Page 74 of The Devil and His Goddess

She abruptly stopped dancing, and seeing her stop, I followed suit to face her.

“How do you do it?” Mandi asked quietly, all of the venom in her eyes replaced with a sad resolve.

“Ifeelit. You need to stop thinking so much about what you’re doing and feel it instead. When you’re on that stage, you aren’t Mandi competing with Harper. You’reOdette. You’re a girl under a spell, who’s innocent, naive, and longing for something you thought impossible.”

I paused the music, sweat really dotting my forehead now. I knew I’d just done a bit of dancing, but I wasn’t usually this hot so early on. Taking a few breaths and fanning myself, I grabbed my water and greedily drank more.

Mandi watched me, her gaze growing more and more solemn. I wanted to convince her that she could do Odette justice with a little more work, but before I could, she mumbled, “I have to use the bathroom before we keep going.”

I nodded and went to point out where she could find the restroom, but when I nodded, a wave of imbalance hit me and forced me to wobble where I stood. I blinked multiple times and quickly gripped the table beside me, trying to steady myself. Oblivious to the odd dizzy spell I was having, Mandi grabbed her belongings and left the room.

Alone for the moment, I slowly turned to brace both hands on the table. Nausea rippled through me as the world kept spinning, despite my standing still. I tried to take a deep breath and close my eyes to fight the sensation, but that only made it worse. My hands began to shake as I placed them on my head and stumbled back, nearly falling to the floor. The door reopened as I tried to find my balance.

“Mandi,” I huffed out shakily, peeling my eyes open. “Something’s wrong. I’m—”

The words cut off in my throat. The petite blonde didn’t fill the doorway, but rather, a disheveled, smiling Drake did.

“No,” I gasped.

Panic shot through me. I took a step to run, but my unsteady limbs wouldn’t cooperate. My legs gave out, and my head spun. I fell sideways and barely managed to catch myself, my hip screaming at me as it hit the ground.

Drake’s grin widened on his freckled face as he shut the door behind him and locked it. “You’re so beautiful, Harper.”

Disgust coated my insides as I tried to scream, “Mandi! Mandi, help!” But the desperate words came out as a weak whisper.

My heart raced as I fumbled to crawl away on flimsy arms. I couldn’t seem to properly grapple at the ground or make my arms and legs work, no matter how much I urged them to get up and move. The world, which was already tilted and wobbly, blurred as tears lined my eyes.

“You know,” Drake started as he went to the stereo. He pressed play, and the music Mandi and I had just been working on began to play. Drake’s dark eyes closed, and he smiled while his head tilted back, his greasy brown hair standing up in random places. “I remember the first time I ever saw you. You were performing to this song. Such a beautiful ballet. Such a beautiful girl.”

“Pweash,” I slurred in an attempt to beg him to spare me. “D-Don’t.”

I wanted to plead for him to leave, to stop whatever he was planning, but I only had the energy to squeeze those few, delirious words out. I continued my feeble attempt at crawling across the floor toward the door. If only I could reach it. If only I could summon the energy that evaded me. If only I could scream out to alert Mandi.

All you have to do is call out my name. I’ll be there.

My heart sped up as my dry mouth tried to form the name, but no sound came out. It was like my tongue had forgotten how the name sounded, and instead, I let out breathy, nonsensical sounds.

Drake laughed behind me and continued, “That was the night we fell in love. Don’t you remember? You looked right at me in the crowd. You were dancing for me after that. I knew you were. That’s when I came to work at Silverlight. You wanted me closer, so I went there for you. So we could be together.”

I flopped over onto my back, staring up at the ceiling as it spun like a merry-go-round. My tongue was weighed down, unable to scream for help again. But it would be fine. Mandi would surely come back any second now. She was just in the bathroom. When she returned, she could help me or call the cops orsomething.

Drake suddenly took a step in my direction with a frown replacing his delirious grin. “I know you didn’t mean to be with Perseus. He put some sort of spell on you. I saw him. He wasn’t normal. I know it wasn’t you, buthim, who tricked you. I’m here to save you.”

My frame shook as a sob slipped past my lips. I wanted to scream, kick, and fight, but I couldn’t even lift my head. “Pweeze. D-Don’t … do … ish.”

“I know you regret being with a monster like that,” Drake rambled on. “I forgive you, okay? So let’s be together like we should’ve been from the start, yeah? I’ll make you forget about him.”

He advanced on me, dropping to the ground by my feet. His closeness sent a rush of alarm through me, and I managed to roll back over and feebly kick out in his direction.

“No,” I cried out as the frightened tears continued to roll down my cheeks. “Don’t … want.” My nails dug into the floor as I fought against the disorientation to scream Perseus’s name. Instead, the name got distorted on my tongue, coming out, “Purshis! Purshis!”

“Shh,” Drake said softly as he caught my foot and tugged me back across the floor.

My limbs were no longer my own. My arms stretched out above me with the inability to move.

Drake’s sweaty fingers coasted up my tights as he cooed, “I know you don’t want him. It’s okay. I’m here. I’ll replace what he did. Did you know? I saved myself for you. All for you, Harper.”

I opened my mouth as my voice ached to scream. Pitiful whimpers were all that came out while tears pooled under my cheek on the floor. I tried to shake my head and shrug off Drake as he grabbed the sleeves of my leotard and pulled it down. I tried to roar and fight, but the world was growing dimmer, even as my burning torso felt the coolness of air.

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