted into the darkness while she was putting her shoes on and gathering her stuff to leave. It was gone by the time she locked the door and headed off to the coffee shop.