Free Dion: His Life and Mine by Sarah Cate Anstey Page B

our music and for getting us. Dx’
    I had barely finished reading when Nyx pushed a glass into my hand. It was full of reddish liquid.
    “Go on…” Nyx insisted. “It’s diluted.” she assured me, her glass was already half-empty. I put the glass to my lips and within moments the sweet-tasting liquid cooled my throat and warmed my insides.  Any feelings of despair or ill will towards Theo, which I still harboured, vanished. If my father had been standing before me looking horrified, I would have jumped in his arms screaming “Daddy!” Nyx grinned at me. I smiled back and then looked around the room again. The stage, or rather a slightly higher level which I took to be a stage, was surrounded by three rows of clones of my mysterious customer. Each had a top with the name THIASUS written on the back and was drinking a redder version of the liquid Nyx had given me.
    “I take it they’re Thiasus fans.” I said gesturing.
    “Or ‘Maenids’ as the press likes to call them; Thiasus’s lead singer’s called Mae .” Nyx explained when I looked blank.
    Before long, the club started filling up and I recognized some of my luckier clients who had managed to get tickets. When they noticed us, they plied us with drinks. No sooner had I finished one than another was forced upon me. Then, when I didn’t think it could get any better, the shouting started and Thiasus stepped onto the stage. Their fans went crazy, tossing their perfect hair and moving their limbs in time to the music.
    “That’s the woman who gave me the tickets.” I told Nyx pointing to the stunning woman who had taken her place at the microphone. Nyx looked incredulous;
    “That’s Mae.” She told me.
    Mae’s voice matched her appearance; she was mesmerizing. There was a raw soulfulness about her voice that seeped under your skin. It wasn’t so much you felt her emotions, you actually felt you had become her. This sensation was particularly acute when she sang “Briefly Unrequited, Eternally United.” You might put it down to the liquid, but I felt the pain and joy of the love she felt for the song’s recipient (at the time there was much speculation that it was Dion) and anyone who heard it should have guessed the tragic outcome it would bring for both of them and those of us that loved them.
    The Thiasus fans screamed for an encore and the band obliged. As they started a roar of approval went up among the Libertia portion of the crowd. “It’s a Libertia song.” Nyx mouthed at me. Halfway through the music seemed to get louder and there were shrieks of delight.
    “What’s happening?” I shouted.
    “Libertia are joining in,” she explained. Then she grabbed my arms and pushed her way through the crowd so we were nearer the stage. At first, I was unable to see the infamous Dion, until the spotlight fell on him. He was shorter than I expected. Thin, giving him a look of vulnerability, but his toned arms showed he could look after himself if it came to it. His head was bowed and his shaggy blond hair covered his face. If Mae’s voice soaked into my skin, Dion’s seeped into my soul. Towards the end of the set, they played “Brother Breathe Again” directly followed by “Reborn in Hades.” It was as if Dion knew about Andro and Aster, understood my loss and wanted to give me something to believe in again. The notion that Andro and Aster were together, in Hades, living a better life; one which wouldn’t be cut short before Andro’s talents had blossomed, and one in which Aster could walk, in the Elysian fields, without fear or prejudice, healed my battered heart. My soul felt at peace, as it did when my brothers lived.
    At the end, he lifted his head to acknowledge the captivated crowd, none of whom had noticed that Thiasus had left the stage and were now amongst them. He smiled, the crowd went wild. But I was frozen to the spot by the gaze of his piercing blue eyes. What did I feel? Faith. Blind faith. Faith in him, in me, in the two