The Homecoming Masquerade (Girls Wearing Black: Book One)

  Chapter 22

  Music during the second half of the Masquerade was more modern than the first. Guests were still expected to follow the formal etiquette of a ballroom dance, but no longer were they required to know the specific steps of a waltz, minuet, or cotillion. Following the intermission, the orchestra returned with their folders full of contemporary pieces, pieces written specifically for the Homecoming Masquerade. The most renowned composers in the world wrote new music for the dance. It was swirling and ambitious music, with sounds from multiple centuries blended together in a modern way. It was the kind of music Renata liked. Beyond romantic, the music was downright hypnotic. With everyone already buzzing from the wine, their bodies warm and loose from the first hour of dancing, the music put the ballroom in a kind of trance, creating the perfect background for the immortals to make their entrance.

  And at some point during the second hour, they would. Until that moment, Jill had work to do. According to the new plan she and Nicky had concocted, Jill worked her way over to Art Tremblay and made sure she was his dance partner when the second hour begin.

  Getting a dance with Art was the easiest thing Jill had done tonight. Coatless, with his head down, smelling of wine, Art all of a sudden found himself an outcast, and was glad for Jill’s attention. Finding dance partners for the rest of the night was going to be a challenge for him.

  The music began, they picked up their feet, the ballroom was in motion, and Jill delivered the line Nicky had scripted for her.

  “I saw what you did earlier,” she said.

  They were spinning around the floor, their feet moving with a simple grace to match the four-beat bars of the music.

  “Everyone saw,” Art said. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “I think it’s pretty cool what you did, that’s all.”

  “Pretty cool? What are you talking about?”

  “The way you stuck it to Kim like that,” said Jill. “I’ve been waiting for years for someone to stand up to her. I was talking to Nicky and some of the other girls during intermission. They were totally impressed. I am too.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Art. “You were talking to Nicky? What did she say?”

  “She told us everything. She knew she wasn’t supposed to tell – I guess you asked her to keep everything a secret – but please don’t be mad at her. What you did was so amazing. Seriously, half the ballroom is thrilled at what you did, even if they’re afraid to admit it. The fact that Kim has a real competitor now, thanks to you. It’s so awesome.”

  Art didn’t say anything. He was waiting for Jill to tell him more.

  “You know, I think you’ve played this exactly right,” Jill continued. “Kim may be in the driver’s seat right now, but we’re just a few hours into the night, and already Nicky has peeled off a good chunk of her support.”

  “You think so?” Art said.

  “Everyone I’m talking to wants to go to Nicky’s party tonight, not Kim’s. We’re all a bit nervous though. Once we go, we’re committed. We needed something to push us along. Your courage is what did it.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say it was that courageous,” said Art. There was still a lot of confusion in his voice. Now was the time to help him understand what Jill was trying to tell him.

  “Are you kidding me?” Jill said. “Kim asks you to make Nicky crash into Rosalyn, and you do it yourself instead? It was perfect. You made Kim think she had it all worked out, you lulled her into a state of inaction, and she did nothing about Nicky all the way to intermission. Then when you protected Nicky and threw yourself at Rosalyn instead, Kim was screwed. Kim bet everything on you, and when you turned against her, it was too late for her to try anything else. And having you take the wine spill instead, making that big scene, and then Nicky got to look at Kim and say ‘You missed.’ My God, that was one of the best moments of my life. It was perfect. You changed the whole nature of the contest in a single move. Every one of us has wanted to turn against Kim from the beginning, but we all were scared. In one courageous act, you showed us the way. You might have won Coronation for Nicky Bloom tonight. Who knows? The way Nicky was talking about you, you might have won yourself a bond with a future immortal.”

  Art was looking around now. His eyes found Nicky dancing with Xavier Lincoln, and stayed on her, no doubt imagining himself with her, imagining an immortal falling in love with him and arranging for him to live forever.

  “How much did Nicky say to you about what happened?” he asked.

  “She told me everything,” Jill said. “Or, I guess I thought it was everything. You’d know better. She said that as you were dancing you whispered to her that Rosalyn was waiting with a goblet of wine and you were supposed to push Nicky into it. Then you told her you were going to crash into Rosalyn yourself. You told her that a lot of people in the ballroom knew Kim was going to try something, and you had a plan that would make sure everyone knew that Nicky got the best of Kim. She said it was your idea for Nicky to look at Kim after it was over and tell her she missed. That part’s my favorite. You are so ballsy.”

  They danced in silence for a bit while Art processed this gigantic lie.

  “Nicky told us you were coming to her party,” Jill added. “I’m going too. So is Annika. And you know how many people Annika will bring along.” She was improvising now. The plan was to feed Art a story about the wine glass incident being his idea, about the ballroom buzzing over his heroics. Jill figured, if she was telling a lie of this magnitude, she might as well lie about everything. She might as well pretend that her own part of the mission hadn’t failed, that Annika was bringing a crew to Nicky’s after-party.

  “I’m beginning to wonder if Nicky’s party is going to have a bigger turnout than Kim’s,” she continued. “And with you going, she’ll have one of the big money players. I can’t believe this is happening. Kim Renwick is going to lose. You are so fucking amazing, Art Tremblay. I could kiss you.”

  Now Art was looking at Kim, who was dancing with Terry Reese.

  “It was so smart of you to ditch her,” Jill said. “She was using you. She uses everyone. And now…oh my word, the things she’s saying now. You couldn’t get away from her fast enough.”

  “What is Kim saying?”

  “Just her typical morbid fantasies. She thinks she’s immortal already and gets to kill anyone who bothers her. She’s totally delusional. The poor girl has been raised to think Coronation is her birthright or something, and all of a sudden everything’s going wrong for her. Nicky’s the new favorite to win. Wow. It feels so good to say that. Nicky Bloom, not Kim Renwick, will be the immortal from our class. And we owe it all to you. You are so totally my hero.”

  Jill was aware she might be going overboard, but was caught in the moment. Art was buying everything she was selling, and it felt good to have something going right, since everything had gone so wrong with Annika. Even with Art on board, the night could not be called a success if Annika didn’t come around. Art had lots of money, but they needed more than one person with money to have a good party.

  Blackmail. The word sent a shiver down her spine, so closely was it tied to the Renwicks and their treachery. To bring Annika along, Jill was going to have to blackmail her.

  She decided not to think about it right now. One thing at a time. She was still dancing with Art. Her story was going over well, but hers was only part one of a two-part plan to bring Art on board.

  She could feed this lie to Art all she wanted, he still knew the truth. He was there. He had tried to push Nicky into Rosalyn and had failed. If Nicky was telling people otherwise, Art had to know why.

  That was part two of the plan: Nicky dances with Art and tells him why.

  The music came to an end and the dancing stopped. Art’s moment of truth was coming up right now. Jill made sure to arrange herself so Art turned in the proper direction to find his next partner.

  “Hello again, Art,” Nicky said, with a seductive smile that made Jill jea
lous. Why were some girls just born with the ability to do that?

  “Nicky. We were just talking about you,” Art said.

  Nicky took his hands in hers. “Nothing bad, I hope,” she said.

  “No,” said Art. “Nothing bad at all.”

  Jill turned to her next partner, Eddie Miller, and left Art in Nicky’s hands.