Chapter 102 Child of the last moon
I was living a nightmare.
A horror replay of the night I fell, but this was nothing natural, there was a strange force in the air.
Shockwaves big enough to wrestle anchors and aid gravity.
A tremor ran through the floors, upsetting props and breaking balance barres on its path to the walls. The sky-high ceilings trembled, jerking on our anchors, so our bodies spun around like puppets on strings.
I clung to my anchor, my body stiff, my ears ringing as sweat ran down my spine. It was a minute, but also an eternity.
And all around me, panic.
The dozen dancers fought to get off their anchors while our colleagues forty feet below ran around screaming, tumbling to the floor in their haste to escape the studio.
“Don't move. Don't move an inch,” Coach repeated from the floor, running behind us to activate the safety trampoline.
But he stumbled twice, crashing to his knees from the violent tremor and then hurrying back up to his feet.
“Hold onto your harness, hold still.”
Mordaine was in some other country by this time, so this was no dragon-quake.
Again, that flash of blue. It was running inside the long line of mirrors now. I blinked even as my heart pounded. Had I lost my mind?
I could only see the shadow. Blue-skinned despite the blur from the speed at which it was moving.
Alpha Rosamund had lied. He claimed it was a rumor, but the children of the last moon were back.
That's a different issue, fairy. It has nothing to do with the Firstborns.
So why then were they here? Running inside mirrors, holding brief eye contact.
Suddenly, a mirror blasted. A sharp explosion that sent broken glass flying in every direction like arrowheads.
The dancer at my left flank, at Caroline’s original spot, screamed. I grabbed my head, protecting my face, gasping as a piece of flying glass stabbed into my arm.
More panic. More screams.
Another dancer, a few feet away from me, bared his claw and started to saw at his harness, straining to cut loose and soon a couple others joined. But these harnesses were intentionally thick, made to hold a thousand pounds.
The harness weakened, but did not snap and his body swayed.
He bumped into the next dancer, the force of his solid form catapulting her to the next person and then the next, bodies smacking midair, startled cries, more screams.
All this was happening in the space of a single minute.
Plaster was raining at this point, just like it had in that cave, clouding the air, choking. I blinked, coughed, trying to see through fog, to avoid anyone bumping into me.
In the center of it all, my heart stopped.
Goosebumps covered my skin to the eerie feeling of being watched.
My head jerked up. The mirrors. It appeared clear now, but something was in there.
It was watching me, but for reasons I do not understand, it was not attacking me. It could blow a glass up, cause a contained-earthquake and snap anchors, but it chose to attack everyone but me.
My eyes met Kade’s across the room, and he rocked on his anchor, bracing to swing towards me despite how dangerous it was.
Through the shivers and tremors, several ballerinas had managed to escape the studio, and the first two dancers succeeded in freeing themselves from their anchors.
And suddenly, thud!
The dancer next to me, the woman in Caroline's original spot, fell to the floor. We all froze.
From this distance, it was hard to tell if she was dead or alive.
Coach growled, a beta's growl that sent dust up in the air.
People from other parts of the academy started to stream in, tottering and stumbling as they progressed forward.
I bared my claws then and cut myself loose.
A witch, one of the faculty members, was singing spells now, raising her voice high till the mirrors seemed to dance.
And then the trembling stopped. The world was normal again.
I hurried through the crowd, searching for Kade and Caroline, still coughing, sneezing. I found my friends looking stunned and frozen, covered in a dusting of white, like I was.
But they were fine.
As I turned back towards where the crowd was thickening, I spotted Celeste watching me. She had a look of accusation in her eyes that made my heart stop.
Did she know, did she figure out that this was connected to me?
Coach was bent over the fallen dancer, and my blood ran cold as I stared down at her. Was this how others had stared down at my mangled body that night?
The sound of an ambulance echoed just as Tamar came in, eyes wide as she stared around the studio.
All the mirrors were shattered, and on the opposite side, the wall had crumbled completely, leaving a gaping hole, so we were staring directly outside.
“Goddess,” Tamar hugged me, breaking her professionalism.
And as I hugged her back, I was uncertain whether it was her body or mine that was trembling.
“Are you OK?” She asked now, pulling back. “Did you hurt anywhere?”
“She's standing on her two feet, isn't she?” Coach said, his words burning like acid, and I looked in his direction to find him still kneeling by the dancer, murmuring in reassurance.
Paramedics came and left.
More people from other sports centers in the academy poured in to spectate. Apparently, the earthquake was local. Only our studio was affected.
The others had no idea what was happening till our dancers ran out to scream for help.
“You cannot let this mess with your head.” Coach stopped beside me where I leaned against a wall. “I will do my best to make sure this never happens in my studio again.”
He placed a kind hand on my shoulder, and I stared at him.
“I want you to dance carefree in Korea.”
“I’m sorry.” I whispered now, and he gave me a sad smile.
“What for? It seems you’ll really have to get that rest.” He looked around the disaster that used to be a world-class ballet studio. “This would take at least two days to fix. Go home, Lys.”
And so I did.
The academy was a buzz of activity now, and I looked over my shoulder repeatedly as I walked towards the parking lot.
Caroline. If Caroline had not been late, she would have flanked me. She would have fallen, she would have been the woman rushed to the hospital in an oxygen mask.
I would never have forgiven myself.