Page 38 of Unraveling Fate

“Aye,” he answered. “Don’t you? Isn’t that what Italy is about?”

An impulse hit her. To tell Taran about the vision of running and leaping in the night sky she’d seen while singing to the car.To tell him all about the music she heard in the world. To tell him about the drums she heard from him.

She squashed it. That would sound crazy. And she was not crazy.

Besides, the Ferrari was his car. If he chose not to tell her where he parked it at night that was his business.

“I guess part of it is,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to push out of walls. To go places, see things.” There. That was safer to share. And a safer topic than the car which made her want to shareunsafethings.

Taran shifted closer, his hip just barely touching hers. She sucked in a breath at the rise in drums but held on to his heartbeat.

“Where would you go,” he asked. “If you could go anywhere, right now?”

“So many places!” She swept a hand through the air as if setting a scene. “Italy, for starters. Toscana, to see where my dad is from. But so many other places too. I’d love to design a whole European tour around famous opera houses. Really, I just want…” She sighed. None of these places were options unless she had a plane ticket within two weeks. “Somewhere Else.”

“What about you?” she asked, twisting to see his face better. “Where would you go?”

Taran held her gaze, the hot gold of his eyes crashing in waves like his song. “Where would I go?” he whispered. He wrenched his eyes away from her, and she shivered in the sudden cold.

“Somewhere Else.” He savored the words like the cheesecake. His bodhran tune tripped up and down Cadenza’s spine, and the lilt of his accent shivered along her arms.

“Aye.” He nodded, voice quiet. “Somewhere Else would do nicely.”

Ten

3 Sep 2019

2413 Days to Deadline, $4252. Mannaggia la miseria.

Cadenza flipped through her sheet music, making last-minute mental notes—which songs the band wanted to play at a slower tempo, where they’d decided to insert instrumental solos—while pre-show jitters jumped in her belly.

Someone knocked on the dressing room door, and a stagehand peered in. “You have visitors, Ms. Cavalieri.”

“I do?” She poked her head out of the door and found Canon, in a tailored suit, his arms full of red roses. Next to him, Mr. Pearce leaned on his silver-handled walking stick.

“Canon? What are you doing here?” She didn’t remember telling him tonight was her first performance at the club.

Static crackled in her ears. The earthsong wavered in and out, and she pulled at her ear. Where was this coming from?Please behave tonight,she begged the music.

“Just wanted to wish you luck.” He laid the bouquet in her arms. “Vasilios happens to be a member of the club, so I came with him.”

Canon’s backer touched his cane to his forehead in greeting.

“Thank you.” She breathed in the sweet-water scent of the roses, harp chords vibrating from the petals. “They’re beautiful. You didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugged, and real-human Canon showed through. “I wanted you to feel supported.” He glanced over at Mr. Pearce who gave a tiny nod. “And as beautiful as they are on their own, those roses are improved with you holding them.” His mask slipped back into place.

Cadenza’s own smile faltered. If Taran drowned her in drums, the different versions of Canon gave her whiplash.

“I’ll put those in a vase for you, Ms. Cavalieri,” the stagehand said, taking the bouquet.

“Thanks.” Cadenza folded her arms across her stomach to prevent Canon from claiming her now-empty hands. “How did you know I was performing tonight?”

“Drostan mentioned it,” Canon said. “Vasilios and I thought we couldn’t let your first performance go by uncelebrated.”

“That’s really very kind of you, Canon, thank you. And Mr. Pearce.”

“Please, you must call me Vasilios,” he reminded her.