Page 30 of Juliet & Her Romeos

For once, I’ve managed to make him smile. It makes up for the thousands of times that he’s mademesmile.

“Plus, as vain as one.”

“You’ve forgotten that swans mate for life.”

My heart flutters. “Good because you’re not allowed to leave.”

“Where would I go? My old pack rejected me or are missing.” I don’t miss Swan’s hurriedly buried anguish.

I clench my hands in his t-shirt, as my scent sours in distress.

Swan hushes me, tucking the blanket more firmly around me. “Let’s just sleep. A busy day of classes and ruthless competition tomorrow.”

“It’s just…” I take a deep breath.

If Swan has been brave enough to share a secret part of himself, then I can do too.

But it hurts.

“JuJu?” Swan asks, concerned.

I look up through the barred window at the stars. They seem very far away tonight.

I wish that I could see them, standing outside in the cold night air.

“Once, a hurricane tore through the state, back when we were kids,” I say. “It caught most people unawares.”

“I remember.”

“The ranch that I grew up on with my family, as well as my uncle and cousin, which was attached to the Cinders Ballet Academy and Company, was devastated. Trees were torn up from the roots and stable roofs blown off. My Omega Dad and Alpha Mom were caught in it. I remember running from room to room in the ranch the next morning, calling:where’s Mom? Where’s Dad? I want them. When are they coming home?Theydidn’t come home. They were never going to. It took me weeks to accept that.”

“I wish that we’d known each other then. I’d have done anything to have been able to support you through that.”

“I had my Beta mom, Nova, who was the prima ballerina in the company. Until then, I’d barely seen her. She didn’t raise me. My Omega Mom, Lena, did. Lena was gentle and kind…amazing. But after I lost her, Nova stepped up. She had to take me to rehearsals and with her to her performances. Uncle wouldn’t let her take more than a week off after the hurricane to grieve. The life of the dancer, right? I grew up in the theater and dance studios. I dreamed that one day, despite being an Omega, I could be a ballet dancer like her. One night, she sat with me on the ranch’s porch and pointed at the stars. She told me that she believed after people die, they become stars. And that I’d never be alone because I’d always have her. But if I missed my mom and dad, I could look up, and they’d be in the night sky, protecting me.Loving me.”

My eyes are blurry with tears. The stars are misted to fractured light.

Are Mom and Dad truly in the stars?

Have they been watching everything that I’ve achieved? Have they been with me all this time, even when I lost Nova?

Or have I been alone?

“You have me,” Swan says, firmly. “But perhaps, we can look up and see everyone we’ve lost. We’ll know that they’re looking out for us. I bet that if they can see the woman who you’ve grown into, they’re fucking proud. Now, let’s get some rest, right?”

I purr, listening to the steady thump of Swan’s heart, as his breathing evens out to sleep.

Except, I lie anxiously awake under the starlight.

Nova means a star that suddenly appears with a bright, burst of energy and then gradually fades away into the night sky.

Isn’t that what happened to my mom, when she vanished?

And isn’t the danger that Swan and I will burn just as fiercely on Friday night and then fade away to nothing?

CHAPTER FIVE

Romeo Ballet Academy, Sanctum

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