there right now. It felt like I was pulling myself in two different directions at the same time, and it couldnât help but be an awkward sensation.
Brenna stepped up onto the stage, standing on the edge as she smiled at the judges, and said, âItâs so nice to have us all back together again. Itâs like a big family reunion for me. Adrian? How do you feel right now?â
âWell, Brenna, Iâve got to be honest with you, Iâm as excited as you are,â he said. âEvery dancer weâve ever had on the show has been magnificent in their own styleâthey wouldnât have made it through the audition process if they werenâtâbut thereâs always a bit of sadness at the end of the season, because weâve seen these wonderful dancers leave us one after the other, and then we have to start all over again. The idea of being able to begin with the sort of technique and strength that we normally see at the end of the season . . . itâs really exciting.â
âLindy?â Brenna turned her body slightly, so no one could accuse her of slighting the judging panelâs only female member. She was a consummate professional in that regard.
âIâm so excited I could scream,â said Lindy, her surgical smile not budging a bit. âI love all our dancers, you know I do, but some of the best ballroom people weâve ever had are going to get a second shot at our stage, and Iâm hoping there wonât be any slippage in their footwork or their partnering. Iâm expecting a whole new level out of this group of dancers. They know what we expect of them. We know what theyâre capable of. Put it together and itâs going to be . . .â She sighed theatrically. She did everything theatrically. Since sheâd frozen her face, her voice was all she had left to work with, and she made it do as much as she could. âMagical.â
âI like a little magic,â said Brenna, and turned to Clint. âAll right, Mr. Goldfein. Sprinkle some of your magic dust on us, and letâs get this show on the road, shall we?â
Next to me, Lyra snorted. I whapped her on the arm as a signal to be still. Out of the three judges currently seated at the podium, Clint was the least likely to go shoving foreign substances up his nose for fun. He wasnât an angelâhe worked in Hollywood for a reasonâbut heâd always struck me as someone who genuinely enjoyed being alive, and didnât see any cause to complicate life with illegal pharmaceuticals. My kind of man, in other words, even if he was way too old for me and my particular code of ethics wouldnât have allowed me to sleep with a judge even if I
hadnât
been married.
âI donât have anything fancy to say about any of this,â said Clint, grinning his wide, disarming grin. âIâm just thrilled to have everybody back with us.â
âAnd so am I,â said Brenna. âLetâs bring them out now, shall we?â She turned to beckon us forward.
That was our cue. In a carefully rehearsed mob, we surged forward and took our places on the stage, settling with our butts on the pieces of tape staged for our benefit.We were supposed to sit, so that weâd look like the eager, earnest students of dance we were meant to be. Some of us knelt; others settled cross-legged, or tucked their ankles like they were posing for a pinup calendar. I was in the front row between a dancer I didnât recognize and a dancer I vaguely thought had been on the season after mine. Lyra and Anders were somewhere behind me. Theyâd only been back in my life for a few minutes, and I already missed their presence desperately.
âWell, well, well, look at you all,â said Adrian, beaming a toothy smile in our direction. âI canât believe we were able to get all twenty of you back again.â
I tensed. I wasnât the only one. The