Free Master of the Opera, Act 5: A Haunting Duet by Jeffe Kennedy Page A

polished slab, warm, as if heated from within. They were inside the stone circle she’d seen from below. Around her, obelisks carved of the same rock towered. The Master untied her hands, then bound them again above her head. He also anchored her roped feet to the bottom of the slab, so she was stretched between the two poles, like a sacrifice.
    And yet she felt no fear. She felt more centered in herself, more truly certain than perhaps ever before in her life.
    The Master ran his gloved hand up her thighs, letting the translucent fabric frame her body. Cupping her breasts, he kissed her taut nipples until she moaned, scissoring her thighs, needing so much more.
    Shadows appeared behind him and surprise rippled through her. “Who—?”
    “They are the voices. Those who cannot be silenced. Like me, they live on, half in one world and half in another. You know them also. They are here to witness and to celebrate. Yes?”
    She nodded, her heart swelling, unnamable emotion dampening her eyes. He drew back and people surrounded her. Her people. She couldn’t see them well, despite the blazing candles all around. They were silhouettes, glimpses of flowing dark hair and soft black eyes. Hands traveled over her skin, touching and caressing with reverence. They fondled her breasts and dipped between her slick thighs, increasing her pleasure. Lips kissed her and tongues lapped, stimulating and teasing her so she squirmed against the ropes that bound her so tightly, that made of her an offering to them.
    Unable to resist, she forfeited trying to. She gave herself over to it. It was like being worshipped—overwhelming, humbling, and relentlessly exciting.
    With stone blades and loving caresses, the shadowy figures cut away the draping scarves of silk, leaving only the belt of tight cloth at her midriff. The many hands then rubbed oil into her, coating her skin so it gleamed golden. They turned her over, spinning her inside the bonds, and oiled her back, delving even into the cleft of her bottom. She writhed on the glassy surface, wishing the Master would return soon. The thought dissolved in the endlessness of the moment, and it seemed she would be this always, forever anointed and aroused.
    She became aware of a drumbeat in the background, a low thrumming that echoed the pulse in her groin, the pounding of her heart in the cage of her ribs.
    At last, the hands shifted, freeing her of the slab and carrying her to a pair of standing stones on a raised area capped by a horizontal piece. Lifting her, they hung her by her bound hands to a hook in the top, so she dangled like a decoration beneath.
    Or like a priestess presiding over a ritual.
    From her vantage, it became clear that many more eyes watched. The hillside thronged thick with dark-haired people, holding candles and observing with hushed reverence. The thick scent of flowers twined with that of hot wax, and more shadowy people brought red roses, in full bloom, piling them at her feet and around the slab before her.
    The Master emerged from the crowd below, making his way up the slope, his pained limp showing as they parted for him. Unlike them, he was fully fleshed, crisply real. In his black formal wear, cloak, and mask, hair and shirt like slashes of white burning through the surreal gloom, he seemed ever more some creature out of place and time. She imagined the icy glitter of his eyes showed even from that distance, always locked upon her nearly naked form. Her blood churned in her ears and she swung on her hook with an involuntary convulsion of longing for him.
    He seemed more pained than usual, moving more slowly. When he came close enough, she saw why: a silver knife protruded from his midsection, blood seeping out to soak his white shirt with the dark, rusty red of an old injury.
    With difficulty, he climbed onto the slab and stretched himself out where she had been. The shadow people swarmed around him, binding him spread-eagled to it. With the stone blades cupped in