He didn’t show her, likely because she could barely bring herself to talk, but she could see the faint outlines of new tattoos peeking from underneath his sleeve.Sometimes when she couldn’t sleep, she imagined what he would have painted on his body.She imagined the tattoo needle puncturing her own skin, tracing the lines of her family’s name along white-capped, cerulean waves.
Then, late one moonless night when she awoke with Dante holding her, not even aware he had come to bed because she was crying so hard, a song whispered in her ear.
CHAPTER29
Now—Dante
The response to “Centrifuge”was everything Dante expected.Wild, raucous fans standing on their seats and singing along.It’s taking the amphitheater ages to calm down so Ellery can resume the performance.
She looks like the girl he remembers, the one he met at Jo’s Dive seven years before, when they had both been too young and naive.Intense and gorgeous, alive and ablaze.His tattooed sleeve itches, the words reminding him.Her.It’s always been her.He left her two years ago, and it was the most regrettable thing he had ever done.He shouldn’t have listened to Logan, to his own self-doubts.
Ellery’s overcome, her chest heaving with the exertion of the song, her hair flying around her face in wild, sweaty tangles.She can’t catch her breath.
“Get some water,” Dante calls.
She turns to him, finding his gaze and holding it for a heated moment before nodding and heading for the wings.Maria stands there, a bottle of water and a towel in her hands.
Dante’s blood turns to ice when he sees Logan there too.His lips are thin and his medically lineless face taut.
Ellery’s spine contracts as she nods along to whatever Logan whispers to her.This isn’t right.This is Ellery’s night.Whatever Logan believes, Ellery and Selene and Lorraine made this happen, not Logan fucking Groff.Dante backed down from him before; he won’t do it again.
He stands, leaning his bass against his chair, but at that moment, Ellery turns, her shoulders straight, eyes flaring.And Dante knows.Ellery has this all under control.He’ll roll with her.
Always.
Now—Ellery
Ellery brushesLogan’s anger to the back of her mind.She won’t need to deal with it much longer, and this is still her night.
When she takes her place before the microphone, the crowd is calm.“Did you like that?”She hasn’t sung “Centrifuge” like that in ages, like she means it.The audience could definitely tell.“I’ve been instructed by my agent over there to get the program back in line.I’m in trouble, folks.”She arches one eyebrow as a roar of disapproval ripples over the audience.“Right?”
“Take down the patriarchy!”A drunk girl in the third row calls.She’s perched on her friend’s shoulders, holding her cell phone in a feeble attempt to light the dark night.
Ellery laughs.“That was the original idea.When Selene and Lorraine and I first started the Vendetta, we knew we fought an uphill battle.An all-female band?‘Their sound is off,’ we kept hearing.‘You’re just not commercially appealing.’”She rolls her eyes to answering groans.“When Dante joined us, he was our missing piece.He made us whole.The songs we wrote together are epic.And then life chased him away.I chased him away.”
Her voice cracks, and the Agora is silent.
Behind her, Dante breathes into his own mic.“Never, El.You could never chase me away.”
It’s as though the entire audience inhales simultaneously.She does too.Dante’s never been the best at expressing his emotions, neither in public or private.That’s never been something he’s wanted.
She closes her eyes and lets the Southern California breeze ease some of her pain.She lets the deeply held grief waft from her body.
“People hate this next song,” she says, her voice soft, but carrying through the mic.Griffith Park holds its breath to hear what she has to say.“Or they love it.What they don’t know is that it wouldn’t exist without Selene and Lorraine.Without Dante, especially.Critics say it’s about my family.They say I used my family’s tragedy to further my career.I haven’t written a single thing since I wrote this song and read the reactions to it.It’s too painful.I would never use my family.My parents and my sister mean everything to me, and I regret every second I didn’t spend with them.They were smart and funny and kind and loving.”Tears shake through her, but she lets Jasper’s weight in her hands steady her.“It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve finally realized I’m not alone.I have a family.These people are my family.”She gestures to Selene, Lorraine, Maria and Hank, to Dante.“And this song is about them.The family that found me when I was sinking and dragged me kicking and screaming back to life.”
* * *
“Water Teeth”
Please comeand find me
Where the water has teeth
and lurks around each corner
prowling beneath
If I hadn’t letyou go
